Keep it coming! My sis and I (who share many of the same travel characteristics as you and your travel partner) will be heading to Italy in November. Great practical advice so far.

Great start jent - can't wait to hear about the trip!

We just got back from Rome and Venice on Friday. We also did the Scavi Tour (the Swiss Guards were letting folks go into the office a full 1/2 hour ahead). The underneath/top tier of the Colosseum tour was so worth it. I think I enjoyed our day at the Borghese the most. The Borghese Gallery is simply amazing but we wandered the entire gardens, visited the Biopark and rented one of those 4 seat, electric, bicycles (over by the Biopark entrance). Definately worth doing!

The best part of Venice (my 6th trip) is to contact Row Venice and book a 2 hour trip to learn the art of Venetian Rowing. It was the most amazing thing I've ever done and we rowed pretty solid for 2 hours...us...not the teacher. Jayne does the stearing while you are in the canal but once you are out on the Venice Lagoon you are on your own. These 2 hours were the absolute highlight of our entire trip and one of the top 5 things I've ever done in my life). The secret apartments tour of the Doge's Palace is also worth booking.

Book ahead and pay the extra for your tickets. We skipped every line and we were first in the door at both the Sistine Chapel/Museum and at the Colosseum. Our picutres of the Colosseum without so much as one other person anywhere in the photos or that we could see really made it exceptional. Get to the Colosseum by 8:00 am.

I just wanted to say hello to you jent, and I am happy to see and to read your trip report. It sounds like you are over your jetlag. I look forward to your next installment and I want to say that you have given some good information for those that are planning a trip to Italy.

You had me at the descriptions of the two of you. This is going to be fun to read.

Please keep it coming!

Thanks, y'all! Loveitaly, the jet lag has morphed into just plain tired, but we're getting there!

M is definitely fun and very quotable, as you'll see! We've been friends for 11 years, though we haven't lived in the same town since 2002, and she's one of my favorite people. She is, thankfully, patient with my type A, uberpunctual tendencies, and appreciates their results, if not my desire to be at airports and train stations ridiculously early.

Here's a link to where the pictures from the whole trip are (or will be - I've only gone through two days' worth so far!). I'll post links to individual days as I post, but the entire "collection" will be here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/collections/72157626683520763/

Looking forward to more...

78 photos until gelato. I hope your priorities become more properly aligned.

Nice pics!

Jean, I can only blame that on the jet lag. Thanks!

Making sure I can find the next chapters, the beginning has me looking forward to what's to come.

Same here ...

If your major wasn't photography, it should have been. Some excellent photos. What camera did you use to get such good low-light results? Seriously, jent103, get thee to a gallery-you have the eye.

More TR please.

I loved your photos. I always am interested in night pics, and I had to laugh at the funny old car and the tight parking situation. Can't wait to read the details of what sounds like a fun trip.

I hope I don't disappoint with the actual report! More to come a little later today, I promise.

TDudette and irishface, thank you so much for the kind words! No photography major; my dad's a longtime amateur photographer, and one of my brothers and I both picked up the habit. Cropping and a few tweaks on the computer cover a lot of sins too! TD, my main camera is a Canon Rebel XTi with a 17-85mm lens, bought used off my brother when he upgraded to a 50D. The Vatican shots, though, were done with a point & shoot Canon Powershot SD700 - I was afraid my bag with the padded camera insert wouldn't be let into the Scavi area, so I just stuck my P&S in my pocket that day. (Turns out the camera bag would have been totally fine. Oh well.)

Anxiously awaiting the rest of your report. We will be doing Chef Andrea Consoli's class as well in September (he has graciously "penciled" us in since he doesn't take reservations this early-I love him already!!). I'm off to your photos now

Enjoying your report so far. Yes, it is nice to hear about the trip after answering all your planning questions. Waiting for more . . .

Okay, here we go!

Day 1: Jet Lag, Prosciutto & Roma at Last - Sunday, May 8

Our flights to Rome, via Atlanta on Delta, were the best kind - completely uneventful. (I watched Rabbit Hole. It was not as depressing as I thought it would be. M watched Life As We Know It. It ended exactly as I thought it would.) However, I only got two hours of sleep and was physically and mentally exhausted from a stressful month preceding our trip, so this day will be interesting.

After immigration we proceeded to the meeting area designated in the YouTube video sent by Rome Cabs (yes, I’m serious, and it was actually quite helpful). Our driver pointed us to the bancomat, waited patiently while we waited in line and M accidentally tried to take out 45,000 euros, and escorted us to the car. We rode quietly to the center of the city, as I thanked my stars for seat belts and realized for the first time that lane lines are more guidelines than actual rules. M called our apartment owner from the car; from my end the conversation sounded like “Hello, this is jent103, we have a reservation? Yes... okay... yes... okay.” Who knows. I *do* know that I am so glad we booked a car service - it would have taken us years to find the right place in our mental state (probably even on a good day!).

The driver couldn’t actually get his relatively large sedan down to Piazza del Fico, so we had to walk a little bit. He walked us to the door of the apartment building and we buzzed the intercom for #7. The owner let us in, but we weren’t sure which apartment was the correct one. I remembered that it was way up there, so we just walked to the top floor and knocked. Turns out this was the owner’s actual home - the rental apartment is one floor down, and apparently when we called an hour ago, he had asked M if we were downstairs already. Oops. Alessandro seems nice, if very reserved. He showed us around, we worked out deposit and payment, and he told us vaguely where a supermarket was. All we really retained was something about “fifty meters.” Have I mentioned that we didn’t get much sleep?

The apartment was great for us. The bathroom is just inside the front door - not huge (being Europe and all) but enough space. Each of the two bedrooms has a window and faces Bar del Fico across the tiny piazza. There’s a small dining area with a table, a small kitchen with a microwave, gas stove, oven and washer, and a living area with a loveseat and a couple of wooden chairs. Sitting around to socialize wouldn’t be super comfy for more than two people, but for us, no problem. The kitchen looks fairly recently renovated, and everything was clean.

Checking out the bedrooms, we looked out onto old Roman buildings and restaurant workers getting things ready for the lunch crowd while listening to jazz and Don Henley. Sunday in Rome - we’re here! We unpacked, took showers and decided we should probably go find that supermarket, then get some lunch - our plane “breakfast” (seriously unidentifiable - some sort of egg somehow stuffed into some sort of bread?) wasn’t going to hold us long. We walked down Via del Corallo and ended up on the main street, Corso Vittorio Emmanuele II. (Me: “This street looks like it has stuff.”) We decided to turn left. We had no idea where Alessandro’s fifty meters was supposed to come in. We walked a little ways and saw a sign for a Carrefour Express, with an arrow pointing down along some mystery street. All right then. We twisted and turned and eventually found it, actually much closer to the apartment than we realized.

The thought was to get breakfast items and some things to make a couple of light dinners. I had vague notions of prosciutto and baguettes and soft cheese for breakfast. But I didn’t really see any baguettes (more a French thing, as it happens), the bread area was somewhat limited, and the deli counter guy was a little intimidating. We wandered around kind of aimlessly for awhile, picking up fruit and that was about it. M got some Nutella (obviously) and found some sandwich bread.

Committed to this prosciutto idea but not thinking clearly, I thought “well, at home a quarter pound of deli meat would be two or three subs’ worth... a quarter pound is a half kilo... how do I say half?” Yes, some of you see impending doom already. My Talking Italian Phrasebook app (sponsored by Fiat - note that this was not on the recommended list) said a half was “un meta.” All right then. I bravely walk into the deli area and ask for “un meta kilo di prosciutto.” The man behind the deli counter is probably in his 60s, bald with a mustache and grumpy. He asks me how many grams. My jet-lagged, sleepless brain cannot compute that one kilo = 1,000 grams. I look perplexed. He looks irritated. He finally gets that I want 500 grams, and gives me a look like “Really? Are you sure?”

Faking confidence, I nod.

“Prosciutto di Parma? Prosciutto di <other places I don’t know>?”

“um... di Parma.”

He starts slicing. M has joined me in the deli room by now and is watching him slice: “Um, that looks like a lot.” Me: “Yeah... I know.” We finally tell him that’s enough.

“So, FOUR hundred grams.”

“Yes. I guess so. Grazie.”

“<cold look as he hands me a large package of prosciutto>”

I grab a couple of random bread things with rosemary. We pick up some farfalle, a roasted chicken, prepared pesto and a bag of salad, and head for the checkout. And yes, for all those wondering, it did indeed occur to me later that a quarter pound is not half a kilo, but in fact more like a tenth, and that would still be a pretty good amount of prosciutto. Expensive mistake? Yes. Oh well.

We made it back to the apartment, stowed our groceries and decided to go to the restaurant downstairs, Francesco’s, for lunch. Our waiter was friendly but the food was okay. I got roasted chicken with potatoes. The chicken was dry. I have no idea what M got or how much it was.

After lunch we decided to walk to Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, maybe the Trevi Fountain if we felt like it. The weather was warm and gorgeous. We set off. Piazza Navona, art stalls, fountains: Check. We wound our way to the Pantheon, where we found our first mob of people. I tried to listen to my Rick Steves podcast, but gave up quickly. Rick is a cheesy slowpoke. We probably spent 20-30 minutes inside, looking at the oculus and the tombs of kings and Raphael. Then we headed to the Trevi Fountain, passing the Column of Marcus Aurelius and Zara (both equally important) on the way.

We got to the Trevi Fountain and were immediately in the midst of a mob scene. So. Many. People. Clearly I wasn’t going to be getting fabulous artsy shots of the fountain. We probably stayed five minutes, then headed back to the Zara, on the way passing a group of girls sitting at a cafe wearing tank tops with “JUSTICE FOR MICHAEL JACKSON” ironed on the back in hot pink letters.

We shopped a bit then decided to head back to the apartment, somehow winding our way to Via dei Coronari. Walking down the street, M pointed out a gelato place and suggested we get some. Me: “Gelato del Teatro! That place is supposed to be good!” Thanks to marigross’s trip report and M’s sharp eye, we have now found our local gelateria. And oh my goodness, was it ever good. M got tartufo and hazelnut or something. I got cioccolato and white chocolate with basil. Delicious, just the right amount and €2. The chocolate actually tasted like... chocolate.

Exhausted, we head back to the apartment for the evening. That’s right: We’re in Rome, and we’re in pjs by 5pm. We were so tired I didn’t even care. We barely ate dinner; M got 13 hours of sleep that night. I held out till 9 but honestly I don’t think I would have had any trouble sleeping till 8 the next day anyway.

Pictures just from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626792263820/

LuvToRoam, I meant to tell you - if you love Chef Andrea now, you will adore him after the class! Coming up on Day 4. I really can't wait to go through the pictures from that day!

Looks like you had an awesome day in Rome!

Really enjoying this!

Thank you for posting, I shall look forward to tomorrow's installment...

Thanks for the information and beautiful photos.

In!

fifty meters

HAH! Hub and I had a trip where every thing was "not too far-just 100 meters". Usually it was a mile later.

My main camera is a point and shoot-with digital, it's often all one needs and more! Again, great shots.

Thanks, everyone! It's so fun reliving the trip while writing this.

julia_t, it's a big holiday weekend in the States and I have a family cookout tomorrow, so I hope you'll forgive me if I'm just a bit late!

Day 2: Vatican Day, All Day - Monday, May 9

The first official thing we have planned is the Scavi tour, booked months ago for this morning at 10:45. We planned to walk over from our apartment, and we (okay, *I*) wanted to make sure we had plenty of time, so we left around 9:15 or a little later. In theory it should only have taken us 30 minutes or so, but we crossed the bridge and followed the Lungotevere where we should have followed Borgo Santo Spirito. Oops. As a friend of mine would say... there’s a sermon in that! It really was an easy walk if you, you know, pay attention to the map. I still blame jet lag.

We wandered around Piazza San Pietro for a few minutes, marveling at the giant screens and chairs still set up from John Paul II’s beatification the week before. (Not being Catholic myself, I hadn’t fully realized how beloved JPII was. There were signs all around town celebrating the beatification.) We decided to at least find the Scavi office, so we walked around the colonnade and found a break to the left of the basilica, per the instructions in my email. There they were: Swiss Guards in colorful garb!

We walked up to one of the guards and asked “Scavi?” (We hadn’t yet figured out that yes, pretty much everyone involved in customer service can indeed understand full sentences in English.) The guard, probably 20 and dashing in his traditional attire, looked at his watch and said “Yes, fifteen minutes,” pointing to where we were standing. M decides to be friendly and says “We’re early? But I’m NEVER early!” The poor guard, whose command of English was excellent but not quite up to witty banter with a friendly Arkansan, thought we were still confused. “Fifteen minutes, yes,” and points at his watch. M keeps trying but after a minute we head back to take some pictures of the outside of the basilica.

Me: “Were you trying to flirt with that Swiss Guard?”
M: “Yes I was. He was cute.”

After killing a little time, the cute guard lets us through and points us, in a very general direction, toward the Ufficio Scavi.

Now, after warnings here and in emails about “large bags” not being allowed in the excavations area, and being my cautious self, I have chosen to not take a bag at all today. Instead I wore jeans and took my wallet, printouts of the emails, passport (for the photo ID we were told very explicitly to bring), and point-and-shoot camera instead of my SLR. My pockets were quite full. Did anyone ask for that photo ID? Heck no. Would my bag have been totally fine in the Scavi area, judging by other women’s? Heck yes. Oh well. My shoulders probably thanked me.

Our Scavi guide was a blond Italian who has a graduate degree in Christian archeology. I thought her English was great, though we overheard a few in our group complaining that they couldn’t understand. She did speak quickly but was obviously knowledgeable and interested in the subject matter. She explained how the necropolis had looked before Constantine ordered the basilica built, how he had pledged not to disturb it but instead had had it covered with packed dirt, and how they started excavating. I thought it was fascinating. Definitely, definitely worth the €12 and advance planning. (We had a couple on our tour who we saw fanning themselves and complaining about the humidity in the excavations. M and I looked at each other like, “Seriously? Clearly you have not been in Tennessee in the summer. This ain’t nothin’.”)

The tour ends at a restricted entrance to the crypt under St. Peter’s. The guide told us to follow the one-way traffic flow of the crowd, but at the end, we could go back into the basilica without going through the security lines. We were a little confused about how exactly to do this - obviously there isn’t signage for this slightly illicit means of entrance - but we figured it out eventually. Basically, you go around to the front, but you’re always behind the security barrier, so you can just go in. The basilica... well, it’s massive. When I was there in 1999, we only got to spend a few minutes before getting kicked out for a funeral mass, but I remember our tour guide telling us that the letters along the tops of the walls are six feet tall! We wandered around in awe, along with the rest of the crowds.

Once we left, The Plan was to head to the Vatican Museums. Great, except we weren’t sure how to get there. My map didn’t really indicate where the entrance was. We asked a security guard: “Museo?” “One kilometer! <vague hand gesture>” Um, okay. We headed in the general direction of his wrist flick and eventually, after some wandering, found The Line.

I had thought quite a bit about whether we wanted to reserve tickets in advance for the museums. In the end I decided that we didn’t want to be stressed about making a specific time, since I wasn’t sure how long we would spend in St. Peter’s. I still think that’s the right decision in our case. We ended up in line about 40 minutes, listening to tour company reps try to hawk us guided skip-the-line tours. (I’m still confused about what line you’d be skipping, though, since it turned out that this was the security line - we actually walked right by the ticket booth when we got to the museum, thinking that there had to be a line for that too, but no! So people who reserved tickets - do you get to go to the front of the security lines?) During the wait, the boyfriend of the American couple ahead of us blocked for us when a group of Italian teenagers tried to cut us in line, saying they were with a group. I’m still not totally sure what happened, except that this group of ten-ish young adults were suddenly there where previously there had just been... wall next to me. There were some harsh words between the couple and the teenagers. They ended up snaking their way ahead to the security line, but the couple held the off a long time. Who knows what the real deal was, but they sure seemed to be trying to cut ahead of everyone else.

Anyway, The Plan involved us heading straight to the museum cafeteria for lunch before heading back through the museums. We got there, had mediocre slices of pizza, and headed back toward the entrance... except the way we came, through the bookshop, is blocked off with a “DO NOT ENTER” gate. Hmm. We walk through the bookshop to the exit, but that just takes us to the end of the museums. Well, there’s a security guard at that gate. Maybe he knows.

Me: “Scusi - back to the entrance?”
Guard: <waves hand at the DO NOT ENTER gate>
Me: “Oh, we saw that sign...”
Guard: <shrug>

We open the gate and waltz right through. So, after 24 hours, we are learning that rule following is not necessarily expected here...

(today to be continued, but photos from the whole day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626808138126/ )

Looking back at my pictures, I think I felt like the museums were more crowded than they actually were, but I still wouldn’t want to see a crowded morning if this was “not bad.” We pretty much followed the crowd the whole way through, though I realized later that we’d accidentally skipped the Egyptian room. Oh well. Neither of us are exactly Egyptian history buffs. I’m sure we’ll survive. I’d been to the museums once before, but the Sistine Chapel still wowed me. The perspective and sheer amount of work... amazing.

After we left the chapel, we sat in the courtyard for awhile and eventually formulated A Plan involving gelato, rest at the apartment, and dinner out that night. We meandered our way back to Gelato del Teatro - still delicious. We needed a few more things from the store and, happily, found another Carrefour Express on Via dei Coronari (no grumpy deli man!).

We rested at the apartment for awhile - I, at least, needed that. Rome was stressing me out. Between the crowds, constantly getting turned around, the cigarette smoke and the mopeds, I was feeling really out of my element. Everything felt very chaotic and survival-of-the-fittest. Coming from a culture where people routinely say hello to strangers in the hallways and make small talk with store clerks, the (relative) unfriendliness of this big city was not something I’d thought to prepare for (though I should have). I was starting to think “well, at least we get to do some really cool stuff, and on Friday we’ll be gone anyway.” In short, M seemed fine, but I was tired and stressed and maybe a tad grumpy.

We decided on Baffetto 2 for dinner from my List O’ Restaurants, walked to the Campo dei Fiori area and found it with not too much trouble. Getting in, however, was more an issue: We couldn't figure out which door to use (the one the signs seemed to be pointing to looked like an emergency exit!). Finally we walked up to the first door, caught someone’s eye, and were seated in the back by a rather unfriendly host. Our first waiter had about the same personality. Things were not looking up for my frame of mind. But fortunately, this is where the differences between M and me come in handy. My strategy, when faced with unfriendly people, is to be polite but irritated on the inside. Hers is to smile at them so much that they are forced to like her. Shockingly, her strategy is generally more effective. The other waiter who took care of us was much friendlier - whether it was his natural personality or her efforts, who knows, but yay for that.

I got a suppli, just to try one. It was okay - I’d be curious to try other versions. We both ordered pizzas: M’s with zucchini flowers, mine a potato & rosemary one. Neither one of us were wowed by the restaurant, though M’s opinion was “it was fine” whereas mine was “hmmph.” Now in a better frame of mind, I still say that it’s fine, but there are better choices out there.

Feeling somewhat refreshed, we decided to walk to the Colosseum area. This had the double appeal of letting us find where we needed to go for our tour the next morning, and letting me take some night shots of that area. Well, of course we got lost (at this point we were still using the map from my Blue Guide, not the Rome2Go app). We got to the Vittorio Emmanuele monument just fine, but that was where things started to fall apart a bit. We followed roads that seemed to lead where we wanted, but no dice. I know now that we kept going straight when we should have turned on the east side of the monument - it really isn’t difficult, but we managed to do it. Getting lost yet again was not helping my frame of mind! It felt like we couldn’t go anywhere without meandering down six wrong streets first.

We did eventually make it down to the Colosseum. Seeing it and the Arch of Constantine lit up was very cool, and my mood started to turn just a little. We headed back to the apartment around 10 or so (thankfully we didn’t get lost this time). A little more email and off to my much needed bed, hoping sleep would do me some good!

Side note here: We walked. Everywhere. I am not exaggerating. We took the car from FCO and a cab to Termini when we left, and in between we walked. Since there’s no metro station near Piazza Navona, that wouldn’t have really helped us much. We could have figured out the bus system, but we’re good walkers and figured it would cause stress without saving us much time. So, we walked. Not a big deal, really, though we’re in good health (and had good shoes!), so others’ mileage may vary.

Hi, jent103. I'm enjoying your report. Our itinerary was the opposite, I think. We also walked everywhere and also found the crowds unbearable at times in Rome. I'm still working on my report, so I'm "still" in Venice.

Great story! You are pretty hard on yourself for your mood, but seem to handle it in a mature way. I sympathize with the uneasy feeling of being in a crowded place where no one seems to follow an organized line order. I can stand waiting in line (just) if I can see that I will get my fair turn.

I remember standing in a vaporetto line in Venice when a man pushed in front of me. I was not pleased but figured, What the heck!? The next thing I know, he was motioning to Granny, wife and kids and I was back about 10 people. After a day of this sort of thing, I decided I would hold my ground the next time. Well wouldn't you know? I felt a shove, I planted my feet firmly and there was a uniformed fellow yelling at me to move as he practically pushed me to the ground and went running through.

Great story! You are pretty hard on yourself for your mood, but seem to handle it in a mature way. I sympathize with the uneasy feeling of being in a crowded place where no one seems to follow an organized line order. I can stand waiting in line (just) if I can see that I will get my fair turn.

I remember standing in a vaporetto line in Venice when a man pushed in front of me. I was not pleased but figured, What the heck!? The next thing I know, he was motioning to Granny, wife and kids and I was back about 10 people. After a day of this sort of thing, I decided I would hold my ground the next time. Well wouldn't you know? I felt a shove, I planted my feet firmly and there was a uniformed fellow yelling at me to move as he practically pushed me to the ground and went running through.

Very happy you found my report useful! I was completely overwhelmed with Rome the first time I was there. It was pre-fodors and I was very unprepared. I only shceduled the 5 day stay the second time around because it was DDs first trip and surprised myself for absolutely loving Rome.

Our first time in Rome was at the end of a three week road trip, we'd already seen Tuscany, Verona, Venice, Florence, Orvieto, and the Amalfi coast. I think we were ready for it as our last stop. This fall, it will be where we spend our first week.

marigross, your report was so helpful! It actually helped when we were waffling between Lake Como and Cinque Terre as well, though I would love to visit CT someday.

irishface, that would drive me crazy! And that "taking a stand" story would totally happen to me too.

Rome actually did grow on me, but those first few days were a little rough. Being tired and stressed from work the month before was probably a big part of it, honestly, and I hate the feeling of not knowing where I'm going. I couldn't help comparing it to London in my mind (I've spent a few months there total, and it's the only big international city I've spent a lot of time in). They're both big, but have such opposite personalities to me. Rome is controlled chaos, every man for himself, it seems. London is orderly and so dang British, and I think that's one reason I can love it even though I'm not generally a big city girl.

Though I will share a quote from M: "I don't know. I haven't seen a guy peeing on the wall here like I have in London..."

Thanks for that Rome2Go app suggestion. I like that you can put your own pins on the map - like I've now done for the hotel where we're staying, and a couple restaurant tips from friends we've eaten out with in other locations

I love the chaos that is Rome. But then I like Palermo which is far from orderly. I had an Italian tutor once who told me, "In Rome, it's good to be tough. You need to be strong [made a fist] there." Once you get used to it, it's great. I think a loose itinerary and an anything-goes attitude helps. It seems like you and M had a great time.

Enjoying your report and photos, Jen!

uhoh, you're so welcome! Once it occurred to me to actually use it, that app was super helpful.

Leely2, I think your tutor was right on! Once I got used to it - well, oddly enough, it might be the place we went to that I'd return to first.

Day 3: Colosseo, Foro, and Bewaretouristtrapgelato

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and it’s time to see some ruins!

Tickitaly had given us strict instructions to be at the Colosseum at 9:10 for our 9:40 tour, and most of our group followed orders. We found the group counter, exchanged our email for a ticket, and headed to the meeting point. We spent the next 30 minutes reading up on the Colosseum and Forum from my Blue Guide and chatting with the other members of our group, probably 15-20 total. At 9:40 our tour guide (for the sake of this report we shall call her Marketa; this may or may not have been her actual name) met us, passed out our little walkie-talkies and we were off.

The tour started at a restricted gate that took us down to the dungeon level. Marketa told us about the gladiators, the women, everything that took place down there. She pointed out where the water came out for the naumachia and pointed out some of the architectural details. After awhile downstairs, we headed to the main level, but only stayed there briefly. Our final stop was the very top level of the Colosseum, directly across and up from where we had started. This area is also restricted and it was great to be able to go up there. The views of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Forum were fantastic. Personally, I thought the tour was great and would absolutely recommend it. There were a couple who said they couldn’t understand the guide, but as with our Scavi guide, I had no problem at all. I’m not sure if some of the others were expecting an American or Englishman to be giving the tour? We had a couple of guys in the group who insisted on making questionable jokes (“Have the Italians gotten any nicer since they were killing people? Don’t worry, I used to be married to one, I can say that”), but otherwise our group was wonderful. The tour lasted just a little over an hour and a half and I enjoyed every minute.

After the tour, we headed for the Forum. You guessed it - we got lost. We followed the sign we saw up a paved road uphill, only to realize that that just got us to Santa Francesca Romana. I’m pretty sure this was the point where I should have officially turned over Map Duty, but I still held on for a few more days. (I really do normally have excellent map-reading skills. Something about Rome just stole my Map Mojo!) Eventually we did get there. There was a special exhibit set up in the Forum about Nero, “Nerone,” that was really interesting - they had exhibits set up in a few different buildings which are usually closed to the public. We meandered around, looking at the arches, the Temple of Vesta and the House of the Vestal Virgins, then headed up Palatine Hill for awhile.

I will say that the Forum is probably the one place I wish I had listened to Rick Steves’s podcast or had been willing to pay a private guide. (I did start the podcast, actually, but Rick didn’t seem to start at the main entrance and I couldn’t figure out what his plan was, so I gave up.) If there’s a return trip, that’s something I’ll investigate more, along with going up Capitoline Hill and visiting that museum. The information in my Blue Guide was helpful.

After a long morning of walking, we were ravenous. I had a recommendation from Fodorite kyliebaby for a restaurant called Naumachia, near the Colosseum. (Note: the restaurant shows up with a totally different name on Google Maps, but it was the right address.) Miraculously, we found it with only one false start, and finally I was getting the Italian food I’d been excited about! M and I decided to split an antipasti of buffalo ricotta and honey. Oh. My. Word. I had never heard of this and would never have thought to put them together, but it was really one of the best things I’d ever eaten. We each got our own pasta dish; M got something with a spicy sauce that was not arrabiata, and I got cacio e pepe. YUM. I daydream about cacio e pepe now. Really. As I write I’m about to go meet friends for fish and chips, but all I really want is pasta, cooked al dente, with Parmesan cheese and olive oil and black pepper.

With two liters of water, our lunch cost about €32. We lingered, relishing the chance to rest our feet, and talked about where to go next. But first, there was a pharmacy next door, and M wanted bobby pins, so we thought we’d go check it out.

I do not believe I have yet mentioned that M is a pharmacist. She works in an academic hospital, in a very different job than the corner Walgreens, but feels a kinship with all in her profession. She was very excited about visiting an Italian pharmacy, even after we discovered that pharmacies really do just sell health-related items (i.e., no luck on the bobby pins).

We walked into the farmacia. The nice pharmacist looks up, says buon giorno. M says “Hi! I’m a pharmacist too! I just wanted to see an Italian pharmacy and see what you can get over the counter here!” Yes, M is a pharmacy nerd. The pharmacist, of course, is somewhere between bemused and befuddled. “Haha... okay, look around! <sweeping gesture>”

We look around for a couple of minutes. M decides she wants to get her picture made with the Italian pharmacist. Completely perplexed at these crazy Americans, he hesitantly comes out from behind the counter. All the while saying “Very strange... very strange,” they pose in the Awkward Handshake manner and I snap a photo with M’s camera. I really regret that I didn’t get one with mine too, because that photo is PRICELESS and knowing M, it will not see the light of day for awhile. Bless that man for being a good sport. He made our days.

How do you follow that up? San Pietro in Vincoli was our best attempt. Once again, it looked straightforward on the map, but maps are deceptive little things. I posted a picture of the arco you go through on my Flickr account in the hopes of helping others in the future. I was actually surprised at how relatively plain it was, compared to other ornate churches I’d seen.

Finished there, we headed to Santa Maria Maggiore. We got to the spot marked on the map and noticed that the church seemed awfully quiet - in fact, there was a barrier at the bottom of the steps keeping anyone from going up. Was it closed today? Very strange. M decided that we should maybe walk around to the other side... you know, just in case. Well, of course she was right once again. We Protestant girls didn’t realize that the curved part of traditional Catholic churches is usually the back. We made it in, looked around for awhile, and decided it was Gelato Hour.

I suggested we go to one of the places around the piazza in front of the church. Oh, mistake. We went to a place to the right as you exit the church, thinking we’d get a cup to go for a few euro. We started talking to the guy behind the counter, who asked if we were getting it to sit or to take away. We waffled and he said “Yes, you sit! You eat ice cream, you relax.” Okay, sounds good to us. We tell him our flavors, he attempts to teach M how to say “fragola” (M has difficulty rolling her Rs to his satisfaction), and we picked a table outside. Our gelato arrives, complete with drizzles of strawberry sauce and fancy cookies and whipped cream. We sit, we relax, we chat, we decide the fragola is yummy but the others are clearly inferior to Gelato del Teatro. We go back inside to pay the unfriendly clerk, who informs us that our gelato is six euro apiece. Six euro! Three times the cost of our beloved local gelateria. I knew it would cost more to sit and eat, but was not anticipating paying $8.50 for ice cream. So, let this be a lesson: Beware the tourist trap gelato!

We headed back to the apartment for a bit, planning to cook a light dinner in and then maybe head to Piazza Navona so I could get some nighttime photos. Our efforts were thwarted, however, when we realized that there was no lighter or matches available for our gas stove (never fear, though - there were two corkscrews). We looked everywhere but found no method of lighting the pilot light. Either previous tenants took it for their own purposes, or everyone else has always had one on them anyway (M: “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but pretty much everyone smokes here.”). Hmm. This is an issue.

Well, it’s getting dark anyway, so we head to Piazza Navona to get photos and figure we’ll stop at the Carrefour on our way. Except the Carrefour has no lighters. The tabacchis are closed. The pharmacies don’t have them either. What to do? About to give up and make a makeshift dinner out of what we can, we walk by a souvenir shop and M veers in. She heads to the cash register and hits pay dirt: M is now the proud owner of a Formula One souvenir lighter. (She graciously donated this to the apartment’s utensil drawer after realizing that she probably couldn’t get it through airport security.) We finally made our dinner, watched some Twilight dubbed in Italian (let’s be clear: this was M’s choice entirely), and crashed for the night.

Photos from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626815126794/with/5766777981/

Still laughing at your wonderful story. Also enjoying your photos. For your night shots do you use a tripod or brace your camera on a railing or some other convenient object?

You are on your way to sighing whenever you think of delicious, beautiful, quirky Italia!

TD, I think you're right!

Irishface, I don't have a tripod. For me it's not worth carrying an extra piece of equipment. But if there's a railing or something available, I'll definitely use it! I also take a lot more night shots than actually get posted.

Great trip report! Love your style of writing...makes me feel like I am right back there!

"We looked everywhere but found no method of lighting the pilot light"
Perhaps it was the typical kind that you have to turn the dial to a certain point and the automatic ignition begins to click, then the gas flame ignites, then you lower the flame--no match needed.

Thank you, camelbak!

ellenem, I thought about that. However, I've always had an electric stove and have actually never used a gas one, and M has, so she was in charge. I think the only one she's used needed a lighter, I guess? Got me.

Although actually, now that I think about it, I think she *did* try to do something along those lines. Just to make sure she gets credit for trying. But hey, a working stove would not be a very fun story.

I haven't read all of this yet, but the first part was already so helpful for our July trip to Rome that I have to bookmark it. I'll be back with questions.

So glad it's been helpful, kwren!

This part will be shorter... I keep trying to edit but it's hard.

Day 4: You Want Me To Deep Fry a What?! (Wednesday, May 11)

I wake up feeling excited. It’s cooking class day! We headed to Le Fate in Trastevere and - get this - WE DID NOT GET LOST. Not once. (It helps that there were only three streets we needed to walk down, but that had never stopped us before.) I’m feeling good and even liking this city.

Our class is scheduled to start at 10; we got there around 9:30 or so and there was already a little bit of a crowd. Someone with a key arrives about 9:45. This someone turns out to be Chef Andrea’s girlfriend/assistant, Erica, who is from Michigan. She sets up a few things and lets us in right around ten, then tells us that Chef Andrea will unfortunately be a few minutes late. Meanwhile, she gives us a little information about the class. Andrea rushes in about 10:20 or so, market bags on one arm, motorcycle helmet on the other. He sets up quickly in the kitchen and comes back out to apologize for being late.

“I was late because - have you seen the papers? Do you know what’s happening today?”
Erica: “SUPPOSED to happen today...”
Andrea: “It’s a big earthquake! So everyone was at the market, getting food to take out of town with them!”

Yes, our cooking class is running late because some long-dead seismologist predicted a big earthquake today. Hmm. Well, what better way to go than tiramisu and saltimbocca, am I right? We never felt a thing, although apparently there were tremors at some point.

Our menu today, cooked by our class of mostly Americans plus one Australian family, includes deep fried pumpkin flowers (stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella), spinach and ricotta ravioli (per special request from one of our classmates), beef saltimbocca, and tiramisu. Everything, including the wines for those who got them, is from the Lazio region of Italy (where Rome is). Andrea starts off by showing us how to prep the tiramisu, since it has to set while we finish the rest of lunch. He puts me in charge of making coffee; the poor man has no idea what he’s just done, since I rarely drink coffee and my dad, having given up on the rest of us years ago, spent my childhood drinking instant Folgers. I ask if “this” is enough coffee grounds. Andrea looks at me and says “Jennifer. How many people are here? MORE!” Oops. Coffee made to his satisfaction, M and I are put on Parmesan duty while others prep spinach. Then I’m assigned to cut tomatoes with our classmate Dave from Boston (not to be confused with Dave from Connecticut), but the two of us commit the Cardinal Sin of Tomato Sauce: We trash the juice. Do not do this. Fortunately, the sauce turned out well anyway.

Throughout the class, we chop spinach, tear basil, mash tomatoes, assemble saltimbocca, knead pasta, fill ravioli and stuff pumpkin blossoms. It was so fun and so informative, and the end results were delicious. Andrea is a great teacher, really entertaining and very personable yet straightforward. Somehow you like him even when he’s telling you your ravioli are ugly. (Ours were not, though. Ours were beautiful.)

It was also really fun to talk to some people with whom we shared a native language. It gave us a little mental break from trying to translate everything and not knowing exactly what was happening! We were fortunate to have a great, fun group of people.

We stayed at the restaurant until at least 3:30, then finally split up, M and I to head to Santa Maria in Trastevere. The mosaics there are really stunning. I’d heard the Trastevere area was a nice, non-touristy neighborhood to walk around, and I did enjoy being there. It felt more like a neighborhood than the chaotic streets across the river. We meandered back to our apartment, taking a different route from Largo Argentina that led us back by the Pantheon. A little shopping, a little wandering, then back to the apartment for an early night - we had laundry to do!

Photos from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626828764446/with/5778886307/

No editing Jen - I love the long posts! They keep me going until I return in 122 days (but whose counting!)

Please don't leave out any of the details! I love your story!

I'm with you ekc, we are now 91 days and counting.... We love every single little detail

Agree! Next...

Hey, I just did the math and it's 120 days for me! I do not think I will be able to learn Italian in 120 days but I am so excited. Keep it coming Jen, I'm loving every word of it.
CindyP.

I'm a little jealous of all of you getting to go soon! Guess I should count my blessings. Thanks again for the kind words - it helps to know people like reading the details, since I tend to share a lot.

--

Day 5: Sculpture, Shopping, Spagna - Thursday, May 12

This morning was our 11am reservation at Galleria Borghese. This looked, on the map, like the farthest we’d had to walk all week, and it was in an area we hadn’t yet been to, so we left early. This was really the day we discovered the helpfulness of the Rome2Go app - once again, no wrong turns. I REALLY wish I’d thought to use this earlier. It was a pretty long walk, but we got to the Borghese Gardens with no problem and meandered our way to the villa, with plenty of time for an apple pastry and cappucino (okay, I drink coffee in Italy, but mostly because they often don’t have decent tea) at the museum cafe. At one point I heard Maegan say “Well, hi!” I look up, and there’s Dave from Boston from our cooking class! Hi Dave. See, Chef Andrea isn’t kidding about making new friends. Dave was just leaving after his 9am reservation.

When it’s time for our own entrance, we check our bags, though they let me keep my Blue Guide (which was quite helpful, I thought). The museum also had cards in each room describing what you’re seeing.

I’m not an art connoisseur and, though I’d heard of Bernini before, wasn’t that familiar with his work. But I was completely amazed at the sculptures we saw, especially his David. The movement, the expression... now this is art I could love. The upper floors were lovely too, but my favorite part was definitely the lower floor, full of Bernini sculpture. (The upper floors have lots of paintings, including some Renaissance-era work. We walked by a group of girls looking at a Rubens piece. We overheard one of them say “<shrug> I’ve seen better paintings.” Hilarious.)

We were done at the museum around 12:30 and walked around the gardens for awhile. It really is a nice escape from the chaos - it wasn’t until we were in Trastevere the day before that I’d realized I hadn’t seen very many trees or much green space at all the past few days! We just meandered until we decided it was time for lunch, grabbing a sandwich at one of the carts in the gardens. I decided it was high time for a Coke, and didn’t realize until the guy told me how much I owed him that I was now drinking a $6 Coke. Whatever. It tasted AWESOME. (My pizza rossa did not, but I didn’t really expect much from lunch from a cart.)

After lunch the Plan was to head to Santa Maria della Vittoria and/or the Spanish Steps. Knowing the church was now closed for lunch, we decided to just meander down that way, checking things out along the way. We left the Borghese Gardens and crossed into Piazza del Popolo, then happened unknowingly onto Via del Corso, aka Shopping Mecca. I’m not too much of a shopper, but neither will I refuse an H&M (we don’t have one at home). We also found a Lush - the saleslady took one look at us and chased us down with some Dream Cream, saying “Is good for the sunburn!” (It’s possible all that sunshine at the Forum on Tuesday had left us a little worse for the wear...)

We did eventually wind our way to Santa Maria della Vittoria, where I saw yet more Bernini in the form of St. Theresa in Ecstasy. It was easy to tell what the main attraction of the church was - there was at least one tour group in there, all crowded around the sculpture!

After the church, there was more wandering and more shopping on our way to Piazza di Spagna. We got to the top of the steps in the late afternoon sun - it’s a lovely piazza. Still, it is basically just steps after all, so we didn’t feel the need to spend a ton of time there. I took some pictures and we were approached by one of the guys trying to sell us flowers. “No grazie.” “It is gift. You are beautiful. Here, it is gift.” Oh, fine, I will take the dang flower. I stuck it in my bag and M held onto hers. “Would you like me to take your picture?” Uh, no grazie. We start to walk away and he just says “Money?” Of course. We immediately hand his flowers back to him and walk off. Not a big deal, just annoying. (We didn’t really encounter anything else at all on the whole trip - no children begging, no women asking us about gold rings or anything. Just those guys selling light-up toys and flowers everywhere.)

This being our last evening in Rome, we’ve decided to have a nice dinner out somewhere. But first, gelato! Having learned our lesson on Tuesday, we head directly to Gelateria del Teatro. (Side note: I have mistakenly been calling this “Gelato del Teatro” the entire time. A small but annoying mistake. Sorry!) Oh goodness, I’m going to miss this place. This was my first encounter with Greek yogurt gelato, which pretty much rocked my world. It tasted there like cream cheese icing, but cold and better. YUM.

Back to the apartment for a bit, we went back and forth between going somewhere in our “neighborhood” for dinner (we had seen tons of restaurants along the side streets around Piazza Navona on our Tuesday Night Lighter Search) and going back to Le Fate. But Chef Andrea’s words about family restaurants and homemade pasta are very convincing, and we decided the walk was worth it. We knew it would be good food at reasonable prices, even if it was a pretty long walk.

A note on my frame of mind: It was so. much. better. You learn a lot about yourself when traveling, and one thing I’ve learned is that I’m so much more confident and relaxed when I feel like I know where I’m going and how to handle myself. I have friends, like M, blessed with the gift of rarely feeling out of place, but I definitely didn’t get that one!

By this beautiful Thursday night, walking to a place where we’d been before, I was feeling good. We walked by a group of police officers who looked straight at us. As we walked by I caught a definite “... bella...” It hit me that the more confident we felt, the more of that attention we got. The Italians seem to be a very confident people themselves. And cliche as it is, I was totally fine with it. I think it was marigross who noted that all these looks and comments from Italian men really aren’t lecherous - not like a creepy “How YOU doin’?” Just more “Well, hi there. I notice you.” Which, let’s be honest, is nice.

(I’d asked a guy friend of mine from Vicenza if Italian men really go around telling all the women “Ciao bella.” He said “eh, well, it’s mostly for the tourists.” I don’t care. It’s nice. Besides, he’s from Vicenza, not Rome, so I can pretend that in Rome it was all sincere!)

We got to Le Fate and were seated by a very friendly host, then waited on by a very friendly waiter. We’d been hoping that those amazing pumpkin blossoms we’d cooked the day before would be on the menu - hooray! They were! We got an order of those and an order of ricotta with jam to split (the ricotta was good, but we both preferred the honey we’d had at Naumachia to the jam). M got a pasta special, with zucchini and “king prawn”. I got pasta gricia, which basically was rigatoni (or something like that) with pancetta and plenty of Parmesan. Mine was awesome. M was surprised to see that “king prawn” meant “one giant shrimp, shell and all, resting on top of your pasta.” But she liked it, once she figured out how to go about eating it. (Let us recall that both M and I are from landlocked Southern states, and got most of our seafood growing up fried and unrecognizable as an animal.) The waiter brought us a couple of complimentary limoncello shots to end the meal. Holy moly. That stuff is potent. The restaurant definitely caters to students; they have a student menu every day that’s three courses and maybe even a glass of wine for a very good price - maybe ten euro? I’m not positive, but it’s cheap. There was a group of eight or nine American students next to us taking advantage of it. The restaurant just has a fun, friendly feel to it.

A nice walk back to the apartment, and our last night in Rome is basically over. I have mixed feelings - I’m ready to be somewhere more relaxed, but I’ve just started to like this place!

Pictures from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626732575445/

(note: that’s the last set of pictures I have edited, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to edit more! I’ve got after-work plans the next couple of nights. So there might be a pause button for a couple of days. Not only do I want to post pictures with each day, but it helps me remember what we did! )

Fabulous photos, jent!

I visited Rome with a pharmacist friend, too, and she happily posed next to every "Farmacia" sign we encountered.

The details are the best parts. Tell everything!

My, that shrimp was certainly a giant!

Thanks, fanshawe!

I'm still working on photos and the next section (it's been a busy week!), but had to share this. I got a text from M at 7:30 yesterday saying "I think I just saw my Swiss Guard on TV!" The Today Show was broadcasting from the Vatican.

Day 6: Wandering Venezia (Friday, May 13)

We checked out of the apartment with Alessandro at 9:15, then caught a cab to Termini for our 10:45 train (€10; thanks to the Fodorites who responded to my query about appropriate taxi fare - you made me feel much better about not getting ripped off!). We shopped a little and grabbed some lunch to take with us while we waited for our platform to show up.

I had bought our tickets thinking we’d be across a table from each other, but it turned out that we were actually on the same row but in window seats across the aisle. No biggie - we were spending a solid two weeks together, so I’m sure M was okay with not being right next to me. She sat with two Italian nonni, taking their six-year-old grandson on his first trip to their Venice time share. I sat with a family from LA, taking their 7-year-old son on a monthlong European trip and meeting his grandparents on the train in Bologna. They were all great to share a train ride with. It was really fun to hear the 7-year-old talk about his trip - he got out of school for the month, but was doing “homework” in the form of writing a page in his journal about every day they were gone.

We all got off at the end of the line: Venezia Santa Lucia. As soon as I walked out of that train station I felt more relaxed. Aaahhh. Rome, I like you a lot now that we’re friends, but as the dad from LA said on the train, “I don’t think there’s a relaxing way to do Rome.”

First order of business: Pick up the 72-hour passes I had preordered from Veniceconnected.com. (I just realized I forgot to include these in the “prebooked” list in the first post, so there you have it.) Once I figured out which number on my email was the one they wanted, picking them up was a cinch. We were headed straight to the b&b. Lorenzo, the owner, knew which train we were taking and had told us to call or text him when we got to the station, take the #42 boat, and he’d meet us at the San Zaccaria stop. M tried to text him but it didn’t go through (Lorenzo says this happens a lot with US phones) so she placed a quick call. We had a little trouble figuring out what to do with our passes - remembering the old yellow validation boxes, I headed there, but looked like an idiot trying to get my pass to go in a lot where it obviously did not fit. Fortunately another girl saw me and explained that I just needed to wave it in front of this newfangled box. No one ever checked for tickets - honestly it would be pretty easy to ride for free on the boats, I think, but they do have signs posted telling you what happens if you get caught, so maybe that’s enough of a deterrent.

We got off at San Zaccaria and Lorenzo found us. The walk from there to Ai Tagliapietra was short and only had one bridge, but I am so thankful that Lorenzo was there to show us the way. We saw SO many people wandering around with tons of luggage trying to figure out where their hotels were - we were grateful that we only had carry-ons and a Venetian to show us around!

We had the one room to the left of the front door, with a big double bed for M and a twin for me, plus a wardrobe, desk and nightstands. There was a small flat screen TV mounted in the corner (which fortunately got cable channels, since we had grown to love RealTime, essentially the Italian version of TLC). Our bathroom was huge, especially by European standards. It looked new and felt modern, with a shower, sink, toilet, bidet and shelving. In short, we were really pleased. I assume the other rooms are similar, but we didn’t see them so I’m not sure what the differences were. Lorenzo gave us a map, marked where we were, gave us a couple of restaurant suggestions and told us the best gelato in town was Gelato Fantasy. Yes, this guy is our kind of guy.

After getting settled, we headed over to Piazza San Marco on our way to find gelato. We got lost, of course, but in Venice I was expecting that, so we didn’t really get frustrated by it. Eventually we found it, on Calle dei Fabbri, and yes indeedy it was good. Different than Gelateria del Teatro; the portions were much bigger and the flavors weren’t quite as delicious, but it was still really good. (Gelateria del Teatro remains the best gelato we had on the trip. I think we got spoiled early.) We took our cup and cone back to Piazza San Marco and (unknowingly) illegally sat on a step to eat and people watch. The orchestras were starting to play; the one next to us had a Sound of Music theme going. It was a lovely evening, crowded on the piazza but not insane.

After awhile we got up and headed to the Rialto (I mean, why not knock out the two huge tourist areas in one night?). We took pictures, wandered a bit, and stalked an older couple who walked along the Grand Canal, arms around each other. One of my favorite things I saw the entire trip. We wandered more, making our way to a random campo (Campo San Aponal, as it turned out). We just sat for awhile, doing that thing people here like to call “soaking in the local culture.” Apparently we looked like we were soaked so much we actually knew what we were talking about, because an American woman dressed in a tank top and yoga pants came into the campo with her husband and headed straight toward us. Her: “Do you know where the vaporetto stop is?!” Me: “Well, no, not really, but there’s a sign pointing to the train station and I know there’s one there, so maybe head that way?” Her: “There’s a TRAIN STATION here?!” Yes. Making a good name for the rest of us. Thanks.

We had a coupon from Lorenzo for Da Mamo, near the Rialto, so we headed there for dinner. The entire staff of male waiters around our age was very happy to see us. We both got pizzas, M’s with ham, brie and eggplant, and mine a “Torcello” - mozzarella, apple and Gorgonzola (no tomato sauce). I also got some grilled vegetables, having had very few since we’d started our trip! More free limoncello from the cute, flirtatious waiters. I’m starting to wonder if this is a trend. (M was a little disappointed - she hoping we’d get the little chocolate things everyone else seemed to be getting!) We hung out for awhile, asked for our check, and the waiter with curly hair and glasses (my personal favorite, of the four or so who’d helped us) said “No.” Aw, they love us. “You finish limoncello, I bring the check.” Sorry, dude, but that is just not happening. We can’t handle that stuff.

Dark by this time, we went back to Piazza San Marco to see it lit up with the orchestras playing, then back to our room, relaxed as all getout.

Pictures from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626879961910/

Hi jent,

so sorry I've only just found your TR after you've left Rome! your apartment isn't far from the one we stayed in last year, so we must have walked through that little square at least a dozen times. did you even use the bar in the corner - they did a good cornetto and cappuccino for breakfast, and weren't at all phased when i went in on our first night and asked them to sell me a litre of milk.

incidentally, [and I know it's too late for you this trip, but it might help next time] the amount of prosciutto you wanted was "un etto" which is 100gr.

anyway, thanks for the credit [not sure how i helped, but I'm glad that I did] and for the TR - keep it coming.

Ah, Gelato Fantasy! Yes, that was it (couldn't remember the name). It was at the "intersection" where we turned to Campo San Gallo, where our gate was.

Love your photos. And I'm envious you were able to be in Venice in a non-jet-lagged state.

BTW - if you think that €6 was a lot to pay for a gelato, the local paper for where i was staying in southern tuscany had an article about 2 german tourists being charged €20 each for gelati. As I was en route to Florence that worried me a bit, but in fact, i managed to find a place near where I was staying that charged €1.50 for 2 scoops - which struck me as a bargain.

elnap, I wondered when I read your report! I think Venice would have seemed even more surreal while jet lagged.

annhig, we pretty much ate cereal and toast with Nutella in the morning - didn't think about going to the bar for a cornetto! My loss. We got so spoiled with Gelateria del Teatro - anything over €3 would have felt like a ripoff, but paying $8.50 US for a little cup of ice cream that wasn't even that good? I felt like we got had. Glad I'm not those German tourists, though!

PS - annhig, your sayiing "un etto" turns on a huge light bulb. I think that's what grumpy deli man was saying when I first said "un meta"!

Hi

I'm enjoying this even more, now that you're in Venice.The photos are great.

I hope you won't mind a wee comment on a couple of your photos. The church you have labelled "Santi Apostoli", is, I reckon, San Giocomo di Rialto. The clock faces on these churches are quite similar.

Oops, that should be "Giacomo"

Oh, thanks, Yvonne! I took a picture of the sign and it says San Giacomo Apostolo (so I would have been wrong anyway - not sure where I got Santi Apostoli!), but judging by Google I guess it's usually called what you said? I'll correct it.

No worries. Maybe you got to SS Apostoli, in Cannaregio, later on? Cheers.

annhig, we pretty much ate cereal and toast with Nutella in the morning - didn't think about going to the bar for a cornet! >>

oh no...i obviously wasn't that much help then. this is one of my and my family's favourite things to do in Italy. On out first stay in Rome, DS just loved going over to the cafe opposite our apartment and buying our breakfast - all without a word of italian. We were happy for him to do it too, as there were 89 steps back up to the apartment front door!.

seriously, my advice to all apartment dwellers [and those in hotels where breakfast is not included] is to find a nice little bar nearby, make sure that the coffee and pastries are to your liking, and adopt it as your breakfast venue. They will soon get to know you and greet you as you come in through the door. if they don't, find somewhere else!

ref the prosciutto, your poor deli counter man was trying to help you. if you'd wanted more, for example half a pound, you could have asked for "due etti" but that's quite a lot of prosciutto! better luck next time!

The deli man's general attitude was not one of helpfulness (from my first entrance into the deli area to the time I left - he looked like he'd rather be doing anything else other than slicing meat for people). But I'm sure he was trying to tell me what normal people do, and that certainly would have been helpful if I'd realized it.

Every morning we had somewhere to be at a specific time, especially that first day when we were still getting over jet lag and didn't know where we were going, so it was just easier to grab something and go. (We definitely enjoyed the cornetti in Venice and Lake Como, though!)

What a great trip you and M had! It makes for a delightful report too.

What lenses did you take?

Great report - we're planning a return trip for next spring!

suz, thanks! I'm already plotting a return.

Leely, I just took one lens, and best I can tell it's this one. I bought the whole setup from my brother when he upgraded, so I didn't do the research personally and don't know enough to compare one vs. another. But I've had this one for two years and have never felt a need for another one, for general amateur photos. I did have a polarizer on it most of the time.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-17-85mm-4-5-6-Stabilized-Digital/dp/B0002Y5WXO

Hub always felt so bad that the "do not" signs are in English!

Sweet pix of the older couple.

Loving this report.

Still enjoying your adventures and your pictures.

I am enjoying your trip report so much! We are doing many of the same locations next April, also renting an apartment in Rome and staying at a B&B in Venice. Looking forward to reading the rest!

Thanks for taking the time to write this and share it!

Jen, your trip report is a fun read and provides good info for my up-coming trip to Italy this Fall. Also, your photos are great! Thanks for posting!

Thanks, y'all, and janetd, I'm so glad it's been helpful! I"ve had a "friend-family" emergency come up the last couple of days, but am hoping that tomorrow will be calm enough to edit some photos and write a bit more.

TDudette, I felt the same way your husband did - I couldn't help but notice that all those signs were often only in English! And that couple is still one of my favorite things that we saw. I still wonder whether they live in Venice, or visit there often - they looked too relaxed and at home for it to be their first trip.

Day 7: Burano, Murano, and Squid (Saturday, May 14)

Breakfast at Ai Tagliapietra doesn’t start till 8:30. Have I, a non-morning person, mentioned that I love it here? We each have a cornetto, a roll, and blood orange juice, with coffee for M and tea for me (he has tea!). Lorenzo offers us cereal and yogurt too.

M and I looked at the weather and, though we just got to Venice the night before, we figured that if we’re going to go to the outer islands, we should do so during today’s lovely weather rather than the heavy rain predicted tomorrow. Lorenzo tells us the best way to walk to the vaporetto stop on Fondamente Nuove to catch the FN line to Burano and Murano. We meander up there after breakfast, enjoying the quiet of Venice away from San Marco.

We head to Burano first, which is a pretty dang long ride. We get there and, in sort of a “well, what now?” fashion, just start walking. We get to a canal and head right, stopping at a shop where we met the one and only person we encountered who did not speak English. I’m assuming she was the owner of the shop and saw us looking at the scarves outside. She came over to help us decide, and we had a fun time trying to communicate that I wasn’t looking for a scarf for me, but for the redheaded friend keeping an eye on my house while I was gone!

A little more shopping, then we wandered toward the church and what I guess is the main part of the town. As a knitter, I was interested in the lace museum, but it was closed for renovations. Eventually we got hungry, but we weren’t in the mood for a restaurant meal. Honestly, I was in the mood for something... not Italian. So we stopped by a random pizza/sandwich shop near the main piazza and got sandwiches and chips. Yum. Burano was really fun to walk around - I liked the colorful houses and small-town-(albeit-packed-with-tourists-in-spots) vibe.

After lunch we headed to Murano, which honestly felt like a little bit of a disappointment after Burano. It was nice, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. I was hoping to see some glass actually being blown, but we went in a couple of furnaces and it didn’t seem like that was an option. (I had a friend tell me later that usually the people at the furnace shops invite you back, but I didn’t realize how that worked - more failure in research on my part! - and none of the two or three we went in made any move to invite anyone in the shop back to the furnace.) We headed back to Venice around 4ish, nearly getting on the wrong vaporetto and heading back to Burano! I figured out we were on the wrong boat just in the nick of time. That would have been a loooong ride. Torcello was on my “maybe” list but we didn’t make it out there - next time!

We went back to the room to regroup for a bit, then headed to the Campanile, since if we were going to “climb” it, today was the day. The line was quite long, but they were still going to be open for awhile, so we went and got gelato and came back. The elevator ride to the top (climbing the stairs didn’t really seem to be an option) is €8. We stayed up there for probably half an hour or so, looking all around at Venice in the late afternoon sun.

Saturday night and it’s time for dinner. Nono Risorto was on my List O’ Restaurants and sounded like a good place to try, so we headed that direction. After a few false starts, we found it. I really liked it - it felt like a local place, which seems like it would be tough to do in Venice! It was literally the only menu we saw in our wandering that did not have an English version. We figured this was a good sign, although it led to some adventurous food choices. The staff were polite, helpful and quite busy - we got there just after 7, I think, and didn’t have to wait, but by the time we left there was a line out the door.

We looked at the menu for awhile and decided to each get one of the two set menus they had that night. M’s, for €15, had penne with pomodoro or bolognese as the primi, and bresaola as the main (though neither one of us had any idea what that was at this point). Mine, €17, was a complete mystery - spaghetti “al Nono” (or something like that), and “seppie con polenta.” Well, I know “polenta,” at least. I asked the waitress if she knew what “seppie” was in English. “Cuttlefish!” “Hmm,” I think. “I’m pretty sure that’s British for squid. And I think that Venice is the place where you get that dish with the squid ink. Well, why not be adventurous and see what I get?”

M’s penne with pomodoro was good, and my spaghetti al Nono was quite good - turned out to be spaghetti with a tomato-y sauce (though I could taste some mussel broth or something along those lines in the sauce as well), with mussels lined up along the perimeter of the dish. Next up were the mains. M really enjoyed her bresaola. My seppie... well, it was definitely an adventure! My plate contained a side of white grilled polenta and a pile of black liquid with meaty chunks. Yep, this is it. The taste, especially for someone like me who’s not crazy about seafood, was okay - I ate about 2/3 of it. It was hard for me, a certified picky eater, to get past the black sauce, though! Once our dinners were done, I decided I was glad I’d tried it once, but I haven’t craved it now that I’m home or anything. A cultural experience!

More meandering back to the b&b and some relaxation before bed.

Pictures from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626886955694/

Glad you liked Al Nono Risorto. Congratulations on braving the seppie experiment. When I traveled with my young-adult niece to Venice, at one meal I ordered linguini alla seppie—replace the polenta in your dish with linguini. When my dish arrived, my niece who had patiently tried many new foods on this trip exclaimed, "I'm sorry, Aunt Ellenem, but it looks like they dropped your pasta in the dirt and put it on your plate." To each her own.

ellenem, I think your niece and I might be kindred spirits. It's so funny how differently foods are perceived. I posted an iPod photo of that dish on my Facebook page, and most of the comments were along the lines of "holy moley what IS that?? That looks digusting!" But I have two friends from northern Italy, and they both posted about how awesome the dish is and how one of them craves it as comfort food. (Meanwhile, of course, I'm from the South, where we traditionally eat all kinds of things...)

I must say, I would have to think long and hard before I tried the squid 'n ink!

I would like to give a special thanks to jent103! I am definitely going to sign up on kayak.com so I can receive an alert about ticket prices. I like the idea of setting a price for myself then going for it and not looking back. Definitely, under a $1000 per person is what I will be going for. My DH & I went to Paris in October 2008, our first trip to Europe, and paid $900 a piece. Also, I just finished reading your trip report and I am LOVING it! I can't wait for you to post more. You & I are a lot alike in our planning and travel styles. It's funny because my DH is like M...he is very laid-back. I am enjoying your report!
*I will post the same message on your trip report in case you don't check back on my original post.

jent - your description of the seppia dish made me smile. my normally picky DS fell in love with spaghetti con seppia on his first meal in Venice, and after that would always pick the dish with the seppia in it, leading to many walks home with black teeth!

BTW - the english for seppia is actually cuttlefish - squid is a different species.

louistraveler5, so glad you're enjoying it!

annhig, I always learn something from you. I didn't know if "cuttlefish/squid" was one of those "cookie/biscuit" things, but it gave me the gist!

--

Day 8: Rainin’ on Sunday (Sunday, May 15)

(apologies to my fellow Nashvillian Keith Urban for the title)

According to Lorenzo, we had summer on Saturday, but now on Sunday... we get winter. The temperature might have gotten to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. We really couldn’t complain, though - this would turn out to be the only day of bad weather we had on the trip! We ate breakfast with everyone else staying at Ai Tagliapietra, this time taking Lorenzo up on that yogurt, and then headed to the Doge’s Palace along with everyone else in town. We waited in line for awhile, but it really wasn’t terrible, and the wait let me take some pictures of the pouring rain from under cover.

The Doge’s Palace was actually even more interesting than I was expecting. I didn’t know much about Venetian history, so I learned quite a bit about the role of the doge and setup of Venice at its wealthiest. We tried to follow the signs, despite my oft proven talent for accidentally going backwards through museums, and managed to see just about everything in its proper order! We ate lunch in the cafe downstairs - sandwich for M and tuna insalate for me.

Our tickets to the Doge’s Palace included entrance to Museo de Correr, and my Venice2Go app made it sound pretty interesting, so we headed across the piazza. It was interesting, although if it hadn’t been raining and “free” entry, I’m not sure I’d put it at the top of my Venice to-do list. Under the circumstances it was a good use of time, though.

After the museum, we wandered back through Piazza San Marco, still in the pouring rain. “M,” I said, “what I really want is tea and a scone. But we are in Italy.” “Well,” said M, “Lorenzo has tea and he said we could make it whenever we want.” “That’s true. Let’s go back for awhile.” So we walked. On the way we passed Pasticceria Canonico - perfetto! I got a scone-like thing with chocolate in it, plus a huge shortbread cookie with chocolate in the middle for later. M got some sort of scone-like thing with powdered sugar. We made ourselves at home in Lorenzo’s little kitchen and relaxed in our room awhile.

Still on my list to see were Santa Maria della Salute and the Frari church. Realistically we could only do one today, so I did the best I could to find opening hours online. I found one site that said Salute was open till 6:30pm, so we dilly-dallyed (as seemed fitting on this cool rainy day) and eventually left the b&b in search of it. We walked through Venice to Ponte dell’Accademia and meandered through Dorsoduro, stopping in a couple of glass shops. But when we got to Salute around 6pm, we discovered that it had in fact closed at 5:30! Well, poop. Oh well. Yet another reason to return...

Normally we would have walked back to Accademia and back to San Marco, but M spotted the Salute vaporetto stop and pointed out, quite correctly, that we might as well take the boat even if it was just one stop - have to get our money’s worth out of these 72-hour passes, after all! And we did, just barely. If we hadn’t visited the islands on Saturday, I’m not sure they would have made financial sense for us, but it turned out we barely “broke even” over our stay.

At this point, I confess without shame or remorse: We went to Hard Rock for dinner.

It’s true. After trying my squid and her bresaola the night before, and after a steady diet of Italian lunches and dinners, M said, “We might need a hamburger.” I agreed. And we agreed that we should get said burger now, before we got to Lake Como where there was very little chance of finding a good one. So we went to Hard Rock. Amazingly, on a Sunday night in shoulder season, we had to wait 15 minutes for a table. And I will tell you, that was a dang good burger.

After those yummy burgers and fries, we moseyed back to Piazza San Marco to head back to Ai Tagliapietra. We walked into the square and into an American tour group, who seemed to have just arrived in town. We were negotiating our way around them when we heard several yelling “Oh my goodness! It’s a rainbow!!!” We look up, and sure enough, there’s a perfect rainbow arcing from St. Mark’s up to the Campanile. Perfect. I scrambled for my camera and managed to catch it; it was gone after two minutes. What a great end to a dreary weather day!

Pictures from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626794846363/

jent...I've had those hamburger cravings when I travel too. And when we were in Alaska I was jonesing for pizza and couldn't find anything but big franchises, and I don't like them.
Great report so far! Thank you
CindyP.

This is great!!! I'm printing this to read on the plane

So glad you're enjoying it, tony! A few more days to come when I get photos edited, from Venice/Bellagio/Milan.

Cindy, thanks for understanding! That Hard Rock experience really came at the right time... though we had to convince our waitress that Tennessee was not, in fact, Texas. We drew her a map.

Hub usually had a mac attack. He tried to sneak in just in case someone we knew saw him eating at McD's in Rome or Paris. LOL.

I would have liked the seppia better if I didn't know what it was. Not too bad tasting, eh?

More great shots!

Is this a total coincidence or what? I was in Venice, and went to the Doges palace, on that exact same day! I was reading your account thinking, this sort of weather must occur frequently in Venice.....then I looked at the date! WOW, we totally could have walked right past each other not even knowing.... Not that I actually know you.....but it's interesting, don't you think? I was with a tour group and we all had green umbrellas, wonder if you saw us? Golly it was wet and cold that day! It was almost as freezing inside the Doges Palace as it was outside, and I, thinking the weather would be nice, hadn't brought my raincoat with me that day, had to sprint back to the hotel for it and then try to find the group in the crowds after visiting Doges. Spent the rest of the day on Murano ( and they did actually demonstrate glass blowing ) and Burano ( had a delicious seafood lunch there ), and went to a Baroque concert in the evening. I'll share the whole story in my trip report, which is still in progress, it's called 5 weeks in Europe with my Grandmother, the Report. Just in case you are interested in reading it. Love reading about your experiences

jent - will you forgive me if I impart some more information?

rather than queue to climb the campanile in san marco, you could have used your vaporetto passes to visit the island and church of san giorgio where there is another campanile which rarely if ever has a queue.

perhaps that is something to do on your next visit?- along with a trip to Torcello which is just beautiful. I loved the notice I saw in a corner of the Basilica - that it was LAST renovated in about the 12th century. and the views from the boat of snow on the dolomites as we left were stunning.

more excuses, if you need them, to return, I think.

jent103 - I am loving this report! Bikerscott was also overwhelmed on our first trip to Rome! Cant wait to hear more!!!

Loving the photos btw!!!!

I am enjoying your report. Your sense of wonder and ability to laugh about goof ups such as getting to Salute too late make it a fun read. I also love your photos--great job with the rainbow!

I completely understand about the Hard Rock--if I had seen it when I was there, I think I might have popped in. I was getting a real hankering for a hamburger about the time we got to Venice.

Thanks for sharing; we are all waiting for the next days and photos!

Ten years ago, on our first Italy trip, it rained one of our 4 days in Venice. But when we got home and I looked at my pictures (OMG, this was BEFORE digital!) I was amazed to see how gorgeous everything looked even on that rainy day. I love your rain pic, too

irishwhistler, that is crazy! I didn't notice a tour group of green umbrellas, but there were a lot of umbrellas that day!

annhig, my list of reasons to return to Venice is pretty long! Some of our breakfast-mates at Ai Tagliapietra actually suggested San Giorgio to us as well, and I would love to do that. However, by the time we got back from the islands, it was late afternoon, and we weren't sure how late the San Giorgio campanile was open. The one in San Marco was close enough where we could walk by and check the hours (I think it was open until 8pm). When we saw the queue, we got gelato and came back, and by that time we really only had to wait ten or fifteen minutes. Not bad.

jamikins - thanks! Reading your report/photos has made me think about France... but I still have lots to see in Italy. Decisions, decisions.

Irishface & uhoh, thanks! I figure there's no point in blaming someone else (sacred-destinations.com, cough cough) or kicking myself for things like that. Life's more pleasant that way. Plus it makes for better stories sometimes!

Hopefully more photos edited today... gotta mow the lawn and clean the kitchen and knit a baby a dinosaur first, though!

I really enjoyed hearing about your stay in Rome and Venice. We are heading to both places in 3 weeks as well as visiting Florence. Viewing your pictures has really gotten me excited about going! Thanks for your insight and tips. We will be sure to visit Gelateria del Teatro!

Realy enjoying your report, The lovers picture , was a classic for me

Im really enjoying your Rome-Venice report! My husband and I will be there in October. and your pictures are amazing and makes me rethink my little digital camera for our trip in October... and I am definitely looking into the cooking class! and Rome2Go app! I looking forward to your next post...

Traveler, I'm a little jealous that you get to go so soon! Have some tartufo e Greek yogurt for me.

jean253, I really do love that picture. Thank you!

monkeybutt - ask and ye shall receive. (Also, if you want to compare pictures from a point & shoot vs. the SLR, here's a link to photos from M's and my last big trip in 2007. These were all taken with a Canon point & shoot, whereas this Italy trip I took a Canon Rebel SLR. Photo editing covers a multitude of sins too! Thank you for the compliment.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/collections/72157600396057506/ )

--

Day 9: We’re On a Boat! And Another Boat! (Monday, May 16)

Of course after the dreary weather Sunday, Monday morning was perfectly sunny. Sad to leave, we said goodbye to Lorenzo and got our first (and only) Italian air kisses. (M said for the rest of the trip that it is a major regret of her life that we did not get a picture with Lorenzo. She told me: “You should write nice things about Lorenzo. He’s my favorite.”)

We still hadn’t done the ride down the Grand Canal, and our train to Milan wasn’t until 12:50, so we took the slow line all the way from San Zaccaria to the station. What a leisurely way to say goodbye to Venice! We got to the train station with over an hour to spare, so we walked down the street which Google Maps does not want to identify but which juts out northeast from the train station. We did a little more souvenir shopping (Me: “This is per mi mamma.” Guy at Il Doge souvenir stand: “Is of the highest quality!” Me, internally: “For €9? Oh, I’m SURE it is.”). On the way back to the station, we swung by Brek to pick up some bresaola sandwiches for the train ride. (See? Now we’re back to Italian food!) M was hungry and went ahead and ate her sandwich once we got to the station. (M: “I’m kind of in love with this sandwich.” Me: “Yeah, you look like you’re in an Audrey Hepburn movie.”) We also found the first restrooms we’d had to pay for on the trip. No freebies in Venice! Finally our platform came up, so we joined the masses heading to Milan.

We found what we were pretty sure was our car, then found our seats, then realized that the only two people on the same car were two Italian gentlemen probably around 75 years old. Hmm. In these sorts of situations, I get a little nervous when I’m not where everyone else is. We’ve already gotten on the vaporetto going the wrong way and narrowly avoided causing traffic jams in the Doge’s Palace by going through the museum backwards, and that’s not to mention our map snafus in Rome. It is not out of the realm of possibility that we are on the wrong train altogether.

So I show my ticket to the nice-looking gentleman across from me, trying to ask if the ticket and train match up. He looks at me like, “Um, I have no idea what you are trying to say to or ask me.” Oops. Only the second Italian we’ve met who couldn’t speak better English than I can, and I’m asking for his help! Fortunately, his friend figures out what’s going on and checks my ticket. Yep, we’re in the right place, and though the entire car is empty except for our table, our assigned seats are right across from these lovely men. Well, so far they’re nice and helpful. And they continue to be, despite taking more of the under-the-table leg room than M really thought reasonable, but those are small issues. More people get on as the train rolls on to Milan.

We have about an hour before our train to Varenna, and much to my surprise, the train was at the platform around 30-40 minutes before it was scheduled to leave! Since most of my (admittedly limited) experience with Italian trains involves waiting for the platform to be announced and rushing to the right car with a few minutes to spare, this makes me nervous. It appeared to be the right train, but I was antsy all the way to Lecco until I was sure we were going the right way!

After getting off at the tiny Varenna train station, we made our way down the hill, following signs to the ferry. At the bottom the path stopped at a lakeside restaurant/cafe. We were a little perplexed. Fortunately a couple of people enjoying a beverage saw us looking around, called out “Ferry?”, and pointed to the left. Thanks, y’all. We walked up to the ticket counter and I asked for a ticket to Bellagio. €3.70 and twenty minutes, the agent said. M walked up and asked for the same, at which point the ticket man said “BELLagio? o MENaggio??” We clarified. “Bellagio NOW!” he said, pointing behind him. Off we ran to the car ferry about to leave. We grabbed a bench downstairs and looked out at this gorgeous lake on this gorgeous day as the boat sailed off to BELLagio.

Our original plan had actually been to stay at Orange House b&b in Varenna. However, a few weeks earlier, I had gotten an email from them saying that, due to a “temporary but serious” health problem of one of the owners, they unfortunately needed to cancel our reservation. One of the drawbacks of booking a very small b&b, I suppose, and I do hope the owner is okay. On my end, this obviously caused a lot of last-minute web searches and Fodor’s posting, and we eventually booked with Hotel Centrale in Bellagio. For us, I think this actually worked out well, with the exception of the fact that our previously very inexpensive three nights were now some of our most expensive three nights. We were there in mid-May, which seemed like the very beginning of the season, so neither town was very busy at all. But Varenna seemed VERY quiet when we were there, whereas Bellagio was pretty quiet.

Hotel Centrale had asked us to call if we would be later than 6pm checking in, which we would be by a smidge, so we had called them from the Milan train station or somewhere. Since M had had to call our apartment owner in Rome in jet-lagged stupor, she informed me that it was my turn to talk to the hotel staff. Checking in a little late was no problem, so I asked for directions from the ferry. Something about up the hill and left. All righty. The only problem is that in Bellagio, there are quite a few ways to go uphill. After some standing around and looking, I left M at the shops on the lake with our luggage and went in search of the hotel. We packed light, but not light enough to want to lug suitcases up the steps of Salita Serbelloni unnecessarily! Though that’s exactly what we did, once I found the hotel.

We settled in and asked the very nice young man downstairs for restaurant recommendations. Trattoria San Giacomo was at the top of his list - “I have never had a guest be disappointed.” According to him, the wine bar across the street is owned by the wife of the trattoria owner, and the best pizza in town is down by the lake, where the chef is actually from somewhere near Naples. Perfect. For tonight, we head to Trattoria San Giacomo. We got there around 7:30 and had no problems getting a table, though we were indoors instead of at one of the outdoor tables. All the other customers we overheard at that hour were fellow Americans - I’m not sure how the clientele changes in Bellagio once it gets later! We were also the youngest by quite a few years, but again, whether that was the time or the town, I’m not sure.

Our food was good. I started with pasta e fagioli and had a local dish, perch with rice in sage and brown butter sauce. The soup was great, as was the perch; the rice tasted good, but it was a little rich for me, so I didn’t eat a lot. M got fusilli with pesto, and we split a torta di mele. After dinner we walked around town, mostly down by the lake, then headed back to our room to use the shaky wifi to look up some hikes for the next day.

Pictures from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626948272088/

jent - i don't understand how they allocate seat reservations either!

when i reserved my seat on the frecciabianca from orbetello to pisa, when i got on the train i found that they had stuck me in the corner of a carriage facing backwards, sat right next to someone else i didn't know, who had also reserved a seat.

there were some perfectly good facing forward seats with tables going spare so i moved to one of those. They probably just lumped all the reservations together on your train too.

Nothing to stop you moving so long as the seat you move to is not reserved for your part of the journey.

I laughed out loud at the picture of the "party bus"...

annhig, I did think about moving. But I figured more people would be getting on at later stops, and I didn't want to deal with moving back once I was all settled somewhere! I had socks to knit, after all. It is weird how the seats are allocated. Maybe there's a secret code or something.

uhoh, you know the #1 vaporetto is ALWAYS the party boat.

>>>jent - i don't understand how they allocate seat reservations either!<<<

Trenitalia doesn't make it easy to find, but you can actually select your seats from a seating chart for the fast trains if you book on the right area of their website (just like selecting seats on planes online). Do a walk through and be sure to click the box "select your seat". It's a bit quirky so you must spell the cities exactly the way they want (watch the autofill and copy the one you want).

http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=1d85c6b9455c2210VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

ky - lacking wifi in my hotel in orbetello, I had to buy my ticket at the station, and it didn't occur to me to ask about the seat reservation. - not sure my italian would have been up to that, even at the end of my week's italian course.

thanks for the link - next time.

kybourbon, that's a great link! I'll definitely file it away for the next trip.

Ah, the joys of travel!

Enjoying this post. Headed for Italy in Aug/Sept and taking notes.

Thanks, ifnotnow! Should have another installment posted tomorrow. Darn life has been getting in the way.

Day 10: Take a Hike (Tuesday, May 17)

Another hotel where breakfast doesn’t even start till 8:30. I love Italy. We went downstairs and another young man - the brother of the one we talked to the night before, turns out - seated us and asked us for drink orders. M got a cappuccino, which arrived at our table with an adorable little cocoa heart. Who knows if that was typical practice or just for M (I have my guesses ), but we were both getting used to attention from Italian men. Our beverages, both decorated and undecorated, came with a selection of rolls, cornetti, fruit, yogurt and cereals.

Neither of us are huge outdoors people, but we like to do some easy/moderate hiking of the “very well designated trails” variety. I knew that there was a walk up to Castello di Vezio above Varenna, and we had found a web page that talked about a hike to the church of San Martino, near Griante. That particular hike sounded like kids did it, so surely it’s not THAT hard, but a) we’d seen the church from across the lake the night before, hanging out by itself on a cliff, and b) given our previous luck with finding things, I was afraid we’d get to Cadenabbia and there would be no signs or we’d end up wandering around all day trying to figure out where to go. So we headed to Varenna and Castello di Vezio.

In retrospect I was so glad that we went hiking that morning, because it ended up being the only non-hazy time we had at the lake. From the ferry dock, we wandered till we found one of the directional signs, then headed uphill. Way uphill. We passed a random cat who stared at us and a sign posted, I’m guessing, by a family who was tired of hikers wandering down their driveway looking for the castle!

We bought our tickets at the cafe-slash-ticket office, then made our way past the owl and up to the base of the castle. The views here really are fantastic. We just hung out for awhile, checking out the hawks and the two exhibits inside the castle tower. At the top of the tower, we met a very nice man who is actually from Varenna - he said he and his wife winter in Como, but both work at one of the hotels in Bellagio in the summers and stay in his mother’s home in Varenna then. He had the day off and decided to come to the castle. We chatted for awhile, and he suggested we take a different route back downhill to town, past the cemetery and taking a detour to Fiumelatte. So we did!

I had been expecting a paved-ish trail like the one from the ferry, but this was a dirt hiking trail. So that was fun to get down those steep hills on. Eventually we made it to the cemetery, then to a “suburb” of Varenna (or so it seemed) and to Fiumelatte, the shortest river in Italy. There’s a little bridge over the river where we took photos, then we went uphill, following another sign that said “sorgente ->”. After a few minutes, we found a hole in the rock that was framed out and figured that’s what the sign was talking about.

We decided to have a nice lunch somewhere in Varenna, then eat a lighter dinner at the wine bar recommended to us the night before in Bellagio. We ended up at Albergo del Sole, eating lunch under the tents on their patio. We split grilled vegetables “fondue” - just in case anyone else was unaware, apparently here this means “grilled vegetables covered in melted cheese slices,” not “vegetables you dunk in liquid cheese.” Either way, cheese and vegetables are involved. I then had walnut ravioli (yum), and M broke her “don’t order lasagna in restaurants because it’s not as good as Mom’s” rule.

After lunch, we followed the signs for “gelato artiginale.” Sounded like a no-brainer to us. I don’t remember exactly which gelato shop we ended up at, but I really think Gelateria del Teatro spoiled us for the rest of the trip. Nothing else even compared. Still, can’t complain, right? The gelateria was just a couple of doors down from a shop full of silk clothes and accessories, where I got my favorite souvenir of the trip: a mostly black silk scarf with threads of yellow, red, pink and green running through it. We saw it before our gelato stop, and I debated for awhile, but decided if I was still thinking about it after we ate, I’d go back and get it. And I was. So I did. I still love it.

We meandered back to the ferry and back to Bellagio, then spent a couple of hours relaxing in our hotel. Our trip had gone from gogogosomuchtoseegogogogogo in Rome, to a more relaxed itinerary in Venice, to now the most relaxing few days of the trip. I really liked having things in this order - I needed to go home relaxed, not stressed! Around 8:30, we decided we were hungry and headed for the wine bar, only to discover that it was closed on Tuesdays. Oops. Well, didn’t the nice hotel guy say the best pizza in town was down by the lake? Sounds good to us. So we had pizza at Carillon by the lake, and it was indeed good.

Pictures from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626993571890/

Thanks for sharing your pics. Bellagio was on our original itinerary for our recent trip, but we had to drop it due to time constraints. Sounds like a lovely time (we love hiking) and this area is on our definite list for next time. It does indeed sound like a relaxing place.

elnap, it basically defines relaxation, I think. Actually for that reason, I have mixed feelings about going again. One of our observations from this part of the trip was that "it doesn't seem like people come here to do things. It seems like they come here to sit and drink wine and look at the lake." It was actually harder to find information on hikes than I anticipated. Castello di Vezio was the walk that was mentioned the most, but really if you're into big hiking, it's no big deal. The whole way up is cobblestoned, if I remember correctly. There is information on other hikes and walks, but it definitely didn't feel like that was the main focus of the region, if that makes sense. (I went to the Banff/Lake Louise area in Canada last year, and it was completely different - in that part of the world, you can't walk anywhere without seeing a hiking trail, it felt like!)

It is a beautiful, beautiful place and I'm really glad I saw it. And the relaxation came at a perfect time for us - as the last leg of a busy trip, it was great. But I wouldn't (personally) plan a trip just to Lake Como, probably. Two full days was about right for us. But there are lots of other people who love it and would spend weeks there.

Day 11: Lazy Day Around the Lake (Wednesday, May 18)

So the night before, M had said she’d like to go see one of the villas around the lake. Me: “M, which villa would you like to go to?” M: “The one with George Clooney in it.” Alas, they don’t really tell you which one that is in the guidebooks. So after another breakfast and heart-decorated cappuccino, we headed for the ferry and bought the combination tickets for the day ferry pass and Villa Carlotta.

The botanical gardens at the villa were so pretty - I’ve been to several in various places, but hadn’t seen an orange grove or so much hibiscus. M’s parents own a greenhouse in her hometown, so she was into it too. The house itself was interesting - I liked seeing the family’s furniture in some of the rooms, rather than every room housing only art.

After a few hours at the villa, we looked at the ferry schedule and realized the next ferry wasn’t for quite awhile, so we headed down to Tremezzo for lunch. We looked at a few places and ended up at one of the lakeside restaurants, where we were literally the only customers for awhile. Eventually an American couple sat down a couple of tables over. I had tuna insalate, M had gnocchi bolognese. We looked at the lake. Yes, this place is definitely relaxing. Until, of course, the restaurant sound system started playing Rihanna and Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. I’m telling you, there is almost nowhere in this world one can escape from those three.

We hadn’t yet been to Menaggio, so that was on the agenda for after lunch. Back at the ferry dock, we started to get on the boat that, per the schedule, was headed to Menaggio, but the ferry man held up his hand and said “Two minutes.” Okay. Whatever. We had learned to trust the ferry men at this point. True to his word, another boat came up to the dock two minutes later, and we were off.

Menaggio felt more like a real populated, less touristy town than Bellagio, though there were still plenty of tourists around. We got some gelato, though I was really gelato-ed out at this point (the horror!). We walked up a street to San Stefano, down another street and saw a yarn shop, which excited me. However, when we walked in, there was only one wall of yarn and the rest seemed to be lingerie or something. Interesting combination. We heard a man very carefully ask the shopkeeper “Quanto costa, signora?”, to which she replied, “Five euros.” That was pretty much the response I’d gotten nearly every time I tried to use Italian - “that’s nice and all, but clearly both our lives will be easier if I just speak English to you.” A little more wandering and a stop by Benetton for M, and we slowly headed back to the ferry. We could see storm clouds brewing over Varenna, but we never got rained on at all.

Back in Bellagio, we wandered through some shops along the lake, then back to the hotel to hang out for awhile. Around 8:30 we decided we should probably go eat dinner, so it was back to Salita Serbelloni and the wine bar we’d tried to visit the night before. It was a very cool, fun place - it felt more modern than most things we’d seen in the area, with banquettes and wine coolers. We sat in the back beside the “wine cave” (not the official name for it, probably, but that’s what it looked like). They had a decently large menu of pastas, starters and a few mains - good for a light dinner. I got lasagna and don’t remember what M had, but we both enjoyed it. What we enjoyed more was our dining companions. There were two British women in the corner. A man (I believe Italian) came in with some friends and, while looking over the wine list, spontaneously broke into song. The British women started giggling at him (I mean, who wouldn’t). His response:

“Music is my passion. After large, gentle women, music is my greatest passion.”

Pictures from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157627022088652/

Now THAT is memorable!

I created an account here specifically to comment and tell you how much I appreciated/enjoyed your review. I'm about your age and will be spending 12 days in Italy on my honeymoon in September. We'll be in Venice, Florence, Sorrento and Rome, so your descriptions and pictures of Venice and Rome in particular were extremely helpful to me (and made me even more excited than I already was). Thanks for sharing!

erries, thank you so much! I'm so glad. Congratulations on your wedding and I hope you have a wonderful time on your honeymoon!

I've loving this report! You take wonderful photos. It's cool that you seem very versatile with your photos: grand scenery, small details, and quirky funny things, too.

Thank you so much, SelfPropelled! I do like taking them.

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Last installment...

Day 12: The Ferry to the Train to Milan to the Plane (Thursday, May 19)

One last breakfast at Hotel Centrale. Two more cappuccinos with hearts for M. We settled up at the front desk (they split our bill in half and put it on two credit cards, no problem), then asked the brother on duty if there was a ticket machine at the Varenna train station, since upon our arrival it looked like the tiniest train station I’d ever been in. His reply:

“Absolutely not! You take the ferry? Yes. You keep your ticket, you get on the train. If they ask, you show them you come from Bellagio and cannot buy ticket. You buy on the train. If no one ask, you don’t pay! <shrug> ...Italia!” Oh my goodness, this country goes against all my type A-ness, but I love it.

We walk downhill to the ferry docks and buy our tickets to Varenna. There’s one about to leave, and they kindly hold the boat just long enough for both of us to get on with our bags. One last ride on sunny Lake Como. We arrive in Varenna and meander up to the train station, and on the way I saw the tourist information office. They sell tickets there! Let’s just get them. I think M would have been fine taking the advice of our hotel clerk, but as we’ve discussed, I am a Rule Follower. And it’s a regional train so they’re cheap. The agent at the tourist office informs us that we’ve just missed the 10:37 train to Milan, and the next one is in... two hours. Well, we’ve already walked around Varenna quite awhile on Tuesday, and we have our luggage with us, so we just head to the station.

It was a beautiful day, we had benches in the shade and books to read and socks to knit, so we just had a lovely two hours waiting for the train and people-watching. We talked to a couple, he from Singapore and she from Malaysia, who tried to convince us that our next trip should be Asia. We saw an American couple drag their FIVE suitcases up the hill, waiting for our train, and then heard the husband ask his wife for permission to take his skateboard (yes, skateboard) on one last ride down the hill. “Okay, but I want you back here in five minutes!” We saw Italian women as old as my grandmas still walking up the hill, greeting friends who were getting off the train. It’s a novel idea, I know, but I think living somewhere where you can (and must) walk up hills to get around may be better for your health than driving everywhere. Crazy.

Eventually our train arrived. We hopped on with our carry-ons. The couple with five suitcases disappeared, I can only assume swallowed alive by all those bags. Someone did, in fact, come by and check our tickets, so I was glad that we’d stopped to buy them!

We arrived at Milano Centrale in an hour - what a contrast to the station we’d just left. We bought our tickets for the train to Malpensa the next morning (no problems using our non-chip cards in the ticket machines), then walked outside to find Hotel Berna. I looked on my CityMaps2Go app, which had the hotel stored already. We found the street, walked down it, and lo and behold there it was. What was this? We didn’t get lost? Milan is scoring points already.

Hotel Berna, with its front desk staff in suits and security doors and chocolates on the pillows, felt like the lap of luxury to two budget travelers. I had tried to get us tickets to see the Last Supper, checking the site at 7:30am the day they released the May tickets, but even that was too late. So we really had no firm plans. We settled in, looked at the map the front desk clerk had given us, and decided to walk down to the Duomo area, stopping at Lush on the way. (I don’t have one in Nashville. It’s a source of bitterness.) The hotel was close to the metro, of course, but it didn’t seem like long of a walk and we figured it would let us see more of the city. We’re fans of walking. Lush is on Via Dante, a main shopping street, so we spent awhile checking things out before heading to the Duomo.

I was actually surprised by how much I liked the Duomo. After seeing gold and mosaics and marble and other ways to show off wealth in the churches of Rome and Venice, the Milan Duomo seemed plain by comparison, which I loved. To me it felt more like a place to worship than the churches filled with those things. We spent awhile walking around, marveling at how huge the place is.

After the Duomo, we headed through Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II (marveling at the McDonald’s across from the Prada - I’m sure we’re totally the first people to notice the irony there). M found the hat shop at the non-Duomo end. The whole trip she’d been wanting a hat, inspired by all the fascinators at the royal wedding. Alas, that shop was quite pricy, so no luck there. No luck finding an AC Milan jersey for my nephew either - apparently three-year-old sizes are hard to come by.

Next up, I wanted to see La Scala. My map said it should be just across the piazza at the back of the mall. There was a building there, but this must be the back - it’s so plain, but it does have playbills for tonight’s concert. Memories of our trip to Santa Maria Maggiore in my head, we walked all over the area, looking for the way to get to the front, with no luck. Finally we ended up back at the piazza and realized that this must, in fact, BE the front. I had been expecting something much more grand. So far, Milan is much more understated than I’d expected!

Loveitaly had given us a last-minute restaurant recommendation for our last dinner, so we figured we’d at find it and check out the menu (it wasn’t dinnertime yet). The prices were more expensive than the menu on their web site, so we thought we’d check out some other places. We headed back down Via Dante and quickly realized we’d be paying that much for a sit-down dinner anyway, so we might as well go somewhere we knew was good! Still, it was only 6ish, and nowhere decent was open, so more shopping was in order.

We walked by a store that had scarves in the window. I was still on the lookout for a pashmina-type scarf, so we popped in. “They have HATS!” M said. Yes, yes they do. We walked in, a salesman took note, and M started trying on hats. Two red, two black, and a white. She ended up with a very tasteful white headband number. Me: “Where are you going to wear that in Memphis?” M: “Anywhere I want to.” Valid point.

After providing great amusement to all the salesmen in the store, we headed back to Piazza Mercanti and Ristorante al Mercante, Loveitaly’s choice for us. We got there around 6:45 - of course the restaurant wasn’t open, and we knew we would be terribly early for a fashionable dinner, but the last thing I’d had to eat was an apple and a cookie at the Varenna train station. So we didn’t really care. About 6:50, a man wearing jeans and a polo shirt gestured to the outdoor tables. “Due?” “Si.” “OK. Ten minutes?” So we sat and waited for the restaurant to open. Lo and behold, the polo shirt man comes back in a dapper waiter outfit. Yes, we got there so early the wait staff wasn’t even dressed yet. He didn’t seem to hold it against us.

We ordered two primi - fusilli with pesto for M, and I tried the risotto milanese. It was amazing. I can still taste it. I really need to figure out how to make that. We shared sliced beef with the best potatoes ever for a secondi, and then split a chocolate cake for dessert. All the while we just watched our last night in Italy happen - the driver waiting for a VIP at the sedan across from our table, Italian friends meeting for wine and dinner, our waiter flirting with us and pretending we were never allowed to leave. I miss it there. The total was €68 - much more than we’d ever spent on dinner, but seemingly par for the course in Milan and for a great dinner.

We walked back to the hotel. Again, we did not get lost. Milan gets major points for being laid out semi-logically. Early to bed, for we had a train and a flight to catch. We ran late enough in the morning to make me stress about missing our train (I blame this on M wanting to keep her awesome glass Nutella container she’d had since Rome, but needing to scrape out the remaining Nutella in order to get it past airport security - finally I took it and wiped it out with toilet paper, so hopefully the hotel staff doesn’t hate us for leaving a giant blob of Nutella in the trash can). But we made it.

I feel like Malpensa is somewhat confusing for the first-time visitor, but we made it through security in plenty of time to have one last cornetto and fresh squeezed orange juice. The agent checking our passports made small talk. “Were you here for business or pleasure?” “Pleasure!” “Oh, where did you go?” “Rome, Venice, and Bellagio.” “<laugh> Bellagio? You want to see George Clooney!” “Haha. Yes, that’s exactly it.” “Well, unfortunately George is not here right now. He is actually in the States.” How the airport man knew so much about George Clooney’s schedule I’m not sure. They did make M check her suitcase (hers is rather deep), but fortunately the bag made it onto the flight without problems, unless you count having to wait for it at baggage claim in Atlanta as a problem.

We spent our Atlanta layover calling home, charging phones and eating Chick-Fil-A (which we walked two terminals down to find). I guess there were some things I missed...

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenthompson/sets/72157626901916403/with/5862388024/

Brava! Great report and great traveling attitude!

yes - loved it.

can I come with you next time, please?

love this report - and so much useful information for future planning, definitely bookmarking! Wish I was there now!! Thanks for sharing.

You will have to return to Como now that George is available again.

Great report! And I'm so glad you included info about Milan, making it seem more accessible than I thought.

Thanks, y'all!

annhig, of course!
kybourbon... there's a thought.
elnap, Milan was more accessible than I thought too. I was picturing a crazy big city with lots of traffic, but it actually felt quiet. Not as interesting as somewhere like Rome (to me, based on our limited time), but not intimidating either!

Brava! Your report was so much fun and it really sounds like Italy "grabbed" you as only Italy can! You photos are super as well.

Great report jen! I remember your dilemma about choosing a new hotel on Lake Como, so particularly enjoyed reading that portion. Sounds like you made a good choice based on your interests! Your conclusion about Lake Como was interesting to me: "it doesn't seem like people come here to do things. It seems like they come here to sit and drink wine and look at the lake." Yep, and I loved Lake Como for exactly that reason. However, I visited for the first time when I was around 40 -- it makes me wonder what I would have thought about it when I was 30, and what you'll think about it in 10 years! Anyway, glad you both had a good time, and thanks for sharing your adventure here.

Great report from start to finish! And you are a very talented photographer. Thanks for sharing your trip with everyone here. I look forward to reading and seeing more of your travels.

You might be too late for George.
http://www.fodors.com/community/fodorite-lounge/my-summer-with-george.cfm

Loved reading your report! We are going to Italy in May 2013, and I can't wait! We are actually neighbors! My husband works in Nashville, and I work in M'boro.

Thanks, all of you!

TD, it did, after those first few days!

MoonGirl, I do think Bellagio was the best choice for us for this trip. I guess it was because we weren't there during the highest season, but Varenna just seemed SO quiet. Even Bellagio was quiet, but since it is more "touristy" there were more options, it seemed like. If I were going back in July or August Varenna might be more appealing, though!

jwood, so funny! I've been here six years and love it.

kybourbon... drat.

Ciao, jent! I had a difficult time finding your trip report but I did find it and I just spent a lovely time reading about all your adventures in Italy.
I will view your pictures while enjoying a glass or two of wine.

Jent, I am so happy to read that your "Last Supper" in Milan pleased you two. I am always hesitant to recommend any restaurant but somehow from your post I thought that you two would enjoy the Ristorante al Mercante. I am relieved and so happy that you did and I loved the story about your arriving early, the server directing you to a table and coming out some minutes later in his spiffy waiter's clothing. You were in my thoughts. That restaurant is very special to me for various reasons and again I am so pleased that it was a good ending to your wonderful time in Italy.

What a lovely report! I'm hoping, hoping, hoping to get back to Italy next year and you've given me some great ideas if we do get this trip off the ground.

jent103, Fantastic trip report.We are going there in just a weeks time and your trip report helps a lot.After reading your trip report I booked our venice connected passes and planning to use the rome cabs from airport to hotel

Loveitaly, the restaurant was wonderful! Thank you so much again for the quick response to that other thread.

cathies and Sarahliz, so glad to have helped! Enjoy your trips so much!

Just found this. Can't wait to read!

Terrific report! And your photos are wonderful. We leave for Rome in 30 days and I am grateful to you for helping me mentally prepare. I will go in "strong" and try to do some additional map study in advance.

I am hoping you have another adventure in the near future. I will be watching for your next report!

Hi - I know this is an old trip report, but I had a question about your rental of the Piazza del Fico apartment. When you say only "warm" water, does this mean the water doesn't get very hot, or you didn't have cold water? also when you say one "not so great" bed - is there anything that could have been done to make it better? was it too soft, too hard or what? I've booked this apartment for May and your review is now making me wonder if I should find a new place. Thanks.

Great trip report...our trip is coming up in a few weeks!

Thanks so much, suz!

Hi Robinista - sorry, I've actually been in Paris for the last week, so I'm just now seeing your question. The water just didn't get super hot - no problems with cold water that I remember. My bed was a little firm but also wasn't even - like one of the supports was off or something. It was just me in there, so I could move around and get comfy, and I don't have back issues or anything so it didn't bother me much. Basically, the positives of the apartment (location!!, layout) far outweighed the negatives *for me*, but if you do have a bad back or anything, it might be a consideration. I'd definitely recommend working with Sleep in Italy either way.

Oh, Robinista - one more thing. As I mentioned above, the apartment is right across from a bar which seemed very popular with the locals. I'm a light sleeper, but with my earplugs I was fine, and it was kind of fun to people-watch. If I'd forgotten the earplugs it would have been very noisy. Just something to keep in mind if you're a very light sleeper.

Jent103 - This is a fantastic post! I've printed it off to use as a reference for our trip to Rome at the end of April. How did you find your experience with sleepsinitaly.com? We've rented two apartments with them (one in Rome, one in Florence) - this will be our first experience with them. Thanks so much for all of your info!

parisinspring, I highly recommend Sleep in Italy - they were really great to work with and very responsive before our trip, and everything worked out as they had promised. All the apartments are owned by individuals (the company is a broker of sorts, for lack of a better term), but our owner was very helpful once we got there. I found out about them from various posts here.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the report and honestly jealous that you get to go - I'm just back from Paris myself and, while I had a good time, being in Europe just made me miss London and Italy a LOT. I hope you have a great time!

Very interesting!