Italy & Spain Trip 2023

Our 10th Anniversary Trip |   Italy & Spain   |  September 2023

It’s our 10 year wedding anniversary, so I decided to go all out and plan a “Big Boujee Trip” to celebrate! We went to Capri, Italy / Positano, Amalfi Coast, Italy / Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy  / and Palma, Mallorca, Spain. So many of you have mentioned these spots are on your Bucket List too, so I’ll warn you that Capri & the Amalfi Coast are not for the faint of heart (there’s a lot of travel to get there, a SERIOUS amount of stairs to get anywhere – and was the most expensive places we’ve visited to date for lodging and food!) For anyone wanting our exact itinerary, the links to our lodging, food recommendations, or any other more specific questions – feel free to reach out!

We started off flying overnight into Naples, then took a taxi to the port, and then took a ferry straight to Capri, Italy!

Capri: we only had 2 nights in Capri. It was such a beautiful island, and we explored both Capri & Anacapri.

Capri highlights:
–       One of our entire vacay highlights was taking the Monte Carlo chairlift in Anacapri up to an amazing view, and we decided to hike back down (but you can take a chairlift back down!)
–       Villa San Michele
–       Augustus Gardens
–       Krupp Walkway down to Marina Piccola
–       Hiking to the Natural Arch
–       Charterhouse of San Giacomo
–       Window shopping the famous Via Camerelle Street

Next, we ferried over to Positano (the Amalfi Coast!) I decided to stay in Positano so we could truly experience the beauty of it instead of making a day trip. It was EXTREMELY expensive to stay in Positano, but it was also extremely beautiful too.

Positano, Amalfi Coast: We had 5 nights staying in Positano.

I will be honest – even though we went during the “slower” tourist season, it was FRUSTRATING to try and take public bus transportation anywhere. (Private drivers cost upwards of $100 per way for short distances.) If it’s a windy day, then you’re out of luck for taking water taxis or ferries too. We had planned on traveling between the towns on the Amalfi Coast so much more, but the transportation was so busy, unorganized, and literally shoulder to shoulder packed standing inside of buses. So, just a heads up to be patient, OR budget for taxis/private drivers!!

Positano highlights:

• Hiking the Path of the Gods – BOTH directions! It was incredible views, and we stopped halfway for coffee & croissants before hiking back to Positano.
• Visiting Ravello: specifically seeing Villa Cimbrone & Villa Rufolo!
• Walking Ravello > Amalfi
• Exploring all around Positano by foot
• Relaxing at our Airbnb & just taking in the views!
• EAT!!!

Other things you can do: beach clubs (we have sandy beaches back in NC, so we didn’t care to rent a chair on a rocky beach, so we skipped these!), hire a private boat tour, visit other cute towns on the coast (transportation was so frustrating we only visited Ravello & Amalfi!)

Next up on the trip was a full travel day – we took a private driver to the Naples train station! (Expensive, but so worth it!) We then took 3 trains all the way to Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy!

Manarola, Cinque Terre: We had 4 nights staying in Cinque Terre! Our Airbnb was the most convenient location ever, and we loved being able to pop in/out to change, relax, etc!

Manarola, Cinque Terre highlights:
–       Cliff jumping in Manarola (why we chose Manarola!)
–       Getting a train card, and being able to go jump on trains to explore town to town without paying for each train ride! We went to all 5 towns + Levanto too!
–       Climbing Doria Castle & the views
–       Hiking Vernazza to Corniglia
–       Hiking between Vernazza to Monteresso
–       Seeing the sunsets in Manarola

Next was another full travel day, starting at 4:00am! We took a ton of trains from Manarola all the way to the Milan airport, then flew to Mallorca, Spain! Once we landed, we picked up our rental car at the airport! (HIGHLY recommend their local rental car company: Vima RentaCar – they were seriously incredible to work with!)

Mallorca, Spain: We spent 4 nights in a city called Palma in Mallorca, and honestly wish we would have taken 1 night away from Positano, and added it to Mallorca!

Palma, Mallorca, Spain highlights:
–       The incredible shopping (their store & restaurant designs are exquisite!) especially walking down Passeig del born
–       Exploring around Palma (we loved their historic parts “Old Town”!)
–       Visiting the famous Cathedral of Santa Maria
–       Visiting the Royal Palace of La Almudaina
–       Exploring Castell de Bellver & seeing the views
–       Port of Palma to see all the incredible yachts

Then we traveled to visit other cities in Mallorca!
–       Valldemossa (LOVED exploring this little town, specifically Royal Carthusian Monastery and the Chopin concert there!) It was absolutely the most unique, beautiful streets full of plants and cannot be missed!!!
–       Deia (all the celebs have homes here!)
–       Soller (We loved walking around Soller, and also taking the Historic wooden tram ride down to the port & back! That was such a highlight!) BUT driving through historic Soller is a NIGHTMARE! If you drive, park on the streets outside of town, and walk in. There’s not much parking in the town, and the streets are extremely narrow!!!!
–       Visiting the Jardines de Alfabia (so lush & beautiful! There’s also a café on site!)
–       Manacor to visit Rafael Nadal’s tennis academy (that was so cool to watch tennis & walk around!)
–       Manacor to explore the Drach Caves (and incredible experience, especially the concert on rowboats INSIDE the caves! Magical!)

FINAL THOUGHTS: When planning this trip, I really thought that Positano & Amalfi Coast would be my favorite spot. While it was extremely magical and beautiful, the amount of tourism (and the insane amount of stairs – one day we did 217 flights of stairs!) makes visiting the coast less enjoyable even at the beginning of off season. We couldn’t explore like we had hoped, everything was sooooooo expensive that it made things less fun.

Surprisingly, I LOVED Cinque Terre & Mallorca most out of the 4 places we went and would totally go back to either!

All in all, it was a trip of a lifetime!!! We had perfect weather, and so many fun experiences. Let me know if you need more specific tips when planning your trip! ENJOY!