We're back, after a great, but exhausting, tour of Italy. Fortunately, we had excellent weather - it only rained one morning.As you can see, on Day 2 I decided to start a collection of what I refer to as my "tacki magneti," fridge magnets from every place we went. Unfortunately, I didn't come up with this notion until the end of Day 2, so I missed magnets in Padua and Bologne. I'll identify them individually in blogs to come.
Just to show how busy this trip was (and perhaps you can see/guess where some of the magnets are from), here's the itinerary:
Sunday, Oct. 4 - arrive in Venice. We had a couple of hours before meeting the tour director and the rest of the group (which turned out to be a good one!), so we took a local bus into the city and wandered around. Venice is amazing, but oh, the crowds!
Monday, Oct. 5 - Venice to Padua to Bologna to San Marino (first magnet - San Marino).
Tuesday, Oct. 6 - San Marino to Urbino to Gubbio to Assissi area (talk about yer medieval wonderland of towns and castles! I was in heaven!)
Wednesday, Oct. 7 - Assissi to Viterbo to Rome. Imagine a tour bus full of reveling foreigners from Canada, the UK, Australia and the US after a dinner out with free-flowing wine warbling YMCA on the bus, which then turns a corner and...there's the Colosseum! Whew! Mind-blowing!
Thursday, Oct. 8 and Friday, Oct. 9 - jogging through Rome, including the Forum, the Colosseum, St. Peter's and the Vatican museum, including the Sistine Chapel.
Saturday, Oct. 10 - Rome to Monte Cassino to Pompeii to Sorrento (could have stayed a whole day in Pompeii alone!)
Sunday, Oct. 11 - Boat trip to Capri. Instead of joining the tour, my husband and I wandered off on our own to see the natural arch, the ruins of one of Tiberius's villas, the cliff where he had his enemies tossed and a hiking path that was one rocky, steep walk.
Monday, Oct. 12 - Sorrento to Orvieto to Siena (alas, not nearly enough time in Siena!)
Tuesday, Oct. 13 - Siena to Pisa to Florence.
Wednesday, Oct. 14 - More Florence. You wander around Florence, turn a corner and what the --? It's the Duomo! And what a Duomo it is!
Thursday, Oct. 15 - Florence to Mantua to Sirmione to Verona. Sirmione, on Lake Garda, was a magnificent surprise. Lake, Alps, sunny day - just lovely.
Friday, Oct. 16 - Verona to Vicenza to Venice. Vicenza is the one place we stopped that had no tacki magneti that I could find.
Saturday, Oct. 17 - more of Venice, including the flooding Piazza San Marco (for which they are prepared with wooden walkways - a new experience!). Also, of course, had a gondola ride.
Sunday, Oct. 18 - long flight home with a change in Amsterdam. Got home about 3 a.m. Italy time, 9 p.m. Toronto time. Yes, I'm still jet-lagged. I did gain a couple of pounds, but nearly as much as I feared, what with all the climbing of stairs and steep hills.
We took a gazillion pictures. More on that, as well as anecdotes and clothing travel tips to come!
6 comments:
Gosh I'm exhausted just reading your itinerary! But it sounds like you had a great time. Will look forward to reading all about it and seeing the picci's. Take care. Caroline x
Welcome back! Sounds like you had a lot of fun. Exhausting fun, but still fun.
Rosemary
So many wonderful places.
Your eyeballs must be full!
I so agree about Pompeii.
I didn't realize before visiting how large the site is.
Welcome back! We missed you!
Thanks for the welcome. It's fun to travel, but good to be home.
Missed you!
(I love tours. They really focus you on things that you could have missed on your own. I find them quite liberating and carefree.)
Susanne
The tour was great in no small part because it saved my husband from trying to drive in Italy. Oh, the scooters! And the stress of trying not to get lost. Plus, they brought the luggage to the room and picked it up. Mind you, we had a fun group. I can see that such a thing might be miserable if you didn't.
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