18 days in Italy, and sweet tans, inflated guts and easy smiles to show for it.
I won’t even try to detail all of our adventures. Especially since Matt already says my blogs are too long. I will merely mention the highlights, and show only a few of the 330 pictures we took (which you can see on snapfish – let me know if you need the link).
We started our week in Florence on Saturday, May 12. We arrived at the Rome airport, and the first Italian I see is wearing a t-shirt that says “Orgasm Donor”. Matt warned me about the quirky fashion sense so customary of southern Italians, but I wasn’t prepared for such in-your-face tackiness.
An easy train ride later, and we were in Florence. Matt studied in Florence 7 years ago for a semester, so he was anxious to see the city after so many years. We took in a few sights, but mostly chilled - drinking wine and eating pasta by the kilo and enjoying the beautiful weather. Our hotel had a great rooftop terrace which we frequented often – thanks to Stacy the book she gifted us, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”, which recommended the hotel for that very reason. The rest of the Sgrizzi clan arrived on Tuesday, May 15.
Florence highlights:
When we went to the Duomo, I was wearing a lovely top with thin straps. Apparently, this is quite sinful attire. When I didn’t have a sweater or shawl with which to cover my shoulders, the security man forced me to don a stinky oil rag with a hole in the middle to stick my head through in order to enter the church. I was so embarrassed that I don’t remember much of the inside. Matt found my new outfit hilarious. I wasn’t the only one wearing this though, but it didn’t make me feel any better. I threw it out as soon as we got outside to go to the entrance to get to the top of the dome. There I had a similar problem, except this time the guy had nothing to offer me. I was annoyed, because the steps weren’t even inside the church, and I was sure that God or whatever wouldn’t mind. Luckily, a little Greek lady offered me her shawl, and I avoided an embarrassing expulsion from the church.
We took a bike trip one day through Florence, riding around in these huge mountain bikes. It took a while to get used to riding nice bikes, given that my bike in Amsterdam is no less than 30 years old, a rusty pile of steel with no hand brakes. More than once I tried to brake by back-pedaling, only to be completely exasperated when it didn’t work. My first time braking I almost flew over the handlebars. But we soon got used to the bikes, and enjoyed a stressful ride through the city (I also missed my bike’s bell!) up to Piazza Michelangelo, then out of Florence and into Tuscan olive country. Absolutely stunning views, and we also were treated to a delicious lunch with lots of Chianti.
One night we took a cooking class and made some delicious dishes. We arrived to class late from our
appointment to see the David at Academia, and missed most of the preparation for the tiramisu. We were promptly handed aprons and sharp knifes and got to work. We made stuffed tomatoes, gnocchi with homemade sauce, fried zucchini with mozzarella. Then we gorged ourselves. There were 12 of us in all, and we were all Americans. Except for Matt and I, everyone else was from California. It was funny talking to the other Americans, especially since the way Americans travel is so funny. Granted, it’s a function of the very few vacation days that people get. But people were hopping from Rome to Florence to Venice to Pisa to Cinque Terre to Capri and etc all in matter of a few weeks! I thought it sounded more like work than vacation.
Positano was definitely the hit stop. We stayed at a villa about midway up the mountain, and the views from our terrace were stunning. We had a clutch little bar a few doors down from us, which was great for double espressos and sweet buns in the morning and dessert and digestivos at night. We also had an excellent restaurant nearby called the Grottino Azzuro, and we ate here 3 times whilst in Positano. We made a day trip to Capri one day – not my favorite. I thought Positano was much more beautiful and much less commercial. Walking the 700 steps up and down from the beach also helped work off all the olive oil which we were consuming.
I won’t even try to detail all of our adventures. Especially since Matt already says my blogs are too long. I will merely mention the highlights, and show only a few of the 330 pictures we took (which you can see on snapfish – let me know if you need the link).
We started our week in Florence on Saturday, May 12. We arrived at the Rome airport, and the first Italian I see is wearing a t-shirt that says “Orgasm Donor”. Matt warned me about the quirky fashion sense so customary of southern Italians, but I wasn’t prepared for such in-your-face tackiness.
An easy train ride later, and we were in Florence. Matt studied in Florence 7 years ago for a semester, so he was anxious to see the city after so many years. We took in a few sights, but mostly chilled - drinking wine and eating pasta by the kilo and enjoying the beautiful weather. Our hotel had a great rooftop terrace which we frequented often – thanks to Stacy the book she gifted us, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”, which recommended the hotel for that very reason. The rest of the Sgrizzi clan arrived on Tuesday, May 15.
Florence highlights:
When we went to the Duomo, I was wearing a lovely top with thin straps. Apparently, this is quite sinful attire. When I didn’t have a sweater or shawl with which to cover my shoulders, the security man forced me to don a stinky oil rag with a hole in the middle to stick my head through in order to enter the church. I was so embarrassed that I don’t remember much of the inside. Matt found my new outfit hilarious. I wasn’t the only one wearing this though, but it didn’t make me feel any better. I threw it out as soon as we got outside to go to the entrance to get to the top of the dome. There I had a similar problem, except this time the guy had nothing to offer me. I was annoyed, because the steps weren’t even inside the church, and I was sure that God or whatever wouldn’t mind. Luckily, a little Greek lady offered me her shawl, and I avoided an embarrassing expulsion from the church.
We took a bike trip one day through Florence, riding around in these huge mountain bikes. It took a while to get used to riding nice bikes, given that my bike in Amsterdam is no less than 30 years old, a rusty pile of steel with no hand brakes. More than once I tried to brake by back-pedaling, only to be completely exasperated when it didn’t work. My first time braking I almost flew over the handlebars. But we soon got used to the bikes, and enjoyed a stressful ride through the city (I also missed my bike’s bell!) up to Piazza Michelangelo, then out of Florence and into Tuscan olive country. Absolutely stunning views, and we also were treated to a delicious lunch with lots of Chianti.
One night we took a cooking class and made some delicious dishes. We arrived to class late from our
appointment to see the David at Academia, and missed most of the preparation for the tiramisu. We were promptly handed aprons and sharp knifes and got to work. We made stuffed tomatoes, gnocchi with homemade sauce, fried zucchini with mozzarella. Then we gorged ourselves. There were 12 of us in all, and we were all Americans. Except for Matt and I, everyone else was from California. It was funny talking to the other Americans, especially since the way Americans travel is so funny. Granted, it’s a function of the very few vacation days that people get. But people were hopping from Rome to Florence to Venice to Pisa to Cinque Terre to Capri and etc all in matter of a few weeks! I thought it sounded more like work than vacation.
Positano was definitely the hit stop. We stayed at a villa about midway up the mountain, and the views from our terrace were stunning. We had a clutch little bar a few doors down from us, which was great for double espressos and sweet buns in the morning and dessert and digestivos at night. We also had an excellent restaurant nearby called the Grottino Azzuro, and we ate here 3 times whilst in Positano. We made a day trip to Capri one day – not my favorite. I thought Positano was much more beautiful and much less commercial. Walking the 700 steps up and down from the beach also helped work off all the olive oil which we were consuming.
Some highlights from Positano:
The 4 "kids" (Matt and myself, along with his brother Danny and Danny’s girlfriend Caitlin) did (what we think is) the Path of the Gods hike. We can’t be sure that we did the correct path b/c of the lack of clear markers. Plus at times the path was pure sketchiness. I couldn’t allow myself to be scared, b/c one wrong step and you could be catapulted down the mountain. The views were beautiful though, and we ended up in the next town called Praeano. Here we found a “beach” bar (it was more like a bar on a rock with a little pool ladder to get down to the sea). We then took a speed water taxi back from Positano, and this was super fun.
We made good friends with one of the workers at a beach bar in Positano called Fratelli Grassi. If you are ever in Positano, go here! It’s on Puppeto beach, and the food is great. This guy was hilarious too, and he kept promising to give me a gift – a photo album of pictures he took of Positano in the 70’s. So on our last day I asked him where my “regalo” was, and he brought me a bag of lemons and oranges! Not exactly pictures, but still thoughtful. On our last day we also learned that he used to be a professional soccer player, playing for Milan and Madrid and other teams. Not a bad way to retire!
We hired a boat to take us to Amalfi, with a pit stop at the Emerald
Grotto. The weather turned suddenly, from sunny and cloudless to a freaky lightning storm while we were on the boat. Typical Italian style, our worried looks were met with “No problem! This is Italy!” from our boatman. When his expression changed and he was frantically trying to call someone on his cell phone – that’s when we started to wig out. He told us a bigger boat was coming to meet us to take us to Amalfi. When it arrived, we realized that they expected us to jump from the little boat to the big boat, in the middle of the sea, with waves teetering both boats and nearly crashing on us. It was an adventure, but the reward was worth it. (Well, except for the Emerald Grotto – 5 euros each for 2 minutes of uneventfulness. For all we knew, the cave could have been lit up by floodlights.) When we arrived in beautiful Amalfi, we took the bus up the mountain to Ravello, which was spectacular. Here we saw the Ravello gardens and had drinks in the big square and a pizza dinner.
When our week-long visit to Positano came to a sad end, Matt and I took a boat to Ischia. In typical Italian fashion, a trip we expected would take less than an hour turned out to be a 4 hour journey. In Ischia, we were surprised to see so many Germans. We spent our 3 days here relaxing on the beach, reading, drinking wine and playing cards.
The 4 "kids" (Matt and myself, along with his brother Danny and Danny’s girlfriend Caitlin) did (what we think is) the Path of the Gods hike. We can’t be sure that we did the correct path b/c of the lack of clear markers. Plus at times the path was pure sketchiness. I couldn’t allow myself to be scared, b/c one wrong step and you could be catapulted down the mountain. The views were beautiful though, and we ended up in the next town called Praeano. Here we found a “beach” bar (it was more like a bar on a rock with a little pool ladder to get down to the sea). We then took a speed water taxi back from Positano, and this was super fun.We made good friends with one of the workers at a beach bar in Positano called Fratelli Grassi. If you are ever in Positano, go here! It’s on Puppeto beach, and the food is great. This guy was hilarious too, and he kept promising to give me a gift – a photo album of pictures he took of Positano in the 70’s. So on our last day I asked him where my “regalo” was, and he brought me a bag of lemons and oranges! Not exactly pictures, but still thoughtful. On our last day we also learned that he used to be a professional soccer player, playing for Milan and Madrid and other teams. Not a bad way to retire!
We hired a boat to take us to Amalfi, with a pit stop at the Emerald
Grotto. The weather turned suddenly, from sunny and cloudless to a freaky lightning storm while we were on the boat. Typical Italian style, our worried looks were met with “No problem! This is Italy!” from our boatman. When his expression changed and he was frantically trying to call someone on his cell phone – that’s when we started to wig out. He told us a bigger boat was coming to meet us to take us to Amalfi. When it arrived, we realized that they expected us to jump from the little boat to the big boat, in the middle of the sea, with waves teetering both boats and nearly crashing on us. It was an adventure, but the reward was worth it. (Well, except for the Emerald Grotto – 5 euros each for 2 minutes of uneventfulness. For all we knew, the cave could have been lit up by floodlights.) When we arrived in beautiful Amalfi, we took the bus up the mountain to Ravello, which was spectacular. Here we saw the Ravello gardens and had drinks in the big square and a pizza dinner.
When our week-long visit to Positano came to a sad end, Matt and I took a boat to Ischia. In typical Italian fashion, a trip we expected would take less than an hour turned out to be a 4 hour journey. In Ischia, we were surprised to see so many Germans. We spent our 3 days here relaxing on the beach, reading, drinking wine and playing cards.On Tuesday, we took the boat to Naples, got ripped off on our cab ride to the train station, 
and tried to ward off sketchy beggars at the station while awaiting our train to Rome. The Naples train station is just disgusting – it’s completely unmanned by security, so it’s just a free-for-all for very aggressive panhandling. The beggars then get on the trains and try to force tourists to allow them to help them with their bags, only to demand 10 euros after the deed is done. With our trip starting at 8am, by the time we arrived at our hotel in Rome at 1pm we were completely spent. Nevertheless, we walked around Rome and saw a few highlights – namely the Spanish steps (we think) and the Vatican – stopping for lunch and to knock back a few espressos.
and tried to ward off sketchy beggars at the station while awaiting our train to Rome. The Naples train station is just disgusting – it’s completely unmanned by security, so it’s just a free-for-all for very aggressive panhandling. The beggars then get on the trains and try to force tourists to allow them to help them with their bags, only to demand 10 euros after the deed is done. With our trip starting at 8am, by the time we arrived at our hotel in Rome at 1pm we were completely spent. Nevertheless, we walked around Rome and saw a few highlights – namely the Spanish steps (we think) and the Vatican – stopping for lunch and to knock back a few espressos. Some other photos for your viewing pleasure: (from top to bottom) Boboli Gardens in Florence, the Duomo in Florence, Ponte Vecchio, Positano, Amalfi, Ischia, the Vatican, dinner in Roma.
1 comment:
you went to the Amalfi Coast? Lucky b's! I have seen it on Taradise, Passport to Europe and other travel shows. I was thinking about going there by myself sometime.
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