Some of the things I write are mostly for my own documentation. Time flies and then we forget where we went and what we did.
In the Spring Break of 2024, the first week of April, we traveled to Italy.
F is into Italian architecture and art and S is into food while N is all about family.
We started our trip on a nonstop United flight from SF to Rome. I had prebooked a ride from the airport to Roma Termini which was next to Hotel Morgana where we were staying for 2 nights. The first night was rather uneventful but fun nonetheless. S and I went out for dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant from across the street. We also bought an umbrella because it was raining in Rome that evening.
For our second day, we had booked a rather expensive "Rome in a Day" tour that started at the Vatican City. We wanted to try out the train in Rome so we took the train to The Vatican from Roma Termini. The concierge at our hotel had warned us about the pickpocketing in Rome.
The other instruction provided to us was to cover our knees and the shoulder because were going to be on Holy Grounds. The Vatican was beautiful, especially the museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The highlight in the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel though. Imagining Michelangelo painting those ceilings during the Renaissance gave me the goosebumps. However, the crowds do take away from the experience. I would say that the crowds were still less compared to the crowds you see during the summer.
From the Vatican, we took a taxi to The Trevi fountain area. We were still with the tour guide and she showed us the Pantheon and then we broke for an Italian lunch. And that's when the pick pocketer struck. S, focused on shopping while we ordered lunch, was distracted enough that her iphone was pick pocketed from her coat pocket. The phone was turned off immediately and needless to say once it was gone, we did not waste our precious vacation time looking for it.
Dejected but not disheartened, we continued with our Rome in a Day Tour. The next stop was The Forum, filled with ancient Government offices and ruins of the Roman Empire. It led to Palatine Hill and we eventually ended the tour at the Colosseum. We had walked nearly 20,000 steps that day. We took the taxi back to Morgana. We ate dinner at a Ramen place in Roma Termini and called it a night.
The next morning, we were going to rent a car and head out on our road trip in Italy. We took a taxi to Avis, rented a car and started driving to Tuscany. We stayed at a beautiful AirBnb in the middle of the vineyards of Tuscany (in a town called Poggibonsi). We drove to the town of San Gimigano for dinner at a nice Italian place and enjoyed the small Tuscan town.
Next morning, we relaxed in the vineyards before heading out to Pisa to see the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took the customary pictures and drove to Florence. Florence was an interesting experience because we were keeping the car with us and everyone who has been to Italy knows that its very hard to drive in the heart of Italian towns. We parked the car at a parking garage and spent the night at our AirBnb, that used to be a palace back in the day (in the middle of Florence). The most important thing we did that evening was a tour of the Academia Gallery, where the statue of David (another Michelangelo masterpiece) lives. N was scandalized by the number of naked statues in the galleries. We bought our own naked David as a souvenir. A note about Italian food- pasta in Southern and central Italy is mostly wheat based; however if you travel to North like Milan, risotto (rice based) starts replacing pasta as the staple food. We had a hearty dinner after our Florence tour and went back to the AirBnb to play cards and read books, after roaming around the beautiful streets of Florence at night.
Next day, we got back in the car and headed towards Venice. Florence to Venice was a long but pretty drive. It was marked with a lot of tunnels (I imagine lots of mountains were cut to carve out the path). Most people take the train to Venice but we are car people. You park the car at a garage in Venice and then you are either on your feet or on a gondola. We walked to our AirBnb first. There was crepe place next to the Airbnb that we enjoyed a lot. We walked a lot as well as shopped, and we got nice Italian dinner to close the night. A note about the restaurants in Italy; especially in big cities. A lot of them have Bangladeshi service staff. However, when you go to a smaller town, you will find more native Italian service staff.
That first night in Venice, a crazy lady started banging our AirBnb door, which was a bit scary. I reported it to the hosts and they came in the morning to check on us and told us that a mentally unstable woman lives in the neighborhood.
Needless to say we did the gondola next day (with Amitabh Bachchan's song playing in the background. We started the day with a good Italian brunch, then did the gondola and then more walking and gelato, ending at Piazza San Marco. And then we closed out the night. Venice is more of a tourist attraction unlike places of culture like Rome or Florence.
Next morning, we took the gondola back to our car and started driving towards Terni. Terni is a small town in the region that rivals Tuscany, called Umbria. The difference between the two regions is that Tuscany is more cosmopolitan, while Umbria is more rustic. I love Rustic and I thoroughly enjoyed my day in Terni. We stayed at a very scenic AirBnb with the view of the entire mountain range of the area. We went out for dinner to the heart of Terni. While the Italian food was marvelous, one of the things that we ate was a small fish based pizza called Pizza Napoli that we hated. We walked around Terni and called it a night.
Next day, we were slated to return to Rome. The drive to the airport was great. It was bittersweet to leave Italy. We had a wonderful time but the spring break was over and we carried with us all the wonderful memories from the trip. But we were also excited to get back home because our family gets very tired after a week of traveling and we were looking forward to settling down back to our routines. Our nonstop flight from Rome to San Francisco was comfortable. Addio Italia!
