A Wedding on the Italian Coast

Jesse met Thorben when Thorben was studying abroad for a year at Jesse's high school in the U.S. They have remained good friends and over the years we have gotten to know them as a couple. We love them both and in the summer of 2021, we were invited to Thorben and Emy's wedding in Italy!

Scroll for more

Unlike many people who travel to Europe, Jesse and I have never been to Italy (Technically, Jesse spent some time during his MBA in Milan, but were going to ignore that for the story's sake). All of the major Italian cities are high up on our ever growing bucket list: Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples, etc. and for good reason, but our first time in Italy was in the city of Brindisi, in the southern region of Puglia. It is the stiletto part of the "boot" of Italy and has a beautiful rocky coastline with crystal clear water. We also were able to explore a nearby town, Alberobello, with the distinct trulli-style buildings.

Scroll for more

While in Italy, we planned to rent a car in order to get to and from the airport. It also allowed us freedom to explore the nearby town and offer others a ride to the airport. When we landed, we met up with the couple that was carpooling with us and got in line for the rental car. Unfortunately, here is where we ran into a bit of a hiccup. At this point, Jesse and I still had our temporary German driver's licenses. We had signed up to take the theoretical test, but in the meantime, they hold onto your US license and give you a temporary form (in German) saying you have a valid license for 6 months. You can start to see why we might have some issues... Rightfully so, the Italian woman behind the desk was very skeptical of this couple with US passports and a piece of paper, in German, saying "they could drive". With many offers to Google translate the paper, smiles, verbal promises that this was legitimate, and a quick check with her supervisor, we had a car!

After we got to the resort and settled into our room, we changed out of travel clothes and headed off to a dinner at a friend's AirBnB house. These friends from the US were actually the host family with which Thorben had stayed when he was studying abroad and Jesse and I went to college with Luke (son) and his wife Katlynn. They hosted a BBQ at the house and we spent the night eating, playing in the pool, and catching up with U.S. and German friends.

The next day we spent the morning at the water front - I have a hard time calling it a beach because of the rocky coastline and no sand. It was my first experience with such a coast and I loved it way more than I expected. I love water and the beach but murky water has always made me nervous. This water was crystal clear 20ft (6m) down to the bottom! There was a ladder you could use to climb down into the water but what fun is that? I jumped and flipped off the rocks many times and also enjoyed floating in the salty sea (see video at the end). I found it to be much saltier, and therefore I felt more buoyant than the Pacific, Atlantic, or Gulf of Mexico, but not as buoyant as the Indian Ocean off of Zanzibar. I recognize it's a funny thing to be able to compare buoyancies of bodies of water and I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had.

That night was the wedding and the ceremony was set out on the coast with the sun setting. It was an absolutely beautiful and heartfelt ceremony that was done mostly in Italian but a large part in German and also English. It truly didn't matter if you could understand the words, you could see and feel the love in their vows and the ceremony. After the ceremony, there was a wonderful cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres, prosecco and fresh fruit juices. My personal favorite was mixing prosecco with strawberry juice. :)

Dinner was a 4 hour event with multiple courses, speeches, and games mixed within. From where we were sitting we could see a chef hand tying fresh burrata balls that we later ate with our meals (see video). We were seated at the table with the other Germans because they did their seating based on current living location. We loved it and truly enjoyed getting to know other friends who now live relatively close to us.

Scroll for more

We had heard rumors about how long both German and Italian weddings could go, but we were skeptical. Being from the US, weddings are usually shut down by 11pm, sometimes midnight if you pay to keep it open longer. So in our minds, "late" meant maybe past midnight? Yikes, were we (happily) wrong! The dinner ended and we started taking a shuttle bus to another part of the resort at 1 am... yes, you read that right, the dancing portion of the reception started at 1 am. My first drink when we got there was a shot of espresso, followed by delicious margaritas. The DJ had the very difficult job of trying to please both the German and Italian music lovers in the crowd which landed us squarely in the no lyrics electronic dance music all night. No complaints here, dancing was so fun! By 4am we made our way back to the main part of the resort then sat by the pool for an hour while some of the guys took a swim. Finally by about 6 am we were back in our bed and sound asleep.

Scroll for more

The next day was as beautiful weather as all the previous ones and I was dying to get to the sea again. Unfortunately, Jesse was just dying. Ha! Not literally, but he and just about everyone else were still in recovery mode from the night before. Me, being the solar powered human that I am, had ample amounts of energy that morning/afternoon so while Jesse was napping inside our room, I did a nice little workout on our patio in the sun. (I know, I'm crazy, but like I said, solar powered). Finally, at about 2 pm I convinced Jesse to at least nap down by the water so I could go in. He agreed and he only got about a 20 min nap in before I convinced him to join me in the water. He was mostly recovered by then and actually really enjoyed the cool water.

That night we drive into Alberobello with our new friends, Christian and Nora (who did the incredible drawing above). We wandered around this town, found a delicious pizza dinner on the streets and took in the cool architecture of the buildings. This town and the buildings are very much a tourist attraction and because of that I definitely recommend making dinner reservations. While we were very happy with the pizza, it was not our first, second, or fourth choice for dinner, but everywhere we tried was booked. We also wandered through an open air market and watched a local fundraising soccer tournament happening in the main square.

Scroll for more

Because this was such a touristy town, I made the conscious decision to leave my passport in the safe at the resort for fear of pickpockets. Unfortunately, I didn't think that all the way through because we needed a negative Covid test to get back into Germany at the time and on our way out of the resort we had the front desk make us an appointment at a pharmacy in this town. Well, they can't give the test without the passport and they were closing before we could make the 40 min drive there and 40 min drive back. After a couple of panicky phone calls we learned we could get a quick test done at the airport tomorrow and continued on with our night.

I share these kinds of moments with you in hopes of preserving these memories for us, but also giving anyone reading this a realistic view on travel. Whether it's a delayed or cancelled flight, lost luggage, issues with a rental car, etc.. These are all a very normal part of travelling. That is why, planning and packing smart are important, but most important of all is having a good attitude and being kind. I promise you, you will enjoy your trip so much more if you don't expect everything to go perfectly.

The next day was our last and we spent the morning in the sun, packing up, and saying our goodbyes. While Jesse returned the rental car, I took and passed my Covid test. We were early to the airport and had planned to have lunch there. Even in the airport, the pasta in Italy is fantastic!

A huge thank you to Thorben and Emy for inviting us to this wonderful celebration. We are so thankful you both are in our lives and can't wait for future adventures together.

Video information and credits:

Video App: InShot

Music: Sweet

Musician:LiQWYD