rome

Our Tuscany Itinerary: Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Others

Guest post by Judy Toth

Room at Cassafrassi Hotel in Tuscany

Room at Cassafrassi Hotel in Tuscany (photo: tripadvisor-tinatot76)

Tuscany…oh, where to start?  We absolutely adored Tuscany.  We stayed at a rural agriturisomo called CasaFrassi Hotel near the town of Castellina in Chianti. Our accommodation was gorgeous, with a view of vineyards and olive trees and lots of relaxing amenities such as tennis, swimming, and gardens to sit in.

We did our grocery shopping in the town of Castellina in Chianti, which was about 10 minutes north of where we were staying. The beautiful medieval town of Siena was only 20 minutes away. Siena is much like Lucca (walled town) but bigger.  It was a place you could wander around forever looking at churches, stores, restaurants etc.  We also went to Monterrigioni (very small version of the walled town) and San Gimignano (very old, very beautiful walled town).

Lucca

Lucca was very nice.  Like many of the old towns it is encircled by a huge stone wall.  It is best to park at one of the many parking areas outside the wall and walk in.  Great shops, plazas, and churches (of course).  Lucca was one of our favorite Tuscan towns.

Florence

While we loved Florence, we didn’t get to see much.  The primary aim here was to go to the Accademia to see the statue of David and to go to the Uffizi Gallery.  Unfortunately, we got there on a Saturday that happened to be a holiday (May 1 is May Day) and the galleries were closed.  The next day was Sunday.  On Sunday we learned two new words in Italian:  chiuso (closed) and sciopero (strike).  The gallery workers went on a one day strike.  Our last day in Florence was Monday and galleries are always closed on Monday.  (We hoped that since there was strike the day before that they would consider opening on Monday.  Funny, funny Americans!)

We did see the Duomo in Florence (church, baptistery, and campanile) which was gorgeous (do pace yourself, however.  I looked at only a few of the churches and by the end of the trip I wasn’t sure which was which!).  We also saw the Medici Chapel (small but interesting), Piazza della Signoria (great plaza with fantastic fountains and statues, just a cool place to hang out), and, of course, Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge).  Ponte Vecchio crosses the Arno river at its narrowest point.  The bridge is lined with leather shops, jewelers, and goldsmiths. We also enjoyed walking around the Boboli
Gardens—very pretty and relaxing.

Pisa

Pisa is a pretty small, cramped (as opposed to cozy) city.  We were told that once you have seen the leaning tower and the church etc, there is not much else to see or do.  That’s accurate. In our opinion, you could easily see and experience enough of Pisa in one day.  We stayed there for 3 nights because we used Pisa as a jumping off point for other visits.  We spent one day seeing all we wanted to see and explore in Pisa, one day to go west and visit some coastal towns, and one day to go north to see Lucca.

Coastal towns in Tuscany

The coastal towns that we saw (on the Tyrrenian Sea) were Livorno (the northern part of Livorno was pretty ugly—just a shipping port, we didn’t venture deeper into Livorno), Tirrenia (just a small beach town for locals, the most interesting part to us was exploring a golf course),  Marina di Pisa (would probably be a nice place to visit and walk along the ocean in better weather: it was gray, cold, and stormy the day we were there) and Viareggio (looked like it had even nicer beaches and cottages to stay in).

Hidden gem in Tuscany

Our serendipitous find was a town called Colle di Valle d’Este. It is a tiny town, not yet on the tourist maps (although it looks like they are doing work to get prepared to attract tourists).  We were there on a Saturday.  We wandered around the town (not much to see at this point) and enjoyed seeing a typical Italian town enjoy their Saturday.  The best part was sitting and watching the men playing bocce.  They really took the game seriously (and are not used to having a ‘gallery’ so they were really hamming it up).  Their wives were sitting off to the side in a circle talking.  It was wonderful.

Other itineraries

We talked to many people before we left as well as  people that we met on the trip.  It seems unanimous that Venice and Lake Como are “must sees”.  The only variation I heard on that is that some people said that Venice is the most unique place they’ve ever been and could have spent forever there.  Other people said that it was the most unique place they’ve ever seen but once they saw it, a couple of days was more than enough.

We hope to hit northern Italy on a trip that we combine with either Switzerland or the south of France. Hope this helped give you some ideas of what might work for you!

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Italy: Transportation Between Rome, Florence and Tuscany

Guest post by Judy Toth

My husband and I love to walk, both for the exercise and because we see so much more).  So in each city or town we visited in Italy, we walked everywhere.  In Rome we did check out the subway just in case we had inclement weather or got very tired but we never used it.

To get from Rome to Florence and back to Rome, we took the train.  Great trip!  We went first class so that we had a reserved train as well as a reserved seat.  The direct train is fast (1 ½ hours) and pretty economical (even in first class).

After we finished our visit in Florence, we rented a car to drive to Pisa, around Tuscany, and back to Florence to pick up the train back to Rome.  In general, it was not difficult to find our way around driving. The most difficult part was making sure that we were on the right road to get in and out of Florence.  Street signs are not always readily visible, directional signs are somewhat unclear, and intersections are complex. However, once you are on the highway or in the small towns it is much easier.

If you do decide to rent a car:  check the hours of the car rental location (they probably close from 1 to 3 in the afternoon), the hours they tell you are only guidelines not gospel (they may decide to close at 12:30 or not reopen until 4), and you may have to wait a while for a car.

We were very lucky when we picked up our car, but not so lucky when we dropped it off. At that time there was a long line of people waiting for cars because they had “run out” of cars and were waiting for returns.  In fact, one man, who had apparently been waiting quite some time, saw that we were returning a car and came up to us and tried to cut a deal to just take our car.  We were not going to let THAT happen!

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Rome: The Noise, Crowds and Traffic

Rome at sunsetGuest post by Judy Toth

There are a million and one beautiful, awe-inspiring historical sites to see in Rome.  However, after three days we couldn’t wait to get out of there!

Now remember, this is all personal preference.  Neither my husband or myself are big-city people.  The noise, crowds, and traffic began to get to us a bit.  But, even more than that, we were tired of being on our guard 24/7 against taxi scams and other forms of ‘being taken’.  You must check your restaurant bill very closely to ensure that they do not charge you for something that you didn’t order.  As in most large cities, you should dress for comfort as well as safety and watch your jewelry, handbag, wallet, etc.

In talking with many other people, a lot of them agreed with us.  We met one couple who had been in Italy for two weeks and spent their last couple of days in Rome (just the opposite of what we did).  They LOVED everything except Rome (that gave us hope that it would get better).  And then, we spoke to some people who couldn’t get enough of Rome:  ‘the excitement, history, pace, diversity of restaurants’ etc.  If we go back, we might spend a day in Rome to see things we didn’t see this time….but then again, maybe not.

Rome spanish steps

Spanish Steps, Rome

On the first day we went to the Spanish steps (beautiful), Trevi fountain (very neat), walked through the Borghese gardens, and other areas that didn’t require a lot of time but gave us a good feel for the city.

On day two we saw the Roman Forum and the Colesseum.  Fabulous.  Although there were a lot of people there, you could go at your own pace, stay as long as you liked.

The third day we went to St Peter’s and the Vatican.  We got there early and went to St Peter’s first, which was good because it wasn’t too crowded so we could wander around wherever we wanted inside the basilica.

Then we went to the Vatican Museums.  We should have gone there first.  There was a long line to get in.  We were in line for 45-60 minutes (and this is for two people who normally don’t wait in a line longer than three people even to go to the bathroom!).  We overheard people say that the line wasn’t very long compared to when they were there before (yikes!).

vatican-piazza-san-pietro

Piazza San Pietro, Vatican City

The other disappointing thing about the Vatican Museum was that there was a prescribed route for where you are allowed to go. I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael rooms, and the Borgia apartment, anything else was gravy.

While you could stay in any one area as long as you wanted, there was prescribed route of where you could go next and, although you could skip an area to get to another one, once you moved on you could not go back and re-visit areas.

It took us over an hour to get to the Sistine Chapel and that meant motoring through some areas and skipping the Raphael rooms and the Borgia Apartment (I was getting claustrophobia from the crowds and I was sure I could figure out a way to go back, but I couldn’t).  However, other people who have visited the Vatican said that they could go in and wander around wherever they wanted.  I don’t know if we would have had a different experience if we would have gone to the Vatican Museums earlier in the day.

Photo credits:

Spanish Steps – http://www.adventurouswench.com

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Free Tour of Rome

Here’s a tip for budget travel in Rome: several companies offer two hour walking tours of Rome, absolutely free. The guides work for tips, so they do their best to make sure that you enjoy your tour.  One of the companies is RomeFreeTour.com and the other is New Rome Free Tour. The latter is rated higher on TripAdvisor.com (#11 of 612 attractions in Rome vs. #56 for RomeFreeTour).

Read reviews of New Rome Free Tour.
Read reviews of Rome Free Tour.

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Convents in Italy

italy-convent-hostelRome is an expensive city for a hotel room; even a double room in a moderately-priced hotel in Rome can be expensive. Although pensioni are less expensive, by far the best accomodation value are convents which take in paying guests.

Convents are located all around central Rome and many are found near Vatican City. Convents accept women, men and families with children, but be aware that most convents have a nightly curfew. Here are some of our recommendations for Rome…via Santa Susanna.

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Departing from Rome Airport

colosseum-rome-italy

Colosseum in Rome, Italy

Guest post by Judy Toth

In my previous post I described the trials and tribulations of navigating arrival at Rome airport. When it came time to depart from Rome we had two weeks of Italy experience under our belts, and that definitely came in handy.

Here is my number one tip for departing Italy via Rome airport: stay at an airport hotel the night before your departure.

My husband and I have adopted a routine of spending our last night in a foreign country at an airport hotel.  We can sleep in and not sweat getting to the airport.

This worked wonderfully in Rome.  After our two weeks in Italy we had some experience with the trains  (and being that we weren’t too nuts about the taxi ride when we first arrived) we took the train from downtown Rome to the airport.  It was easy, fast, and cheap.

We were staying at the Hilton at the airport and walked a couple minutes from the train to the hotel.  Once we were settled in our room we walked over to the airport to explore.  It is so close that I don’t think they even offer a shuttle.  You go out the front door of the hotel, walk down a covered walkway to the elevators that take you to a sky walk to the airport.

When we were checking in for our flight the next morning, the lady behind us in line was all hurried and out of breath.  She said that she stayed at a downtown hotel and never thought she would get to the airport in the cab because traffic was so bad (it was a noon flight on a Monday).  So we really felt like we made a good move by staying onsite and having a leisurely morning.

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Arriving at Rome Airport – Avoid Taxi Scam

rome airport

Rome airport

Guest post by Judy Toth

If you have traveled abroad at all, you know that you need some patience to navigate the large airports.

Add to that the fact that you just got off a pretty lengthy flight to find yourself in place that no longer has English as the native tongue, and you can have quite a challenge.

Truthfully, I expected much more chaos in the Rome airport than we encountered.  Deplaning and going through customs was really pretty straight forward.  However, once you step out of that “protected” area—the challenge begins.

Make sure you have some euros

Rather than changing money at the bank or one of the money exchanges we just used our ATM card and got Euros from the ATM (if this is your preference, you may want to check with your bank to ensure that you can do that with your ATM card).  We were then ready to arrange for our trip to the city.

There are three primary ways that we knew of to get to downtown Rome:  the train, a private car, or a taxi.  Since we were not yet oriented, we weren’t ready to tackle the train system.  We didn’t think  it necessary to go through the expense for a private car.  So we got a taxi

We knew to NOT use anyone that approached us in the airport offering a taxi downtown.  Instead, we went to the taxi line at the curb.

Rome taxi

Rome taxi - you can book and pay online before you leave home to avoid scams

Getting a taxi into Rome

We expected to see a dispatcher at the front of the line directing people to the next taxi.  Not the case.  We just had to look like we knew what we were doing (ignoring all the people yelling “hey lady, need a ride?”), walk until we thought we found the front of the line, and go with one of the several taxis that were vying for our business.

We also knew to ask for an approximate cost in advance.  Of course, the driver acted very insulted (he insisted that it would be”‘whatever the meter said”).  We told him that we just wanted to make sure we had enough money to pay him and he finally told us would be 50 Euros plus or minus.  Now we had a deal.

Crazy Italian drivers

You know everything that you’ve heard about ‘crazy Italian driving’?   It’s true.

Our driver was going at a pretty good speed, squeezing through places that I felt like I had to inhale deeply to make sure we fit, and talking on his cell phone (loudly) most of the time with hand gestures and all.

We did make it safely to the hotel where our driver nosed into a parking space with the back end of the car sticking into traffic.  He quickly pulled our luggage out of the car, put it on the sidewalk and impatiently told us the amount (52 Euros).

Here was our mistake—we allowed ourselves to be rushed by him.  I went to stand guard by the luggage while my husband was paying him with our new Euros (not a good time to rush when you are jet lagged and handling foreign money).

The driver did a quick sleight of hand and told Paul that he mistakenly handed him a 10 Euro instead of a 50.  I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what we discovered when we got to the room and re-counted our money.

Boy, did we feel silly!  We are both very experienced travelers and we fell for a Rookie 101 trick.  I don’t know whether I was more upset about the ‘lost’ money, the deception, or the fact that we fell for it!

How to avoid this scam

Editor note: According to eturbonews.com, Rome’s largest taxi cooperative is trying to improve the bad name of the city’s cabbies, notorious among tourists to one of the world’s best loved cities.

Taxi company Radiotaxi 3570 has launched a system for tourists to pay on line before they leave home.

“We want to change the public’s perceptions about Rome taxi drivers,” said 3570′s Chairman Loreno Bittarelli at a press presentation, adding that the same services would soon be available in other large Italian cities.

The on-line booking system will also allow tourists to order a cabbie who speaks English, French, Spanish or German. Another scheme will let customers order and pay via telephone text message.

Improving the image of taxi drivers is part of a broader attempt to spruce up services for visitors and end scams.

Advice Regarding Taxis in Rome

Taxis in Rome are white. There are fixed fares from downtown (within the city’s ancient Aurelian Walls) to the airports:

  • City center to Fiumicino and vice-versa cost €40
  • City center to Ciampino and vice-versa cost €30
  • The fee for luggage is around €1 for each piece
  • For other destinations fares are not fixed

For the most part, Rome taxi drivers are hard-working honest people. But there is a hard core of crooks, and these tend to work the airports and the main station.

Do NOT negotiate the price for the city center with anyone and be sure your driver activates the meter (all regular taxis have a meter) when he or she starts driving to any other destination.

Outside the walls you pay according to the distance. Drivers at the airport may try to talk you into more, saying that your destination is ‘inside the wall’ or ‘hard to get to’. State clearly before you drive away that you want the meter to run.

If they try to overcharge you at your destination ask them to call a policeman. They will probably back down.

Licensed limousine drivers may approach you at the airports, particularly Fiumicino. A drive with them to the center could reach as high as €80.

Be aware as well of unlicensed “taxi” drivers. Go directly to the taxi stand and ignore unlicensed scam artists.

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Italy and Tuscany: 2 Week Itinerary

 

map of Italy

Italy - so much to see!

Guest post by Judy Toth

Recently my husband and I spent two weeks in Italy.  We had never been to Italy before and I had quite a dilemma when I was planning the trip. So much to see, so little time!

I knew a little bit about a lot of places and so I started out trying to ensure we saw all the “high points” (museums in Florence, canals in Venice, historical monuments in Rome, the hilltowns of Tuscany, Pompeii, southern Italy where my mother was born).

As I began to try to fit this all in, I realized that I needed to pare the list down.  I know that our preferences for travel are to see and truly learn a small area rather than hit the highlights of a vast area and to have approximately 50% of our time planned and about 50% open for ‘serendipity’.

I also didn’t feel the pressure to make sure we “see it all now because we may never be back”.  Typically, when we find an area we like, we will go back to explore more on future visits.

Given those preferences I thought about what was really drawing us to Italy.  The first big draw was to see the area where my mother was born.  However, as I read about southern Italy, I learned that there is not much in the way of famous/historical sites and that area is less ‘user friendly’ for tourists.  Since this was our first trip to Italy, it didn’t seem like that was place to start.

tuscany

Tuscan countryside - it really does look like this!

Our second big draw was to see Tuscany.  That became the beginning of my plan—how much could we see in and around Tuscany in two weeks?  The plan we came up with was fly into Rome, train to Florence, drive to Pisa, drive through Tuscany, and train back to Rome.

We reasoned that we would start in the biggest city and, as we became more familiar with language, lifestyle etc, would work our way to smaller and smaller towns.

Our plan worked well and we feel that we learned a lot about a small portion of Italy.  In my next several posts I’ll share with you what we learned.

See Judy’s 2 Week Tuscany Itinerary here.

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Rick Steves Italy Audio Tours

rick-steves-italyMy friend Diane suggested that I go to Rick Steves’ site and download some free Italy audio tours of the major sights in Venice, Florence and Rome. These are recorded versions of the highlights from his guide books. They are designed to give you a private walking tour, and are so descriptive that it pays to listen in advance. As with his TV programs, Rick provides a nice blend of history, architecture and regular life.

I took Diane’s advice and was glad that I did. However, due to my personal preference of just walking around looking at things without necessarily “learning” as I go, I didn’t actually use the audio tours in the way they are intended. Instead of listening to the tours as I walked through neighbourhoods in Venice, Florence and Rome,  I listened to them before and after my actual wanderings.

I find that I can’t fully immerse myself in the experience if I’m trying to take in all the information while walking. So what I do is listen to the tour the night before in my hotel room, and then if I have time, listen to it again after the day’s outing. Hearing a review of what I’ve just seen helped me to understand and assimiliate the information.

So what’s included in these audio tours? Currently there are three major cities in Italy that Rick has recorded tours for: Venice, Florence and Rome.

Rick’s Venice Audio Tours  feature the Grand Canal Cruise, St. Mark’s Square, St. Mark’s Basilica, and Frari Church.

The Florence Audio Tours take you on a tour of the Renaissance Walk, Accademia and Michelangelo’s David, and Uffizi Gallery.

The Rome Audio Tours include the Colosseum, Roman Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Trastevere Walk, Jewish Ghetto Walk, Ostia Antica, and Pompeii. I found the audio tour of the Sistine Chapel particularly valuable, as it explained how to get the most out of viewing Michelangelo’s famous ceiling.

Like so many things these days, there are myriad ways to access these audio tours. I downloaded them onto my iPod Touch directly from the RickSteves website. You can also get the Rick Steves Audio Europe app, or download them to any mp3 player.  The app is perhaps the easiest and best experience if you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android.

One thing I should mention: there are two disadvantages to listening to the audio tours on your mp3 player as opposed to a device like an iPhone. First, you won’t see the pictures. But frankly, you won’t be missing much because the audio tours actually don’t include many pictures; they just have the occasional still photo to illustrate the audio.

The second disadvantage is that the chapter breaks and subheadings may not show up. But that’s not a big deal; basically it will work just fine. After all, you’re going to be looking at the real thing as you walk around, so why would you want to have your head down looking at pictures on an electronic device? :)

Get the Rick Steves Italy audio tours here

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