Italy: Travel Day

Another day, another trip to the airport. This time we were departing from Athens, Greece for Naples, Italy via Rome. We figured out how to get to the airport … or we thought we did. We were going to retrace our steps from when we arrived. No problem. I did a bit of research on taking the metro to the airport. Our 5-day transit passes had expired but that was okay because they weren’t valid for our transit to the airport. Our tickets from the airport were 10 euros each but in my research, I had read that if you are purchasing for more than one person, like a family, the prices came down. In fact, it said that three tickets would be 15 euros. Great! But also, wait! I think I was overcharged when we arrived. Oh well. Nothing could be done about that now but I was more savvy this time around. Famous last words.

We went to the nearest metro station and found a ticket machine. I purchased 3 tickets for the Airport Express … 18 euros. Okay, so prices had gone up since the article I had read had been written. No problem. Still cheaper than 30 euros.

We had observed plenty of people enter and exit the metro (and trams and other mass transit) without scanning or validating their tickets. We hadn’t considered doing this and we knew we would have to scan our tickets to get OUT of the station at the airport. But when our tickets didn’t work at the first stop, we didn’t really think anything of it … they were for the airport. Maybe the would only work on the airport line. We got on the train and arrived at the correct station, two stops from where we started where we were to catch the airport line directly to the terminal. We tried validating our tickets again because when we scanned them to leave the station once we arrived, they needed to have first been scanned at the beginning of the trip. Still didn’t work. That was odd … we hadn’t had any issues with any of the passes in any other country or at any other time … or in Athens … up until this point. I went to the nearest ticket window, explained the dilemma and was asked how much I paid for the tickets … 18 euros. Oh, those are for the airport express bus. Wait. What? How come bus tickets are being sold in the metro? Of course, they couldn’t credit me the amount I already paid. I could go catch the bus … which would take us an hour to arrive at the airport and we were already behind schedule. I shelled out the 30 euros for the correct ticket and learned an 18 euro lesson. Another exercise in frustration.

We arrived and got through security very easily aside from the fact that security personnel were VERY interested in my travel utensils. I had put two of the three sets in our backpack for the plane trip (our big luggage would be tagged at the gate and put in the hold). There were no knives because I had been advised by most of my travel savvy friends that they would likely get confiscated. Mostly, security was curious about the chopsticks and the straw and wondered what the little brush was used for … cleaning, of course!

We flew Ryanair and had flown on them from London to Seville, Spain back in January. Since that time, they had changed their baggage policy. The first time, we were still allowed two carry-on pieces of luggage. One standard and one smaller, personal bag. No problem. They did have weight and size issues but because we had checked in and had our boarding passes prior to reaching the airport, we never dealt with airline personnel and never were required to weigh our bag. This was the same for Vueling Air when we flew them from Barcelona, Spain  to Athens, Greece. No problems and no weight checks. Good to know for future reference.

This time, Ryanair only would allow one small, personal piece of luggage unless you had a special ticket with priority boarding. If you brought two pieces to the gate, the larger one, as long as it still met the size and weight requirements for cabin luggage (no more than 10 kg), they gate check it for free and put it in the hold where it can be picked up at baggage claim. Although there is a weight requirement, airline personnel still didn’t weigh our bags. Again, good to know for future reference.

We arrived in Rome, no problems aside from being an hour late,  picked up our luggage and decided to grab a taxi to the bus station which we were taking to Naples. We had debated taking mass transit to the bus station but decided it wasn’t worth the stress. Rome taxis are hired at stations and I had read they have set fees for trips to different locations. According to the sign, our taxi ride was supposed to be 35 euros. According to our driver, due to something … whatever, I don’t know, he had to go the long way so it was going to cost us 55-60 euros. At this point we were now quite a bit later and I was concerned about us catching our bus. I talked the driver down to 50 euros and he agreed to that but got another couple to ride with us. I am not sure what price they negotiated but the driver was nice enough and got us to the bus station in plenty of time. I think the driver made a little extra off of me that day.

Our taxi driver was so speedy, we actually had about an hour until our bus left so … what to do? Get food, of course! Reece and Keith were happy to fill their bellies with authentic Italian cuisine … gnocchi and lasagna!

We boarded our bus which included free Wi-Fi and settled in for the 2.5 hour ride.

While traveling, I tried to determine the best route for getting to our hotel from the station. The hotel website was somewhat helpful and we ended up take the easiest route with the least amount of changes (that would be zero) and we arrived at our station and headed to our hotel. A two kilometer walk later, we arrived. Keith was worn out! In truth,  it was a straight shot … it was just a LONG straight shot. But we arrived and got our room and we settled in. Reece and I ran to a nearby grocery store to pick up a few supplies. Since we are staying in a hotel and have no kitchen, we were limited, but we did have a small fridge so beer and wine were must-haves. We also stopped and got a couple of Napoli pizzas for dinner.

While on the bus from Rome to Naples, I had come across a link for a free walking tour. I was signing up less than the required 24 hours requested but I got a quick confirmation and we were in for the tour beginning at 10:30 the next morning.

Naples, Italy: Day One

We were up and after our free breakfast (a very welcome surprise benefit of the hotel) and some very helpful directions from the hotel staff, we found a route into central Naples that had us catching a train from a station literally across the street from our hotel. I wish I had known about that option the night before but that would have required some transfers that I don’t think my brain was capable of contemplating after a full day of travel. Twelve minutes after hopping on board, we arrived at the station and a 10 minute walk had us at the Piazza Dante where we were to meet our group and guide for tour.

And what a tour it was! The company is called Napoli That’s Amore and it is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to promoting the global image and cultural of Naples.  Apparently, Naples has a reputation of being dangerous and people who travel to Italy are often told not to bother with Naples . But it is a great city … it invented pizza. Enough said! You can learn more about Napoli That’s Amore here.

Our tour guide, Raeffele, took us on a two hour walk around Naples Old Towne. He was amazing. Really. In the two hours we spent with him, I heard him speak no less than four languages. His English was fabulous! I am assuming his Italian, German and Spanish are equally on par, though since he is a Naples native, the Italian is a given. He also spent time in France so I am guessing that is one of his languages, too. So impressive!

After our tour, we walked around some more …

After our day of walking, we headed back to the hotel and tried to figure out our dinner plans. The hotel staff recommended a restaurant up the street that had not yet opened when we were ready to eat. So we made our way back towards the hotel and settled on The Norrey Inn. We weren’t quite sure what to expect. The menu didn’t have an English translation and the staff didn’t speak much English so with a bit of help from Google Translate, we each decided on a menu item and hoped for the best. And we were pleasantly surprised. We each got a substantial burger … Reece’s was pork. Keith got something sweet and spicy and mine had mushrooms and maybe kale although Reece swore it was broccoli. I don’t know but it was delicious and there were no leftovers. A success!

Naples, Italy:  Day Two

Our plan had been to travel to Pompeii for the day and take in the sights there. Unfortunately, I was slow at making train reservations and the only available seats had us leaving at 9:30 a.m. and coming back to Naples at 8:41 p.m. Not horrible, but we have made one very important discovery about ourselves as travelers and tourists while on this odyssey … we are only good for about 6 hours of sightseeing. So we bagged the Pompeii trip and made other plans.

Napoli That’s Amore has a 2nd tour called the Royal Walking Tour and since we had enjoyed our tour the day before so thoroughly, we decided to take part again. Today’s tour was led by the lovely Silvia and we had another sunny day learning about Napoli.

As we were waiting for the tour to start, we were visited by this guy. He came right over, jumped up on the bench and got some loving from Reece. His owners were quite amused. So was Reece.

We saw some beautiful architecture on our walk and two of the four castles that were built in Naples.

After our tour, we headed back to the Castelle dell’Ovo (Castle of the Egg) to explore a bit more. Apparently, it is shaped like an egg which you can see if looking down on it. We simply climbed to the top and looked down over the sides.

And we looked out at the view.

Because we weren’t going to Pompeii, we trekked back towards Piazza Dante to find the National Archeological Museum. On the way we were hungry so we stopped at the Piazza and had some pizza. Our mistake was ordering three instead of two. But we can always count on Reece.

Off to the Museum …

And after a long day, it was back to the hotel before we headed out for, what else, more pizza. Actually, Keith got pizza. Reece got the local pasta special complete with bread bowl. I was still full from the half of pizza I ate earlier, so I drank my dinner in the form of a glass of wine.

Rome, Italy: Travel Day

Our time in Naples was short and it was time to head back to Rome. We easily got to the bus station … we were experts now … loaded up and headed out.

Arriving back in Rome, we decided to attempt public transportation and headed out on bus 71 to  the Trastevere neighborhood. After a couple of misses, a prayer or two and the kindness of a young American studying abroad who overheard our conversation on the very crowded bus, we found our destination.

Here is our little apartment for our four nights here in Rome.

So … the pictures are fairly accurate but the space is not actually as large as it looks. And it is a lot less bright. The miracle of Photo Shop and filters, I guess. In actuality, the apartment, while having a lot of character, is a bit dingy and I would rank it towards the bottom of all of the properties we have stayed at, thus far.

As we arrived rather late, we spent a couple of hours getting settled and catching up on the news of the day before heading out to find some dinner. On a positive note … there are LOTS of little restaurants everywhere … one right outside our door. We went to Cajo & Caja, just across the Piazza di Santa Maria. We each had a lovely pasta dish and enjoyed the atmosphere and our bubbly waitress, Emanuela.

Rome, Italy: Day One

After Reece returned from her first run in Italy, we got up and got out and explored our neighborhood a bit, finding a place for breakfast. A coffee and a pastry of choice for 2 euros for Keith and I. Something a bit more substantial for Reece … omlette, toast, tea, bacon and salad. Then it was time to find the local market.

We took our goods of fresh fruits and veggies … yes, we did purchase some artichokes … back to our apartment and hung out for a bit (it was a bit gloomy and overcast but we didn’t get rained on). Later that afternoon things dried up and we took a walk around our neighborhood with the help of Rick Steves.

Rome, Italy: Day Two

The Vatican

Today we had an appointment at the Vatican, or more specifically with our guide Sara for a tour of the Vatican Gardens. It had been recommended that we see the Vatican and that we pay the extra money for the tour. This is something that can be arranged through the Vatican website. But even in February, those slots fill up. Taking a tour of the gardens was the next best thing and also got us an entrance into the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Mark’s Basilica. I did have trouble paying for the tour. And not because I am cheap. The website wouldn’t put my payment through for some reason. Good thing I have my friend Kristin, who is not only housesitting for us, walking the dog, cuddling the cats and shoveling the snow … she is also providing us with valuable advice about visiting the Vatican and also buying our tickets. Apparently, this is not an unusual problem and when I started having trouble, I thought about bagging it and risk just showing up and trying our  luck. Let me tell you … I don’t think it matters what time of year you go to visit the Vatican, there will ALWAYS be people. LOTS of people. LINES and LINES of people! I can’t believe people don’t know about the advance purchase, skip-the-lines option for visiting the Vatican. You can purchase your advance tickets to the Vatican here. Our guide, Sara, told us that in the summer it isn’t unusual for the Vatican to have 30,000 visitors a day. She said there might only be half that number on this day. That still seemed like a lot. Here and here are links to some sites with tips for when you do make the trip.

The Gardens

I can complain about all the people but the one thing I cannot complain about was the weather. It was THE absolutely PERFECT day to take a two hour walk through the gardens of the Vatican.

After a quick snack, we headed inside and did a quick tour of the museums and since we were unable to get in on the guided tour, we, again, brought Rick Steves along for the ride.

The Museums

We also visited the Sistine Chapel, of which there is no photography allowed but it was amazing. And then we headed to St. Peter’s Baslica. Another impressive site.

Rome, Italy: Day Three

Other Points of Interest

Our last day and we quickly made our way to other sites … mostly so we could say we saw them. On our way to the Pantheon we came across a square … shocking, I know. That square had some fountains … more shock and awe. The square was big and the fountains cool, as fountains usually are, so we took some photos.

Soon after, we stumbled across the Pantheon, an ancient Roman temple, not to be confused (as some in our party have done) with the Parthenon … that big thing on a hill in Athens, Greece. The Pantheon is pretty big but it isn’t on a hill and you can go inside.

We next made our way to the Trevi Fountain so Reece could toss a coin over her shoulder. That was fun. Interestingly enough, we found out later that afternoon upon our return to our apartment that Reece got accepted into the one week flute intensive program at Interlochen this summer. Coincidence? I think, yes, but still kind of eerie.

By this time it had been sprinkling on and off and we were chilled so we decided we would head to the Colosseum and see what we could see and then call it a day.

We made it back to our apartment, crossing the Tiber River along the way. We had a lovely dinner of leftovers from the market.

The evening was spent packing up for our next adventure. Off to Florence!

Florence, Italy: Travel Day

Packed up, had another lovely breakfast and a quick bus ride to the train station to make our way to Florence. It all went according to plan. Leaving a place is always easier than arriving in a new one. At any rate … a quick 1.5 hour ride north to Florence was uneventful … if you don’t count the young couple who couldn’t keep their hands off each other. When asked if he had noticed the young couple sitting across from us on the train, Keith replied that they needed a private room. It wasn’t that bad but it did take some skill to keep my eyes averted. They were probably glad to see us disembark the train.

We found our way to our Florence apartment … where we settle in for the next 5 nights. Once we found it … it took quite a bit of dialogue with the ladies at the tourist office and even then, once we got off, we walked the LONG way to the apartment. Keith is now in charge of getting us from one place to another. I am fairly confident he understands how to use Google Maps.

Here is our home away from home:

I LOVE this place. It is in a lovely residential area about 1.5 miles from the center of Florence. It has TWO bedrooms and TWO bathrooms! Luxury, I tell you. It opens out to a courtyard so we aren’t directly on the street. The only odd thing is that it doesn’t really have a living area just a kitchen dining area. And it doesn’t have a washer which I totally missed when booking it but we can make it work.

We are located next door to a church and the bells peal frequently during the day. It reminds me of The Sound of Music. I rather like it and it stops at night which is so considerate of whomever is ringing them.

We had a lovely cup of tea and some cookies left by our host, Lorenzo, and some leftover snacks that we brought on the train. A bit later, Keith and I went exploring while Reece stayed in the apartment and did some studying. We found the laundromat … this was critical as we had a real need to do some laundry. We found the grocery store and stocked up on a few items. We went back to the apartment, dropped off our goodies and went in search of food. For a Thursday night, we weren’t having any luck but then found our way to Ristorante Cucchietta. We all shared a bottle of the house wine (8 euros). Reece ordered the beet risotto. Keith and I got pizza and it was delish! A lovely dinner with delicious food … a good time had by all.

Florence, Italy: Day Two

Well, it was bound to happen. We have seriously been blessed by the weather gods on this trip. VERY blessed. In 6 1/2 weeks of travel we have had two … count them, TWO … days of rain that had us heading indoors. We didn’t get rain today, but the next two days we are slated for non-stop precipitation … even the possibility of thunderstorms, though it doesn’t feel quite warm enough for that.

The rain, if it comes, may seriously hinder our Get-Out-And-See-Florence mentality. We will see. Today, we had plans to go on a couple of free walking tours. Reece got up and went for a run and came back with sore feet so we figured that we would see how it goes but decided that the tours were out of the question today.

Keith decided to take matters into his own hands and took us on a walking tour of his own design.

He lead us through quiet streets of Florence architecture where we first ended up in a square near the National Anthropological Museum which is actually located in the Palazzo della Crocett … which I only discovered as I write this and looked it up. It was built for a Medici. We thought it was a university. Maybe it is. The best part was this guy.

From the palazzo we could see a dome in the distance and we made our way in that direction. As we got closer we felt like we were walking on the Diagon Alley set of one of the Harry Potter movies. There were lots of people. And they were all headed in the direction to see this:

This is the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower). It is THE cathedral in Florence. It is massive and different than any other cathedral or church we have seen. Note the green and pink marble work. That was our favorite part. If you want to refer to it like a local, just call it Il Duomo.

We headed back to our apartment for our mundane tasks … homework, music practice and laundry. That last bit … a chore in Athens, was relatively strait forward in Florence. I didn’t have to wait for a washer or a dryer and being able to both loads as the same time, cut down on my sit-around time. Keith went with me and once I got things going, he stayed to keep an eye on things and I ran to the store for a couple of items … butter, milk, pesto, Brie and then back to the laundromat to finish things up. We were back in the apartment, round trip in an hour and a half.

On a side note … we had hoped to visit Cinque Terre while we were in Florence. It is tough to do the visit in one day but there are tours that you can purchase that will get you there and back in about 13 hours. They give you time to explore on your own and because the transport, in a private coach, is part of the tour, the commute time is considerably less. I had seriously considered signing us up for this on one of the days when the weather was supposed to be halfway decent. Unfortunately, this is not the time of year that caters to tourists. These one day tours aren’t even available to book until March. After a bit of research on the Cinque Terre region, I discovered that the small hamlets basically close up shop starting just after the holidays until Easter. We could still find our own transportation there and explore it ourselves but we would have had to spend 6 hours on the train to get there and back with no guarantee that we’d be able to really check it out. So … we will have to save that visit for another time.

Florence, Italy: Day Three

The rain finally came. And truth be told, I am a little glad for it. We could be die hard tourists and go out exploring, come rain or come shine. Or we could use the weather as an excuse to be lazy, rest up and rejuvenate for the another day of non-stop walking. We chose the latter. We actually did venture out for a bite of something to eat. Our host, Lorenzo, recommended a quaint, family-owned restaurant, not farm from our little flat. They are only open for lunch, they make the pasta and sauces fresh and it is VERY inexpensive. This was the perfect day to try it out.

It was, by far, the best meal I had had in Italy and probably the entire trip.

Florence, Italy: Day Four

Honestly, by this point, the days have all run together. It was another gray, overcast day. But by the time we got out, the dripping had stopped and things were actually drying out though the sun did not make an appearance. We did more walking. We had watched some YouTube videos on Florence and thought we might try to go the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery where the statue of David is located. I went online because when you do that you can skip the lines and go right in. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any more tours available for that day so we thought, “How crowded could it be? Let’s take our chances.” Which we did. Needless, to say, we did not go to either galleries that day. We simply walked around more, exercising our muscles that were good and rested after our lazy itinerary the day before.

Florence: Day Five

Because we didn’t make the 3 hour … one way … trek to Cinque Terra, we had decided to definitely make a day trip to Pisa. I was feeling like we hadn’t made the most of our time in Florence and that had me disappointed. Pisa more than made up for it. I tried to purchase train tickets online but just as I had issues purchasing train tickets to Venice (which I eventually made happen), Pisa was proving elusive. So we decided to take our chances, go to the train station and hopefully purchase them there just before departure.

We got on the bus a one minute walk from our flat … and proceeded to ride the route twice. There is a GREAT transportation app called Moovit that works really well at giving you all the transport options, different routes, times, etc. However, there is quite a bit of construction going on near the Santa Maria Novella train station which has altered the stops somewhat … so we were looking to step off at one stop which had been moved for the time being and we missed getting off on the alternate stop. The bus ride proved to be relaxing and we got to see the city one more time before disembarking and making our way to the station.

We easily purchased tickets and hopped on the train for the one hour trip to Pisa.

The day was clearing up and when we arrived, the sun was out and the temperature warm. We wandered our way to a little pizzeria, just getting a table before the lunch crowd arrived in mass, and the three of us proceeded to put away three pizzas.

Now that our bellies were full we were free to wander around and enjoy the sites. Pisa is a very picturesque city.

And then we stumbled across the place we came to see.

As we made our way back to the train station to return to Florence, we had time and did a loop running across this area. I am not sure what it used to be but it was now a beautiful park-like area.

Back in our Florence flat, it was time to pack up and figure out how to get to the bus station for our train to Venice.

Venice, Italy: Travel Day

Made it to the train station and after a slight delay, we boarded and were on our way. An easy 2.5 hours later, peppered with some stops we found ourselves in Venice where we boarded the regional train and headed to our hotel. As luck would have it, our hotel, The Crowne Plaza Venice East was near the stop. A quick walk through the under pass and there we were. We checked in, got settled and then set about finding food.

A .5 mile walk brought us to a burger joint with good reviews and we tucked in to our 2nd Italian burger. Tasty and filling, we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. We only scheduled one day in Venice and we needed to make the most of it. We had a walking tour lined up for 11 am and because I had booked a hotel near the airport with a shuttle (in preparation for our departure from Marco Polo airport the next day) we did have a trek in front of us to get to our tour meeting point.

Venice, Italy: Day One

We arrived at the Santa Lucia station shortly before 10 and amazingly, found our way to our starting point. Venice “proper” is quite small and the layout is tricky. GPS doesn’t work very well because the streets are quite narrow and signals are blocked by tall buildings. It is easy to get lost and that was my greatest fear but our internal navigational systems must be working as we arrived with 10 minutes to spare.

Venice is such a beautiful city. I had trouble deciding which photos to post. So, I posted pretty much all of them.

The thing I really like about Venice is that it is a total pedestrian city. No cars allowed at all and therefore no worries when crossing streets and such.

Surprisingly, there were still quite a lot of tourists. There were close to 30 people in our walking tour. I was quite astonished.

The water levels are rising due to global warming but also the weight of the city is causing it to sink.

The street entrances to homes were reserved for the servants with the canal entrances being more elaborate. People with money traveled by boat, on the canals, to socialize.

Apparently, there is quite a number of empty apartments. The population of Venice is mostly retirees and the young people are leaving in droves. The main industry is tourism.

A lovely, though somewhat spendy, lunch out at one of the recommended places, a bit of dessert and coffee to top it off and then meandering back to the train station and return to our hotel. Dashed to a very close carry-out only pizzeria for an easy dinner and then lights out. We depart for Paris tomorrow … where we stay for 4 weeks. I am looking forward to less packing up and more settling in.

Cheers!

Teresa