julievdal

Hello- This board was such a help to me when I planned my trip to Italy. Everyone's recommendations worked out wonderfully! I just wanted to share some of my experiences...

We were in Italy from September 1st through September 8th after spending a week in England for a wedding. Italy was spectacular, just as I expected. It was full of life, color and excitement. We toured through Venice, which was magical; Cinque Terre, which was wonderfully relaxing; and Florence, which was unfortunately a bit of a disapointment.

WELCOME TO ITALY

Unfortuanately, our introduction to Italy was absolutely nightmarish... We were supposed to fly out of London Gatwick at 7pm. However, AlItalia cancelled our flight to Florence for no apparant reason and left us scrambling to find a way to get there. We managed to argue our way on to the last flight out with British Airways to Pisa. Although my husband and i were married a few months ago, we considered this our honeymoon and two very nice Italian men allowed us to take their seats on the flight so we wouldn't lose our hotel and train tickets the next day.

Of course, that flight was an hour late and we ended up landing in Pisa at midnight. We found another woman who was also bumped onto that flight who was travelling with her 80-year old mother. Before we left, the AlItalia people told us there would be a car waiting for us at Pisa to directly drive us to our hotel in Florence. Of course, when we arrived in Pisa, after waiting in line for half an hour to talk to someone, they said our car had already left without us. The staff at the Pisa airport were horribly rude and unhelpful and just told us to take a city bus into Florence at 1am. So, that's what we did. Of course, the bus stopped at every stop along the way and took two hours to get to Florence. It dropped us at the train station in the middle of the city. "Luckily" I had directions to our hotel from the train station, but as anyone who's been to Florence knows, it is one of the hardest cities to navigate, esp. in the middle of the night with luggage (rolling suitcases weren't made to travel well over quaint cobblestone streets).

After some help from nice locals (luckily my husband speaks Italian pretty well), we found the street of our hotel, Via Guelfa. However, the number we had to the hotel didn't correspond to the numbers on the buildings. A wonderful man in the Hotel Basilea on Via Guelfa came out and asked if we needed help (keep in mind that this is now 3:30AM). He called our hotel to find out where they were located and pointed us in the right direction.

Finally we found our hotel - IL BARGELLINO - and a nice little man took us to our room. We finally got to sleep at 4am only to have to get up at 8 to catch our train to Venice ...

julievdal

VENICE

Venice was pure magic. An ethereal place that seemed to float above the rest of the planet. After a short Eurostar train trip from Florence, we arrived in Venice in the rain at about 2pm.

Like most people, I was taken aback when I saw the view of the Grand Canal from the train station. My awe soon turned into utter confusion trying to figure out which boat to take to get to our hotel. We figured it out and stood on the landing to wait for the boat. It finally arrived, already packed with people. It was a frustrating experience, to say the least, to try and pack on this boat with all our luggage. I managed to get on, but my husband was nearly left behind. He ended up having to literally do a stage dive onto the boat with his luggage to make it on with me. I thought he and our luggage was going overboard.

Luckily we made it and after a few stops, the boat cleared of people. It took about half an hour to get to our hotel's stop and was well worth the wait.

We stayed at the HOTEL WILDNER, which is located right on the Venice Lagoon (http://veniceby.com/hotelwildner/). We were welcomed by four traditionally costumed Venetians standing in front of the hotel. What a sight! The woman working at the front desk was wonderfully welcoming and showed us to our room (#16, which is the one photographed on the home page of the Web site) right away. The room was just as I hoped it would be, with a view to die for. I could hardly believe it. The room was large, spotless and very comfortable, with a nice sitting area and a large bathroom. We couldn't have been happier. It ran about $225 a night, and was WELL worth it.

After a short nap (trying to nap with Venice out your front door was torturous), we headed out to see the city. The hotel is a short walk from St. Mark's Square. Our first view of St. Mark's blew me away. I never expected it to be so absolutely breathtaking.

After doing the obligatory giddy twirl through the square, we meandered off into the streets and were immediately tempted to our first tiramisu in a small cafe just off the square (which ended up costing $15! but was again, WELL worth it and was the best tiramisu of the trip).

We spent the rest of the evening wandering through shops and were talked into a gondola ride by a persuasive gondolier. We probably paid more than we should have but we had a wonderful time. The ride lasted about 40 minutes and took us throughout the city. It drizzled just enough to enhance the romance. Pulling into the Grand Canal was another unforgettable experience. I managed to take a video of it with my digital camera, which I'm so glad I did.

Our gondola floated by a lovely little restaurant, which we returned to for dinner. RISTORANTE AL VAGON in the Cannaregio section (www.alvagon.com) was spectacular. Great food, great service, perfect ambiance. The funny thing is that when we got back to the hotel, Al Vagon was listed on my list of placed to try as recommended by this board.

Anyway... the next day we wandered around again and had a wonderful day. We had dinner at another Fodorite recommendation, RISTORANTE DA RAFFAELE, which was nice, but we liked Al Vagon better. Raffaele was lovely as well, with a similar canal-side atmosphere, but it was more pricey.

The next day we took the Eurostar to the Italian Riviera and Cinque Terre...

julievdal

CINQUE TERRE

From Venice, we caught the 10:30am first-class Eurostar to Milan. First-class was a nice perk and for the only 10% difference in price, I'm really glad we did it.

In Milan, we had to change trains to a less comfortable but still decent TrenItalia train. We were lucky enough to share a compartment with four other really nice people (another American couple and two Italians), who we chatted with the entire four-hour trip.

We arrived in Monterosso, the northernmost CT town at about 5pm. Tired and ready to get to our hotel, we were a bit dismayed by the crowds of tourists waiting at the train station. I knew to expect a lot of tourists, but it was still discouraging.

However, on the way to Manarola (the town we stayed in), most of the crowd disembarked from the train. After a bit of confusion about where to go from the train station, we found our lovely little hotel on Manarola, HOTEL MARINA PICCOLA ( www.hotelmarinapiccola.com ). The woman who greeted us was very helpful and friendly and led us to room #11, with a gorgeous view of the sea. The room was clean, large and very comfortable (with AC, which we didn't need to use).

My husband immediately changed into his swim suit and headed down to one of the many swimming holes below the hotel. We were pleasantly surprised to find it so easy to swim in the town.

That night we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, which I had high expectations for. The food (especially the crepes with pesto) was delicious, but the service was lacking. The waiter repeatedly had to ask us to remind him what we ordered and seemed more interested in sitting with the other waiters playing cards than serving us. However, the view was gorgeous and we had a nice dinner.

The next day we hiked from Manarola all the way up to Vernazza. It took about four hours and was strenuous at times, but was worth it for the spectacular views. Corniglia was a very cute little town. Looked like it would be a nice place to stay but was quite a hike up the hill. The hike from Corniglia to Vernazza took about an hour and a half. Vernazza was gorgeous, just as everyone says. It was more crowded and lively than the other towns. We had a nice lunch on the square and toured around the castle and my husband swam in the cove.

We took the ferry up to Monterosso and spent just an hour there wandering around. It was my least favorite of the towns, mainly because it is the largest and had more of a party atmosphere. But it was lovely nonetheless. The beach was packed.

From Monterosso, we took the ferry back down to Riomaggiore, which was similar to Corniglia... very small and cute. We walked along the Via Dell'Amore, an easy and beautiful walk to Manarola.

That night we ate at my favorite restaurant on Manarola, TRATTORIA IL PORTICCIOLO. I had ravioli pesto, the best pasta I've ever had. It was just heavenly. The restaurant was cozy with very attentive staff and a nice, homey atmosphere.

The next day, we headed down to Porto Venere, at the advice of one of our train companions earlier in the trip. It was a half-hour boat trip away, just south of Cinque Terre. The town was gorgeous, with a huge castle and ancient church. It's famous for being the inspiration of the poet Byron. We also took a boat tour of the islands in the area, which was great fun. At about 5pm, we headed back to Manarola and had a mediocre dinner at LA SCOGLIERA. The service was great, but the food was pretty bland. I had pesto lasagne. However, since it was Friday night, a nice jazz band was playing just across the road, which added a nice ambiance to the restaurant.

As a whole, we were pleasantly surprised by Cinque Terre. After everyone's reviews, I expected it to be overrun with tourists. But, since we were there mid-week, it wasn't bad at all. The paths were pretty clear of other tourists (except a few massive packs of Germans with ski poles). But for the most part, we rarely came across other Americans and were never bothered by the masses of tourists, as we expected.

However, we left CT on Saturday and did see a massive influx of people. While waiting at the Manarola train station, there was a steady line of people arriving in the town and walking along the paths. So, we were glad we experienced it mid-week and were leaving on the the weekend.

Next stop.... Firenze!

julievdal

FLORENCE

As I mentioned before, we were pretty disappointed with Florence. Maybe it was because it was the city we were most looking forward to and the one we had heard so many favorable things about. Maybe it was because we were at the end of our three-week trip and were quite exhausted. But, we found it overwhelming, crowded, dirty and hot.

We arrived from Pisa at about 2pm and headed to our hotel IL BARGELLINO (www.ilbargellino.com). The hotel was the high point of Florence, and where we ended up spending a lot of time our last few days there. The location was far enough from the main area to be less crowded but close enough to walk easily. Our room, #9, had access to the gorgeous rooftop terrace, where we spent each evening chatting with other guests and relaxing. It was a welcome oasis from the craziness of the city. The room itself was HUGE, clean, quiet and very comfortable.

Our first venture into Florence was overwhelming, to say the least. There were masses of people everywhere. Tour groups, cars, vendors, and even horses bombarded us. I felt as if we were on a sea of people just floating through the city. It was hard to enjoy the beauty of the city in the midst of such chaos.

I wanted to buy a leather jacket in florence and found a friendly vendor who brought us up to his store and ended up selling us a gorgeous jacket for a very reasonable price. The store was called Pelletteria De'Leoni on via dei Leoni behind Pallazzo Vecchio. The man who helped us spent about an hour with us, and was incredibly patient, helpful and knowledgable. I was worried about getting swindled in Florence but felt very good about this store and purchase.

Our journey that evening took us to the Pitti Palace, where we collapsed on the massive courtyard in front. We decided to venture back to the hotel, which took us through the craziness of the Ponte Vecchio and the San Lorenzo market. We were ready for a good, quiet dinner.

Near our hotel were two of the best restaurants of the trip. The first and third nights we ate at TRATTORIA LA GRATELLA, on Via Guelfa. It was a little traditional Tuscan restaurant run by a cute little Italian grandmother. The food was exceptional with the best soup I've ever had. Prices were also exceptional. A dinner with bruschetta, soup, risotto and wine cost only $35 for both of us!

The next day we decided to try to view Florence from the outskirts. So, we first headed over to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens. Although very dry from the lack of rain, the gardens were beautiful and gave us some nice views of the city. The Pitti Palace had a nice museum.

After that we walked to the Michelangelo Gardens, which were also overrun with tourists and vendors, but had gorgeous views of the city. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Accademia and saw Michelangelo's David. That was one of the highlights of Florence and was well worth the $8 fee.

That night we had dinner at another wonderful restaurant, TRATTORIA GUELFA. They offered a three-course meal for only $12. The food was good, not exceptional. But was definitely worth it for the price, service and ambiance.

The next day, our final day in Italy, we were going to take the bus to Siena, but I woke up with a horrible cold (which I'm still trying to get over). So, we decided to take it easy and since it was Monday, we decided to give Florence one more chance. We had a frustrating experience trying to get into the Duomo. After waiting in line for half an hour for what we thought was the Duomo, we ended up hiking up a tiny stone staircase to the top of the cathederal. While there was a nice view from the top, it would have been nice to see a sign telling us that was where we were going before we were ushered up these hot, crowded steps. I shudder to think what someone with clastrophobia or a fear of heights would have gone through. Once you were stuck on that staircase, there was no turning back. Anyway.... we made it back down to the bottom only to find a sign that said "Duomo Closed" at the end. Amazing.

After that, we toured the San Lorenzo church, which was beautiful and serene. We did a little shopping and then headed back to the hotel to relax the rest of the afternoon. I was feeling quite horrible at that point so the rooftop terrace at our hotel was a welcome respite. Next time we visit Florence, it will be in the winter and we'll definitely make it to the Tuscan countryside.

We departed Florence at 5am the next morning back to London, where we caught the Gatwick to Heathrow bus and then our flight back to SFO. It was a 24-hour long journey home, which was not fun at all. But it's so nice to be back home with our photos and memories.

I hope this has helped someone with their plans. Thanks to all the former travellers who helped me plan such a spectacular trip! I'm happy to answer any questions about the places mentioned in this review. Ciao!

maitaitom

We'll be in the CT in a few weeks. I'll be on the lookout for Germans with ski poles. Welcome back.

viaggiatore

julie,

Excellent Report! Mille Grazie! Hope to visit CT next May. Thanks for your terrific tips, just what I've been looking for and so well written. Again, thanks!