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My wife and daughter are 7 days into a 12 day trip in Europe that will take them through Ireland, Germany, Poland, The Czech Republic, and Austria.  After talking to them this evening I think they are both ready to come home.  It’s an educational trip through the school system and everything is busy and on a schedule.

They are finding out a trip and a vacation aren’t necessarily the same thing.  The one place my wife really wanted to visit was Auschwitz but my daughter got a bug or something and was throwing up all day so they had to sit that one out yesterday.  She is better now and they were in Prague today.  They both sound exhausted. Lol.

To be fair, we packed a LOT into our week in Rome on our honeymoon.

The main event was going to the night Mass with Papa Frankie on Christmas Eve in St. Peter's. The atmosphere was like a super-reverent but high stakes football match. We waited in line with the family of a seminarian from North Dakota (tall English speakers tend to attract other English speakers), and were seated inside the basilica with a bunch of Brazilians.

St. Paul's Outside the Walls was my favorite of the papal basilicas.

We went to the Vatican Museums while there over Christmas 2021. Attendance at the time was capacity limited by COVID. And if the place was that busy while capacity-constrained, I don't want to be within a country mile of there in August with no restrictions on attendance.

Cacio e pepe in Rome was fantastic, and, despite it's simplicity, is something that the Mrs. and I have been utterly unable to replicate back stateside.

We tend to have a fairly loose schedule when we travel. If there are big-ticket events, schedule for that, but we don't want to be tied to an airtight schedule.

• You absolutely HAVE to have the right super starchy pasta. We've never found grocery store pasta that works. We have an Italian market near my wife's office that she goes to for pasta. Even then, we might want to search for even more starchy pasta. 
• You don't want to cook it in a big ol' pot of water like we all grew up doing with pasta. Cook it in JUST enough water to cook and maybe have a cup of reserved water so that there's enough starch to emulsify the sauce. If you use too much water, you'll dilute the starch and it will never emulsify.