I can be a super emotional person. Most of the time, I try to look at things in life logically. But sometimes, no matter how logical it may seem, I cannot remove my emotions for the situation.

“What do you mean you want me to hire him to be our plumber? Heck no! I don’t care that he’s the best and cheapest plumber in the area…he hates cats and was rude to RJ!”

So maybe…just maybe…I have a hard time letting certain things go.

(Which really is just the worst because I know that I’m being irrational but the emotional side of my brain beats the rational side of my brain to a pulp. Sometimes I feel like it would just be better if I didn’t know that I was being completely irrational. Ignorance is bliss right?)

Torino is one of those situations. I really just need to let it go.

But alas, I cannot, and now you readers (all three of you) are subject to my emotional, non-rational, thoughts.

Best of luck.

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The morning we woke up to go to Torino, Andy fell ill. He had a stomachache, headache and felt really de-energized. He had been having stomach issues for the past several months so we determined that it must have been something he ate that didn’t agree with him.

Our train ride to Torino from Florence was pretty miserable.

However, I give props to Andy for doing his best to push through. Once we arrived to Torino and checked into our AirBnb, Andy was able to gather himself together enough and head to lunch (when all he really wanted to do was lie in bed for ages). We went to a panini shop down the street that was like an italian version of Firehouse Subs. They had a menu with 10-15 different types of paninis that you could order. It was fantastic.

By the time we finished lunch it was late afternoon and Andy still wasn’t feeling well. He said the food made him feel human again, but that he was in a ton of pain.
We debated whether to head back to the AirBnb or to go explore the city. Andy said he would be open to exploring the city since sitting around on the train all morning hadn’t helped him.

(Emotional Truth Checkpoint: So far it has all seemed pretty logical and to the point right? Welllll I’m not being 100% honest. I knew that Andy was in pain, but I was letting my emotions lead me.

“We’re only in Italy for two more days! I’m so excited to be back in Torino because I love this city! There’s so much I want to do and sitting in the AirBnb is not one of them!”

And before you ask, no I wasn’t directly saying this to Andy, but my feelings were very very clear. I didn’t want to see that Andy was sick because his being sick would ruin all the plans/high expectations I had for Torino. So emotional Julia subtly (not so subtly) forced Andy to push through his sickness.)

For those of you that don’t know, Torino is a royal city (watch out London, we’re coming for you!). Torino was home to the House of Savoy – essentially a royal family that kicked butt for nine centuries (no actually from 1003 to 1946). The Savoy family started off by ruling the ‘County of Savoy’ which transitioned into the ‘Duchy of Savoy’ in the early 1400’s. Eventually Torino became Italy’s first capital in 1861 and the royal family ruled until 1946 when Italy became a republic. Not surprisingly, the royal history is all over Torino and I got a bit starstruck.

During our afternoon of exploring, we went to the Museo Reale which is the museum of the Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale). Did you know the royal palace is a UNESCO world heritage site?? This is real history over here (nope not super pumped about this at all)!

Anyways, Andy and I bought tickets and headed out to explore the museum.

I know this is the most simplistic description, but everything was just so grand. The ceilings were excessively tall – like I actually hurt my neck trying to look straight up, bodies are not supposed to bend that way. Except these darn royals stay trying to impress the world and they had these incredible designs/sculptures on all the ceilings. Meanwhile back in Alexandria, Virginia in the 1700s we were building compact brick townhouses…I guess this is what happens when you denounce royalty. Sigh. (JK – I’m really okay with our democratic society. Power of the people! Go vote!)

Below are some of my favorite parts of the museum:

1. Hall of the Swiss Guard (Real name of the room)

I’m pretty sure this was the largest room in the palace (very unconfirmed statement – no measurements were actually taken). It was used for official receptions and was redecorated in the mid 1800’s by King Carlo Alberto. Basically this place was where are the real history went down.

Oh also, the fireplace that Andy is pictured with was created in the 17th century by Italian stonemasons. They could have been famous? Sorry forgot some of those details 🙂

2. The Golden Door 

Who decided a door like this needed to be built? Apparently being extra was a thing even back in the 17th century.

3. Just Some Casual Chandeliers

It’s actually raining diamonds on Andy’s head. If only it really rained like that over my house.

4. Hallway of armor (My translation of “Armeria Reale”)

Then we came upon this entire hallway of armor and weaponry? That stuff looks mighty uncomfortable. I do not think I would have done well as a knight. But seriously, how are you supposed to walk with all this metal on you?!

5. The Mini-balcony

This was one of my favorite parts of the palace. The balcony, referred to as the Loggia in Italian, is where the royal family would come out an wave/address the public. It was here that King Carlo Alberto announced the first War of Independence in 1848.

I sat here for way too long people watching and imagining the crowds of people that used to fill the square to hear from the royal family. As we were overlooking the balcony to wave to our non-existent public (this was really only me, not Andy haha), we caught a view of a bride and groom running across the square. How romantic

6. All the painting on the ceilings

I know, I know, we’ve already talked about their amazing ceilings, but really I’ve never seen so many ceiling paintings in my life! Personally, I really think we should start to resurrect the paintings on the ceiling phase…it really makes it much more enjoyable to look up. (Hint Hint Andy…we have a lot of white ceiling space at our house….just saying…)

7. Everything else I took pictures of in the palace

The museum was really neat. Weirdly, it was super empty – I think we saw more museum employees than we did other visitors. The whole palace echoed so you felt like you needed to whisper the whole time because otherwise your normal voice sounded as if you were yelling.

I think I read too many historical romance novels though because the whole time I’m imagining all the scenes from my novels playing out – but here is where they would have the grand dance and everyone would be dancing. It really gave a sense of reality to all my fiction 🙂

After the museum, we grabbed gelato (because always) and dinner at Zama. I kid you not, Zama was Noodles and Company. You picked out the type of pasta you wanted, the sauce, the add-ons and they make it right in front of you.

#heaven

We then headed back to the AirBnb to eat dinner. On our way back we stopped at a grocery store that was across the street to buy snacks in preparation for our adventure the next day.

Adventure you say? But isn’t everyday an adventure in Italy?

Why I’m glad you asked. Yes, everyday is an adventure in Italy but the following day (Saturday) was going to be our special adventure. Andy and I had received some gift money from our family when we got married and we wanted to use it on something fun during our honeymoon.

After much debate we decided we would go hiking in the alps. We hired a guide who was going to pick us up at our AirBnb and take us on a personalized hike. We had been communicated with our guide, Cleto, on and off for several weeks and he had sent us a list of things we needed to bring with us. On that list was specific type of snack food to eat during our hike.

(Emotional Truth Checkpoint: I cannot express to you how badly I wanted to go on this hike. I basically pushed Andy into choosing the hiking option and I could not contain my excitement. I was looking forward to the hike in the most real way. 

The thing is I have this issue with high expectations. I have super high expectations for myself and once I decide that something is going to be awesome, those same high expectations are placed on said event (which may or may not live up to my expectations). I had high expectations for this hike in the alps and nothing was going to stop that. No really nothing, not even if a very logical reason came along…)

Unfortunately, it was around this time that things began to go downhill significantly. Andy was unable to eat anything (literally a first for Andy). He was hot, but simultaneously had the chills and there was a stabbing pain in his back as well as his ribs. To explain the seriousness of the situation, Andy told me, “if I was back home, I would be in the hospital right now.”

So as Andy is sitting here in excruciating pain,  I am having a myriad of emotions running through me.

• Disappointed because I desperately wanted to go on the hike. I told Andy that it was okay if he wasn’t feeling up to going and Cleto and I could go without him. (Please don’t judge me that I’m a horrible person and while my husband is dying, I’m ready to abandon him. Like I said, emotions were ruling on this trip).
• Worry because I have no idea how to make Andy better. What if something was actually seriously wrong with him? What if we got stuck in Italy and we couldn’t get home and the Italian doctors messed him up?
• Frustration because our trip is not going the way I want it to.
• Helplessness because it is all out of my control. I hate not having any control!!
• Loneliness because there was no one I could turn to. I was supposed to be the strong one (because obviously Andy is very ill) and I had no clue what to do. Where was that strong support system of friends and family I had back home? Oh that’s right…in the United States which is exactly where we weren’t.
• Guilty because part of me was blaming Andy even though I know it’s not his fault. I knew what needed to be done, but I really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want Andy to be in pain, but also I didn’t want the last bit of our trip to be ruined.

YOU DARN EMOTIONAL SIDE FOR MAKING ME HAVE ALL THE FEELS. NOT HELPFUL. NOT HELPFUL.

So, I’m sitting here with this lose-lose situation when I ask Andy what he wants to do. He said the only thing that made sense.

“I want to go home.”

I call the airlines to see what can be done to change our flight. At this point it’s close to 9:00 at night and there was no way we were getting out that night. The lady I spoke to was very sympathetic, but really not much help. I will sum it up for you: the cheapest option is to change our flights, pay the difference of the tickets and the change fee. I say cheapest, but it was the opposite of cheap. It was the same price to buy our one way ticket home that it was to buy our round trip ticket to Italy and back.

Yes, let’s not ponder the absurdity of that.

I told Andy the price and he was in so much pain that he did not care.

“Just do it.”

So instead of waking up at the crack of dawn to go hike the alps, we were waking up at the crack of dawn to make the long 14 hour travel home.

Just why life, why?!?!

Except nothing is ever easy (because why could things every just work out?). That night was possibly one of the worst nights.

Andy was in so much pain he couldn’t ever really sleep. He was turning and groaning and would wake up every 15-30 minutes. Even when he fell asleep he was so restless it wasn’t a good sleep.

On the other hand, I was being the most bitter bear and I couldn’t fall asleep because I was just so sad. I’m over here crying about the injustice of it all (but whyyyy did Andy have to get sick? but whyyyy did we have to cancel our trip? etc. etc….fill in the rest of the pity party with your own imagination). Of course this is really not helping the situation (emotions rarely do help in situations like this).

I finally fall asleep around 1 AM and around 2:30 AM I wake up with a start.

Someone is opening the door of our AirBnb.

(This is no joke. Please follow closely)

Someone is opening the door of our AirBnb and I immediately roll over to see if it is Andy.

Except Andy is lying in bed next to me.

What? How is this possible?

And who is opening the door?

GREAT QUESTION! WHO THE HECK IS OPENING THE DOOR AT 2:30 AM?!?

While I am in a dazed state of wtf, Andy hops out of bed and runs to the bedroom door to see who is at the front door.

Yes, that is correct. The man who is half-clothed, exhausted and can barely stand up straight because he is in so much pain, is going to defend us from our intruders.

(Okay looking back this is one of the few events from our time in Torino that I can actually find the humor in)

I can only imagine what our intruders thought as they walked inside and saw this man holding his side as he leaned against the door frame because he really didn’t have the ability to stand up.

Superhero Andy to save the day!!

Luckily for all of us involved, our intruders were a young couple that were just as shocked to see us as we were to see them. Once they saw Andy they hurried back outside, shutting the door and saying “Excuse us!” multiple times in Italian.

Apparently, what ended up happening is that our AirBnb host had multiple apartments in the complex. Each apartment is opened by keying a code in the door. Well somehow the host gave this couple (who was staying in another apartment) the wrong door code. When they went to their apartment and entered the code it didn’t work. After trying it a couple of times they thought that made they had the wrong apartment. So they went to our apartment and entered in the code which, as you already know, opened our door.

The chances of this happening are just so slim right? But sometimes when it rains it pours.

At this point not only am I mad, but now I have trouble sleeping because I have no idea what happened with this couple (we didn’t know the full story until the morning) and I terrified someone will come back. And of course it’s really not helping that at this point I realize I would have to be the one to save us! So I’m creating all these contingency plans in my head – What will I attack them with? How fast can I call the police? Should I push a table against our apartment door? Can we escape out the window?

Yeah, no one ever said I would make a good bodyguard.

Needless to say, I don’t think either Andy or I have ever been so excited for morning to come. #HallelujahSunrise

The next day we head to the airport and fly to Frankfurt where our connecting flight is. By this point we have been able to get in touch with both of our parents and my dad asked if we had called the 24-hour nurse hotline from Andy’s insurance.

Ummm, what?

Did you know most insurances provide a 24-hour nurse hotline?! Genius!

So as we wait for our plane to board in Frankfurt, I dial the nurse hotline and speak to a very nice woman. Essentially what I was trying to figure out was whether or not Andy had something so serious that we needed to leave the airport and get to the hospital ASAP or whether we could wait until we reached the states.

Unfortunately, as I was answering all the questions from the nurse they started boarding our plane. Andy and I had to make another decision: get on the plane and risk that he wouldn’t need medical attention for at least 8 hours or stay in Germany and head to a hospital.

We chose to get on the plane.

Poor poor Andy. He was so unhappy and in so much pain the entire flight. Thank god we were right next to the bathroom because I don’t think he would have made it otherwise.

After what felt like an eternity, we landed at Dulles. I had been in touch with Andy’s parents and they were already waiting to pick us up to drive straight to the hospital. We made it to Mount Vernon Hospital within an hour of us landing at Dulles.

Looking back, it really does seem like a miracle that we were able to deliver Andy to the hospital in one piece. After many tests, evaluations and a two day wait, we learned that Andy had a case of helicobacter pylori – essentially a bacterial infection that is usually found in the stomach infection. Although helicobacter is not exactly rare, most people that have it don’t have symptoms and its pretty uncommon for it to occur in the U.S.

We learned how serious it was in the U.S. when Andy received a call from the CDC on Tuesday (three days after our trip to the hospital). The man was livid that he was just learning now that Andy had this virus (apparently hospitals are supposed to notify the CDC ASAP) and he needed Andy to tell him everywhere he had gone during the incubation period so they could shut down those restaurants while they investigated. Also, neither Andy or I were supposed to leave the house because it could be contagious.

When the CDC man found out Andy contacted the disease in Italy, his stress level went way down. I’m pretty sure Andy and I definitely weren’t supposed to fly on a plane in close quarters with all those people, but if I didn’t get the virus, I feel good that no one else got it either.

In retrospect, I think if we had known what the issue was we would have just gone directly to an Italian hospital so Andy could have gotten the antibiotics and began his recovery. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20.

Thankfully, Andy is okay and he made a full recovery. Not that Andy would have allowed the sickness to stay – we all know Andy doesn’t stand for his body acting less than perfect 🙂

I think it’s at this point that I’m supposed to end the blog with some cute optimistic sentence about how even though the situation sucked, at least now we have an interesting story when people ask us about our honeymoon. But I refuse to give into this logical letting-it-go nonsense! I am still not okay!! I still have all the feels about the situation!!!

Okay I don’t exactly have allllll the feels, but I still refuse to make this sound positive.

Therefore, in conclusion:

We had a great time on our honeymoon minus the last two days which were the worst of the worst. Andy feels bad and said we have to go back. I want to tell him its okay and not to feel bad, but instead I tell him that I will take him up on the offer to go back.  #emotionsrule

Until the next Torino blog post – complete with Alps hiking pictures and all 🙂