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Published: January 14th 2007
We enjoyed a great vacation in Italy. This was a trip that was planned long back!!!!
We awaited this trip eagerly! Italy has always been in my Top 10 places to see! The whole plan started with a casual Tea time discussion between me and my husband.
Both myself and my husband are passionate travelers…We love traveling and exploring new places. It is good that we synch up in this aspect. My husband has traveled a lot than myself! I love listening to his travel experiences.
One fine day, we ended up discussing on our Christmas vacation plan! We were talking about different destinations. We talked from Hawaii to Sydney😊
We were having a wide variety of options like Hawaii, South America, Europe, Australia etc. But after discussing about the Vacation time, Cost, Distance of the destination and our Priority, we ended up in Italy! My husband had been to Europe before. So we were able to plan a little better.
Travel Plan I was so excited about this vacation because this is my first trip to Europe and to one of my dream destinations!
I was so enthusiastic in starting the trip preparations. We wanted to get the
Best deals, by booking at the earliest. As it gets colder in Italy during winter, it is not the peak vacation time there. But still it has a good amount of crowd, because it does not snow.
We decided on the four top destinations in Italy i.e. Rome, Venice, Florence and Pisa.
We checked on the weather forecast for the December vacation in Rome and Venice. The weather was better in Rome (around 18 deg and around 6 in the night).It was a bit worse in Venice with a day temperature of 6 deg and night temperature of 4 deg.
But still with all winter clothing in place, we thought, it should be manageable!
I started looking for Good Air Deals from Los Angeles/ Orange to Rome/Venice. The tickets did not seem to be an all-time low!!! After weeks of research, I ended up with the following itinerary from BTStore.com.
This was our itinerary
United 940 (LAX) Los Angeles-LAX, CA, USA (FRA) Frankfurt, Germany Plane Change
Mon, Dec 25 11:00 AM 9:45 AM (next day) STOPS: 1
13.45 hrs Economy
6078 mi
THIS FLIGHT STOPS IN (ORD) Chicago-O'Hare, IL, USA . Stop duration: 1.28 hrs
Lufthansa 3846 (FRA) Frankfurt, Germany (FCO) Rome-Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, Italy Airbus A318/319/320/321
Tue, Dec 26 3:40 PM 5:25 PM STOPS: 0
1.45 hrs Economy
598 mi
Lufthansa 3853 (FCO) Rome-Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, Italy (FRA) Frankfurt, Germany Airbus A318/319/320/321
Mon, Jan 1 7:05 AM 9:05 AM STOPS: 0
2.00 hrs Economy
598 mi
Lufthansa 9150 (FRA) Frankfurt, Germany (ORD) Chicago-O'Hare, IL, USA Boeing 747
FLIGHT OPERATED BY: UNITED
Mon, Jan 1 12:45 PM 3:12 PM STOPS: 0
9.27 hrs Economy
4332 mi
Lufthansa 9398 (ORD) Chicago-O'Hare, IL, USA (LAX) Los Angeles-LAX, CA, USA Boeing 777
FLIGHT OPERATED BY: UNITED
Mon, Jan 1 5:00 PM 7:26 PM STOPS: 0
4.19 hrs Economy
1746 mi
The catch for cheaper tickets is that you have to travel on festival days like Christmas, New Year etc.
Rome was our base from which we decided to move in and out.
Once we bought the ticket online, my search for good hotel deals started!!!
Meanwhile Balaji started collecting information about getting Italian (Rather the Schengan Visa) Visa, from the Italian Consulate, Los Angeles(http://www.esteri.it/visti/index_eng.asp has more details). As I was at home on
the look-out for a job at that time, I was at home most of the time, browsing on information about our destinations and looking for hotel deals.
Initially Balaji wanted it to be relaxed with few places, but I suggested that we cover whatever possible to the maximum as this is a grand budget. That is why decided on these 4 places.
After spending lots of time in the internet, I got good deals for hotel in Venice and Rome!
I made sure that the hotels are @ walking distance from the termini as we were dependent on the Euro Rail for most of our travel inside Europe!
The following sites were very helpful in getting a good Hotel Deal!
www.cheaphotels.com
www.venere.com
There are some good reviews of almost all the Hotels in www.tripadvisor.com
The two Hotels were Hotel Aphrodite in Rome and Hotel Leonardo in Venice!
We were not disappointed with the Hotel for the price we paid Both the Hotels had maps and were very helpful in giving some directions and tips. Only issue was that we had to buy even drinking water. These hotels are good enough for just lodging.
Both of them do not have internet
facility either. But there were lots of internet centers around. So, that is not an issue in case you need for any emergency. Both of the Hotels have complimentary breakfast service that took care of our Hunger early in the day and gave us energy for the long walk!
Well coming back to the Trip preparation, after booking the hotels, we started preparing our Itinerary for the Trip and started listing down the things to buy for the Trip!
After considering our interests and time and doing research on the internet, we arrived at the list of places to see in Rome, Venice, Florence and Pisa!
I got a job meanwhile. As this was a planned vacation, I could inform the employer prior to the interview itself, about my vacation plan so that I do not end up in any mess at the last moment!
I was happy that most of our planning was complete and I need not spend so much time on the internet after I joined work!
We did the winter clothing purchase, during the Weekends and made sure that we are geared up to face the cold temperature and walk for long comfortably.
The weekend before
our departure from here, we got breakfast bars and some snacks for emergency!
We did the packing only two days before our actual departure day!
We had 2 hand baggage, one laptop bag and one Camera Bag. The day before, we booked the airport shuttle to reach the airport.
The flight was @ 7 in the morning from the LAX airport. We reached there on-Time!
Rome During our flight from Frankfurt to Rome, I met this interesting personality sitting next to me. She is a doctor, but teaching in college presently. She had lots of information to share about Roman architecture. Her Rome trip was to use her accrued miles. She taught me some words that would help me in Italy like Bon Journo, Bon Giorno, Gracias, ciao, uscita etc.
As we reached Rome airport, we went to the baggage claim area. Balaji’s baggage was not there. Already we had formed some bad opinions about theft in Rome. This added to it. We gave a complaint in the lost baggage counter and proceeded to catch the Leonardo express to Roma Termini. We were discussing about the different possibilities as to why my husband’s baggage had not arrived. We
decided not to worry about it till the next whole day, when we were hoping to get call from the airport to the Hotel about the baggage.
We reached the Hotel at Roma Termini around 7.30. The flight got a bit late.
In the Roma Termini we got the train tickets for our entire itinerary. Railways are the best mode of transportation in Europe as anyone would know. It is really amazing!
Our plan was to spend 26th through 28th in Rome, start to Venice on 29th morning, pack up from Venice on 31st morning, visit Florence and Leaning tower of Pisa en-route and reach Rome by 31st night. We got the tickets accordingly
We reached the Hotel by 8. We had a relaxed dinner at a near-by restaurant and went to sleep early to face the tiring long day ahead. Being a vegetarian, the options of Italian food is limited. If it is vegetarian, then it is Tomato, cheese and onions in some form or the other! The Hotel we went had a new type of Pizza that I have not tasted before. It is potato pizza. It was very nice, at least something other than Tomato! We
are not a great fan of Pasta. So that did not help much too! Neways the food was good.
We got lots of advice from friends to be careful in Rome and to beware of pickpockets. We were extra careful!
Here is our itinerary in Rome (26th Dec 06 -28th Dec 06)
Day 1: (27th Dec 06)
We started from the Hotel @ 8.45.
Vatican is the biggest of all the places to see and would take more time. So we thought we would go to Vatican first.
We went to Vatican through Metro (We had got the map from the Hotel and Tourist information centre in the termini). There was a really long queue extending on to the street!! The crowd was moving fast neways! We went to the Vatican Museum first. Amazing paintings and sculptures!!! There are so many and you would not know where to see!!! It is very rich!!! We got lost in the Holy Shrine of Roman Catholic Empire!! But we could not do justice for all the paintings/Sculptures because they cannot be covered in few hours of a day! Leonardo Da Vinci and Micheal Angelo never ceased to amaze
me!
Then we went into the Sistine Chapel. We did our prayers and proceeded to the largest church in the world present in the smallest country in the world, St Peter’s
Basillica. It is massive and amazing! It is a real Basilica…No doubt!
I could not take my eyes off…The pillars on either side adds beauty to it. Inside of it was also very good with minute sculpture work and art work everywhere. We also saw the famous Marry and David statue of Micheal Angelo.
We took some pictures and proceeded to the tomb top of the Basilica. We had to climb 340 narrow steps to reach there. If you are weak, do not venture on it. It is tiresome. I had to stop at many places to gain strength back. But the strain was worth it. We could see aerial view of Rome. Heading back was comparatively easier. We had a quick lunch and walked to St Angelo Castle. We crossed the Tiber River and went to
Piazza novana.
There was magic show there in front of the fountain at that time and loud music playing!
We relaxed there for sometime and headed to
Pantheon. It looked amazing in the
night. In general Rome is more beautiful in the Nights!!! After spending some time in Pantheon we headed to
Fountain Di Trevi. By then it was 6.30 in the evening. We threw coins into it to make sure that we come back to this beautiful place again ;-) I got the famous Italian Gelato (There are varieties of strange flavors. There are true fruit flavors like Melon, Pista (real), strawberry, cherry etc) as I enjoyed Trevi! It was amazing. I did not mind the cold also!
After seeing Trevi, we called up the Hotel to find out whether there was any communication from airport on our lost baggage but there was no information yet! Balaji got upset because all his clothes were in it. We decided that we should split the clothes in the two luggages so that we are better off if we lose one luggage. Lufthansa gave a kit for one night when we reported Lost Baggage. It includes paste, Brush, Night robe, Shaving set for Men…etc. So he could manage that night.
We did not have the mood to roam any further. We headed back to Hotel, had Dinner in the near-by Hotel and went to sleep.
Day
-2 (26th Dec 06)
I had fever the previous night. As I took some medication, I got up late and we started only by 9.45 from the Hotel. Our first place on plan was the Colloseum. We had enquired about the “tram bus Open” (also called the 110 Open), in the tourist information center the previous day. It costs 13dollars and the ticket is valid throughout the day. It runs through all the major locations in Rome. If one wants to get a feel of Rome, the best way is to get into one of those tram buses and complete one round and then decide on which places to go later. There is an open top on that bus that makes it worthier. It also has live commentary in English and other languages to learn the history as we see places.
Basically there are 2 types of Tram lines in Rome, the Red Line and Blue line. They cover different parts of Rome. If you go by both of them one round, then you would cover glancing most of the Rome. This is a good way to start if you are not bothered so much about the price. As
we had already done enough research ands decided on our places, we did not go for it the first day, because we knew most of our first day would go in Vatican.
We took the Red line which covers all the famous locations in Rome. We went to
Colloseum. I could not believe that I am standing right at the place where the gladiators fought. It is an amazing feeling. The queue was very long and we were running out of time. So we took a guided tour which took us through a special entrance. The guide was telling stories about gladiator fights. It was an amazing feeling to listen to the stories right inside the same place. I was visualizing the massive crowd in the amphitheater. I imagined as though I am one among them watching the fight. The Roman history is amazing!! I think the guided tour was worth it. Other wise it would have just been a Ruin.
After taking the whole scene in our hearts for one last time, we proceeded for a quick lunch opposite to colloseum. We had a glance on Roman forum, we decided not to go in because we were running out
of time and that was not in our top list. We then proceeded to
Piazza Venezia. It seems this is where the Pope used to live before the Vatican. It was an amazing structure with rich architecture. We spent some time in admiring it .After this, we wanted to take the Tram Bus and just have a glance of the entire city which we did not do the previous day. We enjoyed the whole city by sitting on the open top of the tram bus. Rome is definitely not built in a Day. There is nothing that ceases to amaze you in Rome. The whole city is grand. Then we took some night pictures and returned back to the Hotel. We packed our things and got ready to go to VENICE!!!!!!
Venice Venice (29th Dec 06, 30th Dec o6)
Day 1: 29- Dec-06
Our Train to
Venice started @ 6.50.We had booked all our train tickets with Trenitalia. They have this Eurostar fast express service.
It took 4.5 hours to reach Venice. Venice is very small in area. As soon as we came out of the Railway station, I was amazed by the place. I could see
houses in water!
The climate was quite bad in Venice. It was too foggy! Our Hotel is 8 min walk from the station. With our Map we could easily locate the Hotel.
We checked in, relaxed for sometime and got ready to have a casual walk and lunch. We had already noted the address of an Indian Restaurant in Venice (GaneshJi Restaurant).
We went on search of it. We were really hungry that day and we had already been so bored with the Pizzas and other stuff. We really wanted something spicy to energize ourselves...
But unfortunately our search never ceased to end. No one understood the Map and English as well!!! Due to the different topology of Venice, Google map has some problem locating the place exactly,
I guess. I am not sure about other maps site though...After a long walk, we finally reached the restaurant and found that it was closed!!! We got so pissed off and had t end up eating the same old pizza!!Grrrr.
Then we went on a walk to
Rialto Bridge, spent some time admiring the serene place. It was too crowded in spite of the bad weather!!!Venice is one among the top places
that attracts tourists all through the year it seems!!!
Sure, it is worth a see!!! After roaming around for a while we reached the hotel as it got colder in the night.
The next day we had planned to go to San Marco palace first and then some island.
Day 2: 30-Dec-06
We started about 9 in the morning, boarded a Water bus and got down at
San Marco...
It was full of birds!!! The place was very nice!
After spending there for a while we headed to Lido Island for a Lunch!
Then we headed back to Santa Maria church near San Marco!!!
We did not want to take chance with Gondola Ride as it was tooooooooooooooooooo cold and foggy. In fact we could not see anything after 150 ft or so!
Then we spent the rest of our day by roaming around Venice. By this time we had found a short cut route for the Indian Restaurant. So we went there for dinner before hitting the Bed.
The GaneshJi restaurant food was too good. It is run by a Punjabi!!! Food was awesome!
We had to start by 6 the next day to catch our
train to Florence @ 6.30.
Florence 31st Dec 06
After we got ready, we were contemplating on whether we should walk to the station (8 min) or catch a Bus to station (Bus station is 2 min walk).
Then we somehow decided on catching the bus. We were waiting for the bus till 6.15 but there were no signs of any bus!!! Then we started rushing to the station....
I could not walk with the baggage. Somehow we managed to reach the station by 6.30 sharp. Luckily the TT saw us and asked us to board the nearest compartment before he signals. He saw us getting in and then signaled.
We reached Florence in 3 hours. We had 3.5 hours in Florence. We went straight to the famous Santa Maria cathedral and the
Duomo. After spending a while there, we headed towards the place where there are lots of sculpture work and copy of
David Statue.
It was on a River side. The sculptures were very nice. They were very realistic.
Then we proceeded to an Istanbul (Turkish) Restaurant for Lunch. I had already tasted Iranian food here, and I am not a great fan of
it. I really liked the Falafel (which is similar to our Indian Vada) that time.
So I was hoping to get the same. Luckily it was there.
We got Falafel, Some Rice and chick pea curry.
After that I had my last taste of TiraMisu Gelato and proceeded to Railway station. Our plan of visiting the Original David Statue got cancelled because of so long a queue!!!
Neways no regrets!
Pisa We caught the 12.50 train to Pisa.
The only agenda in Pisa was the
Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We reached Pisa in 1 hour.
We caught a local bus to get to the leaning tower just outside the train station, as leaning tower is quite far from the station.
The climate was very pleasant in Pisa. We took some nice pictures spent some time admiring the beauty of this wonder and headed back to the station well ahead.
The train to Rome was @ 4.55.
New Year’s Eve We reached Roma termini by 8 in the night of New Year Eve! We could hear lot of cracker sound outside the termini. We initially thought of having food in an Indian restaurant (Himalaya/Maharaja) near the termini.
But people were
firing crackers just on the road without looking for people! I am already allergic of crackers. I got scared and forced Balaji to return back to termini and have food there!
We got back and had food @ Mc D
We decided to go to the airport as soon as possible coz we did not feel very safe @ Railway station. It was too crowded for the New Year Eve.
We caught the Leonardo express and headed to Airport. The airport was deserted coz of New Year’s Eve.
This New Year was meant to be celebrated in Rome Airport, a different one indeed!
We slept in the lounge and wished New Year @ the strike of 12.
We could see fireworks outside through the window!
We just prayed for a more peaceful mother earth this year and years to come and fell asleep
1 -Jan -07 Our flight to Frankfurt was @ 7 in the morning. We bid a final good bye to Italy and boarded the flight.
We reached LAX airport @ 7.45 in the night on the New Year day!
On our way back we were just recollecting our sweet memories in Italy.
This was definitely
an unforgettable trip.
Those of you, who read till this, are for sure very serious about a trip to Italy!
Hope this helped you in planning in some way!
Happy traveling!
Hope to be back with yet another experience soon!
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Tib
non-member comment
Action-packed :)
Hi, I enjoyed reading your trip-to-Italy blog. It's impressive how much you were able to do and see in the days you were there. Action-packed it was indeed... even in the winter time... and I guess that allowed you to enjoy the city night-life. Beautiful pictures. Good advice on how you planned the trip... all to be conisdered. Cheers, Tib.