On September 24, 2009, my wife and I took a two-week trip to Italy. We planned the entire trip ourselves and used public transportation the entire time. We booked our hotels ahead of time and arranged for three private tours our first days in Rome. Besides that, we basically just made use of guidebooks and maps to get us through. And it worked out beautifully.

I've written up a brief summary of each day of our trip (at least what I can remember). And yes, there's a lot of pictures. To those planning a trip to Italy in the future, I've tried to include some recommendations along the way. Enjoy!

• Day 1 - Rome
• Day 2 - Rome
• Day 3 - Rome
• Day 4 - Sorrento
• Day 5 - Pompeii
  
• Day 6 - Amalfi & Positano
• Day 7 - Venice
• Day 8 - Venice
• Day 9 - Venice
• Day 10 - Florence
• Day 11 - Pisa & San Gimignano
• Day 12 - Siena & Florence
• Day 13 - Rome
  

Arrival

Our trip to Italy obviously began with the flight; we flew directly from Detroit Metro to Rome Fiumicino. The flight took about 9 hours and we arrived in Rome around 12:30pm on Thursday. Actually, I should say we arrived in Italy - Rome's airport is about 40 miles west of the city center. To get to Rome, we took the Leonardo Express, a train that runs directly from the airport to Rome's Termini station. Cost was a little steep at 11 euro per person, but the only cheaper option was a inner-city train/subway combination, which didn't sound appealing with hauling around luggage.

I'd definitely recommend the Express, and I'd strongly recommend getting your tickets from the yellow self-serve kiosks in the station. They're easy to use and you can pay by cash or credit card (depending on the machine). Plus, if you go through one of the information stands there, you'll likely be charged a 1 euro "booking fee" per ticket.

Hotel Aenea

Aenea is a little hotel on Via Urbana, about a 10 minute walk from Termini. It's down a fairly quiet street, but located well within walking distance of most of the major attractions. It's also more of an apartment-style setting rather than a hotel; in fact, there are apartments on the other floors of the building (the hotel is on the third).

We were quite happy with this place. Check in was easy - staff spoke English very well and were very helpful. Our room contained a fridge, coffee maker, and air. They also provide two croissants for each person in the morning and fill a basket every day with snacks. We stayed 3 nights and paid 140 euro per night, which is decent for Rome. We highly recommend Aenea.

Historical Center

I figured that we didn't want to be overwhelmed with the city, so we decided to go with a private tour guide for three half-day tours of Rome's major sights. I found Rich online; he's a Pittsburgh native now living in Rome. His English is great, and it's obvious he knows a lot about the city. His tours were very informative and useful, and he allowed you to go at your own pace. If you're looking for touring options, stay away from the big groups - you'll see them all over, usually with a headset on so they can hear their guide. For just a little more money, you'll have a much better time with Rich.

Our first day was a 3 1/2 hour tour of Rome's historical center. After we settled into our hotel, we met Rich at a little cafe to start the tour. After being 10 minutes late (we quickly learned Rome's streets can be difficult to follow), we started.

Some of the highlights:

Torre Argentina and the Cat Sanctuary

An archeological dig of four ancient Roman temples started our tour. The Largo di Torre Argentina is the area that holds these four temples (called Temples A, B, C, & D) and also the remains of Theatre of Pompey, which is where Julius Caesar was believed to have been killed. The area is now home to many cats; there's a cat sanctuary next to it. We saw a lot of them wandering the ruins, and we also stopped into the sanctuary and pet a couple of them.

Piazza Navona

Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi fountain highlights this square, and it's quite amazing. After seeing a few ruins to start the tour, this was definitely breathtaking. We only spent a little bit of time here before heading out to the Pantheon, stopping by a few churches to get a taste of the art, sculptures, and medieval history of Rome along the way.

Pantheon

The dome of the Pantheon is well-worth seeing. There's always a crowd, but walking inside and looking up at the dome is awesome. There's really not a whole lot else to see - a few paintings and some tombs (it is technically a temple to the gods, after all) - but Rich explained a lot of the history, so that helped add to the awe.

Trevi Fountain

After grabbing some gelato (our first of many), we came to the famous Trevi Fountain. It was crowded full of people, but it was obvious why: it's beautiful. This was probably one of our favorite sites in Rome - it's especially great at night when it's all lit up. It's not very peaceful, but it's nice to sit on the steps and people-watch.

Spanish Steps

We ended our tour here, at the famous Spanish Steps. Frankly, we were kind of less than impressed. The Steps are nice, but there's not really a lot to see - just a fountain and steps. Nice views at the very top, however, next to the Trinita dei Monti church.

After leaving Rich, we walked around the Piazza di Spagna area a bit, then headed back to our hotel. We grabbed some pizza, then got some much-needed sleep.

To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

Beauty of the Vatican

Our second day in Rome was primarily focused on the Vatican. We had a tour set up with Rich at 1:00pm, so we did have the morning to walk around and explore a bit. We decided to stroll into the Piazza Venezia area first.

The National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II (or The Big White Building as Heather liked to call it) was the first stop. A lot of stairs leads to a small museum up top, which wasn't really that interesting. The bigger attraction was the view and the building itself.


Once leaving the Monument, we made a stop into Santa Maria in Aracoeli. It's a very beautiful church; fairly plain on the outside, but gorgeous on the inside (as you can see below). It was set up for a wedding, and we saw the guests arriving as we were there.


After having our fill of the Piazza Venezia area, we started our walk to the Vatican. We walked along the Tiber River for a while, then jumped onto Via Giulia (one of the recommended walks in one of our guide books). There wasn't a whole lot to see here, although it was somewhat pretty and peaceful.


We crossed the Ponte Vittorio and decided to check out Castel Sant'Angelo, a former stronghold built to protect Vatican City. To our pleasant surprise, the tickets were free for the weekend. It was worth the time; the "museum" parts were fairly interesting, the view on top was very good, and just walking around the castle was fun.


We grabbed a gelato at a place called Old Bridge (cheap, very good gelato close to the Vatican Museums) then sat down for lunch at Ristaurante Paolo because that was where we were to meet our tour guide. It's a classic tourist trap restaurant; someone outside waving people in, pricey, and not-sure-if-it's-really-from-scratch food. Decent, but not recommended. We expected our guide to be there (since a lot of other tour groups also meet there) but Heather ended up spotting her across the street, so we were actually a few minutes late again, even though we were in the right spot. Oh well.

The good part was that another couple was also touring with us, which brought our cost down a bit. Our guide wasn't Rich, but an associate of his. She was alright, but we had a better time with Rich. Our tour started in the Vatican Museums - I won't go into any details - if you're going to Rome, you'll be going here - but here's a few pictures:





A few of the rooms are boring, but quite a few are pretty remarkable. At the end, you finally get to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is just incredible to take in; it's really amazing to think of how Michelangelo did it.

After leaving the museums we moved into St. Peter's Basilica. The grandness of the building is awesome, but I found it to be almost too big; it felt less intimate than a lot of other places. I guess it just didn't have the effect on me that I was expecting.


St. Peter's Square, however, is something to see. It's easy to imagine thousands of people crowding this square to see a glimpse of the Pope.


My recommendation - don't take a guided tour of the Vatican. You'll miss out on some information by doing so, but I think it'd be better to walk at your own pace and soak everything up. Take a good guide book and you'll be fine.

After leaving Vatican City, we took a walk to Piazza del Popolo, a Roman square which is near the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls. There happened to be a concert going on in the square - some sort of MTV-sponsored free summer concert - but we didn't recognize any of the bands, so we didn't stick around too long.


We stopped by a cafe and grabbed a panini and coffee. After that, we walked by the Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps (each very cool to see at night) before heading back to the hotel.

To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

The Grandeur of Ancient Rome

Our third day in Rome was all about ancient Rome. Rich's tour started at 9:00am and took us to Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Colosseum.

Palatine Hill is home to some amazing excavations of homes, palaces, and stadiums. There's so much history here; it's awesome to walk around and see remains of buildings that are well over 2000 years old.




The ticket for Palatine Hill also covers the Colosseum; we had the good fortune to go on a day when everything was free. We're still not really sure why - some sort of celebration, I guess - but that was definitely a bonus.

On the way to the Colosseum, we got a chance to take a look at a couple of the best-known Roman arches. The Arch of Titus:

And the Arch of Constantine:


After that, it was time to hit the Colosseum, arguably Italy's most recognizable attraction. And it doesn't disappoint. You get a real sense of how huge it is immediately when you walk in; it's like going into a football stadium, but then you realize that it's almost 2000 years old - that makes it a bit more impressive.



The Roman Forum was next up on our tour. The Forum was the heart and center of the city in ancient times. Now it mostly consists of a lot of ruins, although there some good stuff here, including the supposed site where Julius Caesar's body was burned and where Marc Antony gave his famous speech. Interesting stuff.


It's also home to another arch, the Arch of Septimius Severus:


With our tour with Rich ended, we walked around the Piazza Venetia area for a while but then decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest.

Later that day, we decided to head back to Palatine Hill (it was free after all - and we felt like we wanted to spend some more time there). Along the way there, we stopped by a few churches.

The beautiful Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore:

San Pietro in Vincoli, home of Michelangelo's Moses:

We went back into Palatine Hill, taking a few more pictures along the way.


After we had our fill, we made the long walk through the Circo Massimo to the Trastevere area and then on to Campo de' Fiori. It was there that we found a bar that had a free appetizer spread, so we had a couple of drinks there before dinner.

Our first true sit-down Italian restaurant dinner was this night. We were looking for a restaurant in one of our guide books, but didn't find it, so we chose a place on our walk back. After overcoming a little language trouble (our waiter was annoyed with me quite quickly), we had a decent meal, including Heather's favorite spaghetti carbonara.

But we weren't done yet - after dinner we went to the Colosseum and got some pretty good night pictures. A nice end to a long day.


To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

Arrival
We caught a morning Trenitalia regional train from Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale. From Naples, we changed trains (and lines) to a Circumventia train to Sorrento. The Circumventia station is located below the main level in Napoli Centrale; there are plenty of signs pointing you in the right direction.

Relais Francesca
This is a bed and breakfast outside of the city of Sorrento, in a town called Piano di Sorrento (east of Sorrento). While staying in Sorrento might have been a little more convenient, we were quite happy with this. The hotel itself is close to the train station in Piano (Sorrento is a 5-minute, 1.10 euro ride away) and also close to the town square.

The room we stayed in was quite nice; it overlooked the rear of the hotel, complete with lemon trees and a roof filled with stray cats.


The room was spacious and included a fridge. Staff were helpful and most spoke English fairly well. Breakfast was decent; a buffet of breads, croissants, meats, and cheeses. All for 59 euro a night - a terrific price for this place.

Relax and Enjoy the View

After getting some lunch in at a restaurant in town, we made the bold decision to walk from our hotel into downtown Sorrento after being told it was only a couple kilometers away. Not a great idea. We walked along the main, traffic-heavy street, and it seemed a heck of a lot longer than 2 kilometers. We learned quickly to take the train (no matter how inconvenient).

Once there, we didn't go to any actual "sites" in Sorrento (and, frankly, there are very few anyway). What we did get to see were a number of fantastic views of the coast; the city is built on a cliff, so there are a heck of a lot of places to get great views of the Bay of Naples.



There is also a neat shopping district here; Via San Cesareo is a pedestrian-only street filled with shops and limoncello stores. It was fun just to walk through and look at everything. That's pretty much how we spent our evening, catching the views when we could and doing some window shopping.

For dinner, we came back to Piano di Sorrento and ate at the same restaurant that we did for lunch. To our surprise, the town was having some sort of festival - there was a big stage set up and we got to listen to some fantastic Italian music.


To see all of our Sorrento pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

Getting There

We visited Pompeii as a day trip from Sorrento. We jumped on the east-bound Circumventia train out of Piano di Sorrento (which was next to our hotel) and took the 25-minute ride to the Pompeii-Scavi stop. The ruins are easy to get to from there; take a right out of the station and it'll be on your left after a short walk.

Remains of a City

Pompeii was a Roman city that was destroyed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. It was rediscovered in 1748 and has been constantly excavated ever since then. It's a popular tourist destination in Italy, and it's definitely easy to see why. We greatly enjoyed it, and highly recommend taking a day trip here if you're staying anywhere close to it (even a trip from Rome would be feasible).

Any description of Pompeii is going to be pretty boring; it's basically a series of ruined buildings and structures (some very well preserved) that gives a glimpse into what ancient Roman life was like. It's just amazing to see; the following pictures are pretty, but they can't do justice to what it's like when you're there.






It's big too; we spent a good 5-6 hours here and we still didn't walk everywhere (although we hit quite of bit of it). Obviously there's a lot of walking and it does get hot there (not a lot of shade); bring a water bottle - there's plenty of fountains to fill up at (although some taste better than others).

There are plenty of tour guides at the entrance willing to show you around for a price or you can buy an audio guide, but we just picked up a free map and guide book at the tourist office near the ticket booths. It's quite informative and works very nicely. Plus, with so many tours going around, we were able to listen in sometimes anyway.

Highlights include the Anfiteatro (a mini Colosseum - first pic below), the Teatro Grande (large amphitheater - second pic), and the Temples of Venus and Apollo.



After finishing up with Pompeii, we took the train back to our hotel. We went to dinner at our restaurant in Piano (again) and actually had enough energy to walk around the little festival that was going on.

To see all of our Pompeii pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

Arrival

We hit the town of Amalfi as a day trip from Sorrento, taking a SITA bus from the station in Sorrento right into Amalfi. The bus ride took about 1 1/2 hours along a beautiful (but narrow and curvy) road along the Amalfi Coast. The buses are pretty comfortable...if you get a seat; we had to stand on the way home. Considering the primary options are either to ride the SITA bus or rent a car, the bus is perfectly fine. The drive would be beautiful, but let's just say the road isn't exactly driver-friendly.

We went to Amalfi first, then hit Positano on the way back to Sorrento. You could really do it either way, although we were pleased with how it worked out for us. If you want to swim, I'd recommend doing Positano when it's warmest; the beach there seemed a bit nicer than Amalfi's.

Coastal Ride

There aren't a lot of actual attractions in Amalfi - besides the town itself, of course. The town is situated into the side of the hill; the further you go into the town, the more uphill you go. It's a tourist destination - a lot of little touristy shops and restaurants along the single road going through the heart of the town. But nothing, other than the Duomo, really stood out to us.



The big attraction is the Duomo; you'll see it as soon as you take your first steps into town. It's an impressive building, definitely worth seeing if you make the trip into Amalfi. A joint admission ticket gets you into the nearby cloister and museum, and we found it fairly interesting - nothing spectacular, but worth the small fee.


The coolest thing we did, though, was take a walk eastward into the town of Atrani (a solid 30 minute walk, and fairly rigorous at times). We walked along the coast to get there, but then found a route back that took us up along the side of the mountain, passing by numerous apartments and houses. We got some terrific views and it was a neat way to see how the locals live. Plus, Atrani is quite a bit quieter and does have a less-crowded public beach (although we didn't take advantage of it).


I think we left Amalfi around 4:00 and like I said, the bus was packed. I'm sure most people had the same idea we did. We were the final two people on; Heather got to stand next to the driver and Tim got to stand right next to the door. Not a bad view, but it got kind of rough. We were debating on whether or not to get off at Positano , but by that point we were anxious to get off the bus, so we did. And were definitely glad we did.

Positano is a cliff-side town much like Amalfi with the difference being you walk down to get to the town, not up. Like Amalfi, there wasn't really many sights to see here; in fact, besides a church (where a wedding was taking place), we just walked the streets. We got down to the beach and and just relaxed for a while.


Maybe it was the time of day or the fact that it was less crowded, but Positano felt much more intimate than Amalfi. I highly recommend both places, but take in Positano if you can do only one.


We grabbed a bite and then jumped on the bus (after a long wait) back to Sorrento. It was still packed; we had to stand up yet, but at least we weren't right in front. We took one more stroll through Sorrento after getting back there to buy some limoncello, then back to our hotel.

To see all of our Amalfi pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.
To see all of our Positano pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

Arrival
Rather than going by train, we took an EasyJet flight from Naples to Venice. It was cheaper and quicker than the train. The only downside was getting to Naples from Sorrento since our flight was at 10:15am. The Circumventia train runs early enough, but it does not go all the way to the airport, so getting there would still be difficult.

Fortunately, SITA runs a bus service from Sorrento directly to the Naples airport. The bus runs every 2 hours and it's an hour and a half ride, so we had to take a 6am bus - no breakfast at the hotel for us. It worked out nicely though; there was a bus stop in Piano, so we were hauling our luggage there when the bus went by on the way to Sorrento. The driver actually stopped and asked where we were going; he then picked us up and took us in. Didn't save us any time, but it saved us from waiting at the bus stop for 20 minutes. That was very nice.

As for the flight itself, it was delayed by about 1/2 hour, so we arrived in Venice's Marco Polo airport around noon. From the airport, you still have a good 45 minutes before you can actually get to Venice though. There are a few options - either a bus/taxi ride to the station on Venice's mainland (then vaporetto from there) or a direct Alilaguna water bus. We chose the Alilaguna line; it's 13 euro per person, but definitely a nice, easy way to get into Venice. And it stopped at San Zacharia, which was very near our hotel.

Hotel Campiello
Hotels in Venice are very expensive; rarely will you be able to find any decent hotel under 150 euro per night. We found Hotel Campiello online and booked a non-refundable room (which was considerably cheaper than normal) and it was still 160 euro per night. But we were very pleased with this place and highly recommend it to anyone.

A word of advice - print directions. I failed to (the one time I didn't), and even though the hotel ended up being just a short walk from the vaporetto stop, we walked for a while trying to find it - and it's very easy to get confused walking around Venice. Heather finally found it in one of our guidebooks and found the way; the hotel proved to be very convenient once we did.

It's located down a fairly quiet side street just off of the main canal-facing street by the San Zaccaria stop. It's extremely close to Piazza San Marco and in good proximity to the Rialto area too. The location is excellent. There's a good buffet breakfast and the staff were nice. We highly recommend Campiello.

Nothing Like It

Love it or hate it, there is nothing like Venice in the world. Just wandering the streets is an adventure; you are very likely to get lost at some point, and that's not always a bad thing. It can be frustrating, but it's usually fun and you're likely to come across something you haven't seen before.

For our first day, though, we stuck mostly to the main attractions. After getting settled in our hotel, we grabbed a bite to eat at a little bar close by, then headed to St. Mark's Square.


We got some pictures, then decided to buy the San Marco Museum Plus Pass - it's a 13 euro ticket that covers the Doge's Palace, Correr Museum, and one other Venetian museum (we chose Murano's Glass Museum). We bought the tickets at Correr (no lines there) and walked around that museum first. It was somewhat interesting - lots of Venetian history - but not necessarily a must-see (although Doge's Palace is, so since you have to buy a combo ticket, you might as well take a peek inside).

We walked around St. Mark's Square for a bit, then noticed that the line to St. Mark's Basilica was quite short, so we walked right into there. It's free to get in, but we later found that the lines get extremely long - we happened to pick a time late in the afternoon when we were able to practically walk right in. It's definitely a beautiful church, well-worth a visit while you're here.

Afterwards, we walked to the famous Rialto Bridge, the oldest of the four bridges that span the Grand Canal, and took a few pictures.

At this point, we didn't really want to plan anything out for the rest of the day, so we just walked. We went through Campo dei Frari, up and over the Ponte dell'Accademia (another one of the four bridges) all the way to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (the church that lies at the mouth of the Grand Canal).


We ended our day with dinner at Trattoria Pizzeria Nono Risorto, a nice restaurant/pizzeria a little north of Rialto. It took us a while to find it, but it's a neat place - we actually came back here for lunch the next day.

To see all of our Venice pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.