My Favourite Destination: Rachel from illustrated-teacup

Hello lovely lipstick and lashes followers, I’m Rachel of illustrated-teacup. I blog about tattoos, and life around being a heavily tattooed female in today’s society.

 

When Gemma posted on Twitter asking for guest bloggers to write about travel, I jumped at the chance. I don’t have a big opportunity to write about travelling within my own blog, but I have a serious travel bug, so I’m super pleased to be able to share here.

So without further-a-do:

I was asked to write about my favourite destination – which I have to say was a pretty damn hard decision. I’ve been lucky enough to do a fair amount of travelling in the last few years, to some beautiful places. I’ve done little trips with friends to Corfu and Barcelona, and volunteered in South Africa, but I think my favourite trip so far was my honeymoon.

 

We decided to travel around Italy for two weeks after our wedding last year (my husband hates flying anyway, and was told a few month before that he couldn’t fly for at least seven months due to a collapsed lung). So we travelled everywhere by train. Fortunately my husband organised the lot whilst signed off from the aforementioned collapsed lung.

 

We started our journey in our home in Southampton and got the train to Ashford to await the Eurostar – there our trip properly began and visited ten locations in two countries.

 

·         Paris

·         Milan

·         Como

·         Piza

·         Florence

·         Naples

·         Rome

·         Pompei

·         Sorrento

·         Venice

·         Paris (again)

 

We spent a day or three in each location and then moved on (that order might not be exact).

 

My favourite was a real hard decision as I loved so many of the places we visited, but it came down to two – Florence and Sorrento. We had two days in Florence, and three in Sorrento. And they are both so completely different, and loved in different ways.

 

Sorrento was our relaxing stop off. Our hotel was beautiful, based in the harbour, overlooking the sea. We had the best seafood I have ever eaten, all freshly caught. It was sunny and warm our entire time there, and was just blissful and tranquil. However, there isn’t vast amount of activities unless you want to boat across to Capri or Amalfi (our plan for if we visit again), but if you want a beauty spot to chill, then this is PERFECT.

 

 

 

Florence, on the other hand, is a bustling, busy and totally beautiful city. If you’re after culture and shopping then this is for you.

 

The highlight for me was Il Duomo, Florence’s famous cathedral. It is utterly breath-taking. And we trekked the 486 steps (a lot of them in a stone spiral staircase) to the top of the dome to see the most stunning views of Florence.

 

Wondering the streets of this famous city, with its beautiful buildings, museums, galleries, and churches with my husband completed my honeymoon for me. The street vendors and artists fill the streets, and although there are LOADS of tourists, it is still a fabulous place.

We unfortunately misjudged Florence prior to going there, and wish we’d stayed longer; but it goes mean we can return in the future and finish exploring, and relive our honeymoon.

 

NOTE: If you want to see Michelangelo’s David; get up early. The queues for the gallery he is in start growing early in the day and you could be waiting hours to go in.

 

 

 

So that’s me done. My favourite holiday destination to date. It has special significance for all the right reasons, and will always be a happy memory.

Have you been to Florence or Sorrento?

 

If so, what were your favourite bits of your trip, and your advice for a future trip?

 

Love

 

Rachel