Italy
We started our trip in Sorrento, where we walked around the narrow streets, took a tour of the citrus and olive farm we are staying at, and had some fantastic lemonchello. The patio at our AirBnb had a view of Mount Vesuvius and the entire town was adorable.
Okay, so we have way too many photos of Pompeii, but who doesn’t? And none of them do it any justice. You need to be there to walk the 2000 year old streets, see the preserved frescos, the plaster casts of the bodies. We hired a private tour guide with a group of 8 people for 20 euro. Very much worth it! We learned a lot about what we are looking at. It made the whole experience much more impactful. You could spend many days here. It’s massive.
Rome was one of our favorite stops. The history is overwhelming. There is a power to the Colosseum, Forum, Parthenon, and many more historic landmarks.
We took a tour of the Catacombs (no pictures allowed, but there are 300 kilometers of catacombs under Rome, we sampled only a tiny portion)! We also stopped at an old church of the original friars. One of whom decided to become an artist with human skeletons. These are his original works. This is all 100% real human remains of 3700 people. Honestly, it was a bit disturbing for us, but apparently some find it cathartic. You have to wonder, if it wasn’t a member of the church that made this, would that person have been sent to an asylum? Art is art I guess.
We rented a car and headed out of the city. Driving in Rome is… something. Lanes don’t seem to mean anything. Especially around the Vatican. Once out of Rome, we headed north into Tuscany, which is beautiful beyond comparison. We hit the Cascate del Mulino (Saturnia) hot springs (so nice!) on our way to our AirBnb located on an organic wine farm overlooking the countryside and an abandoned castle. Can you get any more dreamy? We of course had to take their tour and taste the incredible wine. Afterwards, we headed into the town of San Quirico d’Orcia for dinner. Lucky us, it was truffle season!
The next day, we hiked to famous hot springs that a small village was built around, then up to an old fortress ruin. Tuscany is amazingly beautiful.
We left our beautiful AirBnb after breakfast and headed to San Gimignano, the town of many towers. There used to be over 70 towers, now only 14 remain. We were able to climb one of them. While it is stunningly beautiful there, there are lots of tourists as well. What can you do?
Another big day of travel. We left San Gimignano and drove to the cute walled city of Lucca for a lunch stop. Then onto La Spezia where we dropped off the car (not the best experience; pretty much right in the middle of a busy street). Then caught the train to Vernazza, Cinque Terra, where we were staying. Our cliff side AirBnb had perfect views! Again, super touristy, but for good reason. However, the town empties out at night as it seems most people only make day trips here. This is only one of the five towns built on the cliffs, all connected by hiking trails, trains, or ferry boats.
In the morning we took the train to Riomaggiore, then to Manarola, then to Corniglia where we hiked the rest of the way back to Vernazza. The day was a bit wet and rainy, but the upside is there were only a handful of people hiking the trails!
The trail from Vernazza to Monterosso was a decent 5k up and down cliff side walk. I think a lot of people underestimate how aggressive the elevation gains and descents are on the trails. Many seem unprepared. Bring proper shoes if you do these trails. When in Monterosso, we had some fried anchovies (delicious!) and poked around town for a bit of shopping. Took the train back and caught the sunset for dinner a restaurant high up in Vernazza.
We caught the train to Parma, then on to Bologna. A fantastic eating city if ever there was one. We hit a small popular spot for lunch, then to our apartment, then to a 3 hour food tour! We sampled meats and cheeses, wines, tortellini and pasta, finished with gelato. All 10/10. The prosciutto and parmesan here are ten times better than what we get at home. I don’t know what’s going on, but we somehow ruin these foods coming into the USA.
Bologna originally had 120 towers in the city, described as the medieval Manhattan. Only 22 survive today, including the “two towers” (pictured) with one leaning hard. The medieval towers, symbol of Bologna, came into being between the 11th and 13th centuries, during the Late Middle Ages when the Empire and the Church were battling for investiture and the Guelphs and Ghibellines were at war, represented in Bologna by Geremei and Lambertazzi families respectively. The first allegedly public towers are considered to have performed a defence and surveillance function.
As for the porticoes, or the long hallways over the sidewalks, they are beautiful and reflect the different architectural styles found in over 62km of Bologna’s porticoed pathways, the largest porticoe system in the world. They make for great public spaces in any weather.
The massive church here was started in a grand way, with ornate marble columns and design, but was completed with only plain brick because the Vatican came into power and removed all funding for it. In fact, the Vatican took all the money for itself. (More on the corruption of the Vatican later).
After another morning food tour in Bologna (we learned a lot about balsamic vinegar that was really interesting, among other things), we caught the train to Venice. This city was built on 126 islands and linked by 472 bridges. Originally a Roman city built by just 12 families referred to as “lagoon dwellers”. From the 9th to the 12th centuries, Venice developed into a powerful maritime empire. It did not become a part of Italy until 1866. We were immediately taken with this place.
And, pretty big highlight, we found an original Banksy, “The Migrant Child”! After banksy’s authorship was confirmed, many speculated that the piece references the global refugee crisis. Others believe that the paintings are a comment on the overtourism in Venice, with cruise ships being a well reported threat to the city’s structural integrity.
We had a fantastic day walking around Venice. Midday we had a tour of Doge’s Palace, so glad we had a guide to describe what we were looking at. Venice was founded on equal justice and peace for all, not even the Doge was above justice. Some who tried were even executed. The palace frescos cover the walls and ceilings framed in 24k gold. Venice was the hub of trade to the east. It’s main export that made it so wealthy: salt! Many Venetians were wealthy merchants, importing silk and spices, exporting salt.
We finished the day with some aperitif at a recommended bar, followed be dinner in a tiny spot on in Dosodoro (far less crowded than San Marco).
Over our two days there, we walked a large chunk of Venice and learned a ton! The city was founded after the fall of the Roman Empire. Built in the swamp on mash islands because horse mounted barbarians could not reach the city. The swamp was also had to reach by sea because of the shallow and unpredictable waters.
They were an aristocracy for over 1000 years, with a senate of over 200 members, all from wealthy families, serving 20 months each. They would vote for the new Doge, locked in a room until they agreed. A Doge was for life. Because of this, they chose very old men (50’s!). The Doge was only expected to live 3-8 years, but one lived to be 85!
The Doge palace is very much middle-eastern. Many of the pieces (including the horses on top, more than 2000 yeas old) were taken from Istanbul.
In the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe.
Napoleon took over the city and dissolved the republic of Venice in 1797, ending an 1100 year republic. The people were happy about this, due to the massive wealth inequality. Napoleon gave the city to Austria, which it remained *most* of the time until 1866, when it became a part of Italy.
The locals we met here identified very much as Venetian, not Italian.
There are a HUGE number of tourists here. But head away from Piazza San Marco, and it thins out a bit. The famous bridges are chock full of selfie takers, but there are plenty of other beautiful bridges that are almost tourist free if you walk off the beaten track.
Another fun fact, more than 20,000 residents still empty their waste water directly into the canals. Think of that before taking a dip.
