I always knew I wanted to go to Italy, so we finally made it a goal to go this year! Planning the trip took a lot of time and energy, but it was all worthwile. We started out by booking our flights. We used credit card points for our flights. The next step was to find our hotels. To begin, I first had to find out what area of the cities we wanted to stay in. For example, do we want to be in the center, close to the train station, or far away from everything? I made a spreadsheet with certain items that were important to us, so it would make it easier to compare one hotel to another. I put about 12-15 hotels on the spreadsheet for us to consider. I highlighted the ones I considered were the best options. Then, as a family we looked at all of them and decided on the ones to book. After booking our hotels, we had to decide what we were going to do in each city and how we were going to get there. We purchased tours, entrances, and train tickets.
I want to journal and make some notes of some of the things we learned after our trip to Italy. Maybe some of these notes will become helpful to someone else as well.
-It was easy to communicate because almost everyone speaks English. Even if they don't speak it, they understand it.
-Restrooms were hard to find. Public restrooms cost 1 euro, so have coins with you. Almost every restaurant had a restroom, so we used the restroom before leaving. Most cafes have restrooms as well, but you have to be a client, so we would purchase some bottled water and get the key to use their restroom.
-Do a bit of transportation research on the city you will be going to...tourists in Rome get around by taxi, in Florence by buses and tramways because there very few taxis, and in Venice by water taxi. There is no space for cars in Venice so, it's car-free.
-We stayed in the center of the cities, so we were able to walk almost everywhere.
-Restaurant service is very slow. They want you to order everything at the beginning...your drink, appetizer, course 1 and course 2. They are okay coming back and asking if you want dessert. You will probably have to ask for the check, otherwise you might be waiting a very long time for it. If you're in a rush, don't choose a sit down restaurant, get the food to-go. It is also not customary to tip in Italy.
Now, a bit about where we stayed at and what we did:
ROME, ITALY
In Rome, we chose to stay at Suite Artis Barberini. This isn’t a regular hotel, it's more like an Airbnb. It's in a 17th-century building with no elevator located on Piazza Barberini square. The Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon are not very far. The Barberini Metro is on one corner and a Taxi stop at another corner. There are other locations that are more centric but this one was not bad at all. Since there were 4 in our family, we ended up in the suite on the fifth floor -remember, there's no elevator- but we did okay. I loved that it was spacious (ours was in 2 floors with 2 bathrooms), the AC was amazing (it actually blew cold air), and we loved the area- the Piazza Barberini. Since it was more like an Airbnb, it did not include breakfast, so we had to buy breakfast every morning while we were here.
Right after settling down in our hotel, we ventured out into the city. We walked by the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, several churches and other beautiful buildings. We stopped at Osteria Del Sostegno for our first Roman dinner and it was incredible!
We booked a tour to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. That morning we got up early, got ready, got a taxi at the Piazza Barberini and it took us to the Colosseum. Once there, we ventured out to find breakfast at a nearby restaurant. We found a restaurant called Bar La Licata. The breakfast there was wonderful and the prices were very reasonable. After breakfast, we headed to the Colosseum again to meet our Tour Guide.
Speaking of our Tour Guide... I found her online at Tours by Locals. She was fantastic! She was very knowledgeable, very sweet, and fast...which I appreciated. She knew how to get around, gave us so much information about the Colosseum and answered all of our questions. Her name is Manuela if you're interested in contacting her.
The next day we had booked a food tour with Viator, but they cancelled on us the moment we showed up for our tour. I wished they would have cancelled earlier and we would have saved the taxi ride money that we spent to get there on time. We walked to the Pantheon, but the lines were so long that we didn't buy tickets to go in. We continued walking the streets of Rome, stopped to do some shopping along the way, and stopped to have lunch. For lunch, we found a place called Roscioli. This is definitely some of the best pizza in Rome! We chose different kinds of pizzas to try and took it to the park to eat.
For dinner, we found a place called Bottega Trevi that had some amazing sandwiches.
We also scheduled a tour with Manuela for the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica! Being in the Vatican was just impressive. We were in awe the whole time. We enjoyed it so much.
We toured St. Peter's Basilica with Manuela. There is so much to see here. The church was beautiful.
After the tour, we headed to the Jewish Quarter for lunch. We found a restaurant called Nonna Betta.
As we walked through the Jewish Quarter, we encountered these stepping stones. These brass stepping stones commemorate Holocaust victims. They are placed in front of the victims' last known residence and they include their name, birth date, arrest date, and place of death if known. They were interesting and sad to read. They definitely served their purpose of making us pause and reflect on the victims' stories.
Manuela helped us get tickets to the Pantheon, so later that day, we headed towards the Pantheon. We didn't have to wait in line since we had Skip the Line tickets.
This was our last day in Rome, so we had to visit the Spanish Steps. It was an easy climb. I was fearing there would be too many steps to climb, but it was not bad at all. The view from the top was amazing!
By the end of the day, we were very tired and didn't have enough energy to look up a place for dinner, so we ended up eating Pancakes for dinner! Pancakes Natural Lab was actually next door to our hotel, so it was very convenient. Let's just say that Roman pancakes are really good!
The day before we left Rome, we had breakfast and then visited the gardens at the Palazzo Barberini. We didn't actually take the tour inside, we just walked through to the gardens in the back and enjoyed the beauty and some fresh air.
Afterwards, we picked up our luggage, got a taxi and headed to the Termini Train Station. The restrooms at the termini cost 1 euro to use. We took a high speed train to Florence, which was quite an adventure for us since it was our first time on one of these trains. Our tickets included a snack, which was nice.
FLORENCE, ITALY
In Florence, we stayed at the Hotel Embassy. It was walking distance to the Train Station, which was nice for us. Our favorite part of this hotel was the location. It was so close to the train station that we just walked with our luggage when we got there and when we left. This hotel was also still close enough to walk to many places. They did offer breakfast, which was nice. It was the best, most delicious breakfast in Italy, but it was FREE! We were able to have a nice, big breakfast every morning before heading out and then we only had to purchase 2 meals a day. The rooms were a little small for 4 of us, but we weren't crammed. The worst part of this hotel though, was that they controlled the air conditioner in the room. It was always very warm, it never colled down. It was cooler outside than inside the room. If you opened the window, which we had to often, the air conditioner would completely stop. If you left the room, the conditioner would stop as well. It would be extra hot and humid after all four of us took our showers. The hotel staff was very nice.
The first night we walked to a place called Gusta Pizza. On the way, we passed the Piazza Santa Maria Novella and a bridge. When we got to Gusta Pizza, the line was pretty long. We each ordered a pizza and waited for it to be ready. Once ready, we took it to a little park nearby to eat it. Of course, we had to have our daily gelato as well! Walking at nightime in Florence was breathtaking. We enjoyed it very much.
The next day we took a train ride to Pisa and Lucca.
The leaning tower of Pisa was impressionable! We have all seen pictures of it, but it was just incredible to see it up close. My camera could just not capture the beauty of the architecture.
After spending a few hours in Pisa, we took the train to Lucca. Lucca is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Italy and is known for its perfectly preserved 16th century city walls. There are two entrances to Lucca, one is Porta San Pietro (located near the train station) and the other one is Porta Santa Maria (on the north side of the city). There is a wall surrounding the city of Lucca that was created as a defense, but now people can walk on top of the wall and look down into the city. The wall is accessible through both of the city entrances. Once up on the wall, the view is breathtaking.
It's easy to wander the streets of Lucca since many streets don't allow cars. In Lucca we found some amazing gelato at Paniko Gelateria.
Later we had lunch at Varrone Pasta e Pizza. We enjoyed watching the chef make the pasta inside a room with large glass windows in the front of the restaurant.
After walking on the wall for a while, we walked back to the train station and headed back to Florence. Once back in Florence, we found the best sandwich shop. We were astonished at how delicious these sandwiches were. There was a little stand close to the train station called Panino Mondiale and they had the absolute best sandwiches. We picked up some sandwiches and took them back to the hotel to eat.
The following day we visited the Duomo in Florence. We climbed the dome and were able to have an amazing view of the city from the top of the dome.
We also visited the museum.
Finally, we visited the Baptisery of San Giovanni.
At lunch time we visited Risotteria Melotti. Risotto was on our list of items we had to eat while in Italy. The risotto there was wonderful. We even purchased some risotto there to bring back with us.
At the end of the day, I had to go through the wine window at Osteria Belle Donne and order some wine. Ha, ha, I had to!
The next day we went on a tour. The tour included a trip to Siena, a wine tour with a meal, and a trip to San Gimignano.
Siena was a beautiful city. We enjoyed learning about the history of Siena.
The meal and wine tasting at Tenuta Di Mensanello was wonderful.
We loved the city of San Gimignano as well. The world's most famous gelato is found here at Gelateria Dondoli. We did try it and it was amazing. Unfortunately we were not in this city for very long, so we didn't get to see as much as we would have wanted to.
Once back in Florence, we decided to splurge and go to a steakhouse. We went to Trattoria Dall'Oste. We had some wonderful steak and Cacio e Pepe.
After being in Florence for a few days, we decided to spend the whole day in Florence and go to different Piazzas. We did a lot of shopping as well.
We stopped at the Santo Spirito Piazza and had lunch at Osteria Santo Spirito.
For dinner we had sandwiches from All'Antico Vinaio. Honestly, the sandwiches from Panino Mondiale were so much better. We packed our things that night and got ready to go to Venice the next day.
VENICE, ITALY
In Venice we stayed at a hotel called Residenza Ducato. The people here were wonderful. A young lady arranged for a water taxi to meet us at the train station and take us to the hotel (or as close as they could to the hotel). She met us there and walked us to the hotel.
The hotel was almost perfect. It was spacious, clean, modern looking, and centric. The bathroom was very nice. We loved the shower. The only problem we found was that they had already turned off the air conditioner and turned on the heater because it had been cool a few days prior to us arriving. It was still hot when we were there but they couldn't turn on the air conditioner. So we had to leave the windows open the whole time because it was cooler outside than inside.
My first impression of Venice was how tall the buildings were and how narrow the street was. It took me a little while to realize that the streets are so narrow, therefore there are no cars in Venice.
The first restaurant we went to in Venice, Ostaria Al Garanghelo, was tasty. I was a little shocked when I ordered ...and I got this.
Our last day in Italy was spent walking, eating, and shopping. We tried to fit as much as we could into one day. We got up early, went out for breakfast at Ostaria dai Zemei. Yes, this is what we chose for breakfast and it was delicious!
We walked to St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace, the Rialto bridge, Accademia Bridge, Basilica Di Santa maria Della Salute. We had the best gelato (we really think it was the best gelato in Italy) at Gelateria lo Squero.
Dinner at Trattoria Pizzeria Antico Capon was wonderful.
We ended the day with a late snack at Gran Caffe alla cita di Torino. This place was good, not wonderful and a bit pricey, but it was one of the few places open late at night. The owner was a sweet lady that gave us extra cream on our hot chocolates.
Our flight was leaving Venice at 6:00 a.m. We had to be at the airport at 4:00 a.m. They told us to be there at 3:00 a.m. though. So, we had to book a water taxi to pick us up at 2:30 a.m. So, we didn't sleep that night. After getting back late, we began packing and then getting ready to leave. We left the hotel and walked to the meeting point at about 2:00 a.m.
It was a wonderful trip. We did so much. It's impossible to see it all in one trip, so I can't wait to go back and see more. There are many places we wanted to go to but weren't able to fit them into the already packed schedule.
This was definitely an unforgettable trip! Can't wait to be able to go back.
Happy traveling,
Angie
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