Italy 2010

We're back from Italy - and we had a phenomenal time.  I've been up since 3am thanks to the time difference - and back to work today.  Gonna be a long Tuesday.  But for a quick recap to anyone dying to know what we did or planning their own Italian vacation.  We have hundreds of pictures to label and work with, but I've included a choice few with people - because I like looking at all of my own vacation pictures, but for other people's, I like to see the actual person.

Thank you to all of you who left suggestions last fall when we were planning the trip.  We incorporated a bunch of them and could not have been more thrilled.  We also used the Rick Steeves' itinerary suggestions to give ourselves a general outline of what we wanted to see day in and day out.  Trip Advisor was my best friend while planning - I'd find a hotel or activity recommendation and then check reviews at Trip Advisor before booking.  We bought the Let's Go: Italy book to use as our guide.  It was budget oriented, which is our style.  We weren't looking for hostels, but we also weren't looking for the Ritz Carlton.  It might have been a little too budget oriented in some places, but the restaurant suggestions were great and the rooms we did book from the book were clean and comfortable for our purposes.  At one point B said, "You know, for future reference we actually can afford hotels without such noticeable springs in the bed", but we were so tired after our long days out and about that a few springs in the hips didn't bother us.  I thought it was promising if I could still feel the springs on my hips and ribs - a sign that the pasta wasn't piling on too quickly.

We began our trip in Rome. Well, we began the trip with an 18 hour travel day arriving in Rome at the crrrrrack of dawn on Saturday the 20th.  Mr. B doesn't sleep on planes.  I take two Benydryl and I'm out before you can say boo, but Mr. B, not so much.  So we got into Rome, checked into our hotel and took a 1.5 hour power nap before heading to Vatican City for a tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Square.

Then we just walked the city, got a sense of where we were for the marathon of sightseeing the next day.

Which was a little more difficult than we imagined only because there was an actual Marathon happening that day.  You know, hundreds of thousands of runners running from the Colosseum all through the Ancient city.  But we made it work.  And we loved Rome.

The weather was great. A little chilly at times, but I was okay in a long sleeve and pants with my fleece tucked into my handbag most of the time.  B had a close encounter with a pickpocket in Termini Station - fortunately he had his wallet safely tucked into an interior coat pocket -but he wore his red rain coat with his wallet zipped into that front inside pocket the entire trip.  Seriously, if he's not wearing his coat in a picture, I'm holding it so he can pretend like he wore something else over the course of 11 days.

We spent two full days in Rome - all we needed, but we covered A LOT of ground in two days - and then trained to Florence.  I loved Florence.  I ate my weight in unsalted bread and gelato.  We museumed it up on the first and third days.  B and I are not art historians by any stretch of the imagination, but we downloaded Rick Steeves' podcasts for the Accademia and Uffizi galleries and had a phenomenal time.  Rick himself is a little much, but the information was invaluable.

Our second day in Florence we took a day trip into Tuscany.  It was the highlight of our Florence portion of our trip.  Our tour guide was phenomenal, but not in a "do this and nothing else" tour guide-y way.  We hit up Siena, San Gimignano, the Chianti countryside and Pisa.  We had lunch and a wine tasting at a farm in San Gimignano, which was fabulous.  Pisa was skippable, for sure.

After the three days in Firenze, we headed to Cinque Terre.  We'd heard such wonderful things about it and booked a room at Albergo Barbara in Vernazza for three full nights.  Cinque Terre was far and away our favorite place on the trip - maybe our favorite place ever.  It called for a lot of hiking and stair climbing, but we Colorado kids were good with that.  The pesto, the wine, even the sardines were phenomenal.  We did two solid days of fairly intense hiking and then had delicious dinners to make up for all the calories burned and then some each night.  It's not vacation if your pants aren't tight by the end, don't you know?

We trained back to Rome for one final day - mostly of eating and relaxing - before our 23 hour travel day home.  If Colorado could work on more non-stop European flights, we'd be most appreciative.

And now we're on a lean protein, vegetable and fruit only diet for at least the next 7 days.  Seriously, if you want to know where you can get a grilled chicken breast this week, swing by the McKevitts.  I'm not looking at a piece of bread, pasta, or pizza for at least a week.  My thighs requested it. 

I am going to go through withdrawals.  But I am glad to be back - I missed having ice in my drinks.  And tap water.  I'm a simple girl, bottled water at every meal is just not my style.  B's retiring his red rain coat for awhile, and I'm gladly chucking the Mary Janes to the back of the closet.  Turns out they weren't as necessary as I thought - could have gotten by with much more casual.  Live and learn.