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The honest Italian tale of the laughs, the panics and the awe

The honest Italian tale of the laughs, the panics and the awe

Old Sep 14th, 2014, 11:56 AM
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The honest Italian tale of the laughs, the panics and the awe

What feels so long ago now, I started researching my trip to Italy. Like every traveller wanting to get the most out of the 2 week squeeze in between the job that's paying for all the trips, I felt the need to go everywhere I had ever heard of in Italy. The research began and the list grew and grew... oh the food and wine I dreamt of consuming, the country side I imagined I would walk through, the cities I would relax in with a coffee and the classes I would take. It went on and on and the dream grew bigger and bigger.

Then realism hit. I wouldn't be able to do it all and enjoy it - not to mention my bank balance wouldn't be able to afford it. I narrowed the list down (albeit some would still consider it jam-packed) to a perfect trip for us. I had a bit of everything I wanted, it would last 18 days including all travel and it fit the budget - just about!

I used Fodors considerably - mainly reading through dozens of trip reports, as well as a bunch of other travel books and review sites. So that's why I'm writing the report - to pay back for all of the trip reports I read, as well as to relive the memories.

As the title suggests, it wasn't all blue skies and smiles - there were definitely some panic-stricken moments (which I now fall over laughing about) and times that simply delivered disappointment.

I'll take you through how I chose which places to visit and which one's I chose not to and why, as well as my top recommendations on the places we visited.

I'll warn you now that I'm no Italian expert, just someone who took a fantastic trip to Italy.
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Old Sep 14th, 2014, 12:01 PM
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Looking forward especially to how you made your choices and your feelings afterwards.
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Old Sep 14th, 2014, 12:44 PM
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It all started in 2012 when wooed by the twilight pictures of the glittering Grand Canal that I had decided to go to Venice. The trip was booked and came along very quickly and off I went with hardly any planning. The Bridge of Sighs? The Doge’s Palace? Munch on Cicchetti? Nope, as soon as I arrived I made a beeline straight for the Rialto Bridge. Premature? Possibly. Worth it? Most definitely. It was here (albeit a couple of days later) that I had fallen in love with Venice and knew that I had to return, not just to Venice, but to discover many other places in Italy too.

‘The’ moment was finding a mini spot of silence – which is easily doable even during the height of the tourist season (just avoid the route between the Rialto bridge and St Mark’s Square). However, I found my mini spot of silence at the Rialto bridge.

I was catching a Vaporetto from the Rialto stop to Piazzale Roma at 5am for an early flight to Rome. After lugging my bags through the poorly lit alleyways and tight passages, I ended up stood at the Rialto Bridge, all alone. Not another person in sight. I had spent the previous 3 days muscling through the crowds on and around the bridge – I wasn’t used to this stillness.

I boarded the vaporetto and as I motored away, I captured the moment with a picture of the deserted bridge in the darkness that holds far more memories than I could ever write on a page. It was that memory – eerie but blissful, that made me return this year.

~

So that’s how it all began - Venice.

The big 2014 trip planning started in 2013 and honestly, there wasn’t a week where I didn’t do even just 10 minutes. Crazy I know - there were even spreadsheets and not just one!

I travel most places with my OH and as we both work full time, we agreed 18 days was the most we could take so this was locked in and we decided on June as we wanted sunny weather but not too hot, however our plans were flawed when it ended up being over 40 degrees Celsius at times!

So where to go? I’ll take you through the reasons why when I get to each place, but the plan started out with everywhere I could think of - around 25 locations (I kid you not!) and narrowed down to the following:

Nice, Cinque Terre, Tuscany (including Florence), Venice and Lake Como.

I can hear cries of why not Rome, the Almalfi Coast, Naples etc. and many other places that I “should have visited” and “shouldn’t have missed”, but this trip was perfect for us and I can guarantee that we’ll be back.

It was worth every minute of planning and every penny spent.
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Old Sep 14th, 2014, 01:54 PM
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This report is off to a great start and I'll be following along. Yes, the hardest part of any trip is deciding where NOT to visit. No matter how much time you have to travel, a weekend or a year, you can never fit it "all" in. Looking forward to reading about your experiences!
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Old Sep 14th, 2014, 07:13 PM
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Waiting for the rest of your report.
your comment "‘The’ moment was finding a mini spot of silence " resonates with me. I found that moment walking along the Path of the Gods in the Amalfi Coast and standing in a chock-a-block packed Pantheon in Rome.
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Old Sep 15th, 2014, 12:30 PM
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msteacher - it really is the hardest part. I think this is why it took so long to plan. So glad you're looking forward to hearing about it all.

Ozgirl07 - lovely feeling isn't it. It's just something you never expect. How was the Amalfi Coast?
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Old Sep 15th, 2014, 12:35 PM
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Suitcase disasters and dodgy hotels

So the trip started the day before any travels - I had vowed to stick to a smallish suitcase (carry-on size) however I attempted, quite hilariously may I add, to try and pack the same amount of stuff in. Obviously this didn’t add up and whilst yanking the zip closed, I heard a loud rip and found myself staring at a broken suitcase…

Now where can you get a new suitcase from at 10pm at night? Nowhere near me that’s for sure. I think my OH thought I was going crazy when I tried to convince him the local supermarket may possibly sell them. He didn’t agree. So we were not yet fully into the trip and I already had a problem. Determined to illustrate perfect composure (hmm), I decided I would wrap my suitcase in plastic at the airport and “just deal with it” on our train journeys.

One unforeseen issue down, many more to come.

~

The next day we trained our way to London and arrived at the Chiswick Moran Hotel (http://www.chiswickmoranhotel.com/) for a night for just under £80. We got the deal from Secret Escapes a couple of weeks previous. It was an odd hotel with a wonderful room but downstairs hosted a dodgy loutish bar and poor room service. However we were out early in the morning so it wasn’t going to put a dampener on our trip.

A couple of fish & chips later, it was about time for another hiccup. My tablet, full of all my guidebooks and travel notes, broke. Chock-a-block with most of my maps, tips from people I had found, a couple of unreserved restaurant reservations - a whole lot of info. Luckily, I had written a few key things down but there was going to be a lot of winging it for the rest of the trip.

I couldn’t help but laugh.
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Old Sep 15th, 2014, 01:44 PM
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Death by bus and the enormous fish

The next day was our first glimpse of Nice so I thought I’d take you through some of the reasons why we chose to visit here.

- Many of our friends and family had visited Nice before and have raved about the laid-back lifestyle and the ambience of a city that thrives on a wonderful social culture. Being so close to Italy, we thought it could be a good add on.

- I had read whilst looking into train journeys in Italy that a wonderful trip along the coast was between the French and Italian Riviera’s. Being a sucker for beautiful scenery, I imagined a falling back into my seat watching the gorgeous scenery race by an absolute must.

- Both myself and my OH were going leaving work and getting straight into the trip so we wanted somewhere that we could relax on the (pebbled) beach with its clear blue waters and a drink in hand to unwind before the rest of the trip. We didn’t actually end up doing this in the end, but it was still a pull to go originally.

- The day trips from Nice are endless – there are so many places close by but we both wanted to see Monaco. This was mainly for the iconic Formula One track as we’re both big fans, but we thought we could squeeze a couple of other sights in too. Nice is within close proximity to Monaco so it seemed like a great idea.

~

So back to the trip - we took a pricey Gatwick Express (£20 – I believe it’s cheaper if you book it in advance) and had a pretty uneventful journey until we reached the bus stop at Nice Airport.

Well for starters, we knew we had to get on #23, but other than that we were a bit clueless due to my technology disaster the day before. We tried to pay the bus driver but he ushered us along awkwardly so we had a free journey, to this day I’m still not sure whether he took pity on our confused faces or whether the trip was actually meant to free!

The bus was a bendy bus and my experience of these (mainly in airports) is that they drive pretty slow. Oh I couldn’t have been more wrong, the driver was manic! Weaving in and out of the traffic, hard breaking, shouting at other drivers – I didn’t know whether to laugh or fear for my life! We still look back on the episode and giggle. Thanks to a well-timed traffic light, we spotted our hotel, hit the stop button and were on our way off the bus.

Ever so slightly relieved to feel the floor beneath me (!), we entered our hotel. It was a budget “simply do the job” kind of hotel. It was the Nice Californie Lenval (http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-...ifornie-lenval) which we had for about £40 a night. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it unless you just want an inexpensive, clean place to stay, close to the promenade and within walking distance to the old town. We didn’t find it too much of an issue, but if you want to be right in the middle of the action you probably wouldn’t want to stay here.

After noting that the weather reports displayed a downpour of rain for the weeks previous, we were surprised to be greeted with glorious sunshine and were up and out of our room within an hour. Walking up the promenade, we realised really how much of a social town Nice really is. On the promenade we passed a private jazz music event and a rock festival within about 200m of each other. The promenade was also littered with groups of “Velo Bleu”, which I understand in my limited French to be “Blue Bike”. You’ll find out later how limited my French really is. These blue bikes are much the same as the ‘Boris bikes’ in London.

We spent the afternoon happily wandering and spend some time in Jardin Albert in the sun – a really lovely afternoon. There is a sculpture in the Jardin Albert called Arc of 115.5 degrees which seemed to be being used (inappropriately) as a climbing frame for small children. If anyone has any further information on the sculpture, I would love to learn.

Dinner time approached and as we hadn’t made any reservations we just simply chose a place that looked busy in the hope it was good. We ended up in Atmosphere Café (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaur..._Provence.html) which seems to have the most appalling Trip Advisor reviews. However most of these reviewers seemed to be complaining about pizza so take from that what you will. I’m not saying what we had was spectacular meal but we had simple dishes of white truffle pasta and sea bass which turned out lovely. Now onto this fish, it was huge. I don’t mean a large fish, I mean huge – it didn’t really fit on the plate. Delicious as it was though with its salt baked crust, it was simply too big to finish. The meal, washed down with a delicious Cotes de Provence was around £60.

The night finished with Brazilian street performers lining the streets with their genuinely impressive fire acrobatics before we headed back to the hotel, excited for the next day.
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Old Sep 15th, 2014, 02:03 PM
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"If anyone has any further information on the sculpture,"

Made by Bernard Venet in 2010 to commemorate the centenary of the appellation "Côte d'Azur". It is "Jardin Albert 1er" and not "Jardin Albert" - Albert the First, King of Belgium.
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Old Sep 17th, 2014, 10:40 PM
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Hi rilelja,

just found your TR and reading with interest, as we have yet to make it to Nice, and like you, could conceivably do it by train from here in Cornwall by using Eurostar and the TGV. How did you find the train journey?

anyway, great start, and I'll be following along too.
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Old Sep 19th, 2014, 09:50 AM
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Looking forward to the rest of your report. As far as Roma? Well, I visied Florence four times and Venice twice before my first visit to the Eternal City. I felt I really wanted to be prepared for Rome with some in depth history a lots of study of loctions and sites. My research paid off and I've now been twice to Rome (including a 2011 solo trip for a week). I head back to Florence (5 nights) and Rome (8 nights) next month...and I can hardly wait! Rome is truly the Eternal City and its bounty heard to envision.
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Old Sep 25th, 2014, 06:00 AM
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I hate it when someone starts a trip report then just disappears, especially one as promising as this. Unfortunately happens much too often.
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Old Sep 25th, 2014, 06:12 AM
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oh dear, Dayle, do you mean me?

Life intervenes you know - i'm sure that the OP wants to finish it.
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Old Sep 25th, 2014, 08:57 AM
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Ann

Your TRs are plentiful & great. No just mean so many others who never finish.
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Old Sep 25th, 2014, 09:46 AM
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I'm bookmarking, hoping the OP comes back to finish at some point!
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Old Sep 25th, 2014, 10:20 AM
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Oh no! Come back rilelja! Looking forward to this trip report.
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Old Sep 25th, 2014, 10:29 AM
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rilelja: I want to read more of this - hurry up to keep on posting!
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Old Sep 27th, 2014, 03:11 PM
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Hi annhig – we spent most of the travelling on trains and I loved it! Would definitely recommend as even though it can be somewhat uncomfortable at times due to the length of the journeys, you get to see some of the most beautiful countryside that you would have missed on by flying.

Hi Margaretlb – sounds great. Would love to hear about your experience, especially in Florence.

Apologies all! Am busy writing so will be posting more soon!
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Old Sep 27th, 2014, 03:36 PM
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Serenity on the promenade and all things green

We awoke from a relatively comfy sleep and opened the blind to clear blue skies. Thank goodness! All the weather reports prior to the trip illustrated the first few days to be an absolute downpour. Now whilst glorious sunshine isn’t everything, let’s be honest – it’s always a highlight of any Mediterranean trip.

We nipped downstairs to have what was a relatively poor breakfast – almost stale croissants, hard fruit and cheese and jams in packets. However, at £40 a night we can’t really complain that the breakfast wasn’t up to standard.

We crossed 2 roads outside of the hotel and we were on the promenade. Walking down towards the Old Town we were surrounded by joggers, cyclists and rollerbladers at every turn. I couldn’t work out whether these people were healthy locals or tourists having a bit of a laugh but either way, we’d be joining them on the bikes later on.

Spotting a free bench looking out to the sea, we quickly glided over to sit down and watch the world go by. It was absolutely stunning – the sun was shining, a light breeze was in the air and there was a serene calmness about listening to the lapping waves despite all of the commotion that was behind us. If there were only a couple of moments that I could relive again in Nice, that would be one of them. I smile every time I look back and think about it.

A good hour later, the waft of truffles caught our attention and we walked further down the promenade to be greeted by an Italian food market just sat there next to the beach. Initially a bit odd I thought considering all the wonderful French produce around, but I guess not in retrospect considering Nice is really not that far at all from Italy. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do the whole Italian thing in France but in the end we gave it a go if nothing but to whet our appetite for the next couple of weeks.

Stalls were bursting full of sauces, salsas, oils, breads, cheese and so many variations of truffle in so many forms. To be honest, as much as I love truffle (I’m a big white truffle fan), I felt the smell was just too overwhelming and could probably put people off them. A great place for those truffle-adorers out there however.

We didn’t buy anything from the market but noted it down so we could come back the next day to pick up some lunch. As we were coming out the other end, I spotted a ‘Gelato Festival’ sign and after consuming what felt like a gallon the previous year in Venice because it was just SO delicious, I couldn’t resist. Lavender was our choice as I was trying to avoid my usual favourite (Tiramisu) to try something new. I thought it was delicious but my OH thought it tasted like the smell of one of those stuffed animals you put in the microwave!

Quick tip – if you manage to visit sometime, the paying system is all very confusing to a first timer. To avoid the good 5 long minutes of confusion and conversations in broken French – pay first, get a ticket and then choose your flavour. Anything that deviates from that process will get you nowhere but gelato-less!

We had a quick wander around the Old Town once we reached the top of the promenade and walked through the most beautiful area - Promenade du Paillon. It was just so green with wonderfully manicured lawns, flower beds and full of people sitting on benches chatting about their day and others with their families having picnics. In all likelihood they were probably all tourists like myself but it was nice to imagine (however brief) the romantic notion that these were locals just milling around on a normal day.

Wandering further down we noticed that the beauty of the area though was not just the immediate surroundings; we looked up and saw lots of ornately decorated buildings and an especially beautiful building (the name escapes me) with what looked like a small turret with a clock face. It felt like we’d been transported straight to Geneva. What was also wonderful (and we discovered in many parts of Nice) is that the city is surrounded by green hills which make for a striking backdrop, especially around that particular area. Nice has so many picturesque scenes around every corner.

After finishing our walk, we arrived at Garibaldi Square where we spotted the bus we wanted to catch as today was the day we were visiting Monaco…
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Old Sep 28th, 2014, 05:03 AM
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Great trip report. Going there next year and like you, I spend stacks of time reading, researching and planning. That's half the fun I think. Can't wait to go
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