Dear Amy and Joe Cool,

We wanted to thank you for helping make our honeymoon the adventure of a lifetime. Because we wanted to share photos of your gifts, we decided against sending more traditional thank-you cards; instead, below is a picture gallery of what your contributions made possible!

<nerdy statement> A decade's worth of psychological research suggests that experiences make us happier than material possessions. </nerdy statement> Because we're fortunate enough to share a home with the appliances and furniture we need (IKEA furniture, but hey), we opted for a less traditional spin on wedding registries. It was our hope that a Honeyfund would offer a month's worth of incredible experiences—from dinners to sightseeing, from train tickets to hotel rooms—that we could directly attribute to the loved ones who made those experiences possible. We even carried a spreadsheet with us everywhere we went that indicated who had sponsored each activity, which helped guide us through each day.

Please enjoy the photos and captions below! If you'd like to see more pictures of our honeymoon travels, you can view the full gallery here.

Thank you again for your generosity and friendship, and for making this first chapter of our marriage possible.

Love from,

What you sponsored: Nights in Rome and the Venice City Pass

Thanks to you, were able to stay in the perfect location in Rome. Just across the Tiber river from the city center is a hip, local-centric district called Trastevere. Our bed and breakfast faced the Tiber river right at Ponte Sisto, one of Rome's famous bridges; that same bed and breakfast also backed up against the heart of Trastevere. It couldn't have been more perfect. We spent many days wandering around the heart of Rome, and many nights exploring the narrow, winding, cobbled streets of Trastevere.

Also thanks to you, we were able to get around the 118 islands of Venice! It was no easy feat on foot; half the time we'd set out in one direction, we'd end up lost or at a dead-end. (Most of the time it was fun to wander aimlessly around the alleys, but there were a few times when we needed to be at a particular vaporetti (water bus) stop or at the train station by a certain time. It was then that the City Pass was immeasurably helpful--we could just hop on a vaporetti or a cross-Grand Canal gondola, and would end up at our destination within minutes. Below are some photos of where your City Pass sponsorship took us!

Nights in Rome

The facade of our bed and breakfast, Tree Charme. Its location couldn't have been more perfect: It faces the Tiber river and one of Rome's oldest bridges (which heads straight into the heart of Rome), but sits in Trastevere, Rome's hipster, millennial, and local-centric district.

The view of the bridge across the Tiber from our bedroom river. It took us less than three minutes to get into the heart of Rome, and less than 30 seconds to get into the heart of Trastevere.

We landed in Rome with about 45 minutes of sleep (we're not good plane sleepers), so we freshened up a bit, packed our backpacks, and headed out to explore!

Trastevere

More Trastevere. It's such a picturesque neighborhood...

Ponte Sisto, built in the 1400s. We crossed this bridge at least twice a day.

Breakfast at Tree Charme was perfection: We'd pile our plates (not pictured: freshly made omelettes and bacon) and head outside to a little patio with our own Nespresso machine.

Previously mentioned patio with a Nespresso machine.

There was so much bougainvillea around Trastevere!

Heading from our hotel deeper into Trastevere, where there are more piazzas (plazas), restaurants, and hang-out spots.

Ryan led the way through his favorite neighborhood in Rome. (:

Cortile dell'arco degli acetari. Jess tracked this place down from a single postcard that she fell in love with while in the Catacombs of Priscilla.

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, where Ryan performed for two summers in a row as an undergraduate.

A shot of Rome, not far from the Tiber river near Trastevere.

The Venice City Pass

The greatest thing about the Venice City Pass was the easy use of vaporetti, or water buses, which snake around the Grand Canal all day long. Besides offering a very quick way to get from one side of Venice to the other (if we didn't have time to hop across half of Venice's 118 islands, which would bring us to at least ten dead-ends at canals without a bridge), the vaporetti saved us on our last morning in the city, when we had to get all the way back up to the train station. It was a 40-minute walk, it was 85º and basically 100% humidity, and we had 40-pound backpacks on. The City Pass was good for 72 hours, and we arrived at a vaporetti stop at our 70th hour--which meant we could zip back up to the train station in very little time, and with very little effort on our part.

A neat (but sobering) installation in Venice's Grand Canal to draw attention to the impact of global warming on the city, which is no match for the rising water levels.

We started our time in Venice with a Rick Steves audio tour of one of the major vaporetti lines through the Grand Canal, which started at the train station and ended at St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco), one of Venice's most famous attractions.

The City Pass also allowed us to get to Venice's neighboring islands (i.e., in Veneto, part of the Venetian Lagoon) for free. We took a morning trip to the colorful island of Burano, known for its lace production. (The nearby island Murano is known for its blown glass.)

In the heart of Burano.

Goofing off in front of a house in Burano.

One last shot of Burano. (Can you tell we loved this place?)

Finally, the City Pass covered "black gondola" rides, which were the black-and-gold gondolas that crossed back and forth across the Grand Canal. Our wine tour guide, Davide, took this photo as we headed up to North Venice, Venice's more local-centric Jewish District.

The Beard & Curl

Amy & Joe Downey

Dear Amy and Joe Cool,

Love from,

What you sponsored: Nights in Rome and the Venice City Pass

Nights in Rome

The Venice City Pass