The Backstory
For my boyfriend’s 25th birthday, I decided to spoil him (aka spoil myself) with a trip to Italy. It was my very first European trip and I was extremely excited, but I was really nervous and so – I planned everything out. I kind of believe that it was the experience from this trip that has made me the “itinerary planner” of my circle. I will say though, I squeeze a lot of stuff in, and this “vacations” are more trips than they are relaxing. IMO I prefer it because 1. I rather see and do things then do nothing because I do not know how to relax and 2. A beach is a beach, but somethings you will only really see once because how many times do you think you are going to travel to a place. Its been 6 years since I went to Italy, will I be going back again? I hope so! But it hasn’t happened yet.
The Costs
I booked the flight and hotel through expedia. Now, here me out – this was 2016. Pre-pandemic. Pre-inflation. Pre-Pilot shortage. Moral of the story – shit was affordable then. Total of the flight and hotel: $1098. Yep, $600 each.
Flight: We flew with connecting flights both ways. Going we flew through Lufthansa Airline and returning was Alitalia – which has now closed. I believe they are now ITA – could be wrong. Airplane food was great on both flights. Seriously, I was thoroughly impressed.
Hotel: Our hotel was the Mercure Collosseo. Very tiny rooms but perfect location for transportation. The hotel had kind staff, continental breakfast with decent selection for roughly 8 Euros. You should know Italians do not eat breakfast like we do, they literally call it “American Breakfast”. Typical breakfast was a croissant (cornetto) or some sort of pastry with a coffee. The hotel is like two blocks from the colosseum so if you have a room with a window, you got quite a view. There is also roof access so you can go up at night and gander. We did not spend much time in the hotel as we were booked and busy, we literally just showered and slept. Still, good hotel, just a little tight in the room. But for that cost, who am I to complain!
Additional Expenses: As you will see in the itinerary, we did a lot of traveling that week in Italy. We took three high speed trains and so we had to factor in that cost. For 2 Tickets: Naples 25 Euros, Florence 130 Euros, Venice 198 Euros. Then, if you have to pay tickets for any kind of entry to places, I would estimate around 100 Euros give or take. Lastly, food and drink. Now, you can eat pretty cheap if you avoid the tourist places. I think the most we spent on food was on our last night, we went to this really nice restaurant and we ate like 5 courses and 2 bottles of wine.
Itinerary
Day 1 3/18:
Travel – Flew out from JFK at 7PM to Germany, 45 min layover then fly to Rome (Fiumicino Airport). Arrived in Italy around 8AM. Settled into our hotel and showered and went to walk around and explore Rome. We found a cute little restaurant in Trastevere and had dinner after roaming around aimlessly for hours, then had a glass of wine at the hotel before we headed to bed to make the time adjustment.
Day 2 3/19:
Day two of our week in Italy started in Rome. Starting with exploring the city and walking the steps at Capitoline Hill, we then visited the Altar of the Fatherland. There is quite a view at the top. We then made our way down to the Trevi Fountain which was quite packed. From there we walked to the Pantheon and marveled at the ceiling. After, we had lunch at Piazza Navona. before heading to the Castel Sant’Angelo – I love a good castle. By the end of the castle I was tired and we went for dinner and wine at a random restaurant we passed that had pots and pans hanging everywhere – it was adorable.
Day 3 3/20:
Pompeii – We took a high speed train to Naples from Rome Termini which is a 15 minute walk from the hotel. It took about an hour and a half. When we got out of the Naples train station there were cabs a plenty – a decision I regretted later. We took a disheveled cab, with a verrrry nice cabbie, straight to Pompeii but it was a little expensive about 25 Euros. We then spent the a majority of the day exploring the ruins. Honestly, we could of spent a lot more time there and not have explored it in its entirety. Please do better than me and dress for comfort and NOT style because OMG I was chafed and blistered. Pompeii was stunning. Blisters not so much. After exploring we decided to take the public transportation back to the train station which was only about 2 Euros – see why I regretted the taxi! When we got back by the train we decided to roam around Naples and try a bunch of pizza. The best one we found around the blocks we were by was Pizzeria Scugnizzo. Then headed back to Rome for – you guessed it – more wine.
Day 4 3/21:
Venice. High speed train took almost 4 hours. We took the earliest train out – 6 am. When we arrived we were greeted with the not so pleasant smell, but also a city in a sea – giving Atlantis vibes. We found a cute cafe and had some coffee and cornettos. We intended to take a gondola but once we heard the price we were like nahhh. They’re form of transportation is a boat (instead of a bus) because water DUH! 2 Euros vs 150 Euros ! Took the boat – a larger gondola – straight to St Marks Square where I nearly died trying to get to the Campanile de San Marco. St Marks Basilica was absolutely stunning. By the end of the day, we left the basilica, roamed the streets for food and shopping. After eating some seafood risotto, frutti di mare, and gelato, we took the latest train back to Rome.
Day 5 3/22:
Rome – Vatican City. We spent a majority of the day exploring the Vatican and the museum. We just so happened to be there when the pope was there, which was cool as person who has spent many a Sunday morning watching the popes on tv with my Nonna. There was a prayer portion by the mass and it was nice to be able to participate in that even though I am a pretty crappy catholic. We also picked up tons of mini holy water to bring as souvenirs. I also got to see a live version of the statue my grandma had on her window sill – pieta. That was super cool! Instead of taking public transportation back to the city center we just spent time walking around and taking in the roman air. We then ate dinner at Grazia and Graziella which was so delicious! It was a lovely day. I slept like a baby.
Day 6 3/23:
Florence. The high speed train got us there in under 2 hours for roughly 40 Euros per person. Florence was so much fun and truly beautiful. Commuting around was very easy as everything is literally within walking distance. We started our day at the Galleria dell’academia to see Davids “pishhatill” and then walked to the Mercato di San Lorenzo. I bought a really good leather tote bag for about 20 Euros and honestly I still have it and it is in great condition. It came with three inserts – A steal! After haggling, we went to the Piazza del Duomo where we spent a majority of our time. We trekked up towers, took roof photos, and seeing another Michelangelo statue – the deposition – was great too.
Day 7 3/24:
Final day in Rome: And finally, we come to the end. We decided to really take in Rome and do the Colosseum and the Roman Aqueduct. It really is a marvel and yes it is touristy but so what I am a tourist! It took all of me to not run down there and scream ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINEDDDDD! We walked everywhere and shopped a bit. I definitely needed sneakers. We ate like 17 times this day because honestly it was the last bit of Italian food in Italy we were trying to soak it all in.
OVERALL: I loved Italy. I want to go back – desperately. Here is me speaking a girls trip into existence LOL. The food *chefs kiss* – the views *marvelous*. What would I do differently – dress for comfort, experience some nightlife, and eat more. Honestly, Italy is worth it babes. Do it. You don’t need a tour guide, you do not even have to follow this guide, do some research and create a list of the things you would like. Maybe you don’t care much for museums, skip them! Maybe food isn’t of interest to you – um, you can’t sit here LOL. No seriously, (cardi b voice) that’s weird, that’s suspicious. But if it is you, then skip that and eat salads. Also, I speak Sicilian and um communicating was hard. My bf faired better with his Spanish than I did with my Sicilian, but when all else failed – English was fine!
