Jeni & Steve's Italy Vacation
September 3-22, 2006

Jeni's Trip Journal

To see the story in pictures and captions, click here.

Overview

Between the two of us, we’ve traveled very little outside the US, so selecting a destination was easy and difficult at the same time.  Easy because there were so many places to choose; difficult because there were so many places to choose among.  We finally settled on Italy, planning the vacation in May/June, with a few last-minute tweaks the week before we departed.

We planned the trip to the extent that we had a place to sleep each night (September is borderline high travel season for Europe) and a way to get from place to place.  Other than that, we left our activities up to where our moods took us.  We did a little bit of everything – hiking and walking, exploring cities and villages, museums, touristy sites, and of course, eating… but more about that later.

We used Rick Steves’ Italy 2006 guidebook as our primary source of advice, and we were very happy with the recommendations.  The hotel and restaurant tips were typically spot-on, and his humorous advice and tour guide comments provided gobs of information and entertainment.  His Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary also proved invaluable (and also very entertaining, translating such phrases as “Nothing with eyeballs, please” and “How long as this been dead?”  We’d definitely use his guidebooks again on a future trip to Europe.

Viva l’Italia!  We had a great time.  Read on to learn more.

Impressions

Food

What can we say?  Fantastico!  We weren’t incredibly adventurous in our dining, but what we had was delicious.  We stuck mainly with primi piatti (first courses, including pastas and soups), pizza, and sandwiches, plus some antipasto and salads thrown in here and there.  Typical portion sizes were perfect – one primi piatta apiece was enough to fill us for a meal (with room leftover for gelato, of course).  The pastas were very similar to we get in the US, but typically simpler – just a pasta with a sauce of some sort, and maybe one vegetable thrown in.  With secondi piatti (second courses) and contorni (meats and veggies) on the menu as well, we supposed they didn’t feel obligated to throw everything in with the pasta.  Veggies (squash, pumpkin, spinach, etc.) incorporated into the sauces themselves were very common (and very tasty!).  Menus typically focused on what was in season.  Almost all the pasta we had was homemade and cooked al dente (a nice vacation from mushy pasta).  One of our favorites was gnocchi, especially when it was homemade.

Bread was excellent everywhere we went, which made sandwiches a quite tolerable meal.  Fresh, hot panini were available everywhere, even in highway-side “Autogrills”.  Sandwich menus typically consisted of about a dozen different variations of ham and cheese (different kinds of bread, ham, and/or cheese, with or without different combinations of lettuce, tomato, and/or sauces), with the random chicken and vegetarian sandwich thrown in for good measure.

Gelato!  We came prepared to eat a lot of gelato, and we certainly lived up to that expectation.  We ate it almost every day, sometimes twice a day; a meal almost didn’t seem complete without it.  There were new flavors to try almost everywhere we went.  We had some other delicious desserts, too – panna cotta, pastries, etc. – but gelato was tops in our books.

Drink

Caffe rules in Italy morning, noon and night, and not being coffee drinkers, we were a little out of our element.  The Italian coffee rage provided for some unusual (to us) and entertaining sights – such as big, burly Italian guys drinking tiny mugs of espresso at stand-up bar tables in roadside gas stations.  Fortunately for us, tea was always available at breakfast.

Vino, vino, vino.  Our wine consumption rate skyrocketed during this trip.  We found that a half-liter vino rosso or bianco della casa (red or white wine of the house) for only 3-4 euros was a perfect complement to most dinners… and it was all awesome wine.  But yet again, we were clearly outsiders, turning down many inquiries for wine orders in the lunch hour.

Even water deserves its own paragraph.  We were amazed at how difficult it was to find tap water in this country.  Rick Steves advised us that it was safe, and we had no problems drinking it, but finding a restaurant that would serve us acqua del rubinetta was tough, so much so that we gave up asking.  We purchased more 1- to 3-euro liters of water than we would have liked.  We carried water bottles with us wherever we went, but finding places to fill them was also tricky (leading to additional water purchases).  Acqua frizzante (with gas) seemed to be preferred over acqua naturale (still water) by most Europeans – also not our style.  Fortunately, both were always available.

Language

Before we went to Italy, we knew no Italian but the typical food-related words most Americans know, but English is so prevalent that we had no trouble getting around.  We learned some Italian while we were there, but it was still mostly food-related.  Most major signage is in English as well as Italian, and many menus have English translations.  Our phrase book came in very handy.  We became somewhat adept at “restaurant Italian” and “travel Italian”.  We were also content to sit back and let our expat friend Michael do most of the talking for the few days we hung out with him.  There were times when we were thoroughly confused by Italian-only verbiage that we had neither the time nor the patience to translate, but fortunately, those instances were of little consequence.  Most Italians played along with our feeble attempts to speak the language, most often replying in Italian as well (understanding their replies was another story).

Most of the places at which we slept and ate were small, family-owned establishments.  Interestingly to us, most business like this do not have fancy names, like in the US.  Names would contain one or more of the many different Italian words specifying a different type of hotel (hotel, albergo, locanda, etc.) or restaurant (trattoria, paninoteca, bar, caffe, etc.), and then some sort of location or family/name designator; made-up English equilvalents would be: “Hotel on Main Street”, “Smith Family Restaurant”, “Mario’s Sandwich Shop”.

Driving

We rented a car for 11 days of our trip, and it turns out that Steve did all the driving.  We had a wee silver “Smart for four”, a pseudo-automatic (we liked to call it “the lurch-mobile”) that barely fit our luggage in the hatchback, and amputees in the backseat (sorry, Michael!).  Italian drivers are aggressive, to say the least – stop signs and lights are often optional, lane markings seem to be mere suggestions for most drivers, there appear to be no standard rules for yielding, and it’s not rare for cars to be traveling along at least twice the posted speed limit.

Big cars are a rarity here.  There are, of course, tons of tourist buses, and larger service vehicles, but the average private vehicle is a small 2- or 4-door hatchback or sedan.  Minivans and SUVs are very rare (and the ones we saw were very small), and pickups are basically nonexistent.

In the US, we’re used to directions like “turn right on ABC Road, then left on XYZ Lane”.  Not so in Italy.  Roads were rarely labeled (even on maps), so even when our directions called them out, they were often useless bits of trivia.  Navigation was almost entirely by signs, mostly little blue signs that pointed in the direction of cities/villages we were traveling to or through, green signs indicating the Autostrade (highways), and brown signs indicating landmarks/attractions.  Once we gave into the “navigate by signage” philosophy, our driving experience was much less frustrating.

Were I to plan this trip all over again, I would still rent the car, but for a shorter duration, focusing on using it only for the Tuscany and Umbria parts of our trip, relying on trains and other public transportation for the rest.  The hassle of driving and finding parking in cities often outweighed the convenience of having our own car.  We found the TrenItalia system to be generally efficient and easy-to-use.

Entertainment

Italian TV, when we had it available in our accommodations, provided brief entertainment.  Except for the rare CNN International viewing, all TV is in Italian, with lots of Italian game shows and “reality” shows that resemble those on American TV (versions of Beauty and the Geek, Deal or No Deal), plus tons of American shows dubbed over in Italian (such as Everybody Loves Raymond, Charlie’s Angels, Quantum Leap, Disney Channel shows).

Italian radio was disappointing for us.  The vast majority is Italian talk and music that was definitely not our style, and when we did hear American music, it was stuff we wouldn’t listen to at home.

Football (soccer) is clearly the #1 sport in Italy – it was often featured on TV, soccer stadiums were a key part of every decent-sized city, and kids were playing it in the squares and streets everywhere we went.  As we expected, cycling is also huge here.  We saw very few runners on the streets, but we observed gobs of cyclists, despite having to ride on often poor-quality roads with no bike lanes, surrounded by incredibly aggressive Italian drivers.  Cycling was also featured prominently on TV.

Other Random Observations

• We aren’t fond of the whole pay toilet concept, especially when most said toilets aren’t even adorned with toilet seats (or, worse, were pit toilets).
• We found that many Italian establishments don’t accept credit cards, or when they do, have technical difficulties that prevented their use.  We had to carry far more cash than we typically do in the US.
• Tipping in restaurants is uncommon.  Most restaurants include a pane e coperto (bread and cover) charge, usually 1-3 euros per person, in lieu of an added tip.
• Apart from a few random throw rugs, we observed no carpeting in any building in Italy.  Perhaps this is to aid in cooling hot summer buildings without A/C, and/or maybe just to keep things cleaner.  Either way, we were happy to have something comfortably soft under our feet upon our return home.
• Fashion is huge in Italy.  Nearly everyone is well-dressed (not necessary dressy, but well put together), and fashion stores abounded in nearly all locales we visited.  This was amplified by the fact that we were visiting during the fall fashion weeks.
• Italian charm bracelets appear to actually be Italian; I observed many Italian women and men wearing them.
• Having always wondered who actually buys pram/carriage-style strollers, my question was finally answered – Italians!  Most young babies we observed were carried in bassinet-type strollers in a lying down position, rather than in the bulky infant carriers so popular in the US (which were present, just not nearly as common).

The Trip

Getting There

Getting from Phoenix to Milan was a loooong 20 hours of transit.  The Sunday night redeye flight from Phoenix to London Heathrow was probably as comfortable as overnight transatlantic coach travel can be, with two meals, numerous movie and music selections, and sleeping masks and booties to help ease us to sleep (even though the resulting sleep was very sparse).  Unfortunately, our flight was 45 minutes late hours before it ever took off, and with only a 75 minute layover, a terminal change, and three required trips through security, we arrived at the gate for our Milan flight just minutes after they’d closed the doors.  That afforded us a few hours “rest” in Heathrow to check out the duty free shops and some interesting British reality TV.

It wasn’t until we were on our rebooked flight to Milan that we realized we were headed to Milan Linate airport, when our hotel was “conveniently” located near Milan Malpensa airport.  After being just a few minutes late for three buses/shuttles in a row, we finally made our way to our hotel just before midnight local time Monday night.

Lake Como

Varenna on Lake Como was just delightful.  I was still reeling from jetlag, but the train ride up was relaxing, and we found our B&B, the Orange House (a remodeled unit of a row of modern townhomes, in a town full of much older construction), quite easily, then spent that afternoon exploring the town.  The next day, we hiked uphill to the castle, Castello di Vezio, then back down a different route in search of the source of Fiumelatte, the shortest river in Italy, which supposedly only runs from March to October.  After a few wrong turns, we found the source, disappointed to find that the river had stopped running at least a month early this year.  Tired from our hike, we stayed in Varenna the rest of the evening, including an entertaining game of Italian Monopoli, printed in 1965.  (We skipped whatever Chance and Community Chest cards we couldn’t translate.)

The Dolomites

We knew from Rick Steves that The Dolomites are an area of Italy dominated by Austrian culture and German language, but it was still a surprise to us when we exited the Autostrada and the toll booth attendant spoke to us in German.  We had departed a land where most everything was presented in first Italian, then English, and entered a land where German was first and Italian was second, with English only sometimes present.  Not possessing a German phrasebook, we had to rely on our rusty high school German memories.

We stayed in Castelrotto (German: Kastelruth), a pretty winding drive up from Bolzano (German: Bozen).  It definitely has the feel of a ski town in the summertime – all the charm without the cold.  The town is cute, with a gi-normous bell tower on speed – we swore that thing clanged for ten minutes out of each hour.  We enjoyed a hearty Austrian dinner at a local café.  Hotel Wolf was our home for the evening, and it was the most “hotel-y” place we stayed, and one of the top two favorite accommodations of our trip.

The next morning, we drove to the base of Alpe di Siusi (German: Sieser Alm) and took the chair lift up the ~3000-foot ascent to this giant Alpine meadow.  We did a short but steep out-and-back hike of about an hour and a half, spotting plenty of cows, farms, and alpine huts along the way.  We strolled around the mountaintop flea market that happened to be there that day, before heading back down the chair lift for our drive to Venice.

Venice

Venice struck us as one of those one-of-a-kind places that’s just interesting in its mere existence.  We arrived mid-evening and made our way via vaporetto (small motorized barge “bus” service) and foot to our off-the-beaten path B&B, Ca’ San Trovaso.  We had a delicious dinner on a nearby square, followed by gelato, before turning in for the evening.

The next day and a half, we simply wandered.  We took the vaporetto for a Grand Canal cruise and on several other occasions, walked across the famous bridges, strolled the famous squares… but most interestingly for us, intentionally got lost meandering around the paths, deadends, bridges, and canal frontages.  We were amazed at how quickly we could go from shoulder-to-shoulder crowds to, just a few blocks away, nearly complete isolation.

The only identifiable downside was mosquitoes, which were nonexistent during the day and early evening.  The trailing summer heat prompted us to leave our windows open at night, but with bug screens uncommon in Italy, we were nibbled all night long by these pesky beasts.

We’re puzzled by the reports we’d heard of Venice being smelly.  While we certainly knew we were surrounded by water, we didn’t find any bothersome odor.  In fact, the worst odor we experienced was when we inadvertently strolled through the open-air fish market, just as they were shutting down and cleaning up for the day.  We found many other waterways elsewhere in Italy to be far worse taken-care-of and smellier than anything we saw in Venice.

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre (the “five lands”, five small coastal towns connected primarily by railroad) is a place that used to be unique for its isolation; now heavily visited by tourists, it’s still unique in the charm it’s preserved.  We stayed in Vernazza, the second-northernmost of the towns, in Trattoria Gianni, a house of tiny rooms in an old, old building, up four winding stepped streets, but with an incredible sea and town view.

We were joined on our Cinque Terre excursions by Michael Mazur, a friend who’s been living and working in nearby Pisa for the past year.  Our stay in this area was a lovely whirlwind of food and drink, hiking, and train rides, bouncing about the CT towns.

Pisa

With us only having a few hours to spare before our drive to the Chianti region of Tuscany, Michael graciously provided us with the speedy tour of Pisa, including a stroll through the city walls, alongside the River Arno, to his apartment, then back to the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) to see the Leaning Tower and Duomo from the outside, followed by lunch at one of his favorite restaurants.

Tuscany

Ah, Tuscany.  Paintings and photographs of Tuscan hills are very popular in the US these days, and when viewed in person, the landscape certainly doesn’t disappoint.  Hill after hill of beautiful countryside, with vineyards full to the brim of grapes ready for the fall harvest.  We stayed in the Chianti region outside the village of Panzano in the guest suite of the home of Janine Loohuis; it was a 700-year-old farmhouse with and indoor bedroom and bathroom and an outdoor seating/breakfast area, decorated with Janine’s artist touch.  Very peaceful.

Our first evening there, we had the pleasure of taking cooking classes at Agriturismo Fagiolari with Giulietta Giovannoni.  We made a full Italian meal – panzanella (bread and tomato salad), homemade spinach and cheese tortellini with a sage and garlic butter, turkey tenderloin stuffed with sausage, garlic and rosemary, green beans with tomatoes, and plum preserve crostada for dessert.  Giulietta makes all her own wine, vinegar, and olive oil.  Simply delicious, and a delightful evening shared with fellow students.

We bounced around from town to town in Tuscany, including Volpaia, Castellina, and Greve.  A fun destination was the hill town of San Gimignano, with a handful of towers still standing from Medieval times, when warring families built them to fight each other.

Before leaving Tuscany, we spent half a day in Siena, partially to do laundry, but mostly to check out the Medieval charm of this city.  The main square, Il Campo, is one of the most unique we visited, with a big slope down to the focal point of the tower and old civic building.  Its Duomo (Cathedral) was also a sight to see, incredibly ornate in comparison to the “plain” Church of San Domenico on the other side of town.

Umbria

Less touristy than its regional neighbor to the northwest, Umbria is filled to the brim with character.  It reminded me of my visits to western Pennsylvania, but prettier and with far more history.  We stayed at Agriturismo Pomonte, several miles outside Orvieto, where we were spoiled with hospitality, free-flowing wine and spirits, and home-cooked meals by the Cesari family.

The highlight of our time in Umbria was our visit to Civita di Bagnoregio, a tiny little relic of a town teetering atop a tower of earth, with canyons in every direction.  Accessible only by a footbridge and not very well traveled (at least on the day we visited), it’s truly a ghostly, one-of-a-kind place.  We also spent some time exploring Orvieto and its uniquely decorated Duomo.

Pompeii

We toured Pompeii on our way from Umbria to the Amalfi Coast, so we were timeboxed to start, and intermittent downpours also didn’t aid in our quest to visit this famous archaeological site.  Nevertheless, it was endlessly fascinating to see the ruins of literally an entire ancient city, which was buried by feet and feet of Vesuvian volcanic ash nearly two thousand years ago.

We strolled the streets and structures, intrigued not only by what remained – mostly portions of walls (some decorated with frescoes), floors (often made from marble or adorned with mosaics), even some ceilings – but by what didn’t.  Hundreds of years of controlled archaeological excavation have placed many of the prized possessions in museums elsewhere, but at least the same amount of uncontrolled pillaging have left many remains lost, not to mention what was destroyed by the disaster and decayed through time itself.

The Amalfi Coast

The rains continued, plaguing the Amalfi Coast portion of our trip as well.  We had hoped to tour the area via hiking, boat, and bus, but the first two were blatantly thwarted by the weather, and the impending rain made us reluctant to strand ourselves too far from “home” by bus either.  Instead, in the breaks in the rain, we strolled by foot around our chosen Amalfi Coast base, picturesque Positano.  The coastal cliffs are truly magnificent, and the vistas are gorgeous even with rain clouds hovering.

Roma

Roma – what a great way to end our trip.  We afforded ourselves the “luxury” of four nights in the same location, twice the amount of time we spent anywhere else during our vacation.  We particularly liked our accommodations, The Beehive – complete with free internet access, a lounge and café, comfortable furnishings, affordable, and conveniently located near the train station.

Rome is a big city, but without skyscrapers, it doesn’t have a big city feel.  Yes, there is horrible traffic, loud noise, and incredibly crowded public transportation, but our awe of the history and culture of the city canceled out those distractions.  We explored much of the city on foot, visiting the famous piazzi, buildings, monuments, fountains, and the like, during the day and after dark (affording very contrasting views of the sights).

Each of our three full days were dominated by a planned activity.  The first day, we toured the Borghese Gallery.  Not being big “art museum people”, we were simply floored by this incredible gallery.  Not the typical museum of “stuff hanging on walls and sitting on pedestals”, the gallery itself (an enormous villa built several centuries ago) was a work of art, with ancient and “modern” (Renaissance and Baroque) art seamlessly woven together.  Ancient mosaics were incorporated into the floors.  Ancient sculpture reliefs literally became part of the walls, with modern painters extending the scenes onto the walls around them.  Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Baroque sculptures were nothing short of amazing.

The second day, we embarked on Context Rome’s “Rome Antica” tour.  Our American/Spanish guide, Michael, was thoroughly knowledgeable in Roman history, art, and architecture, fully captivating our small group of six tourists for four hours, as we toured the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum.

The third day, we toured St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel with another company, Through Eternity.  Jennifer, a blonde Los Angeles woman who talks even faster than I do, was a complete contrast to our guide the previous day, but she was no less an expert.  She gabbed nonstop for five hours on the art, architecture, and history of this famous area.  St. Peter’s is truly the most amazing church we’ve seen, that’s for sure.  We only scratched the surface of the Vatican Museum, which is chock full of antiquities and more modern crafts.  The Sistine Chapel, while incredible, is smaller than we both expected.

While the list of sights we visited was long, the list of Roman sights left unseen is even longer.  On a trip with so many highlights, Rome was definitely at or near the top of our list.

Conclusion

As we prepared for our trip, we were often asked, “Are you going to any other countries?”  After spending nearly three weeks in this fascinating country, one thing we know clearly is that we’ve barely scratched the surface.  At dinner our last night in Rome, we rattled off a list of Italian destinations that could easily fill another three weeks… and another.  But with so many destinations on our “to do” list and so few occasions to take long vacations such as this, we’re not sure when we return.  If and when we do, we will certainly taste la dolce vita, the sweet life, again.