On our last day in Italy, we were relaxing at a cafe in Rome after a long, hot day of sight seeing. We were reminiscing about our travels over the past two weeks and we went through our trip, city by city, and decided what were our favorite and least favorite things about each place.
I should say that in all honesty, there was no least favorite thing. The trip was pretty perfect in every way. No mishaps whatsoever. Flights were smooth and on time…all of our apartments were lovely….we didn’t lose anything or have anything stolen…no one got sick…the food was delicious…all of our pre-booked tickets and train travel was great…I mean, there were no hiccups at all. The 100 degree weather was definitely a bit hard to handle at times…but last year we complained about Paris being cold and rainy….so maybe the weather is never perfect, no matter what. So with that being said, here is our list:
MILAN
Favorite Thing: Tour of the Last Supper
There were a lot of beautiful things to see in Milan. Before we visited Siena’s cathedral (which happened later in the trip), I had determined that Milan’s Duomo was the most beautiful that I had ever seen! Milan is an elegant and vibrant city, but we all agreed that getting the chance to see The Last Supper with our own eyes was really special and was our favorite thing about going to Milan. It’s iconic. And as I described in my blog post, you can’t describe the way the fresco glows on the wall and how large and magnificent it actually is. We saw the other famous da Vinci piece, the Mona Lisa at the Louvre last year, but that doesn’t hold a candle to The Last Supper.
Least Favorite Thing: (this is not a cop out) Our Own Hesitancy!
It’s true. Milan was our first stop on the trip. We were jet lagged, it was our first time in Italy…first time trying to speak Italian to taxi drivers and grocery store clerks. It takes a few days to get your feet wet and to get comfortable in a different culture. Even simple things like ordering a cappuccino at a caffe has its own rules (you pay for it first then order). So I feel like we didn’t explore Milan as much as we could have. We played it a bit too safe. We also too quickly tried to replicate our two weeks in Paris last year (where we attempted to pretend we were Parisian and shopped at farmers markets and were all C’est la vie). When we got to Milan, we bought groceries and cooked meals in our apartment instead of going out and enjoying the delicious food of northern Italy. I feel like we might have missed a little. Luckily, we got over the hesitancy by the time we left Milan and savored the rest of our time in Italy. Despite it all, we loved our time in this lovely city.
VENICE
Favorite Thing: It is a tie between our private boat tour down the Grand Canal and our gondola ride.
The thing about Venice is what is obvious…it is a city built on water. The water is an intrinsic part of the city. There are foot paths and bridges all over the islands…but the water is the life blood of Venice and in order to properly see the city, you have to see it from the water. And the experience is even escalated when you step down into a gondola and you are literally inches from the water. Your perspective of the grand palazzos standing in their decayed elegance totally changes.
The gondola ride was sheer bliss. It was like getting into a hammock on a warm summer day and taking a nap. We purposefully chose a gondolier that was off the beaten path and we requested that he stay in the back canals away from all of the people. He did briefly take us out onto the Grand Canal (which was actually amazing)…but mostly we were just quietly drifting by picturesque buildings draped in lush vines. Time froze on the ride. It could have been 1756, 1934 or 2015. It was almost surreal and beautifully lulling and soothing. What I thought was the ultimate in cheesy tourist things ended up being what will always be a great memory.
Least Favorite Thing: The Madding Crowds (yes, its “madding”, not “maddening”).
From the minute you step off the train you are surrounded by hoards of people. Lots of people. Tons of people. Tour groups, families with 6 kids and 20 pieces of luggage…people taking pictures and knocking you over to get to where they are going. It’s insane.
But the good news is that the crowds are totally avoidable. The crowds live in specific places and have particular habits. They also swell like clockwork.
BOLOGNA
Favorite Thing: Sitting in Piazza Santo Stefano on a Perfect Afternoon
Okay, so Josette and Lena got out-voted on this one. Actually, I don’t think they had a least favorite thing for Bologna, so I won out.
FLORENCE
Favorite Thing: Day Trip to Tuscany
We are not typically a tour taking family. We like to explore at our own pace and we usually do enough research before hand to know what we are going to see. But for whatever reason, on this trip, we decided to book a few tours, one being a day trip out of Florence to see Siena, have lunch at a farm/vineyard, visit San Gigamano and then stop for another wine tasting at a second vineyard. I have thoroughly and completely described the magnificent lunch that we had at Tenuta Casanova. The food was absolutely delicious…but the combination of the setting and the food and wine…and being with one another on this amazing trip made it a very special afternoon. Visiting Siena was also a treat. The postcard perfect town is perched high up on a hill and the cathedral was a true testament to man’s ability to elevate the spirit through architecture and art. This was not only our favorite thing that we did in Florence…it may well be our favorite day of the entire two week trip.
Unlike Venice, which is made up of several little islands…divided by canals…where you can find quiet corners to escape the crowds…the historic center of Florence is a very small place…and it was very hard to get away from the onslaught of tourists. They descend on the town very early in the morning and don’t seem to go away at night. And more so than anywhere else we visited, there were massive groups of tourists that were terrified of being split up…and they just plowed their way through town. I won’t go as far as to say that the crowds ruined our visit to Florence, it is too much of a little jewel of a city, but I will say that I would never go there again during the height of the tourist season. It was overwhelming and definitely our least favorite thing about Florence.
ROME
Favorite Thing: The Amazement of Seeing So Much Ancient History in One Place
Rome has so much incredible history and there is literally so much to see that it is impossible to choose one particular place as our favorite. For me, the highlight was getting to visit the Pantheon…probably the most amazing, pure and simple structure that is also overwhelmingly beautiful and an architectural and engineering masterpiece. For Josette is was visiting the Roman Forum and for Lena it was the Colosseum. We’ve been to many many old buildings in Europe…but seeing Roman ruins…things from 8th century BC is mind blowing. We walked down the same street that Julius Ceasar walked on the day he was assassinated. We also visited places where the very first Christians worshiped (in secret) and got to see the haunting catacombs where they were finally laid to rest.
Not to mention the masterpieces of art and sculpture, fantastical fountains…Rome has it all.
While we were touring these sites, there were moments when I had flashbacks of all of the history and art textbooks from elementary school all the way through college…pages rapidly flapping by with images of Roman Emporers and temples, fanciful baroque church facades…marble sculptures of perfect human forms, the arms of St. Peter’s stretching out…and here we were standing amidst all of it. It was amazing to be able to see all of this in person and was our favorite thing about Rome.
Least Favorite Thing: It was our last stop…and we had to go home.
I’m glad we saved Rome for our last stop. It is massive and dense and intense. It is a real city…layered with unfathomable amounts of historic fabric. Your eyes can’t quite absorb all that they are seeing…your brain can’t process all of the history in one place, your feet can’t bear the amount of walking and climbing and your stomach can’t seem to get enough of what you are tasting (see my blog post about what we ate). We loved Rome. We loved Italy. We loved this trip.
And these were our favorite (and least favorite) things.
