Italy trip report (long, with pics)

[nolanfan34]

So after wanting to go to Europe for many years, specifically Italy, the mrs and I finally made it happen. This thread will include some of our stories and escapades during our two week stay. At the same time, I'll also try to impart some of the wisdom gained being a first time international tourist. I realize we have plenty of people from all around the world on here, so for many, this will be old hat. But, I'm sure there are a few others like myself - older than the student set, who are travelling abroad for the first time. Hopefully you'll gain something from this, and can add to the discussion as well.

I'm going to break this up Clarkmeister style, because I thought it worked well for his wine trip report. Here's how I'll break it up - basically by city to make it easier, plus a special entry.

Part one - Rome
Part two - Siena
Part three - Florence
Part four - Cinque Terre
Part five - Venice
Part six - Adsman: man, myth, or legend?

Hopefully the report will be worthy of the El D forum, and perhaps will impart a little knowledge for those who want to travel to Italy. Here goes.

Background

The mrs and I decided that we wanted to go to Italy a number of years ago. I can't even pinpoint why we chose it specifically. The food and wine? The history? Regardless, Italy over the past number of years has represented to me some sort of accomplishment for us. I was never able to travel during my student days, and in my early professional career, it always seemed like we could never scrape together the money or time to make a trip happen.

So when the stars finally aligned this year, we did the only feasible thing. Booked plane tickets for some dates in September through frequent flier miles, and figured we'd decide the rest of the details later.

Over the past few months, we sorted those details out. Where to stay, what to see, etc. I've found that planning a trip for Italy is sort of like planning a wedding, or getting a house mortgage. I was surprised at how many people we came across who had been there, and each had their own very specific recommendation of what's the right thing to do - which was undoubtably whatever way THEY did it. After a while you're just better off not asking people at all.

To help plan our journey, we utilized the books of Rick Steves. He's known for his Europe shows on PBS in the US, and since we weren't interested in any sort of an organized tour, yet weren't daring enough to book hotels as we went (and weren't going to be staying in any hostels), this was a good middle ground. His books provide a nice background on each city, with recommendations on hotels and restaurants. We'll have some more specifics about that later, but generally the recommedations all hit the mark.

So, toting a mere two backpacks, and one small rolling suitcase (the married guys out there will certainly appreciate the accomplishment here, when you're going on a two week trip), we headed out from Seattle for the first leg of the trip - Rome.

Rome

We arrived in Rome after a LONG series of flights. Since we used frequent flier miles, we were limited on our hops, and to land British Air tickets we had to fly to Phoenix, to London, to Rome. All told, the trip took well over a day, and we arrived late into Rome. Managed to figure out the train from the airport into the middle of the city, and walked about 10 min to our hotel.

On Monday morning, we headed out early to start our trip. First impressions of Rome was that it really felt similar to NYC. Same sort of energy, and sense of history - on a different scale of course. To me it was cool to think that at any moment we were a stone's throw from a building that's probably older than ANYTHING in the US of A.

To coordinate our tours, we decided to pick up a Roma Pass. This is basically a pass that allows you entry into two selected museums, plus access to the subway and public transportation. It was well worth the cost of I think 18 eur each.

To start off our first day, we took the subway to the Roman Coliseum.

Outside of the coliseum:



Mrs. nolanfan inside the coliseum:



Your faithful author:



Old starting lineup card for one of the championship gladiator teams. 5th name down translates to Julio Franco:



Artsy postcard shot!



The coliseum was a nice way to check out a piece of Rome history right off the bat. The venue itself is pretty big, and it's amazing to me to think about how they built that kind of a place back in the day.

After we had our fill of gladiator memories, we were pretty parched with the 80+ degree weather and looked to find something to drink. Checking out one of the nearby food carts, we learned lesson number one of travelling to Italy - never buy anything within 3 or so blocks of a major site.

In the case of this cart, a nice small bottle of Gatorade - while beautifully icy cold - was going to set us back 5 euros. About $7 for a Gatorade? Maybe inside the coliseum, but outside, no way. Instead, we walked a couple of blocks away from the coliseum, found a small grocery store, and got the same stuff for 1 euro.

This also opened the door to the magic of foreign grocery stores. For some reason, I always love to go into stores in different states and cities, just to see how it differs, and this was no exception. Especially entertaining was the meat section.

I mean, check this out. Meat already on a stick! Genius. Get with it Safeway!



These were too funny to not take a picture. Heh heh.



After refreshing ourselves, we headed back to our hotel, and found a little grocer for lunch. Picked up a couple of awesome panini's and beers, which were great. We were loving Italy so far.

Another thing we enjoyed was the signs. Truth in advertising example #1.



Rest of pic censored, obv.

I'll pause to take a break here, and will continue with Rome in the next installment. If these pictures are too big to post, let me know that as well.

More to come!