OT: General Travel Thread - Italy 2K19 has come and gone

DancingPanther

Foundational Titan
Sponsor
Jun 19, 2018
31,592
69,404
DAY 1

Rolled into hotel #1 at about noon Italy time. Napped hard until lunch time because sleeping on planes is certifiably insane.

Me mom and dad then trekked about a mile and a half to Trastevere, a conglomeration of alleyways lined with shops and eateries, all joining to a middle plaza with a fountain (which was off) and street performers. In order to get there we had to walk around the outside of the Vatican

VaxmAGV.jpg


jV7wwKY.jpg


mOJFQU6.jpg


Dinner: veal saltimbocca with house wine, a cheese plate, and mussels

Today's itinerary: free for a few hours, then meet up with the tour group at 3p for the Vatican
 

Embiid

*Injured
May 27, 2010
32,582
20,877
Philadelphia
Make sure you go to Janiculum hill for the fountain and maybe the best view in the city and to the baths of Caracalla... which for me are possibly the most impressive thing in Rome.

Enjoy! I have been to pretty much every capital in Northern, Western, Central and Southern europe and Rome is along side Berlin as ny favourites.
My uncle lives in Rome ..he takes me there whenever I go. It is a nice view. I need to get to Italy this year sometime....visit friends and relatives. Economy is teetering....they say it could be worse than Greece if there is contagion. Their debt is astronomical. They should return to the lira....the Euro was not good for the club med countries. They are unable to devalue the currency to help their own situation out with exports. It was great when I had so much buying power with the dollar....
 

DancingPanther

Foundational Titan
Sponsor
Jun 19, 2018
31,592
69,404
To be clear, were on a guided tour, bouncing around different parts of Italy. We won't have much "free time" but if we do, I'll be sure to take some of these suggestions to heart.

The tour is 9 days, and we end in Florence, where we will meet up with my brother currently studying abroad and stay there for a few extra days. We will all fly back together 2 Sundays from now (not including today).

Meeting with the tour guide and group now.
 

Embiid

*Injured
May 27, 2010
32,582
20,877
Philadelphia
To be clear, were on a guided tour, bouncing around different parts of Italy. We won't have much "free time" but if we do, I'll be sure to take some of these suggestions to heart.

The tour is 9 days, and we end in Florence, where we will meet up with my brother currently studying abroad and stay there for a few extra days. We will all fly back together 2 Sundays from now (not including today).

Meeting with the tour guide and group now.
Go to Sienna for a day trip.....also San Gimignano if you can. Do a wine tour....
I stayed in Sienna for 5 days ....it was awesome. Met an Aussie girl on my wine tour...the memories.
 

Phillyfan28

Registered User
Jun 3, 2013
510
122
If anyone has suggestions for Rome, Florence, Venice, or Naples / Amalfi / Positano , etc I am all ears. Going for the first time this June. Thanks
 
  • Like
Reactions: JojoTheWhale

JojoTheWhale

CORN BOY
May 22, 2008
33,325
103,987
The tour is 9 days, and we end in Florence, where we will meet up with my brother currently studying abroad and stay there for a few extra days. We will all fly back together 2 Sundays from now (not including today).

Smart move staying longest in the best city in the world. Have a great trip!

If anyone has suggestions for Rome, Florence, Venice, or Naples / Amalfi / Positano , etc I am all ears. Going for the first time this June. Thanks

I'll get you some Florence recs when I have a chance. Lived there for a little while.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sawdalite

DancingPanther

Foundational Titan
Sponsor
Jun 19, 2018
31,592
69,404
Day 2:

Walked throughout the labyrinth of Roman cobblestone alleyways with the tour group. It's wild because when you turn a corner....BOOM it's a square with an obelisk/fountain/etc. There's no warning. Ruins will just hit you in the face around the corner as the quaint alleyway gives way to a plaza housing bouroque artwork.

Most notable sights

Pantheon:
pniH7Tc.jpg


Spanish Stairs:
hlk8rCZ.jpg


x7TTu2r.jpg


Castle D'Angelo (a big ol mauseleum for some pope)
uJke2r0.jpg


Trevi Fountain
QlMyc1o.jpg


BrjoGiQ.jpg


Church of St. Marcellus. Literally some random church that was open near the Spanish Stairs. This box under the alter is from 137 AD. The crucifix is the original crucifix, from ~1400. Most artwork was destroyed in a 16th century fire. We happened upon this by literally wandering around

Cwlacdk.jpg


One of the cobblestone alleyways. This is literally 70% of Rome, and 6 of these will converge on a plaza like I was saying earlier.
J3pC6M3.jpg


Shit is lit af.

Dinner: eggplant focaccia, rigs carbonara, veal saltimbocca (this dinner was scripted for the lot of us, so I was "forced" to eat this again. Bummer...), tiramisu w/ raspberry creme. And wine. A lot of wine. I need to take pics of this shit. Sorry.
 

DancingPanther

Foundational Titan
Sponsor
Jun 19, 2018
31,592
69,404
Day #3

The (inside of the) Pantheon in the morning, followed by free time, then meeting up with the group for a tour of the Vatican in the PM.

The Pantheon is big
vwpaHRC.jpg


That's a panorama of half of it. Half. The dome is a perfect sphere, with a hole for light at the top. If it's raining, the (still original) marble floors are slanted and equipped with drains. Interestingly the squares on the the dome aren't warped from the panorama; they're constructed that way to draw your eyes up to the heaves, where the Gods reside. Originally, this big ol donut was home to shrines to the ancient Roman deities, then to the Christian God. It still functions as a church today. Ya boi Rafael is buried there.

Next came the Capitolini Museum, home to many ancient Roman artifacts including lovely frescoes, furniture, marble statues, and the famous "suckling shewolf", a tribute to the founding of Rome. With time restraints, I won't show you every single pic of every single piece- only the famous ones. Like this idiot from ~140 AD. He's a pouring apparatus.

3yykBsd.jpg


Here is Romulus, Remus, and their momma. Raised by a wolf, these boys grew up and Romulus murdered Remus for some reason, then founded a city near the hills of the Tiber which we call Rome:

80xatr7.jpg


Favorite part of this museum was the Tabularium, which housed a host of busts in archway like windows. Now, you can walk along for a hell of a view of the Forum. Perhaps even...gaze upon your kingdom:

3ZANoqL.jpg


On to the Vatican. Instead of stampeding cattle in there, we simply stampeded people. In a slight race against the clock, we met up with local guide Ilaria, who buzzed us through on a 10/10 to get us into the Sistine Chapel with 6 minutes to spare. No pictures or talking. It was wild. I expected it to be bigger, more lavish. It wasn't. Just a big, ornate, breathtaking, busy masterpiece of a canvas.

Finally, St. Peter's Basilica. This was the size of 2 football fields next to each other. It was golden, sculpted, and lavish. The dome is 400 ft high. It's basically 3 "columns" of walking. This is the middle one which you see as you walk in. The middle shrine marks the area of catacombs where St. Peter is buried.

dderFlQ.jpg


9dpwZDq.jpg


It's surrounded by 8 chapels with dead Popes and such. And this:

McTY9Ly.jpg


Now...dinner. Pizza, Fusilli, parmesan and asiago cheese wrapped in eggplant, and gelato for the road. Nutella + cherry

9p3JQQP.jpg


EXLKuaJ.jpg


Tomorrow: the Forum (up close and personal) then ciao to Rome :( bussing to Volterra then dinner.
 

DrinkFightFlyers

THE TORTURE NEVER STOPS
Sponsor
Sep 24, 2009
23,467
4,415
NJ
If you are in the Naples region at all my family owns a hotel and restaurant in a small town called Vallesaccarda. Nothing really to do there except eat but dang is it worth it. Also they had a local soccer team in Serie B and C for a while but they were kicked out entirely because of some weird financing rule or something. I went to a game when they were in Serie C.
 

DancingPanther

Foundational Titan
Sponsor
Jun 19, 2018
31,592
69,404
Day #4

We finished our stay in Rome with the Coliseum and the Forum before bussing to Volterra for dinner. The Coliseum was f***ing wild. Led again by Ilaria, our 10/10 tour guide, we got to stand where gladiators stood:

cKkd1bh.jpg


Of note, this place had a f***ing retractable canvas roof. Additionally, it's important to note the floor was sand, with the latin translation being roughly equivalent to "arena". This place could for 60,000 Romans, and featured often scripted, non-mortal games. However, one person had to die per day when games were beginning. The emperor would say "this fight on the card is gonna be a fight to the death, just fyi" and that was that. Absolutely wild architecture. The place is Swiss cheese, because the building was reinforced with small iron bars tht have since been recycled. Yes, this is ancient rebar.

Onto the Fora Romano, which basically was Center City of ancient Rome. We entered in a rich people neighborhood then wound around until we got to Center City, where almost nothing is left, as you can see in the pic with my arms up in my last post. Imagine how it really looked....this would be what I looked upon in the pic with my arms out

foro%20romano.jpg


After taking a selfie with Ilaria and lamenting I'd never see her again, we set our sights north. Hardly 30 mins out of Rome we were met with lush hills:

ZHc74bE.jpg


And finally Volterra, the quaint hilltop town made entirely of cobblestone alleys.

TndQ93Q.jpg


Food: wild boar (half eaten. Sorry) for dinner, a prosciutto and swiss panini for lunch, and wild berry/creme gelato for post lunch snack

GeUYS2M.jpg


Hfuna58.jpg


Tomorrow, a walking tour of Volterra and wine tasting. The wine count is 25 glasses in 4 days.
 
Last edited:

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->