I'll do my best to summarize the highlights and lowlights of our time, that'll hopefully be entertaining for you, dear reader, as well as providing a resource to anyone trying to plan their own trip sometime down the line.
Itinerary
... with day trips noted. Links go to the photo albums for that site:
- 2010-09-27 to 2010-09-30 - Rome
- 2010-10-01 to 2010-10-03 - Sorrento
- 2010-10-02 - Pompeii day trip
- 2010-10-03 - Amalfi Coast, Amalfi, and Positano day trip
- 2010-10-04 - Naples
- 2010-10-05 to 2010-10-09 - Florence
- 2010-10-07 - Brief outing to Siena and San Gimignano
- 2010-10-09 to 2010-10-12 - Venice
- 2010-10-10 - Murano, Burano, Torcello day trip
- 2010-10-11 - Verona day trip
We got a pretty good hotel and travel deal from Costco Travel that covered hotels and transportation for Rome, Florence, and Venice, with a few sightseeing tours included. Since we wanted to visit the coast as well, we built in the side trip farther south to Sorrento and Naples.
Unlike some guides, we scheduled our trip going from south to north, rather than north to south. We actually liked this a bit better because we packed most of the sights and high-intensity cities at the beginning (Rome and Naples in particular) when we had more energy, and were able to relax and chill more towards the end in Florence and Venice, as we got ready to come home.
Overall City Ranking
- Florence
- our favorite because it had the best combination of interesting stuff to see and learn about (Renaissance history, art, and science), food, and relaxed atmosphere - wide streets so you don't feel the crowds, plenty of open piazzas to people watch.
- Rome
- second favorite because of the fascinating Roman Empire and all the associated history - the scope of the empire, innovations in government and finance, the birth and corruption of the Christian church.
- Pompeii
- amazing to see 1st century Roman civilization frozen in time, and realizing that it's not that much different than our own.
- Sorrento
- made for a relaxing home base to explore Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Some good restaurants too.
- Venice
- iconic canals, but kinda pricey and super crowded with tourists coming in every day off gigantic cruise ships.
- Amalfi/Positano
- beautiful coast towns with great views, but it didn't really feel like "Italy" considering everyone was a tourist. We heard more English than Italian here.
- Naples
- Manhattan on steroids, or Italy at its most concentrated. Very few tourists, so we stuck out; someone attempted to pickpocket my backpack. However, the birthplace of pizza, and we had some in the restaurant most consider to be the originator.
In the next few posts, I'll go into more detail with pics.
1 comment:
we didn't like naples either. even the workers at the train station gave us a hard time there. i still don't have a very fond memory of naples. looks like it was a fun trip!
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