GoJumbos

Trip Report:

Hi All,

We returned a few days ago from our 18 days in Italy and I wanted to post my trip report while the memories are still fresh in my mind. I received A LOT of help from so many of you and got great advice and recommendations¡Xour trip wouldn¡¦t have been the same without the help of Fodorites! After some thought, I have decided to set my trip report in sections, first with some background about us, our itinerary in a nutshell, and flight info, followed by a more detailed description of our day-to-day itinerary, costs, and restaurant reviews divided by location (Venice, CT, Florence, Sorrento, Rome, etc.)¡KAt the end, I have a section on ¡§What We Did to Prepare,¡¨ ¡§Favorites,¡¨ ¡§Random Thoughts,¡¨ and ¡§Things I Would Probably Change.¡¨ Enjoy the report! And, although I won¡¦t be on fodors.com nearly as much as I was before, please feel free to post questions; I¡¦m happy to answer as best I can.

BACKGROUND: Here¡¦s a bit of background about the traveling couple before I dive into my report¡XWe are in our late 20s/early 30s (one academic, one engineer) from Boston; this was my second time in Italy and my husband¡¦s first. I just finished my doctorate and so this was a celebratory trip before I start my job as an assistant professor in September. We do a fair amount of traveling but this was one of our longer trips. I¡¦m generally the planner/researcher; I get Brian¡¦s opinion here and there, but he generally is happy to go along with what I¡¦ve planned ƒº We aren¡¦t a huge fan of tours; rather, we like to make our own itineraries and go at our own pace (which is usually a fairly fast-pace, as we tend to get a bit stir-crazy if we stay anywhere for more than 3-4 nights!) As for $$$, we had a budget in mind and stuck to it for the most part but definitely splurged a bit here and there¡Kone thing is for sure, it¡¦s hard not to spend money in Italy, especially with the Euro the way it is. But the money spent is/was worth it in my opinion. ƒº

ITINERARY IN A NUTSHELL: June 30 ¡V July 18, Flew JFK to Milan; Rome to JFK (and then a flight to Boston). 3 nights in Venice, 3 nights in Cinque Terre, 1 night in Siena, 2 nights in Florence, 1 night in San Gimignano, 4 nights in Sorrento, and 3 nights in Rome. (Note: We strayed from our intended itinerary while in Italy; we were supposed to spend 3 in Florence, 2 in SG, and 3 in Sorrento¡KI¡¦ll explain more on that later!)

FLIGHTS: As noted above, we¡¦re from Boston and when I originally started looking for plane tickets I noticed that there wasn¡¦t a whole lot under $1200 per person for the dates I wanted to fly. One night I was searching on Expedia and found a flight (a partner flight between Alitalia and Delta) from JFK to Milan and then from Rome to JFK for $528 per person¡Kthis was by far the best price I had seen and the flight times were good (direct from JFK, and then a quick stopover in Venice on the return). We had decided to rent a car and drive to JFK from Boston for our Italy flight (sounds crazy to some, Im sure, but we have done this in the past and don¡¦t mind it at all; it saves us the hassle of driving into Logan (which can be a nightmare) and the rental car was cheap; plus, we didn¡¦t have to worry about luggage being lost between Boston and JFK and all the $$$ saved for the cheaper flights out of JFK was worth it. Anyways, all went smooth on our drive from Boston to JFK. Like I mentioned above, our tickets noted that it was a partner flight between Delta and Alitalia bought thru Expedia; when I had called a few days prior to confirm everything, I was told to check in at Delta, as we were flying on a Delta plane with a Delta crew; however, when I inquired about whose baggage rules to follow, I was told to go by Alitalia¡¦s rules (more on that later!). Anyways, I¡¦m glad we got to JFK early, because it was pretty chaotic. We did have a stressful moment when we finally made it to the check-in counter; what happened was that Delta¡¦s computer had us flying from JFK to Milan and then onto Rome (as our final departure) when in fact we were flying just to Milan. All of my printed itineraries had us flying to Milan (not Rome)¡Xthe printout from Expedia, the printout I had from Delta, etc¡K When I told the customer service rep that we were going to Milan, not Rome, he made what I found to be an unnecessary remark¡Xbasically, he said ¡§If you think you¡¦re flying to Milan, then you are not flying on Delta today¡¨¡K He then told us that we would need to go to the ticketing office, which was across the street at the airport (yes, after 2 hours in line, I was having a mini-heart attack). We then told the man at the check-in counter that we had been in line for 2 hours already and that we feared we would miss our flight if we had to go fix this problem at ticketing. By some miracle, he fooled around with his computer a bit, looked up, and said ¡§OK, I have fixed this problem and have your final destination as Milan, not Rome and your baggage will be ticketed to Milan as well¡¨ (we made him show us the baggage ticket that actually said ¡§Milan¡¨ just to be sure!) Anyway, this catastrophe was averted but it was a bit stressful for a few minutes.

Now, a note on luggage. We were originally trying to do all carry-ons, but when I was told (or rather misinformed) by someone at Delta a few days earlier that we would have to follow Alitalia¡¦s rules (which limit carryons to something like 11 pounds), we scrapped that idea and each brought a carry-on and one checked piece of luggage. I was worried that our carryon bags might be over 11 pounds, but nothing got weighed and no one even looked at our bags at JFK. Then when we got to the gate to board, I noticed more huge pieces of luggage than I could even count! I saw one woman board without problem with what I would consider 3 large carryons and one piece of luggage the size of the suitcase we had just checked! We were really surprised to see this (given what Delta had told me only days earlier) and disappointed, given that we clearly could have done the trip with carryon only had we not been misinformed. Luckily, our baggage made to Milan without incident and our overnight flight to Milan arrived pretty much on-time¡Kno complaints.

And now on to the more detailed portion of this trip report, broken down into sections by location.

First stop: VENICE

Days 1 through 4: Arrival at Milan. We arrived at Milan, got our checked bag, and took the bus (5E each) to the train station for our train to Venice. Note, we had decided to fly into Milan as the plane tickets were nearly 2X the cost to fly into Venice. The train (32E) took about 2.5 hours and it was very easy to buy tickets, board, find our seats, etc¡K One important note about the train¡Xon most (if not all?) trains, you need to make sure you have your ticket stamped (usually at this yellow machine near where all the trains are parked). If you don¡¦t have it stamped, my understanding is that you are fined. Anyways, back to our train ride. Like I said, it was fairly quick and painless. We arrived in Venice (S. Lucia station), bought a 3-day vaporetti pass (30E each, I believe), and took a vaporetto to our hotel, La Calcina.

Thoughts on La Calcina: We had read so many positive comments about La Calcina and were so excited to stay here. Our corner room, #41, had partial canal views. The room was small, but clean with high ceilings with these cool wood beams. We paid 179 E per night for 3 nights¡Xthis was our most expensive hotel of our 18 days in Italy but with everything so over-priced in Venice (more on that later), we found this to be a good value. The staff was very accommodating (answered all of our questions, made dinner reservations for us, etc..) and the free Internet was a bonus! The breakfast at Calcina was great¡Xeven better was the fact that you could eat your breakfast at their outdoor restaurant on the canal¡Xwe loved that! We did eat dinner at La Calcina our first night (more on that later too) and didn¡¦t find the food to be anything special, but again the views and atmosphere of the outside restaurant were terrific! The best part of La Calcina¡Xthe rooftop deck that you can reserve! I had originally reserved it for one night before dinner, but then was able to reserve it for a second time. Both times we brought up wine¡Xour time up there was one of the highlights of our trip, so if you stay at La Calcina, be sure to reserve some rooftop deck time!

Here¡¦s a breakdown of what we did each day, followed by restaurant/bar reviews:

Day 1: Arrived around 2, walked around Venice for a few hours, had drinks near Rialto Bridge, had dinner back at hotel, and at the first of many, many gelati.

Day 2: Went to Basilica of St. Marco (had reserved a ticket online for free; we were able to skip the line, would recommend this)..it was definitely jam-packed with people and entry is free, but they do charge you to see various things in the church (e.g., the view from the balcony, etc..). Also, we took the elevator up to the top of the tower that is next to the Basilica¡Xgreat views (6E each). From there, we tried to go to the island of San Giorrgio (sp?) but apparently got on the wrong vaporetto (or the right vaporetto at the wrong time) because it took us more than an hour to get to the island from San Marco square (the island is right across from the square¡K) This was actually a fortunate mistake, though, as we had front-row seats for much of the long ride and enjoyed riding through the canals on our round-about trip to SG island. When we finally got to SG island, we found (unfortunately) that the church and tower had just closed and wouldn¡¦t be opening for another 2 hours so we got back on the vaporetto, returned to San Marco Sq, and had lunch near the Rialto Bridge. Spend the rest of the afternoon strolling around Venice. From 6:30-8pm, had rooftop deck time at La Calcina, followed by dinner and listening to the dueling orchestras at SM square (so much fun!)

Day 3: Day trip to Murano and Burano. We had arranged through La Calcina a free water taxi to pick us up and take us to the Murano glass factory. We had seen some people on Fodors advise against this, but I have to tell you that it was one of our highlights of Venice! We were the only people in the water taxi on the way over to Murano, and we kept joking that the driver was our private chauffeur! Anyway, the 20 minute or so ride was fantastic and we were in and out of the Murano glass factory in about 10 minutes. Be warned, however¡Xwhen you get to the factory, there is a demonstration on glass blowing. I think we arrived at the tail end of the demonstration so we only watched it for about 3-4 minutes. Then, they pair you with a sales person who takes you up to the showroom. Our sales person must have realized early on that we were not going to be buying any big ticket items, so he let us explore the showroom on our own. We did notice that older couples (presumably with more money to spend) got more attention from the sales reps than we did (to the point where they looked a bit hounded). I did buy a pair of glass earrings at the factory for 11E, and then saw the same exact earrings for 6E at several stores outside of the factory¡Klesson learned¡Kthe factory prices are likely higher than the prices at surrounding stores. We enjoyed walking around the many stores in Murano (ok, I enjoyed it more than Brian) and we both agreed that Murano was bigger and nicer than we both expected it to be. I ended up buying a bunch of glass jewelry (3 rings, 4 bracelets), some for me and some for gifts¡K all great finds with good prices. From Murano, we took a vaporetto to Burano. Burano is definitely a great place for people (like me) who love to take pictures; the houses are so vibrant and colorful¡XI can¡¦t wait to see my photos developed! There is not a whole lot to do in Burano except for to walk around, snap pictures, and eat, so we were probably only there for about 1.5 hours, whereas we spent about 2.5 or 3 hours in Murano. We enjoyed both islands though and were glad we had decided to visit both. After returning from Murano and Burano, we made a second attempt to return to S. Georggio (sp?) island to see the church and tower (luckily, we got on the correct vaporetto and both the church and tower were open this time around). The views from the tower were great (better than the views from the tower in San Marco¡¦s Sq, in my opinion), and they were cheaper (only 3E a ticket). Afterwards, we went back to La Calcina for our second visit to the roof-top terrace. While up there, we saw 2 cruiseships pass down the canal¡Xit was so funny because we could easily see passengers waving and taking pictures of us from their balconies, with us waving and taking pictures of them. Afterwards, we took an evening vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal (highly recommended!) and grabbed dinner near the Rialto Bridge.

Day 4: Took an early train from Venice to Cinque Terre (39E each)¡Xdefinitely one of the longer train rides of our trip (about 7 hours door to door), but a good chance for us to rest our legs and take a break from all of the walking we did while in Venice. Train took us from Venice to Florence, and then Florence to La Spezia, where we then got another train to Manarola¡Kmore on CT in the section though!

Next, a bit of a food review during our time in Venice:
1.) La Calcina¡¦s Restaurant (Dinner #1): Like I mentioned above, we ate La Calcina¡¦s restaurant our first night in Venice¡K we chose it because we knew we would probably be tired after all of the traveling and wanted to stay close to the hotel. The food was nothing spectacular (bruschetta to share, tomato/mozzarella salad for me, crab/pasta dish for Brian, and a glass of wine each¡X46E). We may have just picked the wrong things on the menu, as the restaurant was pretty full and other plates seemed to look good. Also, I wasn¡¦t very hungry at the time, probably the result of all the traveling and jet-lag so that may play a role in my less than enthusiastic view of the food¡Kthe views and atmosphere were great though!

2.) Naranzaria (for Drinks on Day #1): Even though we were a bit tired on our first day, we somehow found the energy to do an afternoon stroll around Venice before dinner. We eventually ended up at Naranzaria for drinks¡Xit¡¦s a nice spot near with outdoor tables near the Rialto Bridge. They are known for these orange spritz drinks that they serve; we both had one (Brian was a fan; me..not so much, but that¡¦s ok ƒº) It was a great spot to relax though and have a drink.

3.) Necoro (or Necuro?) (Lunch on Day #2): Located near the Rialto Bridge, we decided to have a quick lunch here. We spit a margherita pizza and water (10.50E) although the pizza and service were pretty poor. Oh well, at least it was cheap!

4.) La Trattoria Sempione (Dinner on Day #2): We had heard good things about this restaurant online, but unfortunately we didn¡¦t have a great experience here. First off, we had made reservations for 8pm and requested one of the tables that overlooked the canal. When we got to the restaurant, the seated us against the wall even though one of the canal view tables was open (in fact, the restaurant was practically empty, which I suppose should have been our first red flag). I had read online that the restaurant was romantic; however, we didn¡¦t really get that vibe, as the lighting was horrible¡Xlike they used halogen lightbulbs or something. We ordered one order of caprese salad, lasagna for me,
grilled tuna for Brian, a bottle of house wine, and a piece of tiramisu to share; cost = 78E. The food was OK, again nothing special, and we found the portions somewhat small. The service was OK, but we were kind of bothered when we saw a young man in his 30s in a wheelchair come in with his mother around 9:30 and the waiter refused to serve them, as he said the restaurant was closing. There were still 4-5 tables of people in the restaurant, and one of them had just ordered only a minute before, so I thought it was kind of rude that the waiter turned them away (and he wasn¡¦t all that nice about it). When the waiter brought the bill, he had charged us for 2 orders of caprese salads (basically, 20USD for what amounted to 4 small pieces of mozzarella and 4 slices of tomato, no lettuce). Yes, the caprese had come out on two plates, but I thought he had just split a plate for us, given that there was so little on each plate¡Koh well¡Kat that point, we didn¡¦t really have it in us to fight with the waiter over the charge so we just paid the bill and left. Overall, this was definitely one of our least favorite restaurants and the food certainly not worth the 78E we paid.

5.) Bancorgio: This is a restaurant near the Rialto Bridge (actually, it is located only a few doors down from Naranzaria where we had drinks a few days earlier). We had seen reviews that this restaurant had good food and a romantic atmosphere. Well, the atmosphere on the second floor of the restaurant was in fact very romantic (candles, stone and wood walls/ceilings, etc..) but we didn¡¦t really enjoy our meals. The menu was very limited (I tried to order one dish but they no longer had it, and then they listed other items that were not available, (and most of their menu is fish, which I don¡¦t eat) so I just ended up ordering a bowl of soup for lack of anything else that interested me. Unfortunately the soup was so so bad that Brian, who normally eats ANYTHING in sight, would not even have more than a spoonful¡Kwe actually laughed over how bad this 10E bowl of soup was.) Brian had a tuna dish, which he thought was OK, but it was so small that I kept asking him when his ¡§real meal¡¨ was arriving. We would have ordered more to fill us up, but given that we weren¡¦t impressed by the food we had already ordered, we decided to cut our losses and leave hungry. Total bill for cover, soup, 1 main course, and 2 glasses of wine = 40E. Again, maybe we just hit this restaurant on a bad night, as some of the items on the menu weren¡¦t available, which limited the options even more¡Keither way, we probably wouldn¡¦t return, unless just for drinks.

Overall Thoughts on Venice: We really enjoyed our time in Venice and did more walking there than we ever imagined! We didn¡¦t enjoy the food at all, but luckily found the food in other parts of Italy to be much better (both in terms of quality and price!) Yes, Venice was crowded and yes, Venice was severely overpriced (ex: at times, we saw a can of coke sold for 5E!), but there¡¦s no place like it in the world, which made it a worthwhile stop on our itinerary for us. Also, one thing that surprised us during our evening vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal was how dark and uninhabited the buildings are that line the canal¡XI guess I had imagined it to be more illuminated and ¡§lived in¡¨¡K. Later on during our trip, we ended up talking to another US couple who had been living in Italy for 9 years and they told us that very few Italians can afford to live in Venice now (they actually said the average age of a Venice resident is 75 because young people opt to live elsewhere), which likely explains why so many of the buildings lining the canal go are no longer lived in¡K in any event, I found this kind of sad.

GoJumbos

Second Stop: CINQUE TERRE (Manarola)

Days 4 through 7: We arrived in Manarola around 3:30 in the afternoon. Prior to the trip, we were probably most eager to see Cinque Terre, as we love hiking. As the train made its way from La Spezia to Manarola, we were pretty excited to say the least. When we arrived in Manarola, we found our way to Arpaiu, which is about a 10 minute walk (with luggage) from the train station.

Thoughts on Arpaiu: Again, with the help of Fodorites and tripadvisor.com, we had read so many positive comments about Arpaiu (www.arpaiu.com) and were not disappointed. Our room, the Zin Zin, was small (like so many rooms in Italy) but very clean and modern; I believe we paid about 95E per night (for 3 nights, breakfast not included) and cash is required upon arrival. I was happy that the room had a minifridge and a hairdryer in the bathroom. The only drawback to the room was that it was almost on ground-level and our windows were next to a set of stairs outside that were pretty frequently used. There was a divider in the window that prohibited people from being able to see into our room, which was helpful. We still had a fantastic view from our room, and while people couldn’t see into our room from the outside, we could definitely hear them which didn’t really bother us, but it might bother some. Had the Mea room been available, we would have loved to stay there, as we caught a glimpse of it at the end of our trip and fell in love with it…oh well, hopefully next time. Also, what is great about the Arpaiu is that there is a common room and shared deck on the top floor of the building, which has fabulous views (check them out on the Arpaiu website!) There were actually two other young couples staying at Arpaiu as well, so it was fun to talk with them and have wine up on the deck. Overall, I would definitely recommend Arpaiu, but you probably have to book in advance as there are only 4 or 5 rooms. Also, the owner doesn’t speak much English (and we don’t speak Italian) but we were able to communicate fine during check-in. Overall, we really liked Arpaiu and loved staying in Manarola so we would definitely recommend both.

Here’s a breakdown of what we did each day, followed by restaurant/bar reviews:

Day 4 continued…After our arrival at 3:30, we decided we were ready to walk (especially after such a long train ride!) We did the “Lover’s Walk” trail from Manarola to Riomaggiore, which is very easy (you can do it in flipflops). It took about 20-25 minutes each way…most would probably not call it a hike, compared to what we did the next day! It was our initial plan to stick around Manarola our first night for dinner, but we then opted to go to Monterosso, as we found out that the train runs quite frequently between the two, and makes late returns (plus, there aren’t a ton of restaurant options in Manarola). So we took the train that evening to Monterosso (about a 20 minute train ride, very cheap), and then had dinner at Belvedere (more on that in just a sec). After dinner, we walked around Monterosso and did tastings of Limoncello. Took the 11:09 train back to Manarola and got a good night’s sleep for our big hike the next day.

Day 5: Woke up early, had breakfast down at a small café in Manarola, and started our hike from Manarola to Monterosso (which basically means going from Manarola to Corniglia, from Corniglia to Vernazza, and from Vernazza to Manarola.) We wore sneakers (definitely needed) and took lots of water (a must!); Brian carried a backpack for our beach towels and camera. The first leg of the hike (Manarola to Corniglia) wasn’t too challenging although we both agreed that it was more challenging than what we thought it would be. There is one part where you climb what seems like a million zig-zag stairs to get to the top of Corniglia; it wasn’t that bad though. I’m not entirely sure, but I think it took us about 1 hour to go from Manarola to Cornigila, maybe a bit more since we made many stops for “photo-shoots.” On the second leg of the hike (from Corniglia to Vernazza), we decided to stray from the main path and take a lesser used path down to the beach (which we eventually learned was a nudist beach). This part of the hike was a bit more difficult, as we had to go downhill (very steep at times). We didn’t see many people at all during this time, although there was one woman who was wearing sandals and I saw her nearly fall about a half-dozen times (crazy!) Anyways, luckily we made it down to the bottom where we eventually found the beach, which was a nudist beach where everyone was (no surprise) naked. We have nothing against this; it just isn’t our thing and the beach was very small, so we decided to continue our trek to Vernazza (this time having to go back uphill to the main path, which was not as dangerous as the trip down, but more thorny as we took a different path). Anyways, by the time we made it to Vernazza, we were both a bit worn out so we stopped and had lunch at a spot called Al Castello—great views, great food, very reasonable. Now normally I wouldn’t go to a restaurant like this in the middle of the day wearing my hiking clothes but there were quite a few people around us who seemed to be doing the hike as well so I didn’t feel that out of place. For lunch, we each had a pasta dish, bread, a bottle of water, and a beer for Brian which came to a total of 25E. Like I said, very reasonable and the views were fantastic. I’d definitely go back. After lunch, we continued on with our hike, this time doing the last leg of the trip, from Vernazza to Monterosso which was probably the longest leg of the hike and maybe the hardest, given that we were tiring out a bit at that point. In total, this leg took 1.5 hours, maybe a bit more as we made more photo stops and water breaks. There seemed to be more ups and downs on this trail than on the others (more stairs or steep paths); again, the hike wasn’t crazy hard but it was more challenging than what we expected it to be, which was fine. When we made it to Monterosso, we had a much-needed drink (glass of wine and a beer, 7E) at Il Casello 1968, a great outdoor spot that you see as you finish the hike. Prices were good and view was great. We then took the train back to Manarola, showered, rested, and had dinner at a restaurant in Manarola. We sure slept well that night after a long day of hiking!

Day 6: Our plan for today was to take the ferry to Portofino; however we soon found out that the ferry was not making trips because of the rough waters. We then opted to take a train (6.80E each) to Santa Margherita Liguere (sp?) which took about an hour, and then walked from SM to Portofino. We had toyed with the idea of taking a quick ferry from SM to Portofino, but the woman at the ferry ticket booth in SM told us the walk was only a half hour (she was wrong!) The walk actually took us a solid hour, if not an hour and 15 minutes, and we were walking at a pretty fast pace with very few photo breaks. If you have the time though, the walk itself is beautiful. There’s also a bus you can take too from SM to Portofino if you don’t want to walk or take the ferry. Anyways, once we made it to Portofino, we were definitely hungry and soon saw that the restaurants on the water in Portofino were pretty pricey. We decided to walk a few minutes down one of the main streets and came across a must more reasonable priced restaurant (Pizzeria di Nicola) where we had one of the best “quick” lunches of our trip (more on this in a few minutes...Anyways, it was a good lunch and I definitely recommend this restaurant, especially if you don’t want to drop 100E for lunch just to sit on the water. After lunch, we had gelato down by the water (probably gelato #10 of the trip and this was only Day 6!), walked around a bit, did some shopping, and then decided to take the ferry back to Santa Margherita from Portofino. It was only 4.50 each for this one-way trip and definitely a great way to see this area from a different vantage point. From SM, we jumped back on the train to Manarola, and finished off our final night in CT by having dinner in Riomaggiore.

Day 7: Took a train from CT to Siena (9.50E each). More on that below.

Next, a bit of a food review during our time in Cinque Terre:
1.) The Belvedere Restaurant in Monterosso (Dinner on Day #4): This had to be one of our favorite restaurants of the trip. I had actually had made reservations (prior to the trip) that night at Marina Piccola in Manarola, but after arriving in Manarola and checking out the menu, we opted to go elsewhere as there just wasn’t much on the menu that grabbed my attention (again, partly because I don’t eat fish and most of the items were fish). Anyways, we cancelled those reservations and decided to head to Monterosso since we knew there were more food options there. I had read reviews on The Belvedere so we headed there and were able to get a table around 8pm without reservations. We sat indoors, which was fine with us because it was actually rather chilly outside at night. Brian ordered the seafood salad as an appetizer; I had a regular salad (both were good and Brian loved his seafood salad..probably the best seafood salad of the trip, he says). For our main courses, I had the pasta with pesto and greenbeans (so good!) and Brian had a mixed grill (seafood) plate which he loved. Brian was very tempted to order the Belvedere’s specialty (a seafood stew for 2) but given that I don’t eat seafood it didn’t make much sense for him to order this 45E dish. Luckily, the couple next to us ordered this dish so Brian was able to somewhat live vicariously through them, watching them eat this HUGE bowl of seafood. I swear this dish contained the largest octopus I have ever seen used in a meal (it was just huge!) Anyways, given my dislike of seafood, Im glad Brian didn’t order this dish but it’s probably a good choice for 2 or more people who are seafood lovers (also, it says that it’s for 2 people, but I think 3-4 people could easily share this dish and still have leftovers…) Anyways, like I said, this was one of our favorite meals of the trip and very reasonable for all that we had (cost = 49.50E).

2.) Al Castello in Vernazza (Lunch on Day #5). As noted above, we stopped here during our hike from Manarola to Monterosso. Like the Belvedere, I had read good reviews about Al Castello online and they proved to be right on the money! You had to walk quite a few steps up to this restaurant from the main town, but the climb was worth it, as the food and views were great. We got a pasta with tomato/basic, pasta with clams, bread, liter of water, and a beer for a total of 25E. Loved this spot, and again this was one of our better lunches throughout the trip.

3.) Il Casello 1968 in Monterosso (Drinks on Day #5): A great outdoor spot for drinks and people-watching, especially after a long day of hiking! Very reasonable prices for a beer and a glass of wine (7E). Definitely recommended.

4.) Pizzeria di Nicola in Portofino (Lunch on Day #6): This is a great spot in Portofino if you want to avoid dropping a ton of money just to sit next to the water. It’s called a pizzeria but there was a lot non-pizza items on the menu too. We split a huge pizza, a great salad, water, bread, cover, and a half liter of wine for 27.50E. The pizza was really good and enormous—(I can’t imagine eating the whole thing myself but I saw plenty of people around us doing just that!) Anyways, we both liked this spot for a quick, cheap, and tasty lunch.

5.) Du Ciel in Riomaggiore (Dinner on Day #6): I’m not 100% sure if I’m remembering the name of this restaurant correctly, but I do think it has “Ciel” in its name, so hopefully I’m not too far off base. Anyways, we had dinner here for our last night in CT. It wasn’t one of the many restaurants in my notes, but the location was good (right near the water) and it seemed reasonable; plus, we weren’t super hungry and just wanted appetizer-type food so this was a good fit for us. We ordered a pesto bruchetta, bread, a caprese salad, and a gnocci dish, plus a cocktail and a soda, for a total of 31.50E. It wasn’t the best meal of our trip, but it was exactly what we were looking for that night, seeing that we weren’t that hungry.

Overall Thoughts on Cinque Terre: We loved CT and will definitely go back. It was such a change of pace from Venice—no major crowds, reasonably priced, very laid back. By the sounds of the message boards, I had expected the crowds to be worse in July, but the hiking trails really weren’t what I would consider crowded at all, so we were happy about that. Would also recommend a day trip to Portofino and Santa Margherita if you can fit it in. I think 3 nights is a good amount of time to spend there; I would also consider a 4th night if you are really into hiking. Overall, a fantastic, beautiful spot that I hope to revisit!

GoJumbos

Third Stop: SIENA

Day 7: This is where our trip strays a bit from our planned itinerary, as we were not intending to do an overnight in Siena but rather a day-trip from Florence. My mom has cousins that live in Florence and Siena, and one of them had offered to let us stay in her guest house just outside of Florence. (hard to say no to free accommodations in Italy, no!?! ƒº ) Anyways, we were planning on doing all 3 nights in Florence but then my mom¡¦s other cousin invited us to a party he was having at his home in Siena (which had been rumored to be beautiful). He didn¡¦t have any extra space for us to sleep there, so he made us reservations at a hotel within walking distance from his home. The hotel, called ¡§Palace Hotel Dui Ponte¡¨ is hardly a ¡§palace¡¨¡Xmore of a business traveler¡¦s hotel lacking any real character, but at 70E a night it did what we needed it to do, which was to provide us with a place to sleep so that we could walk to my mom¡¦s cousin¡¦s party that night. Note-we didn¡¦t have a car at this point in the trip but had one reserved for once we left Florence. Anyways, we arrived in Siena from CT at around 1:00, checked into our hotel which is located on the outskirts of Siena, and attempted to take a bus to the center of Siena. I say ¡§attempted¡¨ because we watched many busses pass us as we waited at the bus stop. Later, after walking all of the way to the center of Siena (uphill!), we learned that you apparently have to wave at the bus drivers to stop, otherwise they pass you¡K oh well, lesson learned. Once we made it to the center, we explored a bit and did a little shopping, followed by lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking the main square (sorry, can¡¦t recall the name!) From there, we took a cab back to our hotel, showered, and then walked to my mom¡¦s cousin¡¦s party. My mom¡¦s cousin is a real character¡Xhe¡¦s a lawyer and is well-connected to many people high-up in the Italian legal and political systems¡Kso it was an interesting crowd consisting of an Italian judge, a congress- woman, and supposedly a prince of Austria! It was a great time and fun to be at an authentic Italian party; we, no doubt, did a lot of observing as most people there did not speak English. Nonetheless, we had a fun time.

Fourth Stop: FLORENCE

Here¡¦s a breakdown of what we did each day, followed by restaurant/bar reviews:

Day 8: From Siena, we took the SITA bus to Florence and arrived in about 75 minutes. It was one of the double-decker SITA busses, so we sat on top up near the front and it was a great way to see the beautiful scenery on the drive to Florence. I think the bus cost about 10E each. Once we got to Florence, we decided that we wanted to explore a bit before calling my mom¡¦s cousin to pick us up at the train station. We ended up using one of the secure luggage drops at the bus station; it cost 2E total for about 5 hours. I¡¦ve never used one of these before, and I was a bit hesitant, but all of our luggage was still there when we returned hours later, so it worked well for us. Our first day in Florence was spent doing the normal sightseeing activities. We first went to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge and decided we were in the mood for gelato so we went to a gelato shop (can¡¦t recall the name) just beyond the Ponte Vecchio (big mistake!) I told them I wanted 2 scoops (one of chocolate, one of coffee) and so the woman behind the counter scoops the gelato into the bowl, and then takes Brian¡¦s order, which also consisted of two flavors. What we didn¡¦t realize was that she put our gelato into the largest bowls she had, which I later learned cost 8E each! I didn¡¦t learn this until after Brian paid; had I known the cost before he had shelled out all of this money, I probably would have challenged it. So, about 20 dollars later, we had two huge bowls of gelato and the kicker was that it wasn¡¦t even good gelato¡Kit had kind of an icy/overly frozen quality to it (yes, I found myself becoming a gelato expert around Day 5 or 6¡K). Anyhoo, the lesson we learned here was to always be very specific when ordering gelato, and make sure you keep an eye on the size cup they use (and find out the prices in advance!). After our gelato mishap, we explored one of the nearby squares (the one with the ¡§fake David¡¨), and then climbed the tower near the Duomo. We also did a bit of shopping in the outdoor market and then continued to walk and explore Florence. Afterwards, we called my mom¡¦s cousin and she picked us up back at the bus station where we collected our luggage and drove to her home just outside of Florence in a section called Falciani. That night, we had dinner with her children and another one of my mom¡¦s cousins as well as her children too; it was such a great meal (5 courses perhaps?) with such good company; in fact, I got to hear a few great stories about my deceased grandfather (who grew up in Italy)¡Kneedless to say, it was a night to remember!

Day 9: On our second day in Florence, we saw (and walked) a ton. We first went to the Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace; I had visited the gardens about 12 years ago and remember them being absolutely beautiful. This time around, I didn¡¦t think the garden looked as nice as I remembered (odd!)¡K maybe more was in bloom when I was there last, or maybe my memory is just fuzzy. Either way, the garden was a worthwhile stop, but it just wasn¡¦t as nice as I remembered it. After spending a few hours there and at the palace, we took a cab up to Fiesole (25E) to explore a bit. Apparently (as we later learned), there is also a very cheap bus that goes there too (which we took to get back to downtown Florence)..another lesson learned. Anyways, we explored Fiesole a bit and then met one of my mother¡¦s cousins (the same one who had the party in Siena) at his other home which is close to Fiesole in a place called Maiano no (sp?). There we had a great lunch and got to hear more stories about my family. Here¡¦s a funny side story, though, to show how small the world is. The cousin we had lunch with actually spent the first 7 years of his life living in Massachusetts (I hadn¡¦t known this); during lunch we learned that he lived in the same town as Brian (my husband). A few minutes later, they had determined that they went to the same elementary school! Anyways, we got a good laugh out of this and couldn¡¦t believe what a small world it is! After lunch, we went back to downtown Florence, climbed the Duomo (the views were excellent!) and did a bit more shopping afterwards. By the time we were done, it was time for dinner, so we headed on over to another Fodorite recommendation¡XLa Casalinga (which I believe means ¡§housewife¡¨ in Italian). See below for my review¡Xwe loved it, and it was a great way to end our 2-day whirlwind of a stay in Florence.

Thoughts on Florence: We really enjoyed Florence and will hopefully be back one day. It¡¦s certainly nice to have family there (and the fact that we have a free guesthouse to stay in doesn¡¦t hurt either!) I actually spent a month in Florence during high school so I had already seen much of what there is to see, which is part of the reason our stay there was so short; also, although we could have spent more time in museums, we¡¦re not huge museum people so we opted to forego the Uffizi and Accademia this time around¡Kgives us more reason to return in the future! Overall, we give Florence two thumbs up and will be back one day.


Next, a bit of a food review during our time in Florence: (note, since most of our meals were prepared by my family members, I actually only have one restaurant review to share, but it¡¦s a good one!)

1.La Casalinga (Dinner on Day #9): I had heard about this restaurant on fodors.com and the reviews did not disappoint! We made our way to this restaurant (it¡¦s near the Santo Spiritu) after a long day of sightseeing and were happy to not have a wait (it was very busy but luckily a table was available!) We ordered bruschetta (excellent!) followed by a two pasta dishes (both excellent) followed a fish dish as well as a beef dish (and two sides of vegetables too). Did I mention the liter of house wine? By the time the meat dishes arrived, we were both already full so we didn¡¦t eat much of them. We ended up wishing we had just ordered the appetizer and two pasta dishes (and the wine of course) because that was way more than enough food¡Koh well, another lesson learned. Overall, the food was great and the prices were fantastic; our bill was only 40E!

GoJumbos

Fifth Stop: SAN GIMIGNANO

Note: We had originally planned to be in San Gimignano for 2 nights, but decided to just stay one and head to Sorrento a day early.

Day 10: To get to San Gimignano, we rented a car on the morning of Day 10 from Avis in downtown Florence. All went smoothly at the rental counter and we were on our way to San Gimignano in no time. We took our time with the drive, making a lot of stops for photos, etc.. We actually drove past SG and spent a few hours in Volterra. In the afternoon, we drove back to SG and checked into our hotel, Hotel Pescille. After a swim in the pool, we showered and took the shuttle from the hotel to the center of SG, where we explored and had dinner.

Thoughts on Hotel Pescille: This was another great recommendation from Fodorites and posters on tripadvisor.com. The hotel is located about 5 minutes from the center of SG and is actually a restored farmhouse surrounded by vineyards. Our room (120E/night) was fairly large, clean, and had fabulous views of SG from our deck (room #94). The hotel also has a beautiful pool, which we used once in the afternoon and once on the morning we checked out. Good breakfast which was included in the cost. Another benefit of the hotel is that it has a shuttle that takes you to and from the center of SG (it costs 4E per person round trip, but was worth it not having to drive and find parking). A small drawback of the hotel was having to rent your pool towel (2E a person)..I have never had a “rent” a towel before..it just seemed odd and unnecessary. Anyways, that was really the only complaint I had about the hotel; overall, we really liked it and would stay again. In fact, we were tempted to stay a second night at Hotel Pescille but after so much moving around, we decided that we would rather stay 4 solid nights in Sorrento than stay an additional night in SG.

Sorry—I have no food reviews to share from SG, as I forgot to write down the name of the restaurant we ate at for Day #10 (it was one of our least favorite of the trip!) Actually, though, I had the BEST gelato of the entire trip in SG—it was at the place with the neon sign in the main square of the SG town center. I had two scoops (chocolate and coffee) and it was heads and tails above any other gelato I had on the trip. I must have been so blown away by this gelato that I neglected to write down the name of gelato shop; however, it’s the only shop with a neon sign that I remember seeing in the square, and they had a sign hanging about how they had one a contest.

Overall Thoughts on SG: We really liked SG, probably more so because we went to the center in the early evening after the day trippers had left. Both Brian and I agreed that it was beautiful and felt a bit magical at night; we took some great pictures there too.


Sixth Stop: SORRENTO

Days 11 through 15. Since we still had the rental car, we drove from SG to Sorrento… this is one part of the trip that I would probably revise if given the chance, as the drive was longer than we expected. We left SG around 11am and didn’t get to Sorrento until 8pm, as we hit TONS of traffic after a tollbooth (I believe the tollbooth was in Naples). Imagine a dozen lanes of cars trying to squeeze into two lanes...that’s pretty much what we sat in for a good 75 minutes… Anyways, it was a long drive but we made the best of it and actually much of it (until the traffic) was a beautiful drive. And we couldn’t have been happier upon our arrival at Il Nido, just in time for dinner and the sunset! (Note-we dropped off the rental car when we arrived in Sorrento).

Thoughts on Il Nido: This is my favorite hotel of the entire trip! I had read so many great reviews leading up to our vacation and ultimately made the last minute decision that we would stay here 4 nights instead of 3 which was originally planned (and I’m so glad we decided to spend the extra night there!) The view from our room (80E/night) was amazing, as was the view from the dining room. We had made a rule, prior to our trip, that we would refrain from eating any place twice, so that we could try as many restaurants and styles of food as possible; well, that rule was thrown out the window in Sorrento because we ended up eating at Il Nido’s restaurant three out of the four nights of our stay (more on that in my food review section). Also, I really liked Dino, the owner of the hotel. He and his staff worked so hard and were so helpful. And the breakfast (included in the cost) was the best of our trip; they even had eggs, which Brian appreciated! And I loved the selection of pastries—there was one filled with chocolate (still warm!) which was to die for! Another bonus of Il Nido was having free use of the shuttle that made drop off and pick up stops in downtown Sorrento. We were able to easily take the ferries and trains from the drop off stops. Overall, we were really thrilled by our stay at Il Nido and I was actually sad when we left…needless to say, we will definitely be returning to this hotel!

Next, here’s a breakdown of what we did each day from Sorrento, followed by restaurant/bar reviews:

Day 11: As noted above, this was our long day of driving from San Gimignano to Sorrento, so there’s not a whole lot to report here… Arrived in Sorrento around 8pm, had dinner at Il Nido, and relaxed!

Day 12: We took a daytrip to Capri. From the shuttle drop off, we walked down to the ferries (about a 10 minute walk). We were able to purchase tickets for the 10:20 ferry pretty easily, although be forewarned that they are kind of expensive (our R/T ferry cost was 50E total for 2). There may be cheaper ferry options out there… Anyways, the ferry only took about 20/25 minutes and once we arrived at Capri, our plan was to take the bus to Anacapri. We got in the line for the busses and probably waited a good 30-40 minutes for a bus (some had come during that time, but because there were so many people in line, we had to wait for our turn). After a while, we started to joke that we stood in line for the ferry only to stand in line for the bus to Anacapri… finally, though, a bus came and we made the zig-zaggy drive up to Anacapri. Once we arrived in Anacapri, we took the chairlift up to Mt. Solaro, which was a highlight of the trip. The chairlift (7E a ticket) takes about 12 minutes to make it to the top. Once we arrived at the top, we got off and took probably close to 100 pictures—it was SO beautiful! You feel as though you are on top of the world! Afterwards, we took the chairlift down and then walked around Anacapri for a bit, stopping to have lunch, etc. We then took the bus to the Blue Grotto stop but there really isn’t much you can see unless you swim or take a boat in, so we just walked around there and then took the bus back. Overall, it was a great daytrip and the chairlift is a definite must!

Day 13: We took another daytrip, this time to Positano, Amalfi and Ravello (my favorite stop was Positano!) We took the 9:25 ferry from Sorrento to Positano (I believe it took about 40 minutes and cost 7E for this leg of the trip, one-way). Once we arrived at Positano, we bought 2 chairs at the beach and relaxed (yes, they were overpriced at 15E a pop, but worth it!) We spent maybe three or four hours at the beach—great weather and warm water—I could have spent the whole day there! Around 2, we took another ferry to Amalfi (I believe this ferry ride was shorter, around 20 minutes, and the ticket was 7E again). I think we may have gotten ripped off though because many of the same people riding the ferry from Positano to Amalfi only paid 4E for their tickets…oh well. Once we arrived in Amalfi, we took a bus up to Ravello. This time there were no lines; once we bought the 5E SITA pass at the Tabachi, we were able to find the right bus right away. Thus bus took about 20 minutes and Ravello was beautiful! We went to the Villa Citrone (5E a piece to enter) and walked around the gardens, which were lovely. Took many photos here (no surprises there!!) Afterwards, we walked around for a bit, had our millionth gelato of the trip, and then took the bus back down to Amalfi. We walked around Amalfi for a few hours and were planning to have dinner there, but we decided we really liked the feel and look of Positano more, so we took the SITA bus from Amalfi to Positano (took about 50 minutes) and it was a great way to see the Amalfi coastline. Once we were back in Positano, we found a good spot for dinner—a place called La Pergola (more on that later). We enjoyed a good (albeit slightly overpriced) meal and then took the SITA bus back to Sorrento around 9:30pm. We sat right up front so we had a great view, even in the dark! A few great things about taking the bus back is that it runs later than the ferries, is cheaper, and this particular bus route (Sorrento via Nastro Verde) made a stop right in front of our hotel (I’m not sure if the stop is a scheduled one, but we told the bus driver that we were staying at Il Nido and he stopped right in front of the hotel, which was great!) I think the ride from Positano took about an hour…Overall, it was a great day!

Day 14: We took our third daytrip from Sorrento, this time to Pompeii. (One of the great things about Sorrento, I’m sure you’ve realized, is that it’s an ideal location for daytrips!) We took the Il Nido shuttle, which dropped us off at the train station. From there, we took the train to Pompeii, which was maybe a 20-30 minute ride max. The train cost 6E each for a R/T ticket. Once we arrived at Pompeii, we bought our admission tickets (11E each) plus two audioguides (10E total). The crowds weren’t too bad and although it was pretty hot out, we overheard a tourguide say that the temperature that day was like “winter” compared to the heat that they had been experiencing earlier in the month, so I guess we got lucky with some comfortable weather! Funny side story—we actually saw Jason Lee (Earl, from My Name is Earl) and Giovanni Ribisi (actor, film and TV), a few times as we made our way through the ruins; Earl was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans—each time I saw him, I couldn’t help but wonder how he was surviving the heat! Anyways, we both found Pompeii to be very interesting and it was unbelievable how well-preserved some of the ruins were. We probably spent a good 4 hours there and then took the train back to Sorrento. When we returned to Sorrento, I actually had to buy a new 2G memory card because the cards I had brought with me were quickly filling up! Overall, another great day completed with another great meal and stay at Il Nido. Like I said before, I was sad to be leaving Il Nido but excited for the final leg of our trip—Rome!

Next, a bit of a food review during our time in Sorrento and Positano:

1.) The Il Nido Restaurant in Sorrento (Dinner on Days #11, 12, and 14): This was another favorite restaurant of the entire trip…which is why, no doubt, we decided to eat here not once, not twice, but three times! The food is delicious, the cost is very reasonable, and the views from the restaurant can’t be beat! Each night we were greeted by Dino or his female server, who brought us a complimentary glass of prosecco, followed by a complimentary bruschetta (just a small portion, but a great way to start each meal!). Our favorite dishes included the caprese salad (a must try!), the beef filet with peppercorns (my fave) and the muscles/clams and pasta dish (Brian’s fave). We always got the house wine and water, and I don’t think our bill each night for all of the food and drink was between 30 and 40E. Definitely a great meal each night!

2.) Olandis in Anacapri (Lunch on Day #12): This was a little trattoria near the center of Anacapri where we stopped for a quick lunch. I had a tom/mozzarella bruchetta sandwich that was actually quite good and Brian had a pepper/sausage sandwich (also good). With water, the bill came to 13E for lunch.

3.) Covo dei Saraceni in Positano (Lunch on Day #13): This was a little sandwich shop/bar right near the main beach in Positano. We bought these great sandwiches and a few drinks there to eat back on the beach. Great tasting and cheap for under 12E total!

4.) La Pergola in Positano (Dinner on Day #13): Since we had planned on eating in Amalfi, not Positano, I hadn’t really done my homework on restaurants in Positano. We picked La Pergola because the menu looked decent and people seemed to be enjoying their meals. The prices were a bit high but that was due to its location on the beach. I got a pasta dish with eggplant and mozzarella (delicious!) and Brian got the seafood risotto (not a huge portion but very good!). These two dishes, plus a bottle of wine, came to a total of 42E. Overall, we enjoyed our meals and would recommend this restaurant.

Overall Thoughts on Sorrento and the Surrounding Areas: Like I said earlier, what I love about Sorrento is its centrality to the other major sights—Capri, Positano, Amalfi, Pompeii, etc… There’s also plenty of restaurants and bars in Sorrento itself, although by the end of our long days, we wanted nothing more to stay in and enjoy a meal at Il Nido’s restaurant. Overall, we really loved Sorrento (and Il Nido) and would definitely go again.

GoJumbos

Seventh Stop: ROME

Days 15 through 18: This was our last leg of the trip. I was excited to see Rome again (I had visited when I was in high school) but sad to be leaving Il Nido. On Day #15, we took the Il Nido shuttle to the train station, took the train from Sorrento to Naples (3.20E each), and then caught a train from Naples to Rome (19.50E). The Naples to Rome train ride took about 2.5 hours. From the train station, we caught the H bus to Trastevere, where we easily found our B&B, Arco del Lauro (about a 5 minute walk from the bus stop).

Thoughts on the Arco del Lauro: Arco del Lauro gets many rave reviews on Fodors and tripadvisor.com and we were overall pleased with our stay. All of my communication with Arco del Lauro had been with Lorenza; however, she was away during our stay so we were met by Daniella, the assistant, who was very nice and helpful. The room (110E/night) was quite small but modern and had a very clean bathroom. There was a window, but it opened into an ally-way type of thing, so we kept the curtains drawn for the most part. There was an AC and a higher-dryer in the room, both useful. The biggest bonus here was the free Internet (just outside our door in the common room)—this was convenient for looking up directions, confirming our return flights, email, etc… Since there were so few rooms here, there was hardly anyone ever on the computer which was great. For breakfast, we got a voucher for a nearby café, where we had a coffee and a pastry; this wasn’t as filling of a breakfast as we had elsewhere on our trip, but it was suffice for a quick, tasty breakfast). Also, I liked the location of Arco—in Trastevere, surrounded by so many great restaurants and within walking distance to the Vatican, the Forum, etc… (we thought so, anyways!) For 110E in Rome, I think this is a good find although I have nothing to compare it with. Part of me couldn’t believe we found ourselves paying that much money for such little space, but I kept having to remind myself that we were in Italy and that’s just how it is. Overall, if you’re looking for a clean and relatively less expensive place to stay in Rome, I’d recommend Arco del Lauro; if you’re looking for a larger room with more bells and whistles, you probably want to go elsewhere.

And now for a breakdown of what we did each day from Rome, followed by restaurant/bar reviews:

Day 15: As noted above, we spent the first part of day making the trip from Sorrento to Rome; in total, it took us about 3.5 hours and we were in Rome by early afternoon. After we checked into Arco del Lauro, we walked straight over to the Forum (which to walk through is free). We got some great pictures and then overheard a tourguide who said he was giving a free tour of the Forum (it’s free, with the hope that you’ll sign up for additional tours while you’re in Rome). Anyways, we ended up tagging along for this free tour of the Forum and were actually really impressed by the guide—his name is Jason (he’s blonde) and he’s from a company called Roman Odyssey. He was very charismatic, well-spoken, almost had a theatrical presence to him. Anyways, we liked him and his tour, so we ended up booking a Colosseum tour with his company for later on afternoon. We originally thought Jason was going to be the guide for that tour, but then one of his colleagues (Angelo) ended up doing our tour of the Colosseum. We had the option of doing just the Colosseum tour for 12E each plus entrance fee of 11E each or the Colosseum/Palatine Hill tour for 25E each plus 11E for entrance). Anyways, the other tourguide Angelo was fine but he wasn’t nearly as good as Jason so we ended up deciding to do the Palatine portion of the tour on our own By the way, we loved the Colosseum and especially the Palatine—it was so beautiful! Afterwards, we existed Palatine Hill back near the Roman Forum and walked through the Forum once more, this time just as it was starting to get dark. Little did we know that it was past closing time and we were the people they were waiting on to close the gates to the Forum! Anyways, it was great to walk through the Forum without the crowds (perfect for photo ops too!) and we were the last people to leave for the day. That night, we returned to our hotel, showered, and then had dinner in Trastavere.

Day 16: We began our day with a walk over to Campo de Fiore and then on to Piazza Navona. From there, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain—beautiful but very crowded! We had made 12:30 reservations with Angel Tours to do the Vatican, and 3:00 Scavi ticket tours. Upon arriving, we realized that we were not going to have time to do both in that timeframe (especially with the line to get into the Vatican), so we decided that we would do the Vatican Museum the next day, and do the Basillica and the cupola that day before heading over for the Scavi tour). This ended up working out well for us, as we were able to see the basilica and cupola without feeling too rushed. At 2:45, we headed over to the Scavi office, where we met our group for the tour and it was really quite something to go underground, hear this amazing history, and actually see this site with our own eyes. Brian really got a kick out of it! If you can get tickets (10E each), by all means do this tour—it was pretty darn fascinating! (however, if you’re claustrophobic, this probably isn’t for you!  ) After the Scavi, we headed back to Arco del Lauro, where we showered and then headed out for dinner at a place called Ginos in Trastavere (see review below). From there, we took an evening stroll down to the Colosseum (got some great pics!) and then stopped for a drink at the Hotel Forum’s rooftop terrace (not the restaurant but bar one floor above). Yes, the drinks are way overpriced but I must say that the atmosphere with the flowers and torch candles and music was pretty darn romantic! I actually loved the drink I had (a grasshopper martini)—for 12E, it’s a good thing I liked it! Needless to say, it was a great way to end the night!

Day 17: We started off the day (our 3rd wedding anniversary!) by doing a little shopping around Rome and then headed over to see the Spanish Steps (in hindsight, I probably would have skipped these if given the opportunity, as there’s more interesting sights to see in Rome, imo!) Anyways, we stopped at Giolitti for what I thought might be our last gelato of the trip (I was wrong about that) and then made our way over to the Vatican. Since it was about 1:00 at that point, the line for the Vatican was nearly nonexistent...it probably took us no more than a 5 minute line to get through the security checkpoint, and then another 5 minute line (max) to buy the tickets. We explored the museum for a good 3-4 hours (my favorite spot—the “map room”; Brian loved the Sistine Chapel). The crowds in the Sistine Chapel were unreal—you could barely move! Anyways, by the time we were through, we were a bit “museumed out” so we had lunch at a café near the museum (we had tried to eat a late lunch/early dinner Dino e Tony’s but it was closed). We then headed back to Arco del Lauro, where we relaxed for a bit, showered, and then headed out once more for yet another stroll through Trastevere. Around 8pm, we made our way over to a restaurant called Le Mani in Pasta (http://www.lemaniinpasta.com)--this restaurant had been recommended to us by both Lorenza and Daniella at Arco del Lauro and we had made reservations there (a good thing since every table was taken or reserved!) We had an excellent meal (probably the best of our trip) which was fitting being that this was our last night of vacation. We even ordered an extra half liter of wine (maybe not a great idea with an early flight to catch the next, but it seemed so at the time!) Regardless, it was the perfect meal to end a wonderful vacation in Italy!

Day 18: We woke up at 5:30 for a 6:30 taxi pick-up. From Arco del Lauro to FCO, it was a 40E cab ride. I had expected FCO to be a madhouse (along the same lines of JFK) but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was virtually no line at check in (two or three people tops) and the same went for security. (If only the rest of our trip home had gone as well!) Anyways, we flew (via Alitalia) from Rome to Venice. What was supposed to be an hour layover turned into a 3 hour layover in Venice; the only benefit was that I treated myself to a final bowl of gelato (for real this time) at the Venice airport (surprisingly, it was actually great gelato and very reasonable!) Finally, after a long wait, we boarded our Delta plane to JFK; however, the flight back to JFK was considerably longer than the flight we had going to Italy (9 hours long!) and the movie system did not work the entire flight (a let down because they were actually scheduled to show 2 movies that I had wanted to see!) Oh well… I slept a bit, read a bit, and ate a bit (on the bright side, the food going back to JFK was 100% better than the food we had going to Italy). We finally made it to JFK around 4pm and then learned that most of the flights to Boston had been cancelled or postponed because of rain and storms. We didn’t end up leaving JFK until about 1:00 that night (or rather the next morning) and arrived in Boston at around 2am, which put us at our front doorstep at around 2:45. It was probably the longest day of continuous traveling that we had ever experienced, but again, we had such a wonderful trip that it was all worth it.

And now, a final batch of restaurant/bar reviews for Rome:

1.) Hosteria del Moro da Tony’s (Dinner on Day #15): Located in Trastevere, we sort of just stumbled upon it and saw lots of people (both Italians and tourists) enjoying their meals. There was a short wait but after about 10 minutes we were seated at an outdoor table. On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate the food a 7; it wasn’t the best of our trip, but it was far from the worst. We each had a bruschetta appetizer (which was good), followed by my main course (a beef special) and Brian’s main course (a lamb dish). Both were good but not great. With coke and a beer, the total came to 45E.

2.) Gino’s in Trastevere (Dinner on Day #16): Also located in Trastevere, I had seen good reviews for Gino’s online. Overall, we were really pleased with the meal (although our server’s attitude was a bit much…) For dinner, we each had a bruchetta appetizer (both very good), followed by a salad (again good) followed by a pesto pasta dish for me (very good) and Brian’s meal (I believe he also had a pasta dish; can’t recall and I forgot to take note of his meal in my notes, but I do remember he liked whatever it was he had!) With a bottle of house red wine, our bill came to about 40E. Overall, I would recommend Ginos—good food, good location, good prices.

3.) Hotel Forum (Drinks on Day #16): A great albeit pricey spot for drinks on a rooftop terrace with views of the Forum. 24E for two cocktails (although I must admit that the drinks were really good!) Brian especially liked the fact that the waiter brought us a huge bowl of pistachios, which we quickly devoured. Overall, a great “special occasion” spot to go for a drink.

4.) Le Mani in Pasta (Dinner on Day #16): This was probably the most delicious meal of the entire trip! Located (again) in Trastevere (you can see we didn’t stray far for dinner!), this restaurant was recommended to us by the owner and assistant at Arco del Lauro and also received great reviews online. It’s located a few blocks from Arco del Lauro (in the less crowded section of Trastevere). There is no outdoor seating but the interior of the restaurant is quite charming. Be warned though—the restaurant is not very large and it seems to be quite popular so I’d recommend making a reservation. As for our meals, we got the antipasti plate (very good), and then split one of their homemade pasta dishes (just a basic dish with peppers and cheese but it was fantastic), followed by Brian’s main course (seabass) and my main course (beef filet with peppercorns). We both loved our main courses (the steak was among the best I have ever had!) and we also ordered the mixed vegetable plate which was delicious. For dessert, we split a piece of chocolate cake (good, not great) and after our first bottle of house red wine, we decided to splurge for a second half-liter given that this was our final night of vacation!) Somehow, our bill only came to 73E (I thought it was going to be higher, given all of the food and wine we had!) It was a fantastic meal though and I would definitely recommend Le Mani in Pasta if you plan to dine in the Trastevere area.

Overall Thoughts on Rome: We both really liked Rome, more than we thought we would. I had visited back in high school and this was Brian’s first trip. I remember not loving Rome the first time around and recall thinking that it was dirty, sprawling, and felt unsafe (perhaps because I was so young at the time). This time around, though, I felt the complete opposite; it seemed cleaner, smaller, and I never felt unsafe… in fact, I wish we had a day or two more to spend there. There’s so much to see and do that it’s hard to fit everything in to such a short amount of time. I do feel that we saw a lot in the time we had without feeling insanely rushed; plus, whatever we didn’t see this time around we will see the next time we visit.


And finally, a few final thoughts….

WHAT WE DID TO PREPARE:

(I use “we” loosely here, since I did 99% of the planning!  )

• Lived on fodors.com and tripadvisor.com for the last 6 months or so.
• Called all credit cards and banks to notify them of our trip.
• Had the mail put on hold.
• Reserved all hotels; confirmed a few days prior.
• Bought extra memory cards (still ended up having to buy another one in Italy!)
• Opened up a second checking account/ATM at credit union (no fees there)
• Took a list of addresses (for post-cards), important phone numbers, etc…
• Packed as lightly as we could (we ended up doing a really good job for 18 days, although there was one pair of shoes I never wore!)
• Borrowed or bought Italy travel books; took very detailed notes.

HERE’S SOME OF OUR FAVORITE EXPERIENCES, MEALS, VIEWS, etc…
• Hotel-Il Nido in Sorrento
• Dinner-Le Mani in Pasta (Trastevere, Rome)
• Gelato-I have the name written down somewhere (can’t find it at the moment) but it’s the gelato shop in the main square of San Gimignano with the lit up neon sign.
• Views (too many to list all!)—the view from Il Nido, the view from Mt. Solaro on Capri, the view from the rooftop deck of Apraiu in Manarola, the view from the Duomo in Florence, and the view from the tower in San Giorrgio of Venice


A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS:
• Our weather was fabulous for almost the entire stay—we got so lucky! I was worried that it would be insanely hot in July (as it was the last time I visited Italy) but the temperatures were actually very comfortable. Many Italians we spoke with said that Italy had been cooler than usual; in fact, a few nights during our stay I actually needed to wear my hoodie/jacket—I would go so far as to say it was cold out! It rained for about 20 minutes one night when we were in Venice, but otherwise the weather was absolutely beautiful.
• Crowds were probably the worst in Venice and Florence (I didn’t find them to be as bad in Rome).
• Safety: I constantly told my husband to watch his wallet, although we never really felt unsafe. I had been worried about pickpocketing prior to the trip, but when we got there, it seemed that if you just kept aware of your surroundings, you would be fine. My family in Florence told us though that their city has been experiencing a very high rate of burglaries, such that thieves (with weapons) enter homes and force the adults to tour them around the house (at gunpoint) to find expensive items and open the safe. This has happened to three of my mom’s cousin’s friends-scary!
• Food/Dining: Overall (with the exception of Venice) we enjoyed the food in Italy. There was more fish on the menu than I remember from my previous visit (and I don’t eat fish) but I was always able to find something of interest to eat.
• Transportation: The trains in Italy were simple and convenient—just remember to punch your ticket before you get on the train, and note whether you’re in 1st/2nd class, and whether you have an assigned seat number (we didn’t realize this the first time and ended up sitting in 1st class—oops!) As for the busses, we took a lot of these in Florence, Sorrento and Capri; overall, they were fine and cheap but at times very crowded. Driving—as mentioned above, we rented a car out of Florence for a few days. Brian did the driving and said it was a lot easier than driving in Ireland! No major problems (other than traffic!)


THINGS I WOULD PROBABLY CHANGE:
There’s not a whole lot I would change about our trip if I could have a do-over (we had such a great time!) but I would probably alter our itinerary just a bit such that we fly into Venice and out of Naples (instead of out of Rome); that way, we could have avoided that super-long drive from San Gimignano to Sorrento. I think I would have liked to end our trip in Sorrento (staying even a few days longer at Il Nido) since we loved it so much there. Otherwise, we really enjoyed our itinerary and the pace of it. All and all, it was a fabulous trip and I’m happy to answer any questions for others who are lucky enough to be visiting Italy in the near future. Cheers!

GoJumbos

Hi Again--

I've noticed that there's some odd text or characters in my trip report--probably because I wrote it in Word and then pasted it on fodors... Is there any way for me to fix/edit this?

Angela

amamax2

Wonderful, wonderful trip report!! Thank you for sharing and all the details.

We are going in Sept and also staying at Il Nido and Arco Del Lauro, so was especially glad to hear how much you liked them and all the restaurant reviews - I'm taking notes!

cmeyer54

The report was great - we'll be in northern italy in early september after dropping our son in Medford...hmm, is there some kind of academic institution nearby?!? Our last trip (August 06) was a little like yours - florence, tuscany and venice. I loved Rome as well - hope to go back in a few years!

Samsaf

GoJumbos, wonderful trip report. I'm going to look up the II Nido. Your itinerary sounds great!

We were at Portofino one day (from cruise ship) and have wanted to return ever since.

plafield

Great trip report! Like reliving part of our trip! We also stayed at La Calcina (loved it) and Arco del Lauro (loved it too!) and one of our favorite meals was also at Lemani in Pasta.

I'm already planning our next trip, which will likely include Sorrento, so it was great to read the positive review of Il Lido. We'll probably stay there as well.

Thanks for the great report!