7 months ago, we took the plunge (click here for pictures and videos from the wedding)

4 months ago, we took the Honeymoon Compatibility test....and barely passed (click here to take the test yourself)

1 minute ago, we took a dice, rolled it, concluded to cross off Item #1 on my travel bucket list and call it a honeymoon. Hehe.

I was kidding with the last one. But yes, in spite of #babybaby's attempts of destroying my list (click here for video proof!) we’ve finally agreed on a honeymoon. Woohoo!

So “calf land” it is! [*The name Italy comes from the word italia, meaning “calf land”]

Neither of us have been to that part of the globe so it will definitely be an adventure. Haha.

While I intend to eat my way around the country that invented the thermometer**, all my husband can think about basically revolves around the fact that the automobile is probably one of Italy’s greatest products. So yes – cars, circuits and anything to do with speed. Oh and golf. If applicable, that is. How romantic.

We’ll figure that out later but for now, we’re excited about planning this very much-anticipated getaway. We’ve finally got our schedules cleared, which means we’ll be on a proper vacation or honeymoon (whatever you want to call it, lol). Oh joy!

We’re currently working on our basic travel checklist (have travelled a bit for work but not sure how honeymoon travels differ, so this will be the first):

Flights – found a really good deal online, but we’ll have to leave in less than 3 weeks
Visa & Passport – No visa required for Malaysians staying up to 90 days, minimum 6 months passport validity.
Accommodation – sorted. Using a combination of bookings on Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda and an independent apartment website. Will do a review of the experiences on all these booking engines after the trip, for your reference.
Activities/Tours (if applicable) – work in progress. Deciding between Viator, The Roman Guy and a few other operators for sites that involve long waiting lines (like the Colosseum, Vatican Museums, Pisa, etc). Do you have experiences with any of those tour companies (would love to hear from you)?
Inter-city transportation, airport transfers, etc – expensive to drive in Italy so we’ve decided to train around the major cities.
Basic Italian words – hoping item #7 will be of help. Lol
Useful travel apps – trying out the Ulmon, Tripadvisor and Museum app. Oh and Lingolook Italy.
Pocket wifi – currently considering a few options. Will update after the trip.
Packing list – the challenge of bringing enough for the October weather (to last a month), yet saving some space for souvenirs (and Italian cheese) within the 30kg luggage allowance. Yee-ha!

We’ve got the camera at the top of our packing list, so will do our best to document the trip with unbiased reviews of our Italian escape when we get back. Meantime, if you have any Italy travel tips to share (must-eats, where to eat and the usual travel stuff), we’d be most grateful.

Big hugs!

References:
*http://facts.randomhistory.com/
**http://www.lifeinitaly.com/

PICTURES AND VIDEOS FROM OUR TRAVELS

According to http://www.weddingclickers.com, 99% of couples who opt for the traditional wedding (i.e. not a destination wedding or an elopement), take a honeymoon.

But then again, according to statistics, only 1 in 4 couples go on their dream honeymoon. Where do/did YOU fit in?

If you contribute to the pool of 25% who were fortunate enough to realize your dream honeymoon, great! If you’re not, it’s never too late to start planning – your finances, logistics and timing. Even if you have kids as extra baggage, it’s still not impossible to plan your ultimate travel itinerary. Take stylish blogger Ashley Muir Bruhn as an example. She’s one amazing supermum who makes adventuring with a three-year-old and a toddler look effortless and fun.

Picture from http://www.hitherandthither.net/

So here’s the thing. #Babybaby and I got married 3 months ago but we haven’t done the honeymoon thing yet.

Heck, we haven’t even got anything planned. And no, we do not intend to contribute to the remaining 0.1% of couples who decide – NO HONEYMOON. So in making an effort to plan (yes, blame previous inactivity on work, timing, bla bla bla…excuses), we decided to do a bit of homework and came across this…

THE HONEYMOON COMPATIBILITY CHECKLIST. Jeng jeng jeng.

For the fun of it, you can print 2 sets and get your partner to do it with you. Basically if you don’t have at least 6 common answers, you’re in for some serious lessons on compromise, so good luck to you. Lol

Here goes:

[Questionaire from www.honeymoons.about.com]

So how did you fare? Haha.

At our end, despite the divergence in activity preferences (I shall let you have the fun of guessing which belongs to who)…

…we managed to rake in a nonviolent score of 8/12. Okay la, the truth is, we barely made it.

So next step was to decide on WHERE to go. Hence, the next exercise – listing down our top 5 travel destinations/bucket list. If you follow my new Pinterest page, you’ll notice that I have more than 5. Lol

So this was a tough process indeed. Anyway, #Babybaby and I committed to the exercise (although I decided to sneak in a bonus #6…hahaha) and here’s the verdict…

That was when we realized that God actually had a sense of humour.

I suppose it will be a while before we actually go on our honeymoon. After all, negotiations do take time, so here's to a hallelujah time ahead. Lol

PICTURES AND VIDEOS FROM OUR HONEYMOON

We’re going on our honeymoon!! Yay!

PICTURES AND VIDEOS FROM OUR TRAVELS

Honeymoon Compatibility Checklist

PICTURES AND VIDEOS FROM OUR HONEYMOON