As I've done with most of the blog posts, I'll give a bit of background on what went into planning this trip. Firstly, friends and family back home were all shocked/jealous/confused about how we were casually able to take off 10 days straight for a trip like this. Including our honeymoon, a week was the most time Adam and I had ever taken off for a vacation. Europe trumps (no pun intended) America when it comes to PTO (which I had to define for a coworker the other day as it's called annual leave here). Our firm gives us 25 days - 25 DAYS people - for annual leave, and that's not including sick days or our UK holidays. As an added bonus, like that isn't enough, we have the option to purchase up to ten additional days, which we of course did. Most people take holidays of at least 2 weeks and many of the senior level staff will often take off entire months (typically August when kids are out of school - thus why August is so often a very busy and expensive time to travel in Europe, because everyone else is traveling too).
Most people here thought we were a bit silly for not waiting for warmer months to go to Italy - it was still a bit cool in April, especially by our southern standards, at around 62 degrees most days. On the bright side, we had a very affordable trip and uncrowded cities to explore. Also, April was the closest to my 30th birthday that Adam could take the time off after wrapping up his busy season and it coincides with our anniversary (not a coincidence - our wedding happening post busy season in April). Going south was an obvious choice since we weren't in the summer months yet, and Italy was an even more obvious choice because we've both always been so intrigued by the country - home to our favorite food, wine, beautiful architecture, history, cities, countrysides, beaches - Italy has it all.
Our first stop was Venice. We made the mistake of booking our first night on the mainland of Italy, which isn't really Venice. Fortunately we were pretty tired from our prior evening's activities (seriously - I thought I was dreaming seeing Adele in concert then hopping on a plane to Italy) so we grabbed dinner in the hotel and vowed to get an early start the next morning. We took a train across the water to the main island, but once there, your primary form of transportation becomes boats. There are no cars in Venice, just canals and boats. We purchased a 48hr water taxi ticket and took the scenic route to the southern side of the island and then caught a separate ferry to our hotel which was on the island of Giudecca. This isn't the most convenient place to stay, but our hotel was amazing and it's much quieter and less touristy here than on the main island. Plus, water taxis and ferries run very frequently. Our corner room had a spectacular view of the city lights and the cruise ships coming in and out of port.
We spent our first day wondering around, literally. We'd get on a water taxi, get off and walk for a bit, pop into a museum or grab a snack or gelato (accidentally experienced my first sardine) and just took in the city. Our pictures don't do it justice, but the google images you see of all the beautiful bright colors is exactly what it's like. People told us the canals smelled bad, but it never bothered us. Granted, we avoided the gondola rides, so we were never down very close to the water, as everyone warned us they were overpriced and cheesy. Honestly, the water taxis were just as fun to me, just not private. Our second day we took a water taxi out to the island of Murano where you can learn about and watch Italian glass makers. To say we loved Venice would be an understatement. We've had great times on all of our trips, but often we feel once we've seen something that we don't feel a need to go back because there's so much else to see in the world, however, we've vowed to go back to Venice. Two days was enough, but then again it wasn't. All of my memories of Venice include music playing in the background. Or maybe I'm romanticizing my memories. Either way, I was enchanted.
On our third day in the land of love, we took a train down to Rome. Adam had been to Rome briefly with his college Euro trip and didn't love the city, but I couldn't envision going to Italy and not seeing Rome and he agreed it's a must. Thanks to a recommendation from a co-worker, we had a charming local hotel that was away from the touristy part of town and just uphill from the Colosseum. We immediately grabbed a slice of pizza to take for a walk and headed to Altare della Patria to scope out the city and our evening prospects. From there we decided to brush by the Trevi Fountain and grab a bite to eat saving our energy for an early morning. We'd booked online tickets for the Vatican tour the next day and as Pope Francis was speaking, we knew we needed to give ourselves a bit of extra time.
Naturally, our last day in Rome included a tour of the Colosseum. Adam found an app to use when you're traveling - Rick Steve's Audio Guide - which includes guides to most of the big cites in Europe so we didn't have to pay for audio guide rentals. Thanks to Rick Steve, we made our way through the Colosseum in good time AND had the recommendation to go across the street to the Roman Forum. Beyond seeing a play about it in college, I'd never thought much about this place, but it's so cool! We were graced with sunny, 80 degree glorious weather so we had a really nice time slowly meandering through and picturing ancient Roman life. With a bit of extra time on our last night, we did some light shopping for belated birthday presents. On our way out of town we made a second pit stop at the Trevi Fountain as we'd forgotten to make wishes the first time, and visited the Pantheon.
4 nights down and 5 to go! By this point, I was already in love and couldn't believe there was more to do. Thinking on it, we really only grazed Italian culture. I'm dying to go back to Florence, Cinque Terre, Tuscany and wine country, but I'm so glad we squeezed in as much as we did. Will post soon on our antics on the coast.
Love,
J
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