Speaker 1: Hey guys, and welcome back to casual chaos. So first off,
Speaker 1: I want to say happy Fourth of July to everyone,
Speaker 1: and this week I'm going to dive into my Italy trip.
Speaker 1: I have so many Italy recommendations for all of you, guys,
Speaker 1: and I want to tell you a little bit about
Speaker 1: my trip. So the main purpose for us going to
Speaker 1: Italy was my cousin's wedding. She got married in the
Speaker 1: Amalfi coast, but she got married in the town Amalfi,
Speaker 1: so it was a family trip, but it was mainly
Speaker 1: a cousin's trip, which was so fun. It really felt
Speaker 1: like a trip that we were only going to get
Speaker 1: to do, not once. I'm sure it'll happen again someday,
Speaker 1: but really rare that we're all going to be in
Speaker 1: Italy again together. Maybe my wedding, because as you all know,
Speaker 1: I am going to need to get married outside of
Speaker 1: the US because my dad is not a lot to
Speaker 1: come back to the US at the moment.
Speaker 2: Hopefully one day that will.
Speaker 1: Change and I could have my wedding whenever, but right
Speaker 1: now I can't. Italy is obviously one of my options.
Speaker 1: But I learned a lot while I was in Italy
Speaker 1: and just seeing the wedding process and everything. Because I
Speaker 1: care a lot about it, I was very observant during it.
Speaker 1: And I think the biggest part about having a wedding
Speaker 1: outside of the US, it's very difficult to have a
Speaker 1: wedding in another country that doesn't speak your language. I
Speaker 1: think a wedding destination that's a little more realistic is
Speaker 1: the Caribbean Islands, Bahamas. They speak English, they understand you,
Speaker 1: there's more direction. So that was definitely a little scary
Speaker 1: being in Italy, even though most of my family does
Speaker 1: speak Italian, they just operate differently.
Speaker 2: Italy is very slow paced.
Speaker 1: They don't move as fast as us in Jersey, so
Speaker 1: I would definitely say that that's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a red flag. I also wouldn't recommend getting married in
Speaker 1: a really touristy spot. I would kind of go somewhere
Speaker 1: off the grid in Italy and kind of just create
Speaker 1: a beautiful wedding venue on your own. It doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be a wedding venue that is so over the top.
Speaker 2: You could kind of like make it your own.
Speaker 1: And what I realized is what makes a wedding venue
Speaker 1: also so beautiful is your flowers and your candles. If
Speaker 1: you put your budget towards flowers and candles and nothing else,
Speaker 1: your wedding venue will be stunning.
Speaker 2: All you need is just like your floral decorations and
Speaker 2: your candles.
Speaker 1: I swear if you have beautiful table settings and beautiful
Speaker 1: floral arrangements throughout your wedding venue, your wedding is going
Speaker 1: to be stunning no matter what. So my cousin's wedding
Speaker 1: was absolutely beautiful, but I feel like there were definitely
Speaker 1: some setbacks because of the language barrier and just how
Speaker 1: they operate in Italy. It just, again, like I said,
Speaker 1: at a slower pace. So definitely taught me a lot.
Speaker 1: But the trip itself was absolutely amazing. It was definitely
Speaker 1: something that I will never forget.
Speaker 2: It was Christian's first.
Speaker 1: Time in Italy, so I felt like a little tour guide,
Speaker 1: like I was showing him the ropes. It was so fun.
Speaker 1: So we started off our trip in a Malfi. Our
Speaker 1: home base was Amalfi, which I also would not recommend.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't like a Malfi. Amalfi's town. There's nothing
Speaker 1: to it, you know, like there's this one road and
Speaker 1: that's it. You have your shops, your lemons, your sorbets,
Speaker 1: and that's about it. They really don't have that grade
Speaker 1: of restaurants in Amalfi. You know, they have the famous
Speaker 1: restaurant Digema, and there's another restaurant across from La Bousola.
Speaker 1: I can't remember the name, but Labousla is a hotel
Speaker 1: in Amalfi. But the one restaurant across from La Bousula,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is the best restaurant in a Malfi town.
Speaker 1: But a Malfi itself, I would not make that your
Speaker 1: home base. If you want to take the ferry and
Speaker 1: go see a Malfi for the day, sure, but there's
Speaker 1: really nothing special to a Malfi. Post Aitano, on the
Speaker 1: other hand, I am so happy we did a night
Speaker 1: in post Aitano. So we arrived in Amalfi. First day
Speaker 1: in Amalfi. Second day we traveled to post Aitano. We
Speaker 1: spent the night in post Aitano and it was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1: We had the best night. Post Atano is so charming
Speaker 1: and so romantic. We had dinner at this amazing restaurant,
Speaker 1: La Tagliata, and post Atano this is where you book
Speaker 1: your dinner reservation. It was such an amazing meal with
Speaker 1: the most beautiful view. And this is the place with
Speaker 1: the insane cooking class. Like it was, it's wild. It
Speaker 1: was actually the best food, homemade wine, family style dinner.
Speaker 1: The cooking class is insane. Wait list over a year long.
Speaker 1: If you can get into this cooking class, it's so
Speaker 1: much fun. It reminded me of like Cloud nine in
Speaker 1: Aspen with the champagne.
Speaker 2: It's wild.
Speaker 1: It's a big party, but you're doing a cooking class.
Speaker 1: And we were on the waiting list for it, but
Speaker 1: we didn't get into it. My cousin's friends got into
Speaker 1: it and they looked like they had the best time ever.
Speaker 1: We were lucky enough to get a dinner reservation there
Speaker 1: and it was phenomenal. Then afterwards we went to Music
Speaker 1: on the Rocks, which is the club in pos Aitana.
Speaker 1: Super fun. It was not prime season in Italy. May
Speaker 1: is leading up to busy season, which is obviously July
Speaker 1: and August are very busy because in August the Italians
Speaker 1: also have off they're on holiday, so.
Speaker 2: August is crazy.
Speaker 1: July is crazy, but September is like the perfect time
Speaker 1: to go to Italy. It's not too hot, weather's amazing,
Speaker 1: but it is still prime season, so it wasn't too crowded.
Speaker 2: When we were there in May. We got a couple
Speaker 2: nice days.
Speaker 1: But when we were in post A Tato, that was
Speaker 1: the only beach day we did. Post Atano. The beach
Speaker 1: was beautiful, but the beach is rocks, it's not sand,
Speaker 1: so my feet were killing me running into the ocean,
Speaker 1: like the rocks are so hot. But that was a
Speaker 1: beautiful walk to the beach club. The restaurant was amazing,
Speaker 1: music on the rocks. I would say post Atana was
Speaker 1: my favorite place on the Amafi coast. Then we went
Speaker 1: to Capri for the day. I would have loved to
Speaker 1: spend a night in Capri, but that's just not how
Speaker 1: it planned out. But Capri is beautiful. The taxis are convertibles.
Speaker 1: It's so fun. It feels like you're in a fever dream.
Speaker 1: They have the door beach club at Capri. They also
Speaker 1: have the little ski lift that takes you to an
Speaker 1: amazing restaurant at the top.
Speaker 2: So there's a to do.
Speaker 1: You have the designer shopping if you want to go
Speaker 1: to If you want to do designer shopping, go to Capri.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Then we wanted to go to Sorrento for the day,
Speaker 1: which Sorrento is where my cousin's friends stayed. That was
Speaker 1: their home base. They had a phenomenal time. They loved Sorrento.
Speaker 1: So definitely, when I go back to Italy, I would
Speaker 1: love to go to Sorrento and Ishka. So I would
Speaker 1: make Sorrento or Ishka your home base if you want
Speaker 1: to stay around the Amalfi coast. It is amazing like
Speaker 1: those like I've never been. I heard it's beautiful in
Speaker 1: those two places, and those are two great home bases.
Speaker 2: Don't recommend Amalfi. Then after Amalfi.
Speaker 1: We went to Florence, and Florence was everybody's favorite place.
Speaker 1: We did Tuscany for the day. We did a wine tour.
Speaker 1: We just booked it on a website. It was incredible.
Speaker 1: We did Chinquiteta for a day and we did book
Speaker 1: that with a guide because it's really easy. You don't
Speaker 1: need a lot of you don't need a lot of
Speaker 1: time in each town. There's five towns, so I chinkwe
Speaker 1: and you know that that's where they filmed Luca, the
Speaker 1: Disney Show. So there's really cute moments in Chinquitada. Also
Speaker 1: in Chinkuitada. They are known for their facaca bread and
Speaker 1: their pesto. So Manto Ro Salamade was the beach town
Speaker 1: in Chinquitada. It was gorgeous and I we literally we
Speaker 1: had an hour there. We took that time to just
Speaker 1: relax on the beach. Out of all of the cities
Speaker 1: in Chiquitada, I would say that town is the best
Speaker 1: town to stay in. You have a beach, it's chill,
Speaker 1: it's a little bigger, but then you know, it's nice
Speaker 1: to see the other towns too, very beautiful, colorful buildings.
Speaker 2: It was nice.
Speaker 1: So when you're there, you need to try their facaca
Speaker 1: bread and buy a jar of their pesto venice. I
Speaker 1: don't know if this is gonna upset people. I thought
Speaker 1: it was overrated. I didn't love Venice. I was there
Speaker 1: when I was little. I just thought it was overrated.
Speaker 1: Could do your designer shopping there. The food, I did
Speaker 1: not think it was great at all. We did the
Speaker 1: gondola ride. Our gondola driver did sing to us, but
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I thought it was overrated.
Speaker 1: Definitely a good day trip if you want to do that,
Speaker 1: but you don't need more than a day in Venice.
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't go back, honestly. We also went to
Speaker 1: my ancestral town, salaquin Selina, where my family from Italy lives.
Speaker 1: We had the best time there. It's just everyone is
Speaker 1: so happy. They don't have a lot, and they are
Speaker 1: just so happy and full of life. My Zio Antonio
Speaker 1: is the cutest person ever. Christian was drunk off of
Speaker 1: homemade wine, screaming Belichow. Belichow and my cousins are looking
Speaker 1: at him like he has ten heads. But it was
Speaker 1: probably the most wholesome moment of our entire trip. Family,
Speaker 1: good food, drinking, It's it's what it's all about. Favorite
Speaker 1: restaurant in Florence was Los s Crudo. Wasn't one of
Speaker 1: your famous restaurants that you see on TikTok like Goby,
Speaker 1: like thirteen Goby and all that. It was called Oscrudo
Speaker 1: and it was so good, so good. Theduomo was The
Speaker 1: Douomo was beautiful, It really was. It was such a
Speaker 1: beautiful church. It was incredible. Yeah, I would say Florence
Speaker 1: was probably my favorite city. I did run into a
Speaker 1: quite a bit of house lives fans, honestly when I
Speaker 1: was there, and my cousins were shocked. It was people
Speaker 1: that were from Jersey or from Australia, and it's always
Speaker 1: fun to see fans while you're traveling. And honestly crazy,
Speaker 1: nothing chaotic happened. Our trip was so smooth and went
Speaker 1: so perfectly. The only hiccup was our day in Sorrento
Speaker 1: didn't work out, but then we obviously just hung out
Speaker 1: in a Malfi did other plans. That's the thing about Italy.
Speaker 1: If something goes wrong, you can always find something else
Speaker 1: to do. It's so beautiful. You could find something to do.
Speaker 1: Go on a hike, go on a walk, You'll see
Speaker 1: something new every day. Rome it was Christian. We ended
Speaker 1: the trip in Rome because we flew out of Rome.
Speaker 1: It was Christian and Tie's first time in Rome, so
Speaker 1: we did it all. We went from the Piazza to
Speaker 1: the Spanish Steps, to the Coliseum to the Trevy Fountain.
Speaker 1: It was incredible and we had such an amazing day.
Speaker 2: But same thing.
Speaker 1: You know Rome, you turned down a different street and
Speaker 1: there is you know, so much to see.
Speaker 2: For Florence.
Speaker 1: I will say, if you look up the best Panines
Speaker 1: in Florence and go to all those famous Panini shops.
Speaker 1: They're all amazing. And that was it today on Gia's diary.
Speaker 1: Let me know what else you guys want me to
Speaker 1: talk about. But this was so fun and I'll see
Speaker 1: you guys next week. Love you guys.
Speaker 2: Bye,