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Oct 1-14, 2008
ROME
Great public transportation makes me wish the states had better infrastructure. They have multi day passes you can purchase just about anywhere. We still did enough walking that we could have gelato every day, and we still lost weight! LOL We did the 3 hour Vatican tour. I enjoyed it, but I will say if you only want to see St. Peters and the Sistine Chapel, just do that. I would have rather seen the catacombs than the museum part of the tour. One of my friends compared it to Gilligan’s disastrous 3 hour tour! LOL The rain probably didn’t help.
We walked from the Trevi Fountain to the Coliseum, taking in the whole Forum along the way, found the best water near Piazza Venezia. Even at 5 euro each they were worth it, and probably the only truly cold drink we had the whole trip, perfect day for some nearly frozen water! The soldier near the trevi fountain was cute and fun, but the ones near the coliseum were more like a****, they all expect big tips for photo ops.
The two best meals we had here were at the Hard Rock Rome, totally awesome solution to craving some greasy American food, and IL GIRASOLE, which was a couple bus stops from our hotel outside the city center toward the Appia Way. The owner (we think) was cute (the abundance of tall, dark, handsome Italian men in romance stories is exaggerated sadly) even posed for pics with us, and invited us back if we visit again. I’m not a big seafood person, but had to try some, and it was totally delicious from start to dessert! I can’t complain about the hotel either, I still think fondly of the oversized bathroom we had, absolutely huge tub with a skylight above.
SIENA
This is one of the medieval cities that still close the gates to the city at sunset. Lots of hilly walking, so wear good shoes! Best gelato we found in all of Italy. Piazza IL Campo was very nice, we spent a lot of time exploring around there and around Piazza del Duomo. Met the most awesome Australians in piazza duomo, they even signed our travel journal! Also saw/heard the most amazing violin player, we literally were stopped in our tracks and stood listening in awe. So glad my friend got one of his cd’s. Also, not too far from there I found a little shop selling copies of Italian masterpieces and picked up the most beautiful replica of Primavera by Botticelli.
FLORENCE
Remember to validate your ticket before getting on a train, they are not kidding about the fine (up to 10x the ticket price) and saw a fellow traveler have to pay up! Also be prepared for extreme differences in trains, one we felt was way too warm the other far too chilly. The city of Florence was lovely, full of energy, and we loved the outside markets. We acquired lots of souvenirs here, and my friend finally found the perfect Italian leather boots she had been seeking. We explored mostly between the train station and the Uffizi Museum. We received our first and only indecent proposal in the piazza della Signoria. We were there to see the David replica, which was surrounded by scaffolding as he was being refurbished, but we were still happy to see him. We chose to see the replica because we wanted to see it in surroundings it was meant for. Just down from there along the outside of the Uffizi there were dozens of statues of famous Italians, very cool. We had Italian pizza for the first time in Florence, and while I still struggle to explain how it’s different, it really is better than in the states. So much to see and do we could have spent lots more time here. The beauty of the San Giovanni baptistery cannot be done justice in mere words, just the doors on the thing is mind blowing!
LUCCA & PISA
We took a side day trip from Florence for these. We absolutely loved both. The tour at the leaning tower was fairly short, and I was surprisingly moved more by the church than the famous bell tower. It is so awesome to be in places where so many famous names from history were, or grew up. The whole country is like a living breathing history/art appreciation class! After the tour we spent some time lounging in the grass. Piazza means park, but don’t be fooled, they are all concrete and stone, this was the first time we had even the opportunity to walk in grass, funny how you take something so simple for granted. The African vendors outside the gate to the Pisa area were funny and very nice, but if you don’t see the signs warning you of the 10,000 euro fine for buying (yes buying not selling!) those beautiful knock off purses, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
VENICE
They are not kidding when they tell you that even ppl that live here get lost! Invest in a detailed map or go with a tour group unless you know a cartographer born and raised in the city. We spent most of the day lost and never wandered onto the same street twice! Tempers started to get a little ruffled when we were worrying we would miss our gondola ride, but we managed to get there in the nick of time! Things were much more relaxed after our gondola ride, again the gondolier was not the sexy Italian we had anticipated, but there were a few around to take pics of to make us feel better. I got a couple of Murano glass necklaces here, and being so close to the source they were well priced. The café where we stopped for afternoon drinks and dessert was amazing and we got some really great pics of us all together. We stayed on the mainland (maestro?) and fun exploring this area as well, though it is certainly not set up for tourists like venice out in the lagoon. We had a lady of the evening snarl at one of us as we were wandering around looking for a place to eat, still funny to this day! A small word of advice, do not drink anything you didn’t order, it will likely taste like a bad mix of cherry cough syrup and a**, ugh!
MILAN
By this point in the trip we were getting a little cultured shocked. 14 days may have been a little too long, so we are planning 10 day trips in the future. Our hotel was a little ways from city center so we just explored our little neighborhood and we were content with that. We ate most of our meals at Quadro Formaggio, and it seemed to be the neighborhood place to go, very busy, amazing owners/staff, and absolutely no complaints about the food! Our 2 star hotel was more of what you would expect for a really nice hostel, but we enjoyed it, it was clean, and the breakfast was decent. We had a driver to take us to the airport, and that was unremarkable except for my one friend laughing and bursting into tears at the same time on the shuttle at the Rome airport. Fellow travelers were concerned, but we knew it was just the culture shock, and besides we were on the way home. Ten hours is a long flight if you’ve never been on one, and we did have screaming kids both ways, but hey, we went to ITALY!!!! Can’t wait til next time!!
ROME
Great public transportation makes me wish the states had better infrastructure. They have multi day passes you can purchase just about anywhere. We still did enough walking that we could have gelato every day, and we still lost weight! LOL We did the 3 hour Vatican tour. I enjoyed it, but I will say if you only want to see St. Peters and the Sistine Chapel, just do that. I would have rather seen the catacombs than the museum part of the tour. One of my friends compared it to Gilligan’s disastrous 3 hour tour! LOL The rain probably didn’t help.
We walked from the Trevi Fountain to the Coliseum, taking in the whole Forum along the way, found the best water near Piazza Venezia. Even at 5 euro each they were worth it, and probably the only truly cold drink we had the whole trip, perfect day for some nearly frozen water! The soldier near the trevi fountain was cute and fun, but the ones near the coliseum were more like a****, they all expect big tips for photo ops.
The two best meals we had here were at the Hard Rock Rome, totally awesome solution to craving some greasy American food, and IL GIRASOLE, which was a couple bus stops from our hotel outside the city center toward the Appia Way. The owner (we think) was cute (the abundance of tall, dark, handsome Italian men in romance stories is exaggerated sadly) even posed for pics with us, and invited us back if we visit again. I’m not a big seafood person, but had to try some, and it was totally delicious from start to dessert! I can’t complain about the hotel either, I still think fondly of the oversized bathroom we had, absolutely huge tub with a skylight above.
SIENA
This is one of the medieval cities that still close the gates to the city at sunset. Lots of hilly walking, so wear good shoes! Best gelato we found in all of Italy. Piazza IL Campo was very nice, we spent a lot of time exploring around there and around Piazza del Duomo. Met the most awesome Australians in piazza duomo, they even signed our travel journal! Also saw/heard the most amazing violin player, we literally were stopped in our tracks and stood listening in awe. So glad my friend got one of his cd’s. Also, not too far from there I found a little shop selling copies of Italian masterpieces and picked up the most beautiful replica of Primavera by Botticelli.
FLORENCE
Remember to validate your ticket before getting on a train, they are not kidding about the fine (up to 10x the ticket price) and saw a fellow traveler have to pay up! Also be prepared for extreme differences in trains, one we felt was way too warm the other far too chilly. The city of Florence was lovely, full of energy, and we loved the outside markets. We acquired lots of souvenirs here, and my friend finally found the perfect Italian leather boots she had been seeking. We explored mostly between the train station and the Uffizi Museum. We received our first and only indecent proposal in the piazza della Signoria. We were there to see the David replica, which was surrounded by scaffolding as he was being refurbished, but we were still happy to see him. We chose to see the replica because we wanted to see it in surroundings it was meant for. Just down from there along the outside of the Uffizi there were dozens of statues of famous Italians, very cool. We had Italian pizza for the first time in Florence, and while I still struggle to explain how it’s different, it really is better than in the states. So much to see and do we could have spent lots more time here. The beauty of the San Giovanni baptistery cannot be done justice in mere words, just the doors on the thing is mind blowing!
LUCCA & PISA
We took a side day trip from Florence for these. We absolutely loved both. The tour at the leaning tower was fairly short, and I was surprisingly moved more by the church than the famous bell tower. It is so awesome to be in places where so many famous names from history were, or grew up. The whole country is like a living breathing history/art appreciation class! After the tour we spent some time lounging in the grass. Piazza means park, but don’t be fooled, they are all concrete and stone, this was the first time we had even the opportunity to walk in grass, funny how you take something so simple for granted. The African vendors outside the gate to the Pisa area were funny and very nice, but if you don’t see the signs warning you of the 10,000 euro fine for buying (yes buying not selling!) those beautiful knock off purses, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
VENICE
They are not kidding when they tell you that even ppl that live here get lost! Invest in a detailed map or go with a tour group unless you know a cartographer born and raised in the city. We spent most of the day lost and never wandered onto the same street twice! Tempers started to get a little ruffled when we were worrying we would miss our gondola ride, but we managed to get there in the nick of time! Things were much more relaxed after our gondola ride, again the gondolier was not the sexy Italian we had anticipated, but there were a few around to take pics of to make us feel better. I got a couple of Murano glass necklaces here, and being so close to the source they were well priced. The café where we stopped for afternoon drinks and dessert was amazing and we got some really great pics of us all together. We stayed on the mainland (maestro?) and fun exploring this area as well, though it is certainly not set up for tourists like venice out in the lagoon. We had a lady of the evening snarl at one of us as we were wandering around looking for a place to eat, still funny to this day! A small word of advice, do not drink anything you didn’t order, it will likely taste like a bad mix of cherry cough syrup and a**, ugh!
MILAN
By this point in the trip we were getting a little cultured shocked. 14 days may have been a little too long, so we are planning 10 day trips in the future. Our hotel was a little ways from city center so we just explored our little neighborhood and we were content with that. We ate most of our meals at Quadro Formaggio, and it seemed to be the neighborhood place to go, very busy, amazing owners/staff, and absolutely no complaints about the food! Our 2 star hotel was more of what you would expect for a really nice hostel, but we enjoyed it, it was clean, and the breakfast was decent. We had a driver to take us to the airport, and that was unremarkable except for my one friend laughing and bursting into tears at the same time on the shuttle at the Rome airport. Fellow travelers were concerned, but we knew it was just the culture shock, and besides we were on the way home. Ten hours is a long flight if you’ve never been on one, and we did have screaming kids both ways, but hey, we went to ITALY!!!! Can’t wait til next time!!
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