Back from Italy--a first timers trip report
 

Well after surviving the passport chaos we had a fantastic, relaxing vacation. Thanks for the great advice and help--without the help from people on this board our trip would not have been nearly as wonderful.

For some perspective on my comments, I'm 28 and my hubby is 39. We are expecting our first baby in Sept. This trip was our last hoo-rah before becoming parents. We wanted to enjoy Italy without running around too much because of my questionable energy level (I ended up being my normal self with very swollen feet!) Neither of us has traveled much outside the US. We love good food, people watching, shopping, and just seeing and experiencing different ways of life. We are pretty laid back, don't like to overplan, and enjoy each others company immensely.

We planned this trip in about 5 weeks--so the hotel recommendations that often pop up on this board were all full.

I will probably concentrate on the more practical parts of our trip. I just don't have the energy to do the details right now.


GENERALITIES:
Rick Steve's brand money belts were great. Very comfortable and light weight. We carried mostly cash.
Banks exchange rates can really vary, so do their fees. You need a passport to exchange currency in our experience.
Sometimes you need correct change for the public restrooms. (Very important tidbit for this pregnant woman!)
We were so, so glad we only had one carry-on and back pack each. It made getting around so much easier.
Our english/italian translation book sucked. Make sure that you get one that has food words in the glossary part. Ours only had it in the food section and categorized by course or type of food. Many times you would see a 4 or 5 word description of a meat dish, but only be able to find the type of meat in the section. You wouldn't know if the other words were vegetables,
sauces etc.
Sometimes the faucet handles would be foot pedals (I learned this after wiping soap off my hands with a paper towel because I couldn't figure out how to turn the sink on--when I went to throw that paper towel away I saw the foot pedal HA!)


ITINERARY: Flew into Rome, immediately took the train to Florence
3 nights Florence
4 nights in Montalcino (to day trip by car)
3 nights Rome


FLORENCE:

GETTING THERE:
We were a bit worried about taking the train and such without reservations and not being comfortable with the language.
It ended up being a breeze. We bought our tickets to Florence at the airport where we bought our ticket to Termini. That guy spoke some English, which was nice because he was able to explain to us that there weren't seats together (not even in the same compartment) for the 11:30ES to Florence. We landed at 9:30 (only had carry on luggage) and could have easily made the 11:30 ES train but because of the seat situation we took the 12:30 instead. In Florence we walked to our Hotel. It should have taken about 8 minutes, but we got lost so it took a good 15. :)

ACCOMMODATIONS: Panella's Residence--small B&
B near the Duomo. Great location, very large room, American type bathroom, extremely clean, wonderful hosts, good breakfast. We paid $165. We were very, very happy and would recommend this place without hesitation.
We had a great time in Florence. I'm glad this was our first stop. It was busting without being intimidating--a good place to get our feet wet.

ACTIVITIES:
For museums we hit the Academia, Science Museum, and Duomo Museum.

I would not recommend the science museum unless you are looking for a break and some AC. The signage wasn't in English, so we had to rely only on our guidebook and their paper handout. The museum wasn't interactive like many you see here in the USA.
We enjoyed both the Duomo museum and the Academia. The Uffuzi was booked, and well I guess I honestly just didn't care enough to wait in line.
We walked absolutely everywhere. It was enjoyable and fun. We did lots of people watching, shopping and just hanging about.

FOOD:
For lunch we ate Panninos most days. Sometimes we ate them in a restaurant, other-times to go. We generally spent 8-16E for lunch.
Our B&B took care of our dinner reservations each night, which was so nice. We just let them handle it. We wanted a nice sit down meal without being formal.
We always ordered 3 courses each and a bottle of wine (never spent more than 30E on wine). Our dinner bills ranged from 110E-155E. Yes, it was too much food, but we just really wanted to try it all! Sometimes we were really "oinkers" and got dessert too!
One night they sent us to Il Ritrovo which is talked about on this board a bit. It was fine, but our least favorite dinner.
The other two places we ate were Cantina Barbagianni, and La Giostra.
La Giostra was really special and fantastic! I would go out of my way to eat here again. That really says something because I think that most hotels will probably send you to some really great places in your neighborhood.
When we ate at 8:30, there were pretty much only American's in the restaurants. When we pushed our reservation back to 9:30 there were mostly Italians.

I'll be back in a bit with more...

Hi marci,

Looking forward to more.

Hi Marci - welcome home. Enjoying your report and your viewpoint.

I remember your passport crisis, and am happy for you that it didn't put a damper on your trip.

Please continue.

Enjoying your report, Marci. Looking forward to the rest.

We are staying at Panella's Residence next month; recommended by the b&b that was already full. There is not much out there on them and I'm really glad to read your positive review.
So glad everything worked out for you with the passport; I was reading all about it just at the time we realized that our passports would expire in Sept.,thus in the "window" of not enough days left. So, there we were, obviously not as desparate as you, but now we're doing the expedite renewal for the extra $$$ - a travel lesson.

So glad you had a great trip and also that you enjoyed La Giostra. We were just there too and loved it.

(You weren't by any chance the couple from NY who sat down by us (and were also embarrassed by the drunk Americans from L.A. at the nearby table) and asked what we'd recommend, are you? That would be too funny!

Marci, I meant to also add that I'm glad to hear how much you enjoyed La Giostra. We had it planned for my husband's birthday on our trip to Florence, but it didn't pan out. So, you have reinforced my thought that we definitely can not miss it the next time.

<<quote>>
(You weren't by any chance the couple from NY who sat down by us (and were also embarrassed by the drunk Americans from L.A. at the nearby table) and asked what we'd recommend, are you? That would be too funny)
<<end quote>>

No, but I did witness an English speaking tourist fall asleep at the dinner table there!


PICKING UP THE RENTAL CAR:
Upon leaving Florence we picked up our rental car at EuropeCar on Via Borgognissanti that we had rented through AutoEurope.com . The tricky thing about this is that the street is often spelled as two words, or as another street name all together. Picking up our car was no problem, although they had ¡§upgraded¡¨ us to a larger car. I did not want this larger car, but they claimed it was the only automatic they had.
My husband drives a stick regularly, but I don¡¦t feel comfy driving one here in flat old Florida and I was not going to hone my skills in Italy. We wanted to both be able to drive so that my husband could enjoy wine with dinner. We took the C class Mercedes and it really was fine. (As an aside, does a diesel car perform differently than the same car that isn¡¦t diesel?)
Getting out of the city was an adrenaline rush, but all in all very doable and worked out great. Once we got out of the city, driving was no problem at all. I navigated and he drove. I had purchased the Touring Club of Italy Tuscany map. This is the map we used primarily, but honestly could have been fine with the freebee from the rental agency. We weren¡¦t getting off the beaten track, and mostly followed the street signs anyway.

FIRST STOP, SAN GIMIGNANO
We decided to stop in San G on the way to our final destination of Montalcino. Parking was a real bear¡Xseriously¡Xit was bad! The town was jammed packed with tourists. We walked around a bit, and my hubby went up to the top of the tower. We did a bit more wondering down some side streets to check out the views, and when we popped back out on the main road everything had changed. We thought this 1:30 siesta thing was a joke, an exaggeration. I mean who in the heck would close their business for a few hours when the town was packed with shoppers? Yep, they do! We actually enjoyed the town far more once the crowds were gone and the street vendors had cleared out. Unless you are going there to shop, I would suggest waiting until after 1:30 to visit¡Xit was so much nicer. We had a crappy lunch and got back in the car. The drive was really nice.


MONTALCINO:
Great town. We are really glad we made it our base for traveling around Tuscany. It was small and manageable, not filled with day trippers. We ate great food, did some shopping around, wine tasting, etc.


WINE:
One tip on the wine buying. The wine shop in the fort had things like WS91 listed on some of the price tags. This means rated a 91 by wine spectator magazine. We were not at all familiar with Brunello before this trip, so we found that to be very helpful. We did not see this ¡§cheat sheet¡¨ at any other wine shop. I guess I will also take a moment out to comment that we just weren¡¦t all that enthralled with the Brunello. We tried several wineries and vintages, and although we did enjoy it I was not trying to figure out how to take it home. I found it generally to be very smooth, but not really complex. We drink California wines almost exclusively (too intimidated to branch out much I guess) and have just trained our pallets that is what we like? I¡¦d be interested to hear if others felt similarly or if we are just weird.

We stayed at the Hotel Vecchia Oliveria which was very nice, great views, pool, terrace and just inside the city walls. It was great to be able to walk up the street and be right there. We had a great experience at this hotel and I would recommend it without hesitation. The primary staff, Sandro, was really good about recommending restaurants and making the reservations for us.

Although I¡¦m sure the water in Italy is fine, my OB wanted me to be extra careful and only drink bottled. We had 1L bottles in our backpacks that we just refilled. Buying water from the grocery store was the way to go. The 1.5 L ones ran between 40-60 cents, (but at a ¡§convenience¡¨ type place they were anywhere from EUR1-3.) We were pleasantly surprised! I think that it was the only thing that cost less than we expected ƒº

SIENA DAY TRIP
We took one day to day trip to Siena. Parking in Siena wasn¡¦t as bad as I thought even though we did end up far away. We parked in the San Francesco parking area. We probably sat just outside the gate for like 10 minutes trying to figure out what the signs said! We could just see ourselves in short term parking at an astrological rate¡Xbut we took a chance and it was fine. There was an escalator about a block away (where you paid when you were ready to leave) that took you up to town. I think our visit cost us EUR13 in parking¡Xstill not cheap.
Siena was hopping with travelers. The Duomo was amazing and we rented the audio guide for the interior tour. It was fantastic and worth the trip¡Xdefinitely get the audio guide. We had to cut out a bit before my hubby was ready to find the pregnant woman a bathroom and some lunch! We had an ok lunch at a Rick Steve¡¦s suggested place, strolled around then had EUR12 cappuccinos at Il Campo. It was really fun to people watch and hang out.

DAY TRIPS, SAN QUIRCO, PIENZA, MONTALPULCIANO:
We day tripped to these three towns all in one day, which I think worked out fine since we got an early start. We thought all three towns were worth a visit. They were all pretty different, in size, sights, and shops. We lucked out in Pienza because they were having a religious festival (but we never found out what it was) where they lined all the streets in flower petals in elaborate designs. It was so gorgeous! We bought some cheese in San Q, meats and breads in Pienza and had a picnic in the park there. It was great and gave us a (funny) sense of accomplishment since the vendors didn't speak English.

Montalpulciano was my least favorite of the three. It was really hot when we were there and my legs must have been tired because I found walking there exhausting! I guess I kept comparing it to Montalcino it had actually been our first choice of a place to stay. I don't know why I didn't really enjoy it there, I just didn't get a good vibe or something.

DINING:
Let's see...
Grappolo Blu--good homestyle food, in town
Ir Re Macchia---good, but not great--least favorite, in town
Baccon Di Vino--very good, upscale just a 2 minute drive away, beautiful views!
Osteria Dal Galletto--excellent! food highlight of the trip! 20 minute drive away down back roads

CELEBRITY SIGHTING:
We saw Rachel Ray in Montalcino. My husband thought he recognized her, but then we heard her voice and knew it was her. We said hi we're big fans as we were walking by her on the sidewalk, she said hi but was obviously not interested in chatting. So we've set Tivo up to record just in case!

Hi Marci,

Did you follow Rachel to see where she at for $40/day?

>..we just weren't all that enthralled with the Brunello.<

Brunellos have to sit in the glass (with occasional swirling) for about 20-30 min to blossom.

Enjoyed your report.

((I))

<<quote>>
Did you follow Rachel to see where she at for $40/day?
<<end quote>>
No, but she was standing outside of Grappolo Blu at the time.

<<quote>>
Brunellos have to sit in the glass (with occasional swirling) for about 20-30 min to blossom.
<<quote>>

Admittedly we didn't do this every time, but with one bottle we did, and when we ordered a glass in a restaurant I assumed it had been opened.

FINAL LEG

ROME:
We returned the car at FCO with the help of the directions of SlowTrav.com. Honestly, I don't know how we would have managed without those directions!

We took a cab from FCO to our hotel. Traffic seemed really bad, and it cost us $55. We are so, so glad we returned the car at the airport!

HOTEL:
We stayed at the Hotel Ponte Sisto. It is just a couple of short blocks from Campo di Fiori. The road is narrow, and seemed very sketchy at first. Everything is covered in graffiti. I wasn't prepared for it to be so dirty. I guess it reminded me of New Orleans. We were slightly concerned about our hotel because of the outside, but our fears were put to rest. The hotel was beautiful inside, quiet, nice English speaking staff, and the location ended up being fantastic!

That first afternoon we just walked around orienting ourselves. The next day we took a tour of the Colosseum and Forum with Context Rome. The tour was fantastic and well worth the money. I would suggest to all my friends that they take a tour of this area rather than being self directed. There were only 6 people in our group, which was fantastic! Our tour was about 3 hours. After lunch, we just wondered around and shopped. Then we wasted time and money going to the National Museum of Rome. We hated it!
I think my favorite tourist spot was Trevi Fountain! I don't know quite why I was so enamored with it, but I was (am).
That night it rained and we grabbed pizza at a little self service place near our hotel. It was very good and a nice change from the "fancy" food we had been eating.
The next day we walked over to the Vatican. We planned to check out the general area and get some lunch before our tour. Great plan but with one snag....Our tour stood us up! Yup, we had a tour scheduled (and pre-paid) with Icon tours who never showed. Since our return I have emailed them with no response yet.
We were (are) so mad about our crappy tour experience. We had not planned to do a self directed at the Vatican Museum, but this was our only opportunity so we just went for it. We did rent the audio guide, but we still found the museum incredibly boring for the most part. When we finally reached the Sistine Chapel I was surprised (although I shouldn't have been) at how totally packed and crowed it was. There did not appear to be any turnstile counting people--it was just a cram them in philosophy. It was beautiful and amazing, but not all that I had expected.
We walked around Vatican city a bit more, shopped at the outdoor market and went back to the hotel. We cleaned up and took a cab to Piazza Popolo to do the "Dolce Vita Stroll". It was fun people watching and window-shopping.

That night we had our most romantic dinner yet. We had pizza and beers on the monument facing the Pantheon while we watched the darkness close in. It was amazing!

We packed that night and caught a shuttle taxi (EUR50) to the airport the next morning. We arrived about 2hours and 15 ahead of schedule and needed all of that time! When we arrived at our gate we didn't even sit down because they started boarding.

We really enjoyed our trip to Italy. It was just what we wanted before this kiddo arrives and changes everything! I'm sure we will savor these memories of "just us" forever. Italy was an amazing country! I loved our itinerary--it gave us a touch of 3 different "types" of Italy.

Thanks again to other fororites for sharing their experiences--it really helped to make my trip great!