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Mad Cow's Italy trip discussion thread (1 Viewer)

Where should we go for our trip?

  • Italy

    Votes: 99 76.7%

  • France/Paris

    Votes: 18 14.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 12 9.3%
  • Total voters
    129
Mad Cow said:
Purchased tickets and reservations made for Vatican and Borghese.

Anything I am missing?

Have copies of passports to take and leave at home, have copies of credit cards to take and leave at home. Got the Internat'l Driver Permit just to be safe.
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The Vatican was awesome but the line for the "normal" people was insane. We had a tour so we got to skip the line. The non-tour people must have waited 2 hours. I'm not sure what you have, but it seemed like the tours were worth the $$.
 
Mad Cow said:
Purchased tickets and reservations made for Vatican and Borghese.

Anything I am missing?

Have copies of passports to take and leave at home, have copies of credit cards to take and leave at home. Got the Internat'l Driver Permit just to be safe.
Click to expand...
The Borghese is very, very cool. Really enjoyed the museum itself and the grounds outside. If you have a set reservation time at the Borghese allow time to get there early. If you're late you're out of luck I think.

Believe it or not, had one of our favorite lunches close by. We had Italian food for almost 2 weeks and needed something else. Stumbled into Lima Chicken. Peruvian restaurant that does some tasty chicken. Got our protein fix. Inexpensive and very good.

http://younginrome.com/2012/03/05/i-feel-like-peruvian-chicken-tonight/

 
Judge Smails said:
Mad Cow said:
Purchased tickets and reservations made for Vatican and Borghese.

Anything I am missing?

Have copies of passports to take and leave at home, have copies of credit cards to take and leave at home. Got the Internat'l Driver Permit just to be safe.
Click to expand...
The Borghese is very, very cool. Really enjoyed the museum itself and the grounds outside. If you have a set reservation time at the Borghese allow time to get there early. If you're late you're out of luck I think.Believe it or not, had one of our favorite lunches close by. We had Italian food for almost 2 weeks and needed something else. Stumbled into Lima Chicken. Peruvian restaurant that does some tasty chicken. Got our protein fix. Inexpensive and very good.

http://younginrome.com/2012/03/05/i-feel-like-peruvian-chicken-tonight/
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:lol: wife has been to Peru twice so don't know if we will do that. Have reservations at 11:00am for the Borghese so can get there plenty early. Thank you.
 
I know you have gotten piles of recommendations, but:

ristorante academia in Florence and

il giardino Romano in Rome are a pair of out always returns.

remember, always validate train or metro tix.

 
Chemical X said:
I know you have gotten piles of recommendations, but:

ristorante academia in Florence and

il giardino Romano in Rome are a pair of out always returns.

remember, always validate train or metro tix.
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Will do. Have them both down in my spreadsheet. Will do on the tickets.

 
All checked in online for tomorrow. It is official. Nervous and excited. It is always hard for me to leave my kids. I get this massive pit in my stomach for the first day or so.

 
in case you forget an item, the big supermarkets in italy are; despar, coop and familia. they have a lidl there, very similar to aldi. i think small areas have a coop/margherita. here's some random thoughts; grab some cuban cigars. when dialing the us its 001-area code-number. tipping in restaurants is not required and if you do tip, they don't have 15-18% guidelines. you can always round up. restaurants charge a cover charge (coperto), usually 1.50euro which covers sitting at a table (table cloth and bread). bars are not bars like the u.s., they are more like coffee shops and general stores. they have panini, liquors, coffee, lotto. your best friend is a street food called porchetta. get a porchetta panino and live the dream (just say senza fegato - without liver). italy does bottled water. simplified sin gassata is without bubbles, con gassata is with. you can always say naturale for still water. they love their marmalade and nutella, almost all croissants have something inside, very rarely do they do plain (vuoto or liscia). breakfasts at the hotel are usually big and include cold cuts, fill up on the free breakfast and check the time and where the breakfast room is located. a favorite dish of mine and romans is cacio e pepe (pasta with cheese and pepper). done right it is a wonderful dish. after dinner digestivos are usually enjoyed.......limoncello and grappa are the standards. limoncello is a lemony alcohol, a bit more than a hard lemonade. grappa is just plain fire water. some places have flavored grappa....see if they carry honey grappa (grappa con miele). salad is served after the main course. dessert is after coffee, not together. sugar is zucchero and dietor is similar to equal. not so much in the touristy areas anymore, but many stores still have morning (mattina) and afternoon (pomeriggio) hours. general stores hours are 9.30-1 and 4.30-7.30. tobacchi stores (newsstores/stands) sell tickets to metro and lotto, they also recharge cell phones.

oops, i could recommend a million restaurants and things, but try to avoid eating in tourist areas, even small bites. hold off to hit a stand or a place on a side street. even hit the deli counter of a supermarket.

if you are in the vicinity of the trevi fountain, about 3-4 blocks away is a spaghetteria called l'archetto. all they do is spaghetti, with a menu that includes roughly 100 sauces. well priced and some great appetizers. just bring cash.....they do the ATM broken thing alot.

 
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Could someone smarter than I give me a quick rundown on calling and texting while in Italy.

If I am texting an Italian cell, I just use the number straight, right, including the country code, like this:

39 + the local number. I only add 011 at the start if I am texting there from the US, right? I do not add a "+" sign like all the numbers have.

If I am calling/texting a US number FROM Italy, then 00 (exit from Italy) 1 (US code) then local number.

Am I close here?

 
here's what I know..one if my numbers in Italy is:

+39 340 8479408

the + is the 011 39 is Italy's code 34 is my carrier Vodafone, if I had a land line, the 34 would be replaced by say 075 which I think is Rome. to text an italian phone from a phone with a NON ITALIAN number, use it all and vice versa. if you are dialing or texting an italian phone from an italian phone, start after the 39.

just because your phone is in Italy, you don't have an italian number or carrier.

 
Chemical X said:
here's what I know..one if my numbers in Italy is:

+39 340 8479408

the + is the 011 39 is Italy's code 34 is my carrier Vodafone, if I had a land line, the 34 would be replaced by say 075 which I think is Rome. to text an italian phone from a phone with a NON ITALIAN number, use it all and vice versa. if you are dialing or texting an italian phone from an italian phone, start after the 39.

just because your phone is in Italy, you don't have an italian number or carrier.
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Gotcha, so I would still dial the 011 39 then the number to text from Italy to Italy, correct?

 
TenTimes said:
Ever taken that long a flight? I wouldn't sleep the night before.
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6 hours to Hawaii a few times. Not quite there but fairly lengthy. Planning on waking up early for my usual 5 mile run, get the kids off for school, then off to the airport.

 
Stay away from places like Little Caesar's, Pizza Hut, and Domino's. There are lots of great little independently-owned pizza shops in Italy. Even though pizza was invented in New Haven, CT, Italy really knows their pies as well.

 
When you walk by a grocery in town, stop in for bottled water. Dirt cheap for a huge bottle and you can use all the coins you will be collecting. We also got things like bananas, etc.

Have fun!

 
For those that have been to Cinque Terre, any recommendations?

My girlfriend is going with her friend and her friend is pushing to do a boat tour, but the one they were recommended is 4 hours during the day or a couple hours over sunset and they aren't really going for a romantic vibe.

Any recos you have on things to do/see there or in surrounding towns would be much appreciated

 
So get to Amsterdam airport and it's saying my card isn't valid to get cash. :hot: Gonna get to Florence and figure it out.

 
Worked in Florence. Thank you all. Will check in in ten days or so, sooner if I have wifi while on a crapper. Went to Sostanza tonight but it wasn't open. Figured we were there too early, 6pm. We are destroyed right now. Needed to eat early. I'm working on 2 hrs sleep over last 32 hrs, and that's no exaggeration. Hit Duomo today, climbed the dome, hiked all over the place. Tomorrow rent a car and head Siena way via sr222.

 
well I drove it at night and south of panzano....between the autostrada and panzano. perhaps it's better north of that point and during the day.

 
OK, so it was a great trip. I think I can consider myself a seasoned vet of Italy and its nuances by now, though far from a pro.

Hit Amsterdam first, and had some stress with my phone not connecting at all overseas and my debit card was not working. I had cleared it with the bank for both Italy and Amsterdam, so when I tried 3 different ATM's at the airport, I was starting to get worried. Landed in Firenze, tried it, and bang, cash. And the phone started working there as well, so stress relieved. Firenze airport is tiny. Took the shuttle to the downtown train station and dragged our light luggage to the room, which was literally within a stone throw's distance from the Uffizi. Overall felt pretty good all things considered for the lag. Pushed through that day and hit bed around 10pm. Did the Duomo and other nearby piazzas and sights that day. Tried to go to Sostanza, but it was not open when we were there so just found a place.

Next day was get a car and drive into Tuscany. Holy crap, renting a car here was stressful. All of the car rental areas basically hover between two massive fine areas if you drive into them. Getting out of Florence took 2 years of my life in stress I think. Started to head towards Siena, but halfway there we changed course and headed to Volterra. Very cool town. We did not hear a SINGLE word of English there all day. There was some local music festival going on that day, so it was perfect timing. Got back to return the car and tried Sostanza, and saw the sign on it saying closed for a freaking month for a holiday. :hot:

Rest of Florence included Uffizi (very cool), Accademia (over-rated except for the David. All it is is the David really), Palazzo Vecchio (actually very cool to explore and hit the ramparts here). Best meal in Florence was at the Trattoria Ponte Vecchio. A small family place near the Uffizi. Had this cheese and pear stuffed pasta that was amazing.

Train to Sorrento started cool on Italo, until an hour in when all of the track issues began. We started stopping on the tracks every few minutes, since Italo gets low priority and it usually happens on Mondays, when we were traveling. :wall: Got to Rome 2 hours late, when it was only to be a little over an hour. The rest of the way to Naples was very fast. Getting on the Circumvesuviana was an adventure. I was thinking it was a train, not a cable-powered metro train. Got all loaded up and crowded, and all of a sudden, they started saying stuff over the PA and everyone gets off the train and gets on one on the other track. We :unsure: then :shrug: and got there. Stood the whole way, worried someone would try to pick pocket us. Circumvesuviana has a terrible reputation for this, and we met people on the trip that got hit on it during their trip.

Sorrento was very cool. We did Pompeii, which was amazing. Spent 5 hours there. My suggestion on that would be go early. We got there late at 11am and it was much more crowded. We spent a lot of time seeing most everything there, reading about it in Rick Steve's book. Had dinner at Delfini that night and it was good, not great, IMO. Service and ambiance was great. Next day was the shared tour down the Amalfi Coast. Hit Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. The drive was a bit harrowing, but worthwhile. Our van driver was great, but man the proximity alarm on that van was going crazy all day.

Train to Rome, we took the gov't train to avoid the issues. Hit Vatican, and pretty much every spot to see there. Borghese was cool, especially with the audio tour. La Carbonara was fantastic. Used the heck out of the metro which really helped.

Fantastic trip, appreciate all of the tips and suggestions. Not really much problem with jet lag coming home, just went straight through until that night.

 
TenTimes said:
pics?
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Atop Palazzo Vecchio towards Duomo

Dusk in Firenze

Sorrento Marina Grande at night

Selfie at Pompeii

Above Positano

Outside Castel San'Angelo after buying my son a gladius

Panorama of Colosseum

Drivers in Roma

Want to see the Spanish Steps empty? Go on a 6:30am run

One thing I will say about Italian food. They just do not season their meat well. They give you this beautiful cut of meat, and no S&P. It was shameful at times. They definitely lessen salt. I could taste it like crazy when we got home.

 
Just got back from a similar trip to move my daughter in for study abroad in Florence (also did Amalfi Coast, and Rome, and the wife did Cinque Terre with the daughter before I got there).

Just a few tidbits from our trip:

- wife says cinque terre is much better than amalfi coast

- the Circumvesuviana is not a pleasant trip, but its cheap to get to Sorrento or Pompeii.

- The Path of the Gods is a greak hike in amalfi coast, goes from Bomerano (take bus up from Amalfi) to Positano.

- Please don't take the buses on Amalfi if can get motion sickness. Guy was puking his guts out on the bus. The smell was horrible.

- every Rome metro train was PACKED. and they come every 3 minutes. never seen so many restaurants in a city. great food too. I had some pear and cheese ravioli that was unreal.

- kept my wallet in front pocket, but not once felt unsafe. was in every train station, no signs of pick pocketers.

 
I saw a couple of groups that I felt were probably looking people to pick pocket, but I tried to make it known that I saw them and they kept their distance.

 
i am heading out 11/21, but am going thru milan, which is about 4.30 from my place. so, we will stop in either modena or bologna for lunch to break up the drive.

we will stay at the airport the nite before we head back, to take off the stress. hopefully the weather holds enough to get me 60s/40s.

also, i will be 6 hours ahead of the states, so handicapping football games knowing the scores in advance should be a breeze.

 
Chemical X said:
i am heading out 11/21, but am going thru milan, which is about 4.30 from my place. so, we will stop in either modena or bologna for lunch to break up the drive.

we will stay at the airport the nite before we head back, to take off the stress. hopefully the weather holds enough to get me 60s/40s.

also, i will be 6 hours ahead of the states, so handicapping football games knowing the scores in advance should be a breeze.
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We need to go back and see northern Italy, maybe work that into a Switzerland/France trip or some such. Have a great time!

 
Judge Smails said:
We decided against the Firenze Card because we were there for a week and the 72 hour thing didn't work for us. Instead went with the Friends of the Uffizi program. Annual pass - still cheaper for our family of 5..

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/florence/uffizi_membership.htm

And if you don't go get butter chicken at Sostanza I'll never read your sunglass posts again. Also - Walkabout Tours - Tuscany. Do it. And bring money to buy lots of ties. Ridiculous prices for great quality. Gusta pizza when you head over to Pitti Palace. Florentine Steak at 'Tito. Man - I'm jealous. Want to go back.
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Dot

 
We keep seeing great airline prices on flights over to Italy and it gives us the itch.

 
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