Just got back from Italy a couple days ago. I had never been to Europe before so this was new to me. Had a fantastic time and visited Rome, Lake Como, the Cinque Terre for some hiking, and Florence. Loved each part and was very surprised how welcoming in general Italians were to American tourists and how just about everybody we encountered spoke english very well.

First we hit Rome and my MAJOR dissapointment was the food. You can find excellent food, but you have to work very hard to do so. There are a million little restaurants with tables out in the public squares that live off of the neverending parade of tourists and get by with basic boiled grocery store pasta and plain tomato sauce. Service is universally horrible in Italy but I think it is a cultural thing. People lounge at there tables forever and watch the world go by so you wait very long stints to see you waiter and almost always have to ask for the check. It is pretty comon that a quick meal is 2 hours, unless you get a panini or pizza to go. The pizza is almost always pretty good and the panini's range from tremendous to an average ham and chees sandwich.

But the city is fantastic to walk around with amzaing things to be seen every few blocks. They were big into monuments, so photo oppotunities are plentiful.

If you go and spend a few days in Rome the best advice I got from a friend is buy a "Roma Pass". It is 25 euros for a three day pass, comes with a great walking map of the city, and gets you free unlimited use of buses and the subway, and two free entrances at hitorical sites which we used for the colosseum and the roman forum. Not only do you get two free admissions, you jump the line which was about a quarter mile long for the colosseum. The subway is great but crowded, hot and smelly. We had about 85 degree weather every day, but decending into the subway it always got hotter and more humid with all of the people. We used it a lot to jump around long distances and there is almost always a stop near sites of interest. The Roma Pass does not include any admissions at the Vatican, they are seperate.

We saw most of the biggies, the colosseum, the forum and palantine hill, the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, and lots of beautiful streets and piazza's (public squares). What stikes you most when you see these beautiful public squares to hang out in is that we built cities just plain wrong here. The squares are great and really make city life pleasant and laid back. It is a big stress reliever just to sit in them or walk through.

Here are a couple pics of Rome,

 

Ew, that building looks broken.

 

At the tail end of our time in Rome we went to the Vatican. For me this was the highlight of Rome. You see a lot of really cool structures in Rome but by far the most impressive is St Peter's Cathedral. It is the largest church in the world and the interior and exterior are just plain marvels. The exterior facade is beautiful, and the interior is full of marbel, art and sculpture like you would never imagine. It is some serious sensory overload to walk around. All the things at the Vatican are hard to describe to someone, you just have to see them. There is a hallway filled with the tombs of former popes. For some reason I got all misty eyed at seeing the plain marble casket of John Paul II. Lots of people gathered and I looked at the very plain casket with lots of wilting flowers placed by visitors it just choked me up. JP loved the people and the people loved JP. Rest in peace, JP.

We sign up for a "Scavi" tour with the Vatican office of archeology, (you need to arrange this and pay before you leave) and had a tour of the catacombs under the cathedral and was taken to the site where the remains of Saint Peter were buried. They keep the catacombs at 99% humidity to preserve them so it was a very uncomfortable tour, but interesting to see the ancient tombs.

Then we went to the vatican museum, it is here that you admission gets you into the Sistine Chapel. The museum is full of stuff that is amazing. Paintings, sculpture, artifacts from ancient civilizations, gold, maps, tapestries. It is really quite a collection but I was rushing through. I was curious to see the Sistine Chapel.

Now I am not an art guy and have been called an uncultured boob by a friend of mine a million times. Art does not move me that much. The Sistine Chapel blew my mind and I did not sleep for days after seeing it just because I would lay awake thinking about how incredible it was. Pictures will not do it justice (and most pictures are from before the restoration) you HAVE to see it in person. If you go to Rome this should be #1 on your list. There is a reason everyone has heard of it, and why it is called "the masterpiece of masterpieces." The Mona Lisa, the Nightwatch, Picasso's and Monet's all become bubblegum cards.

I was anxious to see the Pieta, which is regarded by many as the finest sculpture ever. It was nice, it aint the Sistine Chapel. Itis just flat out the most amazing man made thing I have ever seen. No pictures or video are allowed so I can't share, but really, seeing it in a photot just does not do it justice. You are bombarded by vibrant color and skill and genius from every angle and direction. It was just WOW.

Pics of the Vatican

 

Then it was a train ride to Florence to pick up the rental car and drive to Lake Como. Our Fiat 500 was a fun little tin box for the 250 miles of gorgeous countryside and mountains until we hit our stay at Lecco on the lake. We arrived on Sunday an Lecco is a party town where all the motorcycles seem to hang out on the weekends. Harleys, Moto Guzzis, Ducatis, etc and people lining the streets. The town was full and seemed like any busy weekend resort town in the US but with amazing scenery. I had come down with a giant two day cold which kind of harshed my two days there but it was still nice.

We bought a day pass on the ferries and jumped through a bunch of towns including Bellagio which was the most scenic one and the town thats gives its namesake to the big Vegas casino.

We had a nice slow, quiet couple days just relaxing and taking in the view and some good food.

Pics of Como

 

Great pictures! Sounds like you had a wonderful trip! Thanks for sharing!

Would you mind giving us a rough idea as to how much one can expect to spend on a trip like this?

 

Next was hikin through the CInque Terre. Five towns perched on rocks near the north west coast of Italy. Hiking was difficult, you have to do tons of climbing to get over each little peninsula and we hiked to the fourth town of Vernazza and stayed for two days. Very laid back and relaxing. Food, gelato and people were great.

Pics.

 

Well we got airfare fairly cheap for what it is going for right now and went at the tail end of peak season. We got our flights for $920 a piece, and its pretty common to pay $1200 or more. With train, flight, rental car, hotels (we stayed two nights free on Hilton points which helped) and walking around money I think we were at about $5500 to $6000 for the two of us so it was spendy. We had wanted to go for a couple years and did not because it was expensive but finally figured we could wait forever for it to get cheap and never go.

If you get decent flight prices you could do it a little cheaper becaue we paid more than we had to for a couple of the hotels because we did not know what we were doing. But actually if we had to do it all over i would go in early october so it would not be so hot, less tourists, and cheaper prices. We also went for 11 days. I would maybe cut our schedule down a bit and skip one of the stops even though we loved them all just because it was too much and we were always tired. I would think a couple could do a delux trip with some pretty nice hotels and see three out of the four places we saw for a little under $5k if you do your research. Flight is the worst expense, and if you find a big discounted flight, you probably knock a grand off right there. Oh, and our flights were from Minnesota, so depending where you fly out of you can probably save alot because we get screwed on prices in the midwest.

 

Finally Florence. Beautiful city. Lots of shopping for some really nice clothing at very good prices (it is all pricey in Rome). I got a tremendous tie for $10.

Lots of sights, mostly just painting and sculpture are what the town is based on. But very relaxing town just to walk around and look at.

Last stop in Florence and then home...

 

Sounds like an awesome trip. Very nice pictures.

 

Amazing pictures - Thanks!! We have been meaning to do Italy for a long time but haven't gone due to the kids.

BTW- what kinda carguy are you? Where are the Ferrari factory pics!!