I read the first and second parts of your trip report and I was exhausted. I couldn't read any more, I was so tired. I hate to ask this, but what kind of a trip was this, when you are cying and your husband is irritable? I don't envision this as a vacation, but as some sort of pennance. I'm sorry.

Suzq, I think your trip report was quite honest, and I got a good chuckle from it. Everyone has different perceptions and experiences, and I enjoyed yours, though I must admit I felt pained at a few places. (I think I winced at the same points that some of the other posters did)

My heart sank for you each time I read about pizza and spaghetti bolognese! Sure, your food choices were a bit narrow this time around, but then I give you so much credit for seeking out some special things as well. I love the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, I go see it each time I go to Rome, and you were very wise to diligently find it. It shows that you did some homework!

You have to go back. This was a good first-run, and next time, you will feel more confident and hopefully have more of a budget and be able to experience more of the food and wine. Until then, read some great books. I think you have a great love of Italy and you should nurture it. It is a bit outdated, but start out with Waverly Root's The Food Of Italy. It will give you a primer on the historical roots of the cuisine of Italy. Also try some great cookbooks. The Splendid Table by Lynn Rosetto Kasper is great, and any book by Nancy Harmon Jenkins will really teach you, not only about the food, but the traditions. Celebrating Italy by Carol Field is another one of my favorites.

Oh, and yes, the cornetti you get from the hotels is usually the same. One of the great things about Italy is that breakfast and midday snacking is relatively cheap. Next time around, get a cappucino from a pastry shop - much better choices and still cheap! One of my favorite things to do is to have an early breakfast, then grab half of a tramezzini from any number of places you see them around 11 AM to hold you over until lunch. (Tramezzini are those lovely, crustless sandwiches on fluffy white bread, with tasty, thinly sliced meat and cheese and some greens).

I suppose all of this is moot since you don't have a return trip planned yet, but hopefully you will get excited to plan the next one! And I hope you give the Uffizi another try!

Good luck!

The Uffizi can be a very daunting museum, even for those who have an art history background. I've found the most enjoyable way to handle it (and other large museums where overload can kick in), is to pick something of interest to me....an artist, a painting, a sculpture, a period in history...whatever. Then, I explore that topic at my leisure WAY in advance of another trip. Cramming right before doesn't work, at least for me. By the time I go to the museum(s), I have a focus that HUGELY increases my appreciation level (not to mention knowledge base) of what I'm seeing. It's fun. And, this sort of thing tends to build on itself, spilling over into so many other aspects of my life. Anyway, this has worked for me over the years.

Going to a large great museum because it is a great museum, and then winging through the rooms just glancing (NOT that you did this, but many people do), is not my idea of fun. It seems more an endurance test. Like the, "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium" kind of "vacation" trip. So, I look for ways to "personalize" something of interest in any museum I visit. With the internet and books and word of mouth, that sort of preparation is so easy to do these days!

The advice another poster gave about learning details of Italian food/cuisine is an example of the same approach. Armed with this kind of advance information, even on a restricted budget, you may have been able to dine confidently & knowledgably on more variety than pizza and cornetti and spaghetti.

But, you DID do lots of great stuff for a first trip, and you did seek out the less than obvious. Here's wishing you both many more great Italian adventures in your future!

Thanks swalter and congrats on your pregnancy! That's funny about the mozzarella.

Waldo - we did have fun, we just had ups and downs. Saturday morning we had gotten up early, still jet-lagged, and had walked from the Spanish Steps area to the Borghese Gallery, through the park, and down to the Piazza Barberini. Along the way, we had tried to catch two cabs and got turned away both times - one wouldn't pick us up because we weren't at a taxi stand and one wouldn't take us because he didn't want to make that short of a trip. We were tired and frustrated at that point, but we had our high points too – actually just a couple hours later on the Scavi Tour. It was an incredible experience.

Thanks for the encouragement eliztrav. I was slightly overwhelmed trying to navigate and plan everything on my own (I work full time and go to school at night working on my MBA), so I didn't get to research as much as I would have liked. I like your approach. Last year we went to the Art Institute of Chicago and only had a half-day to tour the museum, so we spent a lot of time in the special exhibition of Seurat's "Sunday on La Grande Jatte" and then mainly focused on the impressionists. It was a lot more enjoyable than trying to rush through and "see" the whole museum. I wish we had done that at the Uffizi. Since we bought the audio guide, we felt like we had to look at everything - it wore us out and we didn't have time to truly appreciate it.

Thanks for taking the time to give me some suggestions faredolce. I wish I had been braver in my meal choices as well. I had intended to try more, but when I was actually there and everything cost so much, I would go for the "safe" and familiar route because I didn't want to waste money on something I wouldn't eat. That tactic definitely backfired in some circumstances however. Hopefully, I will get the chance to go back some day and I will be braver then.

Suzq_trvlr:

I think I may have misjudged your appreciation of Italy from your trip report. Your message of this morning shows a very different sensitivity to Italy and what it has to offer.

There are many more trips to Italy in your future, I am sure. Good heavens, with an MBA, the world will be your oyster!

The Waverley Root book mentioned is one that I enjoy browsing through, but unfortunately many, many of the things he mentions there are no longer available, not even in the towns and villages where they were once specialities.

If you're interested in regional Italian cooking and would like to try some of it out at home first, the highest recommendation I can offer is Marcella Hazan's book "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking." It's a compilation of recipes from her first two cookbooks, published in the 1980s, that changed the ideas of many, many people about what Italian cooking really is. I would think -- and hope! -- that you would be able to find most of the ingredients she uses.

Many happy returns to Italy!

This was your "dream" vacation?? It was the most depressing trip report ever. Scheduling all the "canned" tours; eating pizza, spaghetti, and Coca Cola; calling home constantly -- not my idea of authentic travel. Most of your anecdotes seem to be about averted disasters, horrible food, and how tired you were. Where is the color, the richness, the joy?? I'm so glad that I've been to each of these amazing cities before and know how truly wonderful they are, because after reading your story, I'm not sure I'd want to go.

Susq

Enjoyed your report, your impressions and honesty. Sorry there happen to be a lot of negative people chiming in on it.

Every trip I take to Europe, I learn things that will make my next trip better and I'm sure you will, too.

As for dining, when I was in my 20s going to Europe, I also could not afford the better dining experiences. It just makes going back when you're older and (hopefully) have more money the opportunity to partake in that part of the European experience. But to me, a cheap meal in Florence and Venice trumps an expensive meal at home any day.

Enjoy your future travels and remember, as my little travel blog says, "Attitude is everything. Enjoy the journey."
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Hi suzq,

A fellow 20-something year old chiming in. I'm glad I didn't respond until I read your last post. In that post, your appreciation for Italian culture really did shine through. I hope your memories of your trip will be all happy ones as time passes.

Thanks very much for the honest trip report. And by the way... I got a couple comments about my food choice (mainly pizza) in my trip report too!! http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34625798

Hi suzq

I really enjoyed your trip report and your honesty as well. My daughter and I just came back from a trip to Rome and Florence which really makes me appreciate all you did. It took me three months of reading everything I could get my hands on to prepare for the experience. I think you did a great job. Additionally, I admire the gracious and informative way in which you handled some of those negative responses. Kudos to you.

My impression of your report is that is wonderfully detailed, interesting and candid. It is one of the few I actually printed to read as we are planning our own trip to Italy. Please don't think it will be your only European adventure...going with children is expensive but wonderful. Do bring your children with you when the time is right! We started this when our daughters were 5 & 8 with a trip to Germany --when the littlest was pretty hesitant about being in a non-English speaking country-- and now she is the biggest Europhile! Since then we've been overseas about every other year.

Eloise - Yes, I think for some reason the negative seemed to shine through more than the positive in my trip report, although that was not my intention. Thanks so much for your suggestions.

drbb - sorry you didn't enjoy it. Our vacation wasn't perfect, but I think the averted disasters are the most fun stories to tell later on. We really did have a good time and I loved the "canned" Scavi Tour. I'm so happy this board talked me into getting reservations for it and I highly recommend it for anyone else. Our tour guide for the Collosseum/Forum tour was a lot of fun too. She really brought the history surrounding us to life. I called home so much because my Mom's mother had just passed away. I wanted to stay in touch and I was glad I could so cheaply. The phone cards were another great tip I got off this board, so thanks.

maitaitom, TexasAggie, anggem57, and victoria - thanks for your kind words and encouragement. You made my Friday afternoon much brighter!

My sympathies on the loss of your family member. I certainly would have been calling home a lot too.

I do hope you get to return to Europe though... at our age we have so many years in front of us. This is a trick that my husband (29) and I (25) use. We have a separate "trip savings fund". Every New Year's we set out the financial goals for the year - things like maxing out 401K and IRA, building up our general savings, etc. Then throughout the year whenever we have a little extra leftover after meeting those goals, it goes into the trip fund. We were able to fund a trip to Germany in February and a trip to Italy in May via this method. Just a suggestion :-)

"I loved the "canned" Scavi Tour"

I'm looking forward to our Scavi Tour in early October.

I was also thinking about Borghese Gallery. Does your ticket get you into the gardens, too? Thanks.
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Thanks Texas Aggie. I have made it through day five of your trip report and I love it! My husband is a CPA too. Did everything turn out well with your husbands job? My husband lost his job in a similar fashion two summers ago, but it ended up working out for the best. I did the same thing with my Mom's earrings you did with your Dad's wallet. I looked at every jewelry store on the Ponte Vecchio twice for the "perfect" earrings. We have a vacation account that we set aside part of our salary in too - and we had enough left over from Italy that I jumped on a Northwest fare sale last month to go to Denver/Vail in December. I'm really excited because I've never seen that much snow!

maitaitom - our ticket did not cover the gardens. I would definitely recommend the Borghese Gallery though. Just seeing "Apollo Chasing Daphne" up close was worth it to me. I hope you enjoy the Scavi Tour as much as we did. It is definitely an experience we will never forget.

Yes, I'm one of those who maintain that you are clearly NOT ready for prime time international travel.


"It would have been better if we hadn’t despised the tour guide from the start and if we could have understood her more than half the time."


Oh, but of course, as a twenty-something, you would see this as ALL that nasty docent's fault in Venice, right? After all, SHE didn't allow YOU to do what was prohibited, ie., bringing in a video recorder. in an area that was particularly vulnerable to camera flashes (seeing that the area in question was over 500 years old) but that surely didn't matter, did it? YOU wanted to play the dumb ignorant Anerican tourist with the video recorder, right?


You need to grow up, Suzq-take a trip to the US next time, you won't have to deal with such "meanies" (you remind me of Monica Lewinsky when she's talking about the "meanies" who wouldn't let her do the illegal things she wanted to do).

Just another young, the world-owes- me a-living, self-centered silly immature clueless American tourist. The worst type. It's a good thing I didn't see you taking pictures in the Sistine Chapel, you might have been susyq'd out of a camera-it might have been accidentally knocked out of your hand.

Tough crowd.

Maitaitom:

If by "Borghese Gadens," you mean the large public park the Romans call "Villa Borghese," there is no admission fee. You walk in and walk around as you like. At the opposite end of the Villa Borghese from the Galleria Borghese, there is the Villa Giulia, the Etruscan museum (as well as the Gallery of Modern Art). If you're coming from the other side (i.e., Piazza del Popolo), you enter the Pincio, another park (immediately adjoining Villa Borghese) with a terrace that offers a lovely view of Rome and the dome of St. Peter's.

Hi Suzi,

Thanks for the compliments :-) We're still waiting to see what happens with DHs job. It looks like he will be kept on to complete the 2004 tax return and the short period 2005 tax return... that is nice, as it gives him plenty of time to search for another good job instead of needing to take the first thing that comes along.
As for Spygirl's comments... yikes!! That is all I can say to that! With the (future) kids or not, I hope you and your husband have many more wonderful trips to all corners of the world in your future :-)

Dear Suzq:

Every trip will get better. DH & my first trip overseas was to Northern Spain, which included visiting cousins in Pamplona & Lleida, and a wine tour of France. The Spain part was the blind leading the blind. I didn't have that great of a guide book. We drove plus did one night in each place, which was very tiring. We had some pretty heated arguments, but I chalk it up to jet lag. I read, I think on this forum, that jet lag causes stress and couples to argue!!(at least that's what I want to believe). Since then I have used better guide books, slowed down, and, with the advent of the internet, used sites like this to help.

Regarding the Sistine Chapel. When they cleaned it, they actually removed years of grime, varnishes, and touch ups by others in subsequent years. In fact, some figures on the "Judgement Day" wall were topless and covered up later on for "decency".(Such as St. Catherine) The paint you saw on the ceiling is the real deal; the original fresco by Michelangelo. The bright colors were not painted over. Some prefered the old, dark, colors. The cleaned colors came as a shock to many. But it is just a matter of perspective. They looked great to me.

Have fun on future trips and I hope you get to go to Italy again.

MY

"Borghese Gadens"

Thanks Eloise. I guess I tried to pronounce it like Boston Gaden.
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