Oh Italy, I think you are making us fat! We only stayed here for two weeks, but I think we ate for a month. We ate Italian style – an antipasto, a first dish (pasta), a second dish (meat), and then dessert. We also had beer and wine to wash it all down. If we added up the time we spent doing activities and added up the time we spent eating and drinking, I think that we would find it roughly even!
Our first substantial stop was the beautiful water town of Venice. An island paradise full of canals, cicheti (small Venetian dishes – the Italian version of tapas), and ombre (clear skin wine usually between €1-1.50 for a glass). We explored all the usual places in Venice – St Marks Square, the Rialto Bridge, etc – but we also found a few points of interest like stairs made from books, back entrances to palaces, and the way the nobility arose in Venice (the just picked the richest merchants!).
Next stop, a beautiful little coastline called the Cinque Terre (5 lands) which is, ironically, made up of 5 little villages – how original! We stayed in the only clifftop village and enjoyed being able to see some of the little colourful villages in the distance. The villages are built on the slope, so seeing them from the ocean was a real delight (we recommend taking the ferry between the islands if you want to check out each little village inexpensively). We also walked between two of the villages, a nice little walk in the early morning with the birds chirping and before the heat of the day set in!
A fly-by visit to Pisa was a must do – it is always amazing to see how much of a lean the tower actually is. We also spent a nice couple of hours at a local restaurant eating lunch – they handwrite the menu each morning and pin it up outside the door! Delicious!
Most anticipated on my part, Florence and Tuscany. We were staying out in a little village in Tuscany about 1 hour out of Florence. It was set amongst vineyards with grapes as far as the eye could see. WE had a car for a day, so we spent it taking a drive around the countryside and visiting a winery in a castle. A CASTLE! They gave us a tour of the castle, which they use to store the barrels of wine now, the grounds, and then set us up in a room with three wines to taste, a plate of cheese, and a plate of cold-cut meats. Laurence was in heaven, I was in heaven, we were happy people.
In Florence we managed to fit in some must-see sights. The David (amazing) and the replica David, the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), the leather market, the food market, the Cathedral, etc, etc, etc. I think that if we were to come back to Italy, it would be to explore this region a little more.
After a long train ride and a second (almost as long) train ride, we made it to Sorrento (across the bay from Naples). A nice, quiet, seaside town which was absolutely full of American tourists! We did manage to avoid most of them, but this was not even high season – what is the town like in July and August?!? All that aside, it is a lovely little town with some amazing pizza places. I think we spent three nights here and had pizza every night.
Just across the water was Naples, seemingly under construction for the time being. It is a concrete giant, full of chaotic street and crazy drivers. We spent a short time wandering around, looking at the castles that they have there, wishing that we had bought tickets to tour the San Carlo Theatre house, and then promptly sat down to yet another two-hour lunch.
What is a trip to Italy without seeing the capital, after all – don’t all roads lead to Rome? We arrived, dropped our bags, and headed straight to the Colosseum. It was the first Sunday of the month – free day, so we needed to get there are soon as possible to join the hordes of people. Luckily, being the planner, I had pre-booked the free tickets (I know, very weird) which allowed us to skip the ticket line and get our tickets straight away. Since we already had tickets, we got to skip the queue for the free entry (as you only needed to get a ticket if you wanted to go into the Roman Forum as well) which wrapped all the way around the Colosseum. Also, as we entered our line a new line for the security check opened up and we were ushered through. All up it took us about 15 minutes from arriving on the metro to actually being inside. An amazing feat I know, but our luck was not to hold – halfway through our camera advises us that the “battery is exhausted.” Cell phone pictures it is!
No such luck for the Roman Forum either, but a far smaller line (as the people who hadn’t bothered to wait in line for the tickets at the Colosseum couldn’t get in).
The next morning I drag Laurence out of bed (I am sure everyone knows that he is not a morning person) and walk him around to St Peter’s Square and Basilica. As we are waiting in line for security, always security, we notice a couple push in line. Laurence is angry, but we say nothing – they are behind us, it does not affect our wait time. But as we go to enter the Basilica we notice that they have been pulled aside, she had her shoulders uncovered and the staff won’t let her through the door. We visit the immense Basilica with smug smiles on our faces. Laurence has still not woken up and I suggest that we walk to the top of the Cupola (dome), he agrees. I wish he hadn’t, it’s such a long way up but totally worth it once you reach the top.
On our last morning in Rome we head to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. An amazing sight, as was the rest of the museum – I think my favourite part was the ceiling in the map room.
Of course, we saw all the other sights of Rome in between, with loads of walking around. We ate pizza, carbonara pasta, cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper pasta), gelato, and much more – much, much more.