That's Amore!!

Written by Wifey

I've always wanted to go to Italy.  Not exactly sure why, but just something about the culture & architecture has always appealed to me.  I just had these visions of strolling along alleys with interesting architecture, or sitting at a cafe watching the people stroll by.  When we got pregnant, I was worried that it would be a long time before that dream came true, but Hubby insisted that we should go on one last big vacation - to Italy.  WHOO-HOO!!!  (yes, my hubby is awesome!) So, off we went on our "Baby-moon" - Rome, Florence, & Venice!

Getting There
I've gotten lazy in my old age, and prefer to book packages rather than figure it all out on my own, and if there's a travel agent handy, all the better.  Our Hawaii travel agent obviously wouldn't work in this case, so I ended up looking for sites online, and came across Go-Today.  I was really impressed with them! I had to call in with some questions, and rather than blindly booking the trip, the customer rep (who had actually lived in Italy for awhile) took the time to review it, and ask questions to make sure that I understood what I'd booked. In particular, she pointed out that the hotel I'd picked for Venice wasn't actually on the island (re: surrounded by canals, but rather was a metro area a train ride away). Price-wise, they were a bit cheaper that some of the other places I looked, and way easier than doing it myself.


In terms of learning about the sites to see, I downloaded the Kindle version of Rick Steve's Italy Guide Book, and also used his Europe app. Both were very useful in filling in some of the background for the tourist sites, while also giving practical tips like beware taxi drivers ripping you off (they'll either not reset the meter to the base fee when you get it, or lie and claim you handed them a 5 Euro when you gave them a 20 Euro, both of which we experienced!!).

General Impressions
Our Italian experience consisted of a lot of yummy food, gelato, and exploring.  Our trip also involved a LOT of walking - way more than we expected, but it turned out okay, because Italians have a siesta period.  So, we fell into a nice pattern of going out in the morning, lunch, then a nice long nap, and then out again in the evening.  :-)  We liked just walking around the different neighborhoods, checking out the different architectures & sights.  All 3 cities had very different styles, pace, & overall feel.  We both liked Florence the best - it was the nice middle ground of relaxed, yet with plenty to do and see.

Overall, the people were really nice.  There were lots of tourists in each city, but since it was August, there were also plenty of Italian tourists too, so we didn't feel too much like outsiders! Hubby and I don't speak any Italian, but we had a dictionary on my phone, plus most people we encountered spoke English.  We did have a few great encounters where we conversed in completely different languages, but still managed to communicate, which is always a fun & charming experience.  :-) Most of the conversations seemed to focus on our pregnancy - my belly got a lot of stares, questions, and comments, lol.  Guess they don't see a lot of American tourists that are 6 months pregnant! 

Speaking of being pregnant, I was a bit worried about how I'd fare, since a lot of people had warned me that my condition would be pretty challenging, but honestly, it wasn't that bad.  I probably got tired a lot more often, and my feet were taking quite a punishment, but it just gave us an excuse to sit for awhile and take in everything going on around us.  I also had a few moments of discomfort when the baby was crowding my diaphragm and making breathing a challenge, but thankfully I had a variety of clothing, so I just ended up wearing roomy sundresses for most of the trip.  Oh, and turns out, pregnant women attract mosquitoes more, and since mosquitoes already love me, I ended up covered in bug bites (at one point, we counted 20 on my legs & arms), and had to figure out how to say: "bug spray" in Italian, lol.  Hubby was awesome too - he was always looking out for me, and noticing when I was reaching my limits (I tend to push myself farther than I should), and insisting on taking a break.  :-) So yeah, maybe not recommended for every expecting mommy, but definitely possible!

Of course, when you think of Italy, you can help but talking about eating! Italians like to take their time eating, so we had to get used to a very slow pace of eating. Plus, waiters will very rarely rush you, so you can sit and chat for ages, and never see the bill until you ask.   After the first few meals, we really came to enjoy lingering over each course, and following the meal with dessert and an expresso for Hubby.  It was quite a shock when we came home to LA, and our first meal out the bill was on the table before we'd even finished our food!!  One other nice perk about the relaxed pace of eating - no tipping.  Italian restaurants tend to include a cover charge or service charge, but you're not expected to tip on top of that.  And since they didn't tax either, it was great, because you knew exactly what your bill would be at the end of the night.  :-) Hubby also drank plenty of wine (after all, he was drinking for two!), which, in the US would be rather pricey, but turns out, wine in Italy is cheaper than soda.  Seriously - at once place, Hubby paid half as much for his wine than I did for my can of Fanta (which, interestingly enough is a lot less sweet than in Fanta in the US, and thus more enjoyable)!

Rome
Rome was all about Ancient Ruins - Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon, Julius Ceasar's memorial, etc. Plus, some not-quite-as-ancient sites, such as Villa Borghese, Trevi Fountain, Emmanuel II Monument, the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, & St. Peter's Basilica (church). 


On the first day, we explored the night scene in Trastevere.  It was super cute, and had a craft fair similar to what you'd see in the US - interesting things, but generally overpriced.  :-p  It was definitely a hot place for dates, and we saw lots of couples making out (Italians don't seem to have the same PDA aversion that Americans have!) and strolling around.  We ended up eating dinner at this little restaurant that thankfully had English translations on the menu.  Unfortunately... that didn't seem to help much since our waiter only spoke Italian!  Turned out to be a fun experience though, because while I'd ordered boring spaghetti, I ended up getting some yummy stuffed manicotti dish.  :-p 


The next day, we went with a Carrani tour group to see the Colosseum & Forum Ruins.  I'm glad we took the tour, because we learned interesting things such as the fact that many of the more "preserved" sites we saw were actually restored by Mussolini.  Guess even a dictator can leave behind a good legacy!  We also saw the location of Julius Ceasar's ashes, which was interesting, especially since it was covered in prayers, flowers, and other trinkets from locals who wanted to honor the former emperor.  The main event, the Colosseum, was an amazing site to behold - it's already an impressively massive structure, and then when you walk through it and imagine what it must have been like in it's full glory... WOW.  One of the interesting tidbits from our tourguide was that the Colosseum used to be covered in white marble & travertine, but the Romans liked to "recycle" materials by stripping it from other buildings, so the only marble left is a few seats inside.

 The next day, we went to the Vatican Museum.  We didn't actually want to go to the museum, but they're tricky - in order to see the Sistine Chapel, you have to go through the entire Vatican Museum first.  Which, I guess wouldn't be so bad, except it was a free-entrance Sunday, so packed with people, and there was little to no A/C... so, moving through the museum was rather slow going, and whew-wee, people sure did smell ripe!! But, it was worth it to see the Sistine Chapel.  Personally, I had no idea that it was so large, and that the famous scene of God touching fingers with Adam was just a very small part of the overall ceiling.  :-p I also thought the ceiling was round.  So, I'm guessing that Hubby probably appreciated it a bit more, especially since he studied Michelangelo in the past, and it was one of his life goals to see the Sistine Chapel!


It's a good thing the sites were so interesting, because our time in Rome coincided with some insanely hot weather.  I was very grateful that the city has so many drinking fountains, because we were constantly refilling our water bottles.  At one point, I even doused my shawl in water and put it on soaking wet to cool off while we were walking around!  It was nice and cool in the mornings & evenings though, so we did most of our exploring then.   And took a lot of taxis, lol, though we did learn to be extra cautious so as no to get ripped off by the drivers.  So yeah, Rome was fun to explore, but exhausting. 

Florence
After taking the train to Florence, we were greeted by a pleasant break in the insane heat. We were lucky too, because it was over 100 degrees the day before we arrived!  Florence involves a lot of walking - everything is deceivingly close, so we ended up killing our feet because we'd walk somewhere, look at the map, and realize another interesting site was "just a little bit closer", so head that direction, and then repeat this cycle, until suddenly we were across the river wondering how the heck we were going to limp home.  The last day, we finally got smart and bought passes onto one of those tourist site-seeing buses, where you can get on & off at the various tourist sites.

The architecture of Florence is very distinctive - lots of green, pink, & white marble.  We were admiring one such building, the Duomo, and decided to go into the museum.  Of course, the signs were mostly in Italian, and the English was a bit vague.  So, after waiting in line and buying the tickets, we were guided into a hallway, where we encountered... stairs.  Huh?  Turns out, we had paid to go up to the top of the Dome.  Which... would have been a lot more exciting, except that it was 420 stairs!!!  Yeah, and did I mentioned that I'm 6 months pregnant?  But, the stairs were one way, so we were kinda stuck.  It was slooooow going, but we finally made it to the top, and the view was amazing!


We also check off another life-event, as we saw the original David at the Accademia Museum.  Unlike the sneaky Vatican, we saw the David within a few minutes of entering.  It was breathtaking!  Plus, they had Michelangelo's 4 prisoners on display, which was fascinating because you got to see how the statues would "emerge" from the marble.  I have a lot of respect for sculptors after seeing that.

Since everything was "just a bit closer", we saw all sorts of sites throughout Venice - the Medici palace with the fake David outside, Boboli Gardens, Piazzole Michaelangel (a scenic overlook), and Fiesole, a small village outside the city.  No ruins, but lots of fun exploring.  Oh, and shopping!! They had lots of little market areas, with leather shops, souvenirs, and more.  Probably our favorite city of the trip!


Venice
Venice was a nice way to end the trip - there isn't a whole lot of major tourist sites, so it's more about wandering through the alleys & canals, enjoying the ambiance.  It was by far the most mellow part of our trip, and since we purchased a 2 days pass on their water taxi system, it was also the least amount of walking.  The city is very confusing to try to navigate, so for the most part, we gave up trying to figure out the map, and instead, just got lost along the canals, figuring as long as we were heading in the right direction, then it was all good!  Which, was actually quite fun, but did make things challenging when we found a restaurant or shop that we wanted to return to at a later time. 


Probably the biggest site there is the Piazza San Marco.  It consists of a huge plaza that's boxed in by some gorgeous buildings.  There's also a lot of pigeons, including some bizarrely colored ones that looked like a pigeon mated with a parrot.  :-p  The piazza was crowded, but had some great people watching.  But the best part of the piazza was at night - a few of the cafes have string orchestras that take turns playing, and so you can just sit on the stairs and enjoy the music filtering through the plaza, people watching.  Very romantic and sweet!  Of course, where there are lots of tourists, there's also lots of vendors, but we were fairly successful in ignoring them.  Except for this one guy, who we thought was giving us 3 free roses (cuz, he did say "gratis"!), but then when I gave him a tip, he took back 2 of the roses!  So, we really just bought a rose for 3 euros.  :-p  But that's okay, again, it added a bit of romance to the evening!


The other fun thing we did was explore the island of Murano, which specializes in glassworks.  It's amazing how detailed some of the artists put into their creations!  We watched a demonstration of the glass blowing, and how they would manipulate the super hot glowing glass into interesting shapes & colors. We ended up buying a beautiful vase from this one shop, run by an older guy who didn't speak any English, but was determined to try to talk to us all the same.  He was asking about the baby, where we were from, telling us about how he spent time in South Africa & Cambodia, etc.  It gave us a fun memory to put with our souvenir purchase, which we really appreciated.  :-)


Then we decided to end the evening with a classic Venetian tourist thing - a gondola ride.  Incredibly expensive, but a fun once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Our gondolier was younger, so we learned about Venice from a different perspective.  It was kinda sad to hear that the city is losing most of it's locals, because of the high cost of living, so most of the buildings were empty and being converted to hotels.  He also was able to provide a bit of history to some of the building.  And he filmed us dancing on the gondola!  Which, definitely wasn't our smartest move, cuz when we asked, it was towards the end, when we were on the main canal and the water was quite rocky.  I kept having visions of us falling overboard, with the headline: "Dumb Tourists Fall Off Gondola While Dancing!", lol.  Luckily, we were able to stay upright, and made it back to dry land safe & sound!


So yeah... that was our Italian baby-moon!  A very memorable trip, with lots of gorgeous scenery and interesting new adventures!!