1 post tagged “travel”
Ahhh…. I heart Italy (you’d have to be on the trip to truly appreciate that). We had a fabulous time zipping around Italy and decided that next Spring would be a trip to Tuscany to go hang in the country side (with, of course, a brief jaunt to my second favorite city, Florence).
So, here is my attempt to briefly spew about the trip. There were over 700 photos so I’ve tried to really pare things down. The photos are in the photo library tagged Rome 2008, Cinque Terre 2008, and Florence 2008 versus embedded into this post.
Rome
My version of Rome: macchiato, church, fountain, gelato, fountain, ruins, church, church, ruins, lunch, wine, church, fountain, fountain, ruins, fountain, aperitivo, massage feet, fountain, dinner. So, once you accept that there are over 700 churches and fountains, you can then take in all the other beautiful things.
1. Spanish steps – beautiful, great people watching, and there is a wonderful hotel called the Inn at the Spanish Steps, which is a fabulous hidden little joint.
2. Vatican City – had to see it because we were in Rome.
• St. Peter’s Basilica - has the best acoustics I’ve heard anywhere. The statues are spectacular in the detail, height, and grimaces on the faces. Truly inspires you to believes and/or fear. We also saw an amazing plethora of female mullets and fuschia hair in the crowd.
• Sistine Chapel is amazing. Equally amazing is that at a fast clip it takes 20 minutes from the entry to get to the Sistine Chapel (seriously, without pausing to see anything else). One of the unique features of the Sistine Chapel is that all the woman Michelangelo painted look like men (really, men with cantaloupes). I’d love to provide you with a picture but there were several burly guards forcing everyone to be quiet and to put your camera in your bag (they’d stand in front of you until your camera disappeared).
• The Map room is awesome and I could have spent all day in there.
• Everything else in Vatican city I imagine is lovely but our feet were on fire and gelato was calling.
3. Coliseum – very cool, great stories, super windy. Take a guide if you can because there is so much history to hear and see.
4. Pantheon – makes for a very quick visit, as in under two minutes you can take it all in.
5. Pizza – buy it by the inch and weight, it’s rectangular, and you receive it folded in half. Any pizza with a “sweet tomato” tends to be a good pizza.
6. Villa Borghese – beautiful park to walk through
My suggestions for anyone visiting Rome:
• If you stay on or near Via de Ripetta you can walk to anything in the city
• Capuccinos are only served in the morning
• You must dine at Nino’s (Piazza de Spagna) and absolutely order the artichoke, spinach flan, and tuscan beans. So delicious!
• Gelateria del Gracchi (272 via de Gracchi) without a doubt the best gelato in Rome. Unfortunately, we discovered it on our last afternoon but did manage to go there three times before leaving. The fondante flavor is superbe!
• And one last food recommendation – Hosteria Costanza – if they have it, order the rigatoni with a light nutty cream sauce and truffles. While I did not eat there, a friend just returned from Rome where he dined with a five star chef and sommelier and all three agreed this place was phenomenal.
CinqueTerre
We stayed in Moterosso the farthest of the five towns and I would highly recommend staying there. If you go during tourist season, it is imperative you avoid being there during the weekend as the towns become swollen with people and the hustle and bustle of the people is terrible! (we went Thursday – Friday but Friday was a holiday, thus, too many people)
The hike across all five towns is superbe and definitely was the highlight of our trip. We started in Monterosso which is the opposite way most people start but we wanted to get the steepest most difficult part done fir
I would recommend starting the hike in Monterosso so that if by the third or fourth town (several hours into the hike), you decide to stop, you’ve sent the best part of the hike. The views are astounding! Also, in Monterrosso we had the best anchovies I’ve ever had in my life. Unfortunately, I can not remember the name of the place where we had them.
While it was fabulous and I’m delighted I went, I would not necessarily feel a need to return. The hike reminded me of hiking in Kauai and while the towns were cute, I prefer Rome and Florence.
Florence
Ah, my first and possibly second most favorite city in the world. The kindness and warmth with which the Florentine people welcome you is astounding. The people are so excited to tell you the history of the city and share their stories with you. They bend over backwards to make sure you are seeing certain paintings, sculptures, and have tasted very specific dishes and wines. Food in Florence is absolutely glorious!!!
In terms of eating, my two favorite places were:
• Cibreo (via dei Macci 118R)
Eat at the tratorria not the restaurant although I imagine the restaurant is exquisite. The host at the trattoria is captivating and goes out of his way to ensure you are truly basking in your meal. Simply fabulous.
So taken were we with the host that it was difficult to pay attention to the menu which, while there are only three to four choices for each course, resulted us in ordering a smattering of fun foods that we would not have necessarily ordered. However, we were attentive enough that we did not order the stuffed chicken neck. But we did have, an amazing fish soup, chicken dumplings, cod, polenta, eggplant, tripe, some funny aspic things, pickled carrots (which Susannah ate!), and other things that have no escaped my mind yet I find my mouth watering as I think about the dishes. Just fabulous. Go there every other day for dinner as it is truly worth it.
• Note di vino
Fabulous little joint for lunch. Eat at the outdoor tables for great people watching.The owner is a lovely older grizzled gentleman who will school you about salume and black chianti. He’ll check in and give you a sip of something else to taste if he thinks you aren’t enjoying it enough. The pairing of these strange pickled jams with the cheese was delicious.
• Ciangale Bianco
Very traditional Tuscan food. The boar pasta is to die for! I had it 20 years ago when I first went to this restaurant and am thrilled to say that 20 years later it is exquisite still! Note, as it is one of their best pastas, it tends to disappear early.
This restaurant has two seating’s per night and I would recommend the later seating as it is less noisy. Ask fro the table with the nook if you are 2 – 3 people. This way you are in the front room but able to take in the crowd without being in the middle of the room. Also, the house wine is great here – get a carafe.
• Gelato
Regarding gelato, we were unable to find a place that matched Gelateria dei Gracchi. However, we still sampled about six different places and the best one was Grom by the Duomo on via delle oche. Your best bet here is to have the people behind the counter choose flavors for you because they have some unique flavors that you may not choose on your own. People will recommend that you go to Vivoli which is the most famous gelateria in Florence but we found it to be soupy, too commercialized, and somewhat bland.
Things to see/do on your first trip to Florence:
• On the other side of the arno, walk up to piazza Michelangelo and check out the views of Florence, then continue
up to the cemetery for spectacular views (especially at sunset).
• Uffizi (see the Botticelli and Michelangelo and Davinci)
• Ponte Vecchio
• Piazza Dumo (go up to the top of the Duomo)
• the central food market at San Lorenzo
• An interesting church with a great painting – Chiesa di Orsanmichele
• A teeny old church at the Borgo SS Apostoli
