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Back from Italy

xanis

xanis

Lifer
Got back yesterday from two weeks in Italy and I thought that I'd share some pictures/experiences with ATOT.

First off, here is the complete set of pictures (I took a lot, these are just a few of the ones worth showing): https://picasaweb.google.com/103353...authkey=Gv1sRgCOHBoMXt5umVpwE&feat=directlink

I was fortunate enough to start my trip off staying in a small town in Tuscany called San Casciano in val di Pesa (everyone shortens it to San Casciano). I have some family there and was lucky enough to get a taste of the real Italy, food, people, the whole works. There are too many things I'd like to mention, so in the interest of avoiding a tl;dr post I'll avoid them unless anyone wants to know.

We visited a bunch of places: Florence, Venice, Siena, Assisi, Sorrento, Capri, Rome, and the Vatican. Each place had it's own charm and unique characteristics, but my favorite place is a three-way tie between San Casciano, Assisi, and Rome.

The food was as good as everyone says. On my third night, I got a home-cooked meal where EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING (right down to the bread and pasta) was made from scratch. Absolutely incredible.

The people were very nice. Despite being American tourists, people were happy to stop and help us if we needed to ask directions or ask for anything else.

Everything was pretty expensive, but that's to be expected I guess. Our cheapest dinner was €75 ($106). Sodas and Powerades, things like that, were usually in the €2-3 ($2.84-4.27, approximately). Water was usually cheap at about €1 for a 16oz bottle.

All-in-all, amazing trip. If I had the means to do it I'd like to live there for a while. If anyone has any questions, please ask! On a final note, here's a picture that just about sums up why I love Italy so much:

DSC00274.jpg
 
xanis said:
Our cheapest dinner was €75 ($106).
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Man I am jealous. I hope I can get the chance to visit there one day. But wow pricing is insane.

Edit:

xanis said:
There are too many things I'd like to mention, so in the interest of avoiding a tl;dr post I'll avoid them unless anyone wants to know.
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Please post up, I'm sure there are others here who would like to read. Who cares about the tl;dr kiddies.
 
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did you take some pictures of the home cooking italian food? where are the pictures of the food and da italian women?
 
Cool. I was there for 3 weeks last year, and am going back for a couple days as part of a larger cruise this year.

Were you just going to the touristy places for dinner? My wife and I found plenty of awesome places to eat that were only 10-20 euros/person including wine.
 
rasczak said:
Man I miss Firenze and Venice. I could live at either one. Nice pix OP, get any pickpockets in Rome? 😀
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The only place in Rome I felt uncomfortable was around the major tourist attractions that didn't require any entrance fee (Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc...). Those places were full of pick pockets. Everywhere else was fine (subway, vatican, colloseum, and in the streets in general)

Firenze was a shithole IMO. The whole city just smells like exhaust fumes. My wife and I were there for a week and only went into the city one time. We spent the rest of it out in the countryside touring vineyards and horseback riding.

Venice is nice in the off-season or during the week when it isn't as crowded. It really sucks on the weekends or during peak season when there are so many people you just end up getting herded through the "streets" like a bunch of cattle.
 
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What a beautiful country. I would love to vacation there one day. If you have more pic's and story's you should post them. 🙂
 
bignateyk said:
Cool. I was there for 3 weeks last year, and am going back for a couple days as part of a larger cruise this year.

Were you just going to the touristy places for dinner? My wife and I found plenty of awesome places to eat that were only 10-20 euros/person including wine.
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We mainly did stay to the more touristy areas, so that's why. I don't doubt that there are a ton of cheap places if you're willing to venture out and you have the time.

rasczak said:
Man I miss Firenze and Venice. I could live at either one. Nice pix OP, get any pickpockets in Rome? 😀
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No pickpockets thankfully. Pretty much what bignateyk said – I only really felt uncomfortable around the major touristy spots like the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. We were very careful with our stuff (bought one of those dorky money belts and all 😀).
 
bignateyk said:
The only place in Rome I felt uncomfortable was around the major tourist attractions that didn't require any entrance fee (Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc...). Those places were full of pick pockets. Everywhere else was fine (subway, vatican, colloseum, and in the streets in general)

Firenze was a shithole IMO. The whole city just smells like exhaust fumes. My wife and I were there for a week and only went into the city one time. We spent the rest of it out in the countryside touring vineyards and horseback riding.

Venice is nice in the off-season or during the week when it isn't as crowded. It really sucks on the weekends or during peak season when there are so many people you just end up getting herded through the "streets" like a bunch of cattle.
Click to expand...

My first day in Rome, I was on the subway train with my wife right next to me. I felt a hand go in my pocket, looked at my wife, the put my hand on her hand. Or so i thought. As soon as my hand entered my pocket, it immediately tried to get out, so I trapped it and looked for who the hand belonged to. It was a cute italian chick, trying to grab some money. She hit the jackpot alright, my jackpot. 🙂 My wife looked incredulous, then started laughing her ass off as we had already expected to be targets and were prepared.
 
The one story/experience I wanted to share is about the people because I think it's a good example of what we SHOULD be doing with our time.

Every day from about 2:00 to 3:30/4:00 most stuff would close down while people went home to take a nap, eat, or do whatever. At night, everything would shut down early so that people could go eat dinner and relax for the night. What was really amazing was what people did at night (even on weekdays). From about 9pm-12am everyone would pour into the streets and parks to hang out. Not just adults – kids and the elderly too. In the small town I stayed in first, the people would just sit and talk and spend time with their families and neighbors. No TV, no computer. Just people interacting with each other and enjoying the weather and company. Dinner was much the same way – it wasn't about simply getting something to eat, it was about relaxing and spending time with family and friends. It seems to me that Italians work to live, not live to work like we do in America.
 
dpodblood said:
That sounds amazing. Their culture is so much different than here in North America.
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The most annoying culteral thing for me was their reluctance to bring a check at the end of a meal. We considered ourselves lucky to get a check within an hour of finishing dinner.
 
bignateyk said:
The most annoying culteral thing for me was their reluctance to bring a check at the end of a meal. We considered ourselves lucky to get a check within an hour of finishing dinner.
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We found this to be an issue as well. We ALWAYS had to go grab our waiter from somewhere so we could ask him for the check. Got a little annoying.
 
bignateyk said:
The only place in Rome I felt uncomfortable was around the major tourist attractions that didn't require any entrance fee (Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc...). Those places were full of pick pockets. Everywhere else was fine (subway, vatican, colloseum, and in the streets in general)

Firenze was a shithole IMO. The whole city just smells like exhaust fumes. My wife and I were there for a week and only went into the city one time. We spent the rest of it out in the countryside touring vineyards and horseback riding.

Venice is nice in the off-season or during the week when it isn't as crowded. It really sucks on the weekends or during peak season when there are so many people you just end up getting herded through the "streets" like a bunch of cattle.
Click to expand...

really? I love Firenze (Florence), piazzale michelangelo at night is one of the most beautiful sights in the world and IMO it doesn't smell anymore of exhaust than any other city...

my uncle used to live just outside of Florence, so I'd go there quite often (it is like a 50$ planeticket, so it's dirt cheap), unfortunatly he moved to London two years ago.
 
Broheim said:
really? I love Firenze (Florence), piazzale michelangelo at night is one of the most beautiful sights in the world and IMO it doesn't smell anymore of exhaust than any other city...

my uncle used to live just outside of Florence, so I'd go there quite often (it is like a 50$ planeticket, so it's dirt cheap), unfortunatly he moved to London two years ago.
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The view into the city at night is really nice, looking onto that bridge (forget the name). The smell of smog was overwhelming when we were there. It was much worse than rome. We went into the duomo and climbed up it, and walked around that area. We didn't go into any of the museums because the wait times were crazy, and I didn't see much point in standing in line for 3 hours to see the real statue of david when there is an exact replica in the courtyard.
 
Ive been there many times...have family living there....I might try and go back next year....nice photos
 
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