An even BIGGER surprise!

Emily did such a great job of describing our trip that I am going to cut and paste this post from her email:

Emily and I got engaged on our trip to Europe earlier this month. :) I proposed at night in front of the lit-up St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican - how much more romantic can you get for a couple of good Catholics, really? We're pretty sure the Pope was probably looking down watching us from his apartment. ;)

We had an amazing time in Europe, traveling around Italy, Germany, and Austria. We spent a few days in Rome eating gelato, checking out the Vatican, going to mass at St. Peter's, listening to the Pope, checking out ancient Rome via Segways (AWESOME!), and of course, getting engaged!

We then headed to Naples for a few days where the Navy has an installation and a campground/rec facility about 45 minutes away that's set in the crater of a volcano. We were the only people staying there since it was so early in the spring, so not only did we get our own cabin, but we got the whole campground to ourselves, too! Naples was a marathon of pizza (every day!), checking out the town where Dave's great-grandparents were from and the church there, visiting the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery where his great-uncle was buried when he was killed in Italy during WWII, and spending a day in Pompeii.

We then hopped the train back to Rome, a plane to Munich, and two more trains to the absolutely beautiful skiing village of Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany. It's very close to the Austrian border and set in a valley below the most incredible mountains. We stayed at a resort there that is run by the army and absolutely exceeded our expectations in about a million ways. It was such a treat and so relaxing! We did bring ourselves to leave the resort a few times, though, and spent some time walking around Garmish, drinking LOTS of yummy heffeweisen with giant pretzels. We also spent a day in Innsbruck, Austria, where we toured the Hapsburg Palace, sampled schnapps, and shopped for crystals. We spent a day touring an artisinal cheese factory and a monastery and took a trip to Munich and the Hoffbrau Haus on our last day.

We then said goodbye to the Edelweiss Lodge and drove across Germany (checking out countless German deer hunting tree stands along the way, of course) to Frankfurt where we spent our last night and went our separate ways. :(