After over a year of planning, our trip has come and gone, but what an amazing adventure! I want to thank all of you who have posted your trip reports and tips as they really did help in numerous ways.

Hubby and I flew to Rome, via Swiss Air, from Los Angeles, connecting through Zurich. Swiss Air is a splendid airline, and the aircraft that we flew on had individual video screens with choices of Movies, TV shows, audio books, games, music, etc. which passed the time even with the guy in front of me laying in my lap most of the flight. Must airlines make coach class so dreadfully shy of leg room? I just don’t get it. In any case, we arrived on time in Rome as did our luggage – Woo Hoo! Hubby and I, just to be safe, packed half of our stuff in one another’s luggage just in case one of the bags didn’t arrive, plus we tucked a clean shirt, socks and some “unmentionables” in our carry on bags in the event both suitcases didn’t show. Lucky for us we didn’t have to go down that nasty road.

We met up with our travel pals, the Hansen’s, in baggage claim who arrived about an hour earlier, from Spain where they had spent the past 10 days with a tour group. As promised, the shuttle driver I arranged for prior to departure was right there outside of the baggage area holding the sign with our name on it (http://rome.airport-shuttle.com/) We hopped into the van and made the slow trek (I say slow as it was I guess what could be considered “rush hour” in Rome – about 7:30 PM) to our B&B near the Coliseum. Due to the darkness we couldn’t see much, with the exception of brake lights, until we arrived in the city. For those first timers, getting your first view of Rome proper really does take your breath away especially the Coliseum, which during the daylight was amazing enough, but to get your first glimpse while it is illuminated in the evening is quite another story.
Our accommodations were at The Arena House(http://arenahouse.com/), which is a small establishment, on its own floor within an apartment building (maybe 6 rooms?). It was inexpensive, basic, and clean and provided a voucher for a cup of coffee and roll in the morning for breakfast at one of two bars around the corner. Also, each room comes with its own PC and internet access, a very nice and convenient touch! Vincent, who spoke excellent English and his staff are lovely and extremely helpful with providing directions and recommendations for dining.

After settling in we found a quiet Enoteca around the corner (we were the only peeps in there!) and had our first bottle of wine of the trip (I really do think I drank my weight in wine during those 10 days!) some nibbles (rather forgettable, as is the name of the joint), then called it a night. We were all pooped.

Next up: Whirlwind tour of Rome in four hours on foot!

"...which passed the time even with the guy in front of me laying in my lap most of the flight.""

That's the same guy who is always on my flight. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip. Thanks for sharing about one of my favorite parts of the world.

I can't wait to read more!

msjazzykat,

Looking forward to your report! So few people are posting their trips these days. I'm having withdrawal.

YEAHHHHHHHHH I can't wait to hear all about your trip to Roma.

My first view of the Colosseum was also at night - just lovely!

Good start - looking forward to more . . .

Day 2

We awoke to a refreshed Rome, cleansed by a wicked rainstorm during the night. Being a California girl, and seldom experiencing the wet stuff that falls from the sky, it was a nice treat to be lying in bed in Rome listening to the rain in the middle of the night.

In the early part of the AM we met up with the Hansen’s (who I will now refer to as “KJ” and “OB”) in the lobby and headed to voucher choice #1 for the daily Roman ritual of some sort of bread and cappuccino or “marshmallow” coffee as Hubby officially dubbed it for the rest of the trip. Poor thing was miserable without his drip coffee, which those in Rome refer to as “long coffee” as it takes so blasted long to brew. The rest of us made do with the marshmallow stuff to get us by.

We were then off to explore Rome. KJ and OB let us have free reign as they previously visited the area on another trip and wanted us to enjoy what would tickle our respective fancies so as they say at the races, “They’re off!”

Our Four Hour Foot Tour started at the Coliseum, followed by the Pantheon, then to the Trevi Fountain (stopping for refueling at the local Blue Ice for a gelato fix) over to the Spanish Steps back to Piazza Navona then a break for a fabulous lunch at IL Bacaro (www.ilbacaro.com) on Via degli Spagnoli (off Via della Coppette), near the Pantheon. It is definitely worth the hunt to find this off-the-beaten-path little hole in the wall. I had Orecchiette with a sauce of pumpkin, sage and bacon, which was absolutely to die for (I’ve tried to replicate this heavenly dish since being home with no luck). Hubs had a risotto dish with gorgonzola and mushrooms. I can’t even remember what KJ and OB had as I was so mesmerized by both my meal and Hubby's.

Once done with lunch we headed for Campo de’Fiori, then over to Via di Banchi Vecchi which has many quaint boutiques selling antiques and other furnishings. By this time Hubs was done with all the sightseeing and hoofing and insisted upon a Taxi to take us back to our digs. We all agreed then had to figure out how to obtain a cab. We finally stumbled across an orange “Taxi” sign on the corner of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Viola. A taxi miracuously appeared. By the time we got back to Arena House we needed a nap as the time change (9 hours for us) was taking its toll on our weary bods.

After our rest, we discovered that OB found a Thrifty car rental office around the corner and arranged for us to pick up our car at the Train Station the next day for the drive to Tuscany rather than having to go back out to the airport to collect it. You see, November 1 is All Saint’s Day, a major holiday in Italy where most everything shuts down. When we were planning our trip we could not find any car rental locations, other than at the airport, where would could pick up on 11/1. For this find on OB’s part, we were extremely happy, until OB and Hubs actually went to get the car, which is a whole other story for later. Poor babies.

By this time, our tummies were demanding to be fed again, so we asked the gal working the reception desk at the hotel for a local place to dine for the evening. “Li Rioni a Santiquattro” was the place she suggested and indicated that locals line up to dine there even though it is a Pizzeria. What a Pizzeria it is! You will never think of pizza the same way again once you get a taste of pizza in Italy. It is so completely different and so utterly divine. By the time we finished our meal and left there was a line of people outside waiting for tables. Located on Via dei S.S. Quattro 24 (sorry couldn’t find a website).

After dinner it was back to the room to get some ZZZZs for our drive the next morning to the Tuscan countryside for our week-long stay. Yay!

bookmarking for weekend reading.

A great report so far. Thank you for sharing!

Day 3 – Ready, or not, Tuscany here we come!

We were up bright and early after another night of torrential rain, but luckily it cleared up in time for our drive to Tuscany, our true reason for being in Italy. We were to spend the week at Villa Giusi and Dario outside of Cortona in the area of Montanare. I was feeling a bit run down, but chalked it up to jet lag.

After noshing on brioche and “marshmallow” coffee at Coupon Choice #2 (much better than #1) I felt a bit better and the Boys set out for the train station via the Metro. Figuring they’d be back in about an hour with our wheels, KJ and I finished packing and had a few laughs and “What the Hey” moments watching Italian Infomercials that were on the tube. You think we sell freaky stuff here in the States? In Italy you could be the proud owner of an apparatus with handle bars that one can stand on while it shakes the living daylights out of your lower body to allegedly shake the fat right off you! At least that is what KJ and I got out of it without understanding the language. It was pretty funny.

After 2 hours passed, and the Men hadn’t returned, we started to get worried as the train station was only a mere 15 minutes away from our hotel. We went outside to wait and became hopeful each time a station wagon came down the street. That hope faded with each station wagon that passed us by. Finally we went inside as a “watched pot never boils.” Finally, after 2 1/2 hours, they arrived. Unbeknownst to us, Thrifty Car Rental, our Hotel and probably the rest of Rome, there was a Marathon and most every major street was shut down to accommodate runners. The poor guys kept getting diverted off every street they were forced to turn on. They saw parts of Rome that most Romans probably don’t even know existed. Thankfully Hubby has the nickname of “Mr. MapQuest” as he can get one anywhere with his keen sense of direction and passenger seat copiloting skills. OB was at the point where he wanted to hire a cab drive to lead them back to the hotel, but Hubby persevered and got them back, even though OB later admitted he wanted to throttle him at one point.

At last we were on the road, with the TomTom GPS loaded with our destination. As GPS’ are not always reliable, we also had a hard copy of the detailed directions as back up. Plus we had Mr. MapQuest with us so we were content on finding the place.
After about an hour on the road, we stopped at an Auto Grill to fill up the gas tank and grab a quick bite. What a great idea! Why don’t we have these in the States? It would make life so much easier while traveling. Any hoo, once back on the road I started to feel worse and the stuffy nose and sneezing fits began. Lucky for me, KJ had a purse pack of tissue. I had used the whole thing by the time we arrived at the Villa, but once I saw our home for the week, I felt so much better, cold or no cold.

Giusi and Dario was even more beautiful that the pictures shown on the web site. I arranged for the Villa through “Classic Tuscan Homes” and Rupert could not have been more helpful or friendly http://www.classictuscanhomes.com/. He even made sure that we had groceries to get us through the first night/morning as it was the Holiday and the stores were closed (I sent him a list before we left the States).

We selected this home not only as it was central for us and the areas we wanted to visit, but also since Giusi and Dario, the owners and namesakes of the Villa, live up the road and we felt more comfortable having the owners nearby in case something went amuck. As a side note, for those “Under the Tuscan Sun” fans, Giusi is a close friend of Frances Mayes and the two frequently cook together. There is a picture of them on the web site.

After choosing rooms and settling in, Giusi and Dario came a knocking to introduce themselves and to bring us some firewood for the night. With their limited English and my limited Italian, we got the lay of the land through sign language, bad English/Italian and the Italian/English dictionary. It all worked out and I rolled up my sleeves and got cooking in the kitchen while the rest of the gang hung out feasting on antipasti and vino. Ain’t this the life.

Up next - At the CoOp with the Sea of Humanity and our first to-die-for meal in Tuscany

What a beautiful place to stay! Wow - I'm drooling over the views. Of course your view in November would be different but - Wow.

Day 4
Hubby and I were awoken in the wee hours to what sounded like cannon fire outside our window. Turns out it was a wicked Val di Chiana thunderstorm and it was quite entertaining, despite the racket it was causing. KJ and OB slept right through it. Must be nice to be such sound sleepers!
Daylight brought crisp, clear weather and partly cloudy skies. After breakfast including “Long Coffee” for Hubby (a prized drip coffee machine was in the Villa) we set out for the CoOp supermarket in Camuchia to stock the fridge for the rest of the trip. Being a Sunday, it is only opened until 1 PM so we got there fairly early, along with the rest of the population of Tuscany. The place was packed and understandably so as it was closed the day before for All Saints Day. Apparently everybody had the same idea we did – to get shopping done early! For those of you who have not entered an Italian supermarket, here are a few tips.
Keep a dollar Euro coin handy in your car for the shopping cart. To get the cart you must insert the coin for it to be released from the others. Once you are done with the cart and return it, you get the coin back.
Bring your own shopping bags for bagging your groceries. Most rental properties have a few somewhere in the kitchen. If they don’t, the store usually has them, but you will be charged for each bag.
You must weigh and place a price tag your own produce prior to check out. This process is not done at the register like it is here in the States. Also, you don’t want to touch any of the fruits/veggies with your bare hands (you’ll see signs that say “NON TOCCARE” (Do Not Touch). There are plastic gloves all around the produce section for selecting and bagging your items. Once bagged, you will see scales with small computer touch screens attached at the end of some of the rows of produce. Just place your bagged items on the scale and select the appropriate fruit or veggie on the screen (similar contraption to self check outs in a lot of the grocery stores here in the states now) and then it will spit out a label for you to place on the bag. That’s it.
After heading back to the house, and putting the groceries away, we set out for Cortona, a mere few minutes away. From what I’ve read on travel blogs one either loves Cortona or finds it ho-hum. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. The people were extremely friendly, there were not too many kitschy souvenir shops and we had our first unforgettable meal at Osteria del Teatro (http://www.osteria-del-teatro.it/index_E.html).
This delightfully decorated restaurant was filled with locals for lunch and we seemed to be the only tourists there. None of us have ever experienced a meal like the one we had here. OMG!! Can we say oral orgasm? (Am I allowed to say that here?!). I had the TORTELLONI VERDI in CREMA di TARTUFO, green tortelloni pasta in truffle cream, cottage cheese and spinach. It had true truffle intensity. Hubby had GNOCCHI RIPIENI al PECORINO e PROSCIUTTO, potato dumplings with pecorino cheese and ham, a classic Tuscan matching. KJ: TAGLIATELLE AL RAGU’, noodles with meat sauce, a classical Tuscan dish and OB had the RAVIOLI BURRO E SALVIA, ravioli filled with spinach and cottage cheese, served with a sauce of butter and sage. For dessert, Hubby had a chocolate gelato, which literally was like fudge on a spoon. We all about died when tasting this! KJ had the “Cake of the Day” and to this day we don’t know what it was, but it was a taste masterpiece!
After rolling out of the restaurant, we needed to walk off the gastronomic delight we just experienced and meandered around the Piazza Signorelli, a stones throw from Osteria del Teatro. We came across an artist specializing in watercolors who had set up shop in the square and both KJ and I purchased lovely landscapes of the Tuscan countryside. The gent even framed them for us there on the spot – a nice touch.
After returning to the house we enjoyed a quiet evening with a roaring fire a couple of bottles of wine and conversation of the day’s experiences. We called it a night fairly early as we had a tour guide coming to pick us up early the next morning for a visit of Montelpuciano and areas in Umbria.

ooh mskat,

you licky thing. [sorry that was meant to be lucky, but on 2nd thoughts!]

keep it coming,

regards, ann

msjazzykat,

Oh yes, Cortona is charming! Love Osteria del Teatro. I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon there with a fabulous lunch and great people watching below in the piazza.

I hope you hiked up to the wonderful church at the top of town?

Dayle,

Sadly we did not. Just gives me another reason to go back!

Great excuse! It's quite a hike, Cortona is one of the steepest hilltowns I've visited so far.

The church is one of those with the barrel vaulted ceiling painted blue with gold stars. So beautiful.

There is also a Franciscan monk group there. It was fascinating to pass them walking along in rough hopsack robes, rope belts, and bare feet.

Do continue!

Luca, from Hills & Roads Tours (http://www.hillsandroads.com/) arrived promptly at 9:30 AM to pick us up and show us around Umbria. As a nice surprise he tossed in Montelpuciano, too.
Luca came highly recommended by fellow Fodorites and we couldn’t have been more pleased. He speaks not only Italian, but French, Spanish and English. We told him the areas we wanted to see prior to coming to Tuscany and he arranged the tour based upon that. He also has predesigned tours available as well which you can view on his web site.

We started in Montelpuciano by visiting the church of San Biagio a beautiful building started in 1518 and finished sometime after 1545, with the exception of the one bell tower, which to this day, remains unfinished. The church was built using travertine stone and is just stunning. We then headed to the Gattavecchi winery for a tour of the cellar and enjoyed a tasting of the various wines. I ended up purchasing 2 bottles of balsamic vinegar, along with some wine. I now realize what is meant when you hear the expression “good balsamic vinegar.” The one varietal tasted almost like caramel. Oh is it yummy! We then wandered around the village and enjoyed poking our heads into the various establishments.

From Montelpuciano we headed to Castiglion del Lago, a medieval village right above Lake Trasimeno. Luca arranged for a multi course lunch, with wine pairings, at Ristorante La Cantina, specializing in fish from Lake Trasimeno, located in an old wine cellar. It was quite unique and tasty. KJ isn’t a particular fan of fish in any way shape or form, but she was a trooper and tried some of each dish. Even the “fish fries” which were little fried sardines of some sort that looked like french fries.

After lunching and walking around the village we headed off to Assisi and arrived around dusk. It was a beautiful time of day for photos (the sky was a gorgeous orange and purple) and we captured some lovely pictures of the setting sun and The Basilica di San Francesco the church built in the honor of St. Francis. We wandered around Assisi until well after dark, stopping in a Farmacia to get me some cold medicine. Thank heavens for Luca who translated to the pharmacist my ailments. I was handed a bottle of syrup and told to take 3 times a day. I wasn’t told, however, how much to take 3 times a day and the instructions were in Italian so I ended up swigging from the bottle 3 times daily until it was gone. Seemed to work as I did feel much better.

We arrived back at the Villa well after 8 PM pooped, but still amped due to our adventures of the day and sat up awhile rehashing events. Unfortunately, Giusi and Dario did not replenish our wood supply (we would leave a bucket outside the door for them to fill) and it was a bit brisk. So we bundled up in our jammies and called it a night after jabbering for awhile. The next day we had nothing planned and we were looking forward to doing nada.

Oh wow! You had "fish fries" too!!
We were served (in Camogli) tiny little fish fried whole in a translucent batter. They were delicious, but we had no idea what they were! Maybe sardines? So we called them fish fries too! We ate them whole, except for the heads. Just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

Great report, msjazzykat! Lighthearted and easy to follow. I am right there with you.

Will need to give Cortona another try and definitely have a meal at Osteria del Teatro.

Anna Roz

Dayle,

I actually did eat the heads! Just as tasty as the rest of the fries, although I had the rest of the gang gagging that I did such a thing. Luca, our guide, got a kick out of it.

Anna Roz,
I really do recommend Cortona, although I think I have mentioned that other posts on this site indicate it is a place either loved or loathed.

I also 1 million percent recommend Osteria del Teatro. A true gem of a place in both ambiance and gastronomic delights! It's worth going just for that regardless of what you end up thinking of the town itself.