Trip Report -- Bellagio, Venice, Florence, Positano, Rome
 

I promised myself I would write a detailed trip report upon our return from our honeymoon in Italy and unfortunately, things have been so busy that I just haven't had the chance --- so here is my attempt at a condensed version.

Bellagio -- We flew into Milan and had our hotel arrange a driver to bring us to Bellagio. We stayed at the Belvedere and loved it. The room was a nice size (although the bathroom was quite small) and the view from the balcony was spectacular! We visited the Villa Carlotta, the Serabelloni (not the hotel but rather the sight up the hill where scholars can come to study), Varenna, Villa Balbionello (not sure I'm spelling that right), etc. The weather was overcast and a bit rainy so overall we didn't enjoy Bellagio quite as much as we would have liked.

Venice -- We had the same driver in Bellagio bring us to the Milan and then we took the Eurostar to Venice. Once in venice, we immediately stood in line at the train station to get the Rolling Card (which gives discounts for vaporetto passes, museums, restaurants for those under 30 yrs old) and get our discounted 3 day vaporetto pass. We then got on the #1 vaporetto but took it the wrong way by accident... instead of going down the grand canal we went the other way which really wasn't scenic at all... but we finally got to Piazza S. Marco. We stayed at the Locanda Orseolo, which we would HIGHLY recommend. The room was huge, as was the bathroom (which had both a bathtub and a stall shower) and Franesco, Igor and Barbara (those who run it) were incredibly helpful!! We spent most of our time in Venice, just wandering and getting lost and finding our way again. The highlight was our first night in Piazza S. Marco listening to the competing orchestras and waltzing in the middle of the piazza (we learned how to waltz for the wedding!).

Florence -- we took the Eurostar to Florence and stayed at the Tourist House Ghiberti. We really liked it there too... again big room and nice sized bathroom and the price was great! We walked around Florence and bought leather jackets in the leather market. We also used Alessandro Camilli to drive us around Tuscany for one day (we visited a few wineries and a few of the towns including Greve, Radda, etc.). For dinner, our favorite restaurant was a bit touristy but we really liked our food. If you cross the Ponte Vecchio to the Oltrarno side, and take a left, it's called Golden View Open Bar. We ate dinner there twice and had a great view overlooking the water and the Ponte Vecchio.

Positano -- We took the Eurostar to Naples and then had Giovanni/Giancarlo of tourofitaly.com pick us up and drive us to Positano. We stayed at the Poseidon, which we LOVED! We basically just relaxed in Positano, going to the beach, sitting by the pool, etc. We also spend a day visiting Amalfi and Ravello. Our favorite restaurant in Positano was called Meditteraneo...it's just up the road from the Poseidon. We ate dinner there twice b/c the food was so good!!

Rome -- We had Giovanni pick us up to drive us from Positano to Rome. We only had half a day in Rome so we mostly just walked around. We stayed at the Albergo del Senato. You can't beat the location and the hotel itself was great.

One last comment -- We bought all of our train tickets on the trenitalia website before we left for italy. The website was totally in italian and i don't speak or read a word of it but I sort of just figured it out and it worked out perfectly.

So, that was the short version -- if anyone has questions, just ask -- We had such an amazing honeymoon!!

What a great honeymoon---love your hotel choices. I am delighted it worked well for you. Sure beats our honeymoon trip to New Orleans in 1959.

I did the same thing in January--took the Vaporetto #1 the wrong way when I arrived and had to shiver through a long, cold, journey to San Marcos. Thanks for making me feel like I'm not alone!

Sounds like you had a great trip, nbs. Thanks for the update.

Nice report....we did a weekend in New Orleans in 1969....like Bob the Nav in 1959. How did you arrange all those drivers? We just rent a car and go in Italy. Not too hard to do that. All the coordination for the planes, trains and drivers seemed to be too much. Just curious.....

Tell us about your visits to Villa Serbelloni and Villa Balbianello please. Was the former only open at odd times (I've been to Bellagio 3 or 4 times and never found it open) and how did you get to the latter? Any other helpful info on these two places appreciated.

Sounds like a wondeful honeymoon! How was your day with Allesandro? Did you set the itinerary or did he? Do you remember which wineries you went to? Did you set the day and time with him in advance or did he contact you in Florence? Sorry about all the questions but I'm considering him for a tour. Congrats on your marriage!

What a wonderful "report" on your trip!Thanks for taking the time. How did you fair in Positano for the heighth? We are going there and has me a bit anxious.Would love your input! And congradulations!

I'm glad to hear that you had such a wonderful honeymoon! And I'm happy that you enjoyed the Poseidon. It's one of my favorite hotels.

Are you already planning to go back?

Hi everyone -- let's see if I can answer all of the questions.

1. Drivers -- we arranged everything in advance via email. In Bellagio, we emailed the hotel to ask them to arrange for the airport pick up and then for the train station drop off -- it was really easy -- the driver was waiting for us after we exited customs and was holding a sign with my name. In Florence, we had emailed with Alessandro in advance and had picked our itinerary (more on Alessandro later -- see below). For the naples to positano and positano to rome trip, we had arranged with www.tourofitaly.com in advance. It is a father and son driving team -- both of whom are really great -- in fact the son drove us to positano and he was the one who suggested going to dinner at Medittaraneo which was our favorite restaurant. And the father is the one who drove us to Rome and he bought us a small bottle of lemoncello as a honeymoon gift for us. (you can reach giancarlo and giovanni at [email protected])

2. Bellagio (Serabelloni & Barbianello) -- for the tour of Serabelloni, we bought tickets in the small tourists office in the corner of the piazza chiesa. There were 2 tours each day -- one at 11am and one at 4pm -- the tour lasted about 1 1/2 hours and you just buy the tickets 15 minutes before the tour -- they don't accept reservations for earlier than that. For the villa barbienello, we took a tour of that too. It cost 40 Euro per person and it was a 2 1/2 hour tour with about 10 other people or so. I forget the name of the company that we used... but it was a wife/husband run boat (the wife is actually originally australian and the husband is italian) and their "dock" is down by the water in from of the Hotel Suisse or Hotel Metrople.

3. Alessandro Camilli -- Alessandro was really great. We found him on this forum actually and then emailed him to see if he had availability on the date we wanted. He did and so we booked it and then we worked with him to set the itinerary in advance. We told him we wanted to see wineries and castles and then he emailed us back with all the various options and so we chose what we wanted and then he made all the tour reservations and even made us a lunch reservation too. He picked us up at about 9am in his car and then drove us to Piazzale Michelangelo to see the view of all of florence from above. We then went to Greve and he just parked and let us walk around. We then went to Radda and did the same and same thing with Gaole. Radda was our favorite b/c it had these little shops and we bought some food to take home with us (some fun sauces and an olive paste, etc.). We then had lunch at Badia e Coltibuono and the food was INCREDIBLE. We were so pleased that Alessandro had made that reservation for us. Then we went for a wine tasting and tour at the Meleto castle and then the same at the Volpaia castle and then we drove back to florence. For those that want to get in touch with Alessandro his email is [email protected]

4. Positano -- we did fine with the heights. It is really breathtaking there. The whole town is literally built right into the side of a cliff. As I mentioned we stayed at the Poseidon (which we highly recommend) and that hotel is directly on the main road, so it was easy to get our bags into the hotel etc. (ie., we didn't have to carry our bags down or up flights of stairs, etc.) Also, as long as you walk along that main road which winds its way down to the beach, we didn't find it all that strenuous. However, one afternoon when coming back from the beach, my dear husband decided it would be worth seeing what the stairs up to the top would be like.... ie., instead of walking leisurely up the main road which has a slope to it but again, isn't all that bad, we tried the steps which literally go up vertically -- That was one of the worst decisions we made on the trip -- We made it to the top and to our hotel but I had to take lots of breaks b/c it was really hard.

Weadles -- we actually booked the Poseidon based on your suggestion here on this forum, so we are really grateful to you. Yes, we would love to go back to Positano and to the Poseidon --- if/when we go back, we see no reason to explore any other hotel -- we really liked the Poseidon -- unfortunately, we now have to save to buy a house so luxurious vacations aren't in the near future for us!!

A few other observations/comments I forgot to write about:

1. Too many places to visit in 2 weeks? --- we got a lot of advice that we were trying to cover too much ground in just 2 weeks but we actually loved our itinerary. We are on the go type of people and would have been bored just covering 1 or 2 places. We wouldn't have changed a thing -- plus, the train trips were nice b/c it gave us a chance to read up on the next stop and figure out what we wanted to see and how we would divide up our time.

2. Secret Tour of the Doge's Palace in Venice --- also got the suggestion from this forum to do this while we were in Venice. Our hotel made the reservation for us in advance. And this tour was really great. We would highly recommend it!!

if anyone else has questions, please just ask --- we really enjoyed our trip and put so much into planning it and reading up on this forum (i became an addict actually on this forum!!) that we want to give back in any way we can!

Yes, a question...I realize it was your honeymoon (congratulations!) but you had to EAT sometime, right? (LOL) Any highlights on restaurants you could share with us?

Thanks and best wishes.

What a great Honeymoon! Welcome back.

Eating... right... yes, we did eat, didn't we? we mostly grabbed lunch on the go, so don't have a lot of comments, but here's a bit:

Bellagio -- the first day we ate lunch at Art in Flower... the food was really good -- my husband had gnocchi and i had vegetarian lasagna. the first night we ate dinner at the hotel florence... we ate outside overlooking the water and again the food was great. The only other place I would mention is the Hotel Suisse -- we ate dinner there on the 2nd night and we really didn't like it... it was partially just a cultural thing --- i ordered fish and the fish came with all of the bones in it and the head still intact on the plate... my husband ordered steak and it came so that from the outside it looked cooked but once he cut into it, it was mostly raw... we probably just should have said something to the waiter but we were slightly embarassed and didn't know what to say so we just sort of pushed it around our plates and then went to get gelato...

Venice --- we really didn't eat anywhere all that memorable in Venice... one night we ate at a place near the Rialto Bridge and one night we ate dinner in the Dorsoduro area in the Piazza Santa Margharita....I should probably mention that my husband and I are sort of difficult eaters... I don't eat meat or shellfish and my husband doesn't eat any fish at all.... so mostly I stuck to pastas the whole trip and he stuck to meat...

Florence -- We really enjoyed the Golden View restaurant that we mentioned above. We also ate lunch one day on the go and grabbed Greek/Meditarranean food from this tiny place off one of the streets leading off of the Piazza della Republica... my husband had a chicken gyro and I had hummus and babaganoush... it was fantastic!... also, we loved our lunch at Badia e Coltibuono as we mentioned above.

Positano -- Again, our favorite dinners were the ones at Medittaraneo... we also ate at La Cambusa one night and that was pretty good as well. For the day where we went to Ravello, we ate lunch at Cumpa Casina... it was this little restaurant that is run by this wonderful grandmother-like woman. Our food was great -- really homemade and she was really sweet. We were too stuffed to order dessert but then after we paid our bill, she came running back to our table with a piece of cake explaining that she just couldn't let us leave without trying some cake!! Also, on our last night in Positano we ate dinner at Le Sirenuse. It was a really romantic setting as we dined as we looked out on the twinkling lights of Positano. The food was good but I didn't necessarily think it was THAT much better than the food at Medittaraneo.

Rome -- we just ate dinner at one of the places along the edge of Piazza Navona... no place really all that memorable and then we had dessert at one of the cafes next to the Pantheon where our hotel was...

... so I'm sorry that our food experiences weren't all that helpful... we just didn't want to spend too much money splurging on food. Some of our favorite food moments in Italy was when we would just buy some bread and fresh cheese from a local market and ate on the go...

Thank you for the information. My husband and I have been married over 22 years (!) and we still don't like to overpay at restaurants, which is why I asked for some recommendations (and stay tuned to this forum).

Thanks for you report! May I ask, how long was the euro star to naples from Florence? We will be going to Positano from Florence and have not figured out how... have thought of flying, train, driving?? Any advice?

Hi vinorosso,

We took the 9:29am train from Florence and it arrived in Naples at 13:07. And then we had a driver meet us at the Naples train station and drive us to Positano which was another hour or hour and a half.

We didn't find the trip to be bad at all. This way, both of us could nap and neither had to worry about finding our way on the roads, etc. We also could both read (as opposed to reading in a car which gives me a headache) and we could plan how we wanted to spend our time in Positano.

Then, the driver we hired for the last leg of the trip was great... he entertained us the whole way to Positano giving us restaurant and activity recommendations, etc.

Yet another question, if you don't mind. Can you tell me what the costs of the transfers arranged by the Belvedere were?

We are also staying there, and we would like to be picked up and then taken to the airport, as we are then flying to Naples.

Your information has been wonderfully helpful, and hope you don't me asking for even more.

Thanks, debbie