Bay Area Houston

This was my “after the wedding” trip. It was absolutely awesome!

My wife and I took a trip to Italy to visit Rome, Venice, and Milan. It was one of those touristy trip, hitting all the highlights, the Coliseum, Pompeii, Herculaneum, The Vatican, The Pantheon, the canals of Venice, and the Duomo di Milano. All of the tours we took were just incredibly interesting. It’s all a must see. Here are my notes and travel tips.

Lessons Learned. The hard way. My packing lists has extra clothes in my carry on. I forgot and it cost me. Do yourself a favor and put that on the top of your packing list.

American Airlines. You can’t fault an airline for rerouting you because of the weather but when they lose your luggage for 4 days and there is no way to call customer support for help (because they do not have customer support) it is pretty frustrating. Try calling AA and talking to a real person except for making and paying for a reservation. They will quickly take your money but good luck when you have a problem. Very frustrating experience. I fly Southwest for domestic travel and I can talk with customer support within a minute or two.

Bathrooms. Keep $5 in euros in your pocket because most bathrooms, except for restaurants, charge a euro. Seriously. The airports did not but the train stations did, the public bathrooms, bathrooms at the various tourist attractions did. LOL. You have to love the Europeans!

Accommodations. We stayed a half a block from The Pantheon. Very nice. The Dimora degli Dei. Yes, it is in the touristy area but it was so convenient to all the attractions. Walking distance to most. The staff was wonderful! In Venice we stayed at the Ambassador Tre Rose in San Marco. It was a very small, but clean and comfortable, room. We had a laugh at how small it was. The staff was just outstanding! We have nothing to compare it to but it was small. In Milan we stayed at the Brunelleschi Hotel. It was just around the corner from the Doumo. Beautiful room. Great staff. We returned to Rome and stayed in the Donna Camilla Savelli. Beautiful, wonderful staff, top notch!

Travel. We flew. Took a train from Venice to Milan and Rome to Naples. Rode the boats to Venice. Took a bike tour. And used uber/taxis for travel. When you use your Uber app they will list taxis also. They are cheaper and if you do not have luggage it is a great option. Just an FYI. If you don’t use the app at the airport and get into a taxi line, make sure you have cash to pay the driver. Good tip: Use the Uber app. BTW the drivers in Italy are aggressive!

The trains between Rome and Naples and Venice to Milan were fantastic! If you arrive 30 minutes ahead you are probably going to be early! We had to wait for the train number to be posted on the TV screens which usually was 15-20 minutes before departure. We spent a little more and booked a first class ticket and enjoyed the lounge while waiting. Tickets are checked like the old days, on the train while it is moving.

Food. We tried the pizza. Once. It is not like American pizza and certainly not like Chicago pizza. It was boring. Try it. Once. The lasagna was so much better than the US but don’t expect a lot of meat in your meat lasagna. All the other pasta plates were very different and good! Breakfast was mostly pastries. It made me wonder if the diabetes rates were higher than the US. (They are not) Inflation didn’t seem to have taken over Italy like in the US. We thought everything was very well priced. And coffee was European. I’m not an espresso fan. An Americano was a small cup of instant coffee. They charge for refills. LOL. Even the Starbucks screwed up American coffee.

Rome. We booked tours via Viator. We have had good experiences with them. All the tours we took, except for the boat ride in Rome, were outstanding! Again we did the touristy stuff and toured the Coliseum, The Forum, The Vatican, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Pantheon. Skip the boat ride in Rome. It was uneventful. Boring. Everything else was just incredible!!!!

Venice. Unlike the other cities there are two ways to travel in Venice, boat or foot. That is it. There are no bikes, scooters, vespas, cars, nothing but boats and feet. We took a walking tour of Venice which is highly recommended. There is a mall that used to be a trading center for Germans that has a roof top viewing platform. It’s free but you have to have a ticket for a 15 minute viewing.

Milan. We stayed just around the corner from the Duomo di Milano. What a beautiful cathedral! Our tour through Milan included the painting of the Last Supper. That was interesting. The two paintings in the room were painted using different methods, fresco and dry. The dry painting of the Last Supper is faded and has required restoration. The other painting is pristine. Beautiful. Tourists are only allowed to be in the church for no more than 15 minutes.

Put on your walking shoes and visit Italy. Next stop for us, Tanzania!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 at 7:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.