John & Yoshie's 10-year anniversary trip to Italy

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Itinerary/Details for November 2008

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9:50 pm -- Depart Logan Airport (sleep on flight)
Boston/Zurich
Notes
Suisse Air is a *great* airlines. We definitely have to travel
with them more often :-)

On the plane, I watched "The Italian Job" to get "in the mood"
for Venezia :-)
 22 

[14 pictures]


Venezia
 Foscari Palace (night 1)
Trip Details
Flew from Zurich to Venezia, arriving sleepy but excited.
The canals are so beautiful!

Ate at Algiubagio Ristorante (slightly expensive, but good food)
 23 

[41 pictures]


Venezia
 Foscari Palace (night 2)
Trip Details
A lot of walking today, and a wonderful tour of Venezia!
At the beginning of the movie "The Italian Job", Donald Sutherland tells his
daughter "I'm in Venice", in a scene from Piazza San Marco, which [IMG|we saw
today|san_marco.jpg].

We had a nice gondola ride with "Stefano" in the afternoon.

We ate at a fantastic restaurant called "Vini Da Gigio" (although a little
expensive), after getting completely lost. It turned out Google maps had the
wrong address.
 24 

[7 pictures]


Firenze
 Brunelleschi Hotel (night 1)
Trip Details
Didn't stay at the Calzaiuoli Hotel the first night, as they
had problems due to the rain. The Brunelleschi was also a
4-star hotel, but the room was small and stuffy.

We saw the Duomo the first evening; it is on the way to the hotel.

There's also a much smaller duomo which Yoshie believes she mistook
for the real duomo on a previous trip to Firenze (which I gave her no
end of teasing about :-))

For dinner, we found a nice little restaurant very close
to the hotel; the waitress "Noriko-san" was from Kichijouji in Tokyo!
 25 

[17 pictures]


Firenze
 Calzaiuoli Hotel (night 2)
Trip Details
We saw the Duomo again (this time during the day), and walked over to
Ponte Vecchio.

There were lots of sidewalk shops selling gold and jewelry.
Numerous other side shops with tee-shirts, belts, handbags, and
just about anything you could want for a souvenir.

We saw Piazza Michelangelo (Yoshie's favorite place),
both once during the day, and again later, as the sun was setting.

Dined at a very nice place called "Il Paiolo" near the hotel, which
had typical Toscane cuisine.
 26 

[22 pictures]


Firenze/Pisa
 Calzaiuoli Hotel (night 3)
Trip Details

Went to Pisa during the day, which was superb! We didn't know until
recently that one can go up in the leaning tower. They only allow a fixed
number to buy tickets for a given half-hour period; we were lucky that within
5 minutes of our arrival, the next group was about to go up.
Also, since we came to Italy during the off-season, there were not too many
tourists at all.

The next day, I couldn't at first figure out why my quadriceps were both
sore. Then Yoshie reminded me that we had had to walk the almost 300 steps
of the leaning tower, both up and down.

Got a take-out pizza and calzone from a little restaurant, and a good
bottle of red wine from across the street, and watched a movie together
("Moonstruck") on the laptop.

(Pictures coming soon)
 27 

[35 pictures]


Roma
 Duca D'Alba Hotel (night 1)
Trip Details
Arrived in Rome, checked into our hotel "Duca D'Alba", and saw lots of great
stuff today, starting with the Colosseum, the Roman Forum (including the
Pallatino), and the spot where Julius Caesar was cremated.

Then we walked to the Pantheon, went past Trevi Fountain, and made
our way up to the Spanish Steps (note to self -- must watch "Roman Holiday").

For dinner we went to a *very* inexpensive restaurant recommended by
Maximillian (from the Hotel), which ended up being the best place we've
eaten at yet! We're planning to go back tonight (and probably tomorrow
night too).
 28 

[32 pictures]


Roma
 Duca D'Alba Hotel (night 2)
Trip Details
Today we finally had really bad weather; it rained quite a lot.
However, there were breaks in the rain, and we still got to have a really
good time!

In the morning we saw the Vatican, and in the afternoon we went back
to the Spanish steps (which we saw last night, but the camera battery had
already run down).

This afternoon, we finally used our pass to the inside of the Colosseum,
which was magnificent.
 29 

[58 pictures]


Roma/Napoli/Pompeii
 Duca D'Alba Hotel (night 3)
Trip Details
We took the train to Napoli, then straight to Pompeii, where we
walked around for a good 2 hours, observing the ruins caused by the eruption
of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79.
Then back to Napoli, where we ate at McDonalds, as there weren't any
good cafes near the station, and we just needed to sit, rest, and get some
small lunch (it was already 3 PM!)
Met a nice Italian family on the train back to Roma, with a little girl (5)
and a boy (10). Fun trying to converse with them in broken
Italian/English. I got a video of the girl playing cards with her dad, and
another of her counting to 12 in Italian, then trying to do the same in
English.
 30 
2:45 pm -- Leave Roma, 8:00 pm Arrive Boston


Some final thoughts about the trip:
  • Venezia (Venice)

    A very romantic city, with a truly unique flavor. Gondola rides are overrated (although I am glad to have tried one), and overpriced (80 euros unless you go at night; then it's more), but the vaporetto ("water bus") is great, and will take you everywhere for a very reasonable price (about 10 euros IIRC). Two days was good (especially as the weather cooperated with us), but I can easily imagine spending twice that amount of time. I would have liked to have found a cheaper restaurant, especially after finding such an inexpensive -and- high-quality restaurant in Roma.

  • Firenze (Florence)

    Definitely worth going to; the architecture is inspiring, and it has a certain romantic quality all its own. Pompeii has special memories for Yoshie, whose favorite spot is the view from the Piazza San Michelangelo. If we had had more time, it would have been nice to spend about a week in Ferenze.

  • Pisa

    One of my favorite places in the whole trip. As we went during the off-season, there were only a few handfuls of tourists; and it was such a thrill to find out that they again let people climb the leaning tower.

  • Roma (Rome)

    Roma was amazing -- the historical sites everywhere you looked, the sites, the food (well, at the one restaurant near our hotel, anyway :-)). I think we could spend 2 weeks in Roma and only feel like we had scratched the surface.

  • Pompeii

    Pompeii was special for Yoshie, because when she went there last (also during the off-season), the ruins were closed, so she never got to go in. You can walk literally for hours, and it takes about 3 hours to get to from Roma, so it was best that we made a day trip out of Pompeii alone.

  • Napoli (Naples)

    We didn't see much of Napoli, but the area near the train station was not at all impressive -- too dirty and overcrowded (though Yoshie says it's better than it was 20 years ago). It might have been fun to see more of the city, but we just didn't have the time.