Europe 2016: ITALY

Welcome to part two of our trip to Europe, which is all about our travels in Italy! Our destinations included Positano on the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Manarola in Cinque Terre, Florence, and Venice.

We flew from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy using Ryanair on Monday the 2nd of May. We got into Rome late, and from there we needed to get to our accommodations in Positano. It was a bit of a struggle. We found a high speed train south from Rome to Naples, which we took using our Eurorail passes. Somehow we got away with having business class tickets we weren't supposed to have, so we got fed delicious treats and drinks on the way. We think the reason we got away with it is because we looked more professional than the other people in our car (two guys from Portugal who were playing loud music and showing us the weed they smuggled in haha). But once we made it to Naples, we found that there were no buses leaving so late in the evening. That meant we had to take a taxi (even though it was over an hour away)... We have decided that whenever possible in Europe, do not take a taxi! They know you are foreigners and even if you try to barter, you will be paying more than you should. Buses and trains are always the cheaper option, but there was nothing we could do. We were able to talk a man down about 30 euros to drive us down to Positano from Naples (a little over an hour drive). We are pretty sure he wasn't even a real taxi driver, just a random man with a car. But we made it there alive at about 2 in the morning, so I suppose it was okay in the end, haha. He wasn't a great driver though and did ask if we wanted to stop for beer once.

The Amalfi Coast, Italy

During our visit to the Amalfi Coast, we stayed near Positano--supposedly the gem of the area. We checked into our hotel (not an airbnb for the first time on the trip) late at night to a grumpy Italian man (though we couldn't blame him too much as it was 2 in the morning). The hotel was up the street from the main square/bus stop in Positano by a 20 minute fast walk. It was more out of town than we would have liked, but by the next morning, it was decided; this was our favorite place we stayed! It was the priciest so far at about $100 a night, but it included a stellar view of the ocean and an absolutely scrumptious breakfast each morning. Some of the things we would eat for breakfast were pastries or croissants, nutella, soft cheeses with sour dough bread, cereal, and juice. Some of our favorite pastries on the whole trip were here.

Due to the chilly and almost drizzly weather the first morning there, we decided to hike rather than go into town and relax on the beach. The hike was called the Path of the Gods. It technically started in a little Positano neighborhood called Nocelle, so we had to hike up there first. It was going up those millions of flights of stairs that we got one of our first real looks at Positano. WOW. It is stunning!!

The hike up to Nocelle was not my favorite. It was just stairs for a very long time. According to our Garmins (like Fitbits but a different brand) we went up close to 2,000 steps. My legs were sore before we even started the official hike! We reached the square in Nocelle, which had the cutest little lemonade stand. We bought some freshly squeezed lemonade, introduced Dustan to kumquats, and continued our hike!

This hike ended up being one of the most amazing hikes either of us has been on. It offered beautiful views of the coast, the ocean, and the little coastal cities without being overly challenging. We opted to hike down to Praiano (the shorter path) rather than up to Boomerano, but we'll do that next time. We loved how green the Amalfi coast was--it reminded me of home in Seattle! I'd try to describe the hike, but wouldn't do it justice, so pictures are worth a thousand words right?

We hiked along the coast for a while, before descending a bunch of stairs into Praiano. After going up those thousands of stairs, then hiking, and now going down a bunch of stairs, my legs were done! They were shaking the whole way down. But as a reward when we entered Praiano, we got our first gelato :) At the bottom of the Italy post, we plan to write every single flavor or gelato we tried--it is extensive.

We caught a bus from Praiano over to Positano from there. The first order of business was to get dinner. The second, more gelato. From there, we simply walked around the little city and beach until it began to get dark. (I'm sorry--but not really--in advance for how many pictures of the city you will be seeing. We just loved it!!) The hike had taken us far longer than we expected. Though our [my] legs were tired, we decided to just walk the uphill 20 minutes back to our hotel. Then we crashed hard!

Our first lasagna and gnocchi!

Day two on the Amalfi Coast was spent on Capri and beaches! Capri is a little island across the coast to the west. We took a boat over, hoping to visit the famous Blue Grotto and relax on the beach. Unfortunately, the ocean was a little too rough that day for it to be safe to visit the Grotto :( look it up though! Looks amazing. As usual though, we had some stellar views of the city as we left Positano...

Instead of visiting the Blue Grotto when we got to Capri, we took a boat tour around the whole island! We really did enjoy this excursion. It was fun to see all the major sites around the island and be on the open water for a couple hours. Towards the end of the boat ride, the wave swells got a little bigger which was SO fun! Especially while sitting up on the rail at the front of the boat. Kudos to Dustan for getting us such great seats.

We drove our boat right through that hole in the rock!

After our boat tour, we relaxed on a local public beach on Capri and ate gelato. Just before it was time to leave on our ferry, we got some lunch. Dustan ate pizza and I had a Caprese salad on Capri!

I finally convinced Dustan to take a gelato pic.

I'll give you one guess of what we did when we got back to Positano... We ate gelato! And relaxed on the beach. It was heavenly. I'm convinced there is no better combination that gelato and beaches. We thought about getting in the water, but after dipping our feet we decided against it. The water was freezing! We were chickens. In our defense though, the weather was still overcast and a little chilly to be swimming. We missed our Santorini temperature water!

When it got to be close to dinnertime, we walked all over the city to work up my appetite to match Dustan's already starving one. Positano is famous for its lemons, specifically lemon alcoholic drinks. There are lemon designs, shops, and fruits all over the city. We found some of the biggest lemons we have every seen! We had no idea they could get so huge. After some wandering, we chose a restaurant that was on the fancier side to celebrate our last night in Positano.

You just don't see grocery stores like this in the US.

The small restaurant had a gorgeous view of Positano. Even though we are notoriously fast restaurant goers, we somehow were able to make our dinner last through most of sunset. As usual, Dustan ordered gnocchi while I tried something new. We really enjoyed watching sunsets in all the different places we have been. We also liked trying out some of the night features on our new camera! We still need more practice though.

Our final day in Positano arrived and went by too fast. Check-out time at our hotel was a bit early, so we had to take our bags with us into the city. We didn't mind too much--they made good pillows on the beach. Though all the stairs and steep pathways in the city were a little harder to navigate. We finally did some swimming/deep wading, even with the cold water! Obviously, we got some gelato at our favorite restaurant on the beach, Buca di Bacco.

With only a few short days in Positano, we hadn't had the time to really visit the neighboring cities. We really do hope to visit the Amalfi Coast again someday and spend more time exploring Amalfi, Ravello, Sorrento, etc. and see what all the coast has to offer. But we fell in love with Positano, and recommend all to visit!

Rome, Italy

We were able to take a bus back from Positano to Naples (thank goodness we didn't have to take a taxi again) then a train from Naples to Rome. From Roma Termini our airbnb was just a few blocks away!

We knew our time in Rome was going to be very different from our few days in Positano. Rome was all about the history! We had purposefully organized our trip so that we had a good mixture of sight seeing the historical stuff and outdoorsy activities like hiking and swimming. We tried to alternate between the two so we never got tired of what we were doing. Hence, a few relaxing days in Positano before Rome.

We got into Rome in the evening on Thursday, May 5th. We were exhausted. We decided to just get some dinner (guess what Dustan got--yes, gnocchi), walk around the neighborhood, and head to bed early so we would be ready for a long day of sight seeing! We had plans to go to the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and more on Friday.

First stop the next morning: the Colosseum! The line was huge, of course. Thankfully we had preordered our tickets, so we were able to get in a little bit faster. Similar to our post on Athens, we don't really have a whole lot to say about the ancient sites... They are amazing, impressive. We enjoyed touring them, so we hope you enjoy looking at our pictures, haha.

Next up, we walked around the Roman Forum and Palatine. Our tickets covered these and the Colosseum all together. By this time, we were sweaty hungry. We definitely could have spent more time looking around, but we don't do great when we're hungry, haha. After touring here, we headed back to our airbnb to eat lunch and take a short nap before tackling the rest of our evening.

After Dustan watched a movie and I napped, we took the metro (underground train) to the northern side of Rome to see the Spanish Steps, Fontana della Barcaccia (or in English, the Fountain of the Ugly Boat apparently), Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon. Sadly, the Spanish steps were under construction and didn't look too impressive. We hadn't even known about the ancient Boroque fountain at the base of the steps, the Fontana della Barcaccia, which has fresh water to drink out of. Of course we filled up our water bottles there dramatically. Yay fresh water!

Next stop was gelato and the Trevi Fountain. To be honest, the Trevi Fountain was probably our favorite stop of the day. It was just gorgeous. We lounged around there for a while, eating our gelato and people watching. We even pulled out some money and made wishes.

Last, we visited the Pantheon. While outside, we watched some cool boy try to take a cool picture... Then fall into a fountain. It was great.

We have the next morning in Rome, then it was time to head to our next destination. We spent the morning in Vatican City, mainly exploring the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. They were absolutely incredible. Probably the most beautiful architecture and paintings we have ever seen. The Colosseum was very impressive, but the architecture in St. Peter's Basilica was so detail oriented. Alas, no pictures/videos were allowed in the Sistine Chapel itself, but we took a lot everywhere else. We really loved seeing Vatican City.

Michelangelo's "Pieta"

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

And just like that, our time in Rome was up! We took the metro from Vatican City back to our accommodations to pick up our bags, then to Roma Termini to head to our next destination. We took a train from Rome to La Spezia, then a smaller train from La Spezia to the city where we would be staying in Cinque Terre, Manarola.

Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre is made up of five little villages that are nestled along the coast of the Italian Riviera. The villages combined with the surrounding land make up the Cinque Terre National Park. Paths and trains connect the villages, but there is almost no way for a car to reach them. During the few days we were visiting, we only saw a small handful of cars. From north to south, the five villages are called Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We stayed in the Manarola, the second smallest of the villages and supposedly the oldest. Similar to Positano, Manarola is built into the cliffside with lots of steep hills and steps. Of course our airbnb was at the top, haha.

We quickly dropped off our bags and took a stroll around the city. It was darling! Very small--we could walk across nearly the whole village in about 15 minutes. It reminded us a lot of Positano actually, just smaller and more quiet. Then we went to get some dinner. Cinque Terre is famous for their seafood and pesto, so that's what we got! I forced Dustan to be the adventurous one and get a black squid ink pasta while I got some of the best pesto pasta I've ever had.

After our dinner, we grabbed some gelato and strolled down to the water again to watch the sunset. As usual, it was gorgeous. Sense a theme here? Something unique about Manarola is how much water is running through the city! You can hear it nearly everywhere you walk. Sometimes you have to walk on bridges over streams to get around the city, like to our little apartment.

The next day was Sunday, May 8th! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to our wonderful moms!! The closest church was in La Spezia, a short train ride away. The problem though, was that from the station in La Spezia, church was about a 30 minute walk. We left early enough to get to church on time, but we got so lost on the way that there was no way we could make it in time. So we ended up having to take a taxi... But we made it in time! One of the first things the branch there asked was if we played piano, which Dustan does. So Dustan got to play the first couple hymns of sacrament meeting until the pianist arrived, haha. Then, another instance of how small the Mormon world is, a couple that Dustan knows came to the same sacrament meeting! We decided to hang out the rest of the afternoon.

We met in Monterosso al Mare, the northern most village, for lunch and lounging on the beach. Monterosso was significantly larger and more tourist populated than Manarola. The pizza we ate there was definitely the most delicious we had in Italy! Monterosso was one of the few villages that had any sort of beach, and it was a little pebbly. But it was a beautiful day and even warm enough to swim in the chilly water.

After a swim, we stopped in Vernazza to grab some gelato and explore this city. It was very comparable to Manarola, little and quiet. We relaxed on the rocks over the water and played with our camera for a while before heading back to Manarola on the train.

Next day was hiking day! There are typically hiking paths between all the villages, but the ones between Corniglia to Manarola, and Manarola to Riomaggiore were closed. But even so, we took the train up to Monterosso al Mare to begin hiking. We grabbed some breakfast in the village first, then began our hike over to Vernazza. Similar to the Path of the Gods hike on the Amalfi coast, there were quite a few stairs, lots of greenery, and amazing coastal views.

Monterosso al Mare

I had a difficult time hiking that day, for some reason. I tripped twice! And not just stumbled, I completely fell. I still have scars as proof today. That was slightly less enjoyable. But at least the view coming into Vernazza was awesome! We quickly grabbed some gelato and went back to hiking.

Vernazza

The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza was known as the hardest hike between the villages, which we found to be true. We hiked from Vernazza to Corniglia in no time. The village of Cornigilia sits high up on the coast with no access to the ocean, unlike the other little villages in Cinque Terre. When we arrived there, we stopped at a restaurant a little ways outside Corniglia that had been recommended to us by a couple the day before. We were so hungry! Dustan got gnocchi pesto and I ordered spaghetti bolognase. After walking around the village for a while, I found some kumquats at a local grocery store!! Ever since eating a couple in Positano I had been craving them, but a few Italians told me they were typically just used for decoration. We grabbed a bag and a few other fruits (we felt fruit deficient, all we were eating were carbs and dairy) and took the train back to Manarola.

The view of Vernazza as we were hiking away. 

First view of Corniglia!

Corniglia

Once back in Manarola, it was time for some cliff jumping. This is what Dustan had been looking forward to most in Cinque Terre: a 60 ft drop into the water! It was SO HIGH. I tried to tell Dustan not to do it, but he was determined. That's the only time I've ever seen him hesitate a couple times before cliff jumping (check out the fear on his face in picture 2). He had gathered quite the crowd by the time he jumped and even inspired another young man to jump as well.

After some final lounging by the water, our last sunset in Cinque Terre came and went, and it was time to head to the next city! We really enjoyed spending time in Cinque Terre, about as much as we loved the Amalfi Coast (Dustan says Cinque Terre was his favorite). Again, there were a few places we would have liked to explore that we didn't get to (like the village Riomaggiore), so I guess we'll just have to come back someday! :)

Florence, Italy

Our second to last day in Italy. We left Cinque Terre early in the morning to quickly run around Florence to see the major sites before spending our last evening in Venice. We planned to only have a few hours in Florence, which means we had some hard decisions to make about what we would be seeing in the very historical city.

Our first stop was at the Accademia Gallery, most famous for housing Michelangelo's David and the main reason we decided to stop in Florence. We had originally been iffy about going to this museum thinking, "How great could a statue of a naked man be?" But we were so wrong, it was absolutely incredible. The David is so perfectly realistic, each muscle, proportion, even arm veins looking just like they would on a real person. We are so glad we visited this museum, and see so much of Michealngelo's work and other great masterpieces.

One of Michelangelo's unfinished pieces--Can you believe this is how the David would have started?!

After the museum, we visited the Cathedral of Santa Maria, or the Duomo of Florence. We weren't allowed to bring in our carry-on bags we had been lugging, so Dustan and I took turns walking through the church. Again, an impressive sight.

Once we had visited the Accedemia Gallery and the Duomo, we got some gelato and lunch, then hopped back on the train to our LAST destination: Venice.

Venice, Italy

We'll be honest--our first couple hours in Venice were awful. Getting there by train was fine, and actually finding our hotel check-in (not airbnb this time) was fine. I was ecstatic to be walking through this cute water city. But it was ruined at check-in. Get ready for a rant! Don't read next couple paragraphs if you don't want to read some strong negative feelings, haha. 

First of all, the check-in for the hotel was about a quarter of a mile away from the actual "hotel". When we finally arrived, the lady said we owed her an extra 25 euros for arriving just a couple minutes after check-in time (even after telling her about how our train was delayed an hour). She even casually used the f-word in the check-in process, which was extremely unprofessional. She then walked us to the "hotel" and left us to get settled in. We found immediately that the wifi didn't work as advertised, then the lady wouldn't answer the phone, so we walked back to the check-in area. The lady gave us this little remote wifi and told us not to mention it in our review that she had forgotten to leave it in the room. We decided to just go out to dinner and try the wifi when we got home. This wifi worked for about an hour before stopping and not working the rest of our stay. Again, we tried calling and nothing. Then, we decided to read the welcome pamphlet in the bedroom and found that the late check-in fee was only supposed to be 20 euros! By this point, we had pretty much given up on enjoying our stay at the hotel and just focused on being out in Venice. Here is the scathing review Dustan left in the heat of the moment:

"Our train was late, and the lady charged us an extra 20 euros even though we only checkd in literally 3 minutes late. Also, she tried to charge us a city tax which we paid already with the reservation. She also used the f*** word while checking us in. We had to walk back over to the check in location because she had removed the internet. When we got back with the internet box, it barely worked 1/4 of the time. The bed wasn't comfortable, and the lady who checked us in had the audacity to ask for a 10 star review and told us not to mention any of the things that went wrong. Also, the apartment wasn't really a hotel as it's advertised. It was in an unsafe ghetto feeling building with broken windows, and an overall creepy feeling. You couldn't pay me to stay here again."

The lady then replied to Dustan's review on booking.com. Here are a couple of the gem sentences from her: "i told you not to maintion anything that went wrong,i can see that you are not honest" and "nobody wants to see you again,i do not really want to join issues with you because right from your point of arrival you started making problems".

Basically what we have learned from the situation: in Venice, spend the money to book something that is a little more expensive, read reviews more thoroughly beforehand, and most definitely do not stay with Ca Diamond. Now, back to the fun stuff!

We walked around Venice for a while before stopping for somewhere to eat. I loved all the little corners and water alleys in the city! They were just so cute. By the time we found a good restaurant in our budget, it was close to 8 pm and getting quite dark. Dinner was absolutely scrumptious--the last supper in Italy! We were so sad. We splurged and ordered a cheese platter, then Dustan got his favorite gnocchi and I tried some spicy red sauce pasta. We walked around a little longer and looked up activities for the next day. We had wanted to go on a gondola ride of course, but we just couldn't get ourselves to spend over $100 for a short ride... So we looked into taking a water taxi instead,which we did end up doing! We visited the Rialto Bridge as well, which was actually under construction. After this, we walked back to our place, planned the next day of sight seeing and getting to the airport in Milan for our flight home.

Check-out was early the next morning, so we had to just carry our bags around with us for the day. As we walked out the front door of our accommodations, we were a bit disappointed... It was pouring down rain! We ran to the closest bakery for breakfast and drank some thick hot chocolate while contemplating what we should do. There was no escaping the rain--everything we wanted to do for the day was outside. Dustan finally stood up and said he would be right back. A few minutes later, he reappeared holding two brightly covered umbrellas...my hero! Everything was okay from then on out :)

The first thing we did was walk over the Piazza San Marco . It was on the opposite side of the city, which gave us chances to explore the city a little more and make a few fun stops. There are tons of Venetian masks shops, so of course we had to try a couple of those on. Also, I think I hit at least three people in the face with my umbrella. I was having a hard time navigating the skinny streets, my luggage backpack, an umbrella, and all the people around me at once! Oops.

We eventually wandered over to Piazzo San Marco. We were so happy to find that there was a bag check outside of the church! We dropped off our heavy bags and headed to the Saint Mark's Basilica. Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside, but it was very similar to what we saw in Florence's Duomo but more gold.

When other people try to take pictures on your nice camera... BLURRY. Always! Oh well.

We continued to walk around the Piazza for a while, looking at the neighboring buildings and architecture and eating some gelato. By this time, the rain had lessened significantly.

Then, too quickly, it was time to go. As planned, we hopped on a bus to take us back to the train station. I just love that buses and taxis in Venice are actually boats :) We are so happy we took the water bus. It drove along the grand canal and we were able to see a lot of Venice that we hadn't been able to before by walking.

When we reached the train station, we donated our umbrellas to a young family (who thought we were trying to sell them and wouldn't take them at first) and hopped on a train to Milan. It was time to go home!

*****

Somehow, we went this entire trip without any flight delays, a complete blessing. We had a late flight out of the Milan airport back to Oslo, Norway. Funny thing though, our flight into Norway was a different airport than our flight back to the States and almost two hours apart by bus or train. After flying into Norway, we were able to successfully get into the main city of Oslo to the central train and bus stations around midnight. But unlike what the internet said, we were unable to get from Oslo to the northern international airport because all transportation closed. We ended up spending the night in a slightly sketchy and very chilly bus station before catching a bus up the the airport around 5 am for our early flight. We had a short layover in Stockholm, Sweden and somehow we got fed a free meal on the flight. Then, before we knew it, we were back in the United States :)

Now, for what you have all been waiting for... All the gelato flavors we tried! Underlined were our favorites :) Pistachio, dark chocolate, coconut, nutella, cantaloupe, lemon, regular chocolate, lemon cream, strawberry, raspberry, vanilla cherry, hazelnut, yogurt berry, mango, dulce de leche, honeydew melon, peach, mascarpone, blackberry, yogurt, mint chocolate chip, chocolate peanut, and caramel. We may have forgotten to write a couple...

Anyway. We absolutely LOVED our trip to Europe, especially Italy. We truly do hope to come back again someday. There is so much in Italy we never saw, and we really want to explore more of the Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre particularly! We know that many people don't get the chance to take a trip like this during their lifetime, so we feel especially blessed :) Now... Time to plan the next adventure!!