For
our second anniversary, Dorothy and I threw around a few ideas for several
months, finally landing on traveling around Italy for a week and a half. We reconnected with our partners in crime
from Bermuda and started to plug away at our desired itinerary. It was quickly decided that we would revert
to Gate 1 Travel again, as they did a fine job of putting together last year’s
anniversary trip through Central Europe.
We
netted out with a trip starting in Milan and then to Venice and Florence for
two nights in each city, and then three nights in Rome to cap off the
trip. The “When in Rome” Anchorman jokes
started immediately and didn’t really end throughout the trip. It doesn’t take much to keep my mind
occupied. In any case, here is a recap
of the trip itself, along with some personal highlights and
recommendations. Given the length, this
write-up is broken into two parts. The
first part will cover off on the highlights through the first half of the trip,
which includes Milan and Venice. The
latter half (Florence and Rome) will be put up later this month.
In an
effort to reduce aggravation, we paid for direct flights to and from Italy
through Alitalia Airlines. However, I
still had a fear of a plane with no air vents above given last year’s
sweat-induced flights aboard European airlines.
We were off to a good start, as Alitalia has a partnership with Delta
and we wound up on a Delta plane … with air vents! Our flight was in the early evening and
unfortunately, too early to be tired on the plane itself. The plane made good time due to strong winds
so it wasn’t too uncomfortable.
Highlights
from the flight include:
- Sitting next to a Seahawks fan and talking about the forthcoming season for a good 45 minutes
- Watching “This is 40” – a pretty funny film in the Judd Apatow collection
- Dorothy and Alicia standing in the flight attendant pass through and people coming up to them with ridiculous comments or ideas
Milan
We
arrived at Milan Malpensa (the airport) and took the train down to Cardona
station – a central station in downtown Milan and only 30 minutes from the
airport. (That would be your first
recommendation vs. overspending for a cab.)
From there we took a cab to our hotel – Antares Hotel Concorde. The hotel itself was pretty nice, but of
course hot. Unfortunately our rooms
weren’t ready when we got there in the AM, so we had to find something to
do. (Insert Dorothy meltdown here) Upon being ready to hit the streets, we found
a small café to park it in.
Culture
shock quickly followed as we had no idea what to do, how to order, etc. and
were still feeling the effects of the flight.
Two way-too-strong cafes later and I was ready to run circles around
Milan despite working on an hour or two of sleep. After sitting at the café for a bit, we went
back to the hotel to see if the rooms were ready but they were not. Rather than doing any more walking around,
Dorothy and I plopped down on a lobby couch and faded in and out of
consciousness over the next hour.
Finally, the front desk gave up and offered us up a room vs. having two
people snoring in their lobby.
We
planned a three hour tour that included
a skip the line to see “The Last Supper” for later in the afternoon. I would definitely recommend looking into
using Viator for any and all travel tours as we have really lucked out with
them over the past two years. The
walking tour takes you around many of the highlights of the city, including;
Castello Sforzesco, Duomo, and Galleria Vittorio (where you will find Bull’s Balls). At the end of the tour, you are taken to see
da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” –
which was amazing. They give you 15 or so
minutes to stare at the art and do not allow pictures to be taken anymore in
the room.
After
the tour it was time to find an establishment that partook in some “aperitivo”
– an Italian tradition somewhat similar to happy hour here in the states, where bars/restaurants
charge you for a drink ($8-$12 USD) and provide free food for you to
enjoy. This is an ingenious concept that
needs to be brought over to the States. Like,
right now. If you are a restaurant/bar
owner and reading this, please consider “aperitivo”! Within minutes of getting to the right
section of Milan, we found a strip of establishments that all had specials. Aperitivo is typically from
7-9pm in Italy, but 7pm must be like going to a bar here in the US at 10pm and
there are very few there at the beginning … except tourists like us.
Day
one essentially ended after aperitivo, as we wound up back at the hotel bar
afterward for a night cap. The hotel bar
was actually quite nice. However, we
couldn’t say the same about the scotch they served. We called it a night shortly thereafter in
preparation for day two.
For
the first time in our travel history, Dorothy and I slept through the hotel
breakfast. The flights and long day
prior must have knocked us out. We wound
up stopping at a Trattoria within minutes of the hotel and ordered a
pizza. This wound up being a definitive
top five pizza from the trip. When in
doubt, go with a Trattoria (family owned) restaurant in Italy.
On
day two in Milan we booked Hop On / Hop Off bus passes, where you could circle
around the city and get off the bus as you pleased. Over the course of the (rainy) afternoon, we
realized that we were the only ones hopping off the bus at any point. Everyone else just stayed on the bus and must
have done the full circle, then got on a bus with a different route and done
the same thing. This is the only
explanation we could come up with.
Literally no one else ever got off a bus that we were on.
I
would not recommend this tour in Milan unless you don’t like walking around much
at all OR you have a desire to go to some of the areas that are further
away. We booked this through Gate 1 Travel and
their partnership with “CitySightseeing Milano”. Through this company, it would be the “green
line” that would be worthwhile to book the tour and that would take you to go
see the Lido (sporting center), Ippodromo (Hippodrome and Leonardo’s Horse), and
Stadio San Siro (Stadium and museum). If
those are points of interest, than the hop on, hop off tour would be worth it.
Otherwise, just walk around the city itself and at your own pace.
The
day was full of pop-ins at various churches, museums, etc. We had one major hiccup on day two and that
was due to not being able to find the entrance to Pirelli Tower for the life of
us. We took the bus tour to the
appropriate stop and then walked around for some time before realizing we had
walked way too far out of the way. We
finally arrived at Pirelli Tower and the viewing deck/floor had been closed for
a few hours. So if you have pictures
from the top of Pirelli Tower, we would love to see them …
After
a second aperitivo session, we wound up heading back to the piazza by the
Duomo. The Duomo at night is
beautiful. After a number of pictures,
including ones with the iconic Ray-Ban sign in the back, we picked a
restaurant/bar in the piazza to enjoy the sights and sounds. Brad swore that his Old Fashioned was the
best he ever had, while the ladies enjoyed their Bellinis. My Manhattan was OK at best and yes, we were
a little out of element. Afterward, it
was back to the hotel bar – where we were asked to sit in the lobby instead of
the bar itself – for a few drinks. The
bartender made all of us, including other guests, sit in the lobby and would
walk back and forth from the bar to serve us.
No one quite understood what was going on so it was up to the room to
get ready for our train ride to Venice the next morning.
Milan pictures:
The Duomo:
Bull's Balls:
Piazza Duomo at night:
Milan - Welcome to Aperitivo:
Venice
There
was a twenty minute delay for our train to Venice out of Milan and this
naturally drove me crazy. Once on the
train, there were women in our seats and you would have thought we screamed
bloody murder after politely pointing to our tickets and showing them that they
were our reserved seats. I really wish
the US would spend money on high-speed rail.
If we are going to waste money, let’s put it towards something like
this. (Steps off pedestal)
The
train ride from Milan to Venice is very simple and relatively quick (under two
hours). We arrived at the train station
(Stazione Venezia Santa Lucia) that is directly in Venice and were able to walk
to the hotel – the Abbazia Hotel.
Unfortunately, the entrance to the hotel is in a small side street that
we walked past a handful of times, before a sweet old woman took us down the
right path.
Three
words: Venice was awesome! It is the
only city that we went to that I would undoubtedly go back to in a
heartbeat. The uniqueness and charm is
felt immediately after walking out of the train station. After finally getting to the hotel, we stopped
for an early lunch at a restaurant right by the hotel and on the Canal
Grande. Dorothy ‘accidentally’ ordered a
full bottle of wine, so lunch turned into an hour long event. After lunch and changing at the hotel, we
wound up deciding to take the boat taxis to all of the surrounding
islands. Each island has its own niche
and charm. In Murano, we stopped at a local glass company to
watch them put together a few pieces of glassware. After a mistaken trip to the island where the
cemetery is, we finally made it over to Burano – which is known for its lace
products. I would recommend taking a
trip to both to see the local culture and uniqueness of each.
After
making it back to the main island, a little bit of a process again, we were
ready for dinner. There really isn’t
aperitivo in Venice, much to our chagrin.
So we went with a recommendation from the front desk. The only problem was that we couldn’t find
said restaurant and wound up at a local place that wound up being very good – Al Bacco Felice. Afterward, the island was hit with a bit of a
storm and we ducked into a bar run by Croatians. We wound up parking it here for several hours
as Brad and I sat outside and smoked cigars under an overhang, while the ladies
chatted it up with several other tourists.
Another couple made a dinner recommendation for the next night.
On
the way home from the bar we started to realize that Venice closed down
relatively early at night. We wound up
having to buy wine to go at an Indian restaurant across the street from the
hotel. It was actually pretty neat (for
the lack of a better word) to see the water of the canals come up onto the
streets after the storm. You will have
to trust me on this one, as I realize that doesn’t sound very cool or
interesting whatsoever when reading this.
After hanging out in the hotel lobby for a while, it was time to put the
women to bed. Brad and I wound up having
a second cigar walking around Venice. I
have yet to mention how romantic Venice is because I was saving it for this
part of the story …
The
Abbazia Hotel breakfast was pretty standard; nothing extraordinary but
perfectly acceptable for being “free” with our stay. Our second day was already planned as we were
going to take a gondola tour and then head over to Piazza San Marco and the
Rialto Bridge to see the highlights of Venice.
The gondola tour took a little under an hour and you get to see the side
canals (assuming the water level isn’t too high when you visit) and the Canal
Grande. If you go to Venice, you have to
splurge and take a gondola tour.
After
our tour we walked over to the Rialto Bridge and did some souvenir
shopping. We then made the trek over to Piazza San Marco and as soon as we turned
the corner to get into the Piazza, I think we all realized we would be spending
some time there. The Basilica (church)
was gorgeous. Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s
Palace) was equally breathtaking. You
also have the Bell Tower and the view of the water at the edge of the
Piazza. After "climbing" (via elevator) to the top of the
Bell Tower – and a near heart attack at the top of the tower by one in our
party – it was time to sit down for some more wine. In the Piazza, there were a number of
tourists openly feeding the pigeons and letting them fly/land on them to take
pictures. Why do people let flying rats
land on them; I have no idea.
An
hour or two later and it was time to walk back to the hotel and soak in the
rest of the view of the main island.
Remember that recommendation for dinner we received from the other
tourists? Well, that restaurant took an
hour to find and then when we got there, was closed. We were batting a cool 0% in finding and
enjoying the recommended eateries. After
more pacing around, we wound up going back towards the hotel and found a
Seafood / Italian restaurant – Trattoria Povoledo. The owner of the restaurant spent time in
Australia and the states and has nested in Venice. This was my favorite restaurant from the
entire trip – great food (risotto and lava cake for dessert … phenomenal) and great
service. We wound up spending the entire
evening here and took the wine back to the hotel to prepare for our next stop,
Florence.
This
concludes Part 1 of our Italy write-up (see Venice pictures below).
Overall, I’m very happy that we went to Milan. You don’t run into many people that say they
have seen “The Last Supper” up close and in person. That was amazing, as was the Duomo. I cannot provide a high enough of a ringing
endorsement for Venice. It was
gorgeous. Prior to the trip, several
people told us that “Venice smells”.
Apparently that is occasionally the case in the middle of the summer. However, given that we were visiting in
April, this wasn’t an issue whatsoever.
Again, I loved Venice!
Stay
tuned for Part 2 of our trip to Italy in the coming weeks, covering off on the
highlights of Florence and Rome. If you
have any of your own recommendations for Milan or Venice, or if you think we
missed anything, let us know in the comments below. Thanks!
Venice pictures:
Welcome to Venice!
Murano Glassware:
Burano:
Enjoying the Venice streets:
Gondola ride:
Rialto Bridge:
Piazza San Marco:
Piazza San Marco from the top of the Bell Tower:
