I went to Italy! It was super fun and I loved it! I’ll go city-by-city with a rundown of what fun things I did, then add some general observations about Italy at the end.
Venice: My arrival in Venice was not exactly as I imagined it. I flew from NYC to Milan, then took high-speed rail to Venice. The problem was that I didn’t sleep on the red-eye flight at all, even with an empty middle seat next to me, and I hadn’t slept great the night before either. I was exhausted. I ate a quick pasta dinner at the train station (which was actually delicious) ready to go to my hotel and straight to sleep for 12 hours. And then…I got into a water taxi and saw Venice at sunset, in all her glory.
Venetian architecture (the Venetian Gothic style) is extraordinary, and riding in a boat looking at it in a place with no roads, only canals and sidewalks, makes it hard to believe you’re even in a real place. But it was indeed real.
Sadly, that was the last good weather I had in Venice - it started raining the next morning and didn’t stop until after I left, which meant I missed out on a few of the things I was hoping to do, namely exploring the outdoor market around the famous Rialto Bridge and listening to the dueling classical musicians in the cafes surrounding St. Mark’s Square. I did, however, get to enjoy a visit to the Doge’s Palace, the seat of government for the Republic of Venice for over a millennium and a magnificent building, as well as St. Mark’s Basilica, and enjoy a couple of rainy walks around the main square.
One of the main chambers of the Venetian Republic’s many councils. Blue from Overly Sarcastic Productions once described the Eastern Orthodox style of art as “enough gold to give a Protestant a seizure” and judging by the Doge’s Palace, after all their trading with and occasional sacking of Constantinople, the Catholic Venice embraced that aesthetic hard.
St. Mark’s Square in the rain. Someday I’m going back to those cafes for the dueling musicians.
Modena: My next stop along the way was the small city of Modena and its neighbor Maranello in the Emilia Romagna region. I was fortunate to avoid the terrible flooding which affected the region after I left.
The first day I was there, I visited the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, just a short bus ride away from Modena with a cheap shuttle provided by the museum, and had a wonderful time. They have collections of both Ferrari supercars and former Formula One racecars, including some legendary ones like the ones Michael Schumacher drove for 5 of his 7 F1 championships. I had a blast spending a couple hours there enjoying the beautiful cars and learning about Ferrari’s racing history. I also had the chance to try the tasting menu at the nearby Ristorante Cavallino, which was a bit of a splurge (about 100 euros with wine pairings) but totally worth it.
This one could fairly be described as “images that precede unfortunate events” - due to the heavy flooding, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was canceled. Definitely for the best so that local emergency services could focus on rescue and cleanup and not have a race in the way, but still a bit of a bummer for race fans.
The day after, I went on a delightful food tour in Modena proper with a small group of other tourists and a local guide. The group ended up being great fun - we all got along well and had a lovely time together - and the food of Modena was a delight. We started with a traditional Italian breakfast of cappucino and a pastry, then went for a walk around a local market to see all the fresh produce, pasta, meats, fish, and cheeses available. Our guide bought us some Parmigiano Reggiano (aka Parmesan) cheeses of different ages and we sat down for a lunch: the aforementioned cheeses, mini sandwiches, and Lambrusco red sparkling wine. It was all incredible! Next, we went to a balsamic vinegar store where we got to sample different balsamic vinegars made locally by home producers, using traditional barrel evaporation methods. Our final stop was a gelato shop for some delicious cones - I opted for lemon and mango, which was excellent. (Full disclosure: this was 1 of 4 times I stopped for gelato while in Italy. No regrets.)
Florence: If I’m being honest, I struggled a little with Florence. It’s a gobsmackingly beautiful city with some of the most impressive art collections I’ve ever seen. It’s also a place where the sidewalks are constantly thronged with tourists who don’t actually know how to walk in cities, where there’s a store for fine leather goods on every block but nowhere to buy an adapter plug, and where very tall buildings were built hundreds of years before elevators were invented and ther current proprietors don’t see any reason to change things now.
I did really enjoy the Uffizi Gallery, though. It’s quite the collection, stemming from the de Medici banking family of Renaissance times - the sculptures are largely from ancient Roman times that the de Medicis restored and collected, and the paintings are Florentine artists that the de Medicis were patrons of. It’s an astounding collection and I got actual chills seeing The Birth Of Venus in person.
(Not The Birth of Venus, obviously, but I also liked this statue of Trajan and figured it would be better not to put nude artwork in a post someone might read at work.)
I also enjoyed the views of Florence immensely. I stayed just south of the Arno River near the Ponte Vecchio and ate at a couple of restaurants with wonderful views of the river.
Terrible cocktail (why does Italy love aperol spritzes so much?), beautiful vista. (Worry not, I left this bar after the cocktail and had a delightful bottle of Morellino with dinner. A few drunk tweets ensued, as did me dropping my fork at the table and needing several tries to open my hotel room door after I got back.)
Rome: The Eternal City! I loved Rome so much and it was a shot in the arm after Florence. The first night I was there, I went to a small restaurant near my hotel and a lovely couple named Phyllis and Tim invited me to sit with them for dinner. They’re both retired administrators at Stanford who had visited Italy several times before and were kind enough to share travel tips for Rome while we shared some stories over a delicious dinner.
The next day was probably my favorite day of the whole trip. I started at The Pantheon, an ancient shrine to Roman gods that was later repurposed as a Catholic basilica. Though I would have loved to see it in its original form, it was still a stunning building and a monumental architectural and engineering feat. Next I went to the Roman Forum, the ruins of central Rome from roughly two thousand years ago. It’s the craziest feeling to walk around and think about how, two millennia ago, people were shopping, worshipping, and socializing right where you’re standing. My ankle was acting up, so I didn’t do the full Colosseum tour, but I did admire it from outside and have an absurdly delicious lunch right across the street from it.
On my final day, I made a quick visit to Vatican City, but the primary purpose was relaxation. In the afternoon, I went to a spa and hammam (Turkish bath) modeled after ancient Roman baths. I sat in a steam bath (which was odd at first, but absolutely magnificent for my skin), had a body scrub with water poured over me, and ended things in a slightly cool tub, before getting a facial with calming lavender oils. I absolutely loved it, felt so relaxed after, and my skin was perfectly exfoliated. Ended the day with gelato and an absurdly delicious dinner of the house red wine, spaghetti alla carbonara, duck breast in an orange sauce with asparagus, and (of course) tiramisu for my last proper meal in Rome. All in all, a delightful trip.
Food: It was all amazing. I spent a week and a half in Italy and ate/drank exactly two things I didn’t care for (the aforementioned aperol spritz and a so-so Caesar salad while I was doing some shopping and needed a quick lunch). Everything else, from Venice to Rome? Divine. The food in Rome probably most closely resembled Italian-American food, but it was all delicious. I probably enjoyed the food in Modena most, with Rome a close second - but this is like asking me to choose a favorite child.
I appreciate the culture around eating out in Italy as well. I’m sure it’s easier to do this kind of thing on vacation and working Italians eat quick convenience meals like we do in the US, but at the more traditional restaurants I went to, it was very common to linger over meals, whether you were by yourself, with one other person, or in a big group. I routinely took an hour and a half to two hours to eat lunch or dinner (breakfast in Italy typically isn’t a big meal, just some bread/pastry and a cappucino for the average Italian or a Diet Coke for me) and it was lovely to appreciate and savor each bite of the fresh pasta and produce, quality cuts of meat, cheese with proper bite to it, and indulgent desserts. It also helps that Italian waiters make a living wage without relying on tips, which reduces the pressure to turn tables over quickly.
Getting around Italy: For the most part, Italian inter-city rail is fantastic. Runs on time and quickly, quite affordable, covers major and minor cities alike, comfortable to travel on, and impressive frequencies (I don’t think I traveled on any lines that ran less than every half hour, some run even more often). My kingdom for such a quality rail network in America!
The rules around ticket validation were a little confusing to me at first, leading to a 35-euro fine and a lecture from the conductor when it turned out I hadn’t properly validated my Malpensa Express ticket before boarding (whoops, my bad), but I found downloading the TrenItalia app helpful for being able to skip that step and purchase tickets easily.
I didn’t really mess with public transportation within each city in Italy, so I can’t speak to that, but I did a lot of walking. For the most part, Italian cities are pedestrian-friendly. Many main squares and alleys are car-free, and even on streets with cars, there are either sidewalks or drivers/Vespas (Italians do love their Vespas) are very used to and respectful of pedestrians. And of course, in Venice cars don’t exist at all and it’s all sidewalks and canals! The older cobblestone streets aren’t quite as good to stand/walk on as more modern paved surfaces (my feet and ankles did some rebelling), but they’re not too bad. For longer distances, Italy doesn’t really do Uber/Lyft for labor regulation reasons, but in Florence and Rome (and Venice if you count water taxis), I found it very easy to flag a cab on the street whenever I needed one. (This was not true in Modena/Maranello, unfortunately.)
Smoking: This is the only thing I didn’t like about Italy. I Googled it to make sure it wasn’t just my imagination when I started feeling like I was inhaling smoke all the time, and it turns out Italians are more than twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as Americans (24% vs. 11%). They have outlawed indoor smoking, but people smoke on train platforms and on the street regularly. Definitely something for my fellow travelers to be mindful of!
Traveling with depression: Right before I left the US for Italy, I hit a bit of a low point with depression. My depression is cyclical, with good, happy, productive periods followed by bad ones, and I was in a lull the week before I left. In normal times, it wouldn’t have been too alarming - just a time where I wasn’t as energetic or able to do as much. But it was bad timing with the trip and I was really concerned I wouldn’t have a good time in Italy.
I reached out to friends for advice, and got some good tidbits, including a couple that I fused together into a philosophy for the trip. A colleague who had been to Italy counseled that I not stress too much over trying to do everything - Italy is vast and rich with treasures, and it’s simply not possible for one person to see and do everything, no matter how good or bad they feel. A friend, a veteran of both travel and depression, suggested that I focus on enjoying what I could do and not beat myself up if I spent more time than I’d like in the hotel watching Netflix.
My strategy was to pick one thing per day, follow through on doing that thing, and then if I wanted to go back to the hotel room, allow myself to do that. It meant letting go somewhat of the fairly rigorous agenda I’d laid out, but I think that was a good thing that allowed me to enjoy my trip more and not totally wear myself out. There was one day when I didn’t follow through on this - Monday in Florence, when the museums are closed and I’d booked a wine and olive oil tasting tour but woke up too tired, with my feet in pain from walking, and decided I needed a day off to lie around the hotel room reading and napping. And I don’t regret it. The other days, though, I would go out and do something even if it took a little convincing myself to get up and go, and that helped. But all the same, I had no shame about sleeping in if I wanted to, museum hopping in the morning before lunch and an afternoon of relaxation, or skipping the bar scene to watch TV in the hotel room. (Eurovision was awesome, by the way, even though I was disgruntled by Sweden winning over more deserving entries.)
I also made an effort to take care of myself physically. Eating well is not hard to do in Italy, of course, but I made sure to get all the sleep I needed, drink plenty of water alongside wine and Diet Coke, not go overboard on the alcohol (I did get drunk one night but was otherwise pretty restrained), and strike the best balance I could between doing lots of walking for exercise and resting my feet when they got too sore. I think that helped with my mental state as well.
And while I was in Italy, I talked to several Americans who had made multiple trips to the country. I didn’t travel abroad until I was 27. I’m making up for lost time now, but I haven’t gone back to the same place twice yet - there’s still so much to see and explore all over the world! I think that can lead to extra pressure to Do All The Things in one trip, because who knows if I’ll ever be back? But talking to older travelers who love Italy so much, who come back time and again, was reassuring. I think (and hope) I’ll want to see new places all my life, but it’s also nice to think that when I’m older, I can go back to places I’ve visited before, fill in the gaps of what I missed the first time around, and enjoy my favorite sights and places again. That helped take the pressure off too and, I think, allowed me to more fully savor what I could do on this trip.
All in all, I had such a lovely time in Italy and I really do want to go back someday.