Arrivederci

So our three weeks in Italy have come to an end – its unbelievable how quickly it has flown by. I’ve given the details in previous posts but here are some of our thoughts.

Italy is as wonderful as everyone has told us, the history, the scenery, the people, the coffee and the food and drink. Each area has a different “Spritz” – Garda – the “Campari spritz” aka antifreeze! Venice – the “Select Spritz” – a better balance between sweet and bitter, Florence and Rome – the “Aperol Spritz” – the sweetest, also nice. Sorrento and Amalfi – the “Limoncello Spritz” – the most refreshing. Despite travelling so soon after Pesach we still felt that there is such a thing as too much pizza and pasta. But not gelato🤣. Thankfully the fresh fish and vegetables are just as incredible. I’ve never seen Steven eat so many vegetables although it came with a disclaimer – “What am I eating? No, don’t tell me and don’t ask me if I want to eat it at home. I only eat vegetables on holiday”.

Our itinerary was well planned travelling from North to South with the busiest bits in the middle, and the best hotel at the end for some proper relaxation. Transfers all happened efficiently and the hotels were all spot on, the only issue being with the one in Venice see below. We can take no credit for any of that – that was Trailfinders. As a note to anyone looking to go to Venice – our hotel was perfectly sited with only a 5 minutes walk to St Mark’s square, but on a quiet canal. That was the problem – whilst marvellously quiet, the canal is so small that no-one goes on it other than to the hotel and the houses behind. This means the water is more stationary and the mosquitoes love that! The law in many towns in Italy forbids the use of air conditioning in hotels unless certain weather criteria are met, and they weren’t met yet. That wasn’t a problem anywhere other than Venice. Old hotels, whilst architecturally beautiful have smaller rooms that retain the heat. That meant a small room that retained its heat, next to slowly moving water was a recipe for 27 mosquito bites for Steven and 12 for me. Moving to a larger, and therefore cooler room on a different side of the hotel did the trick. Btw, do you know how much blood those little critters suck out of you – Steven splatted one on the wall (I’ve spared you the picture) – enough for us to have to clean up the wall.

We haven’t travelled at peak season for years, and make a habit of holidaying on the cusp of the season. It worked out for us again. The weather was glorious. Yes we had 2 days of rain when we got saturated, but that means we had 19 days of no rain, most of which were glorious sunshine. Temperatures of 21-24C are good enough for us. It did rain two evenings in Rome but we had walked so much during the days and we had so many good restaurants near the hotel that wasn’t a problem.

In the summer Pompei has 20,000 visitors a day, Venice has around 100,000 per day and you can be on a boat to Capri, when the island is declared full and the boat is told to turn round and you’ve paid for a trip that can’t happen. And all of that in the intense heat. The comparative lack of tourists is the biggest bonus to travelling on the cusp of the season. Having said that, there are still plenty of people travelling – predominantly retirees like us. Talking to them gives an insight into so many of the issues around the world that we see on our news channels, as well as giving us thoughts on where to visit, and not visit next.

Despite the comparative lack of tourists, tourists we are and my huge camera makes us easily recognisable as such. Every country has it’s “tourist sharks”. We came to realise that across Italy someone will always try to rip you off by selling you something stick shaped – a selfie stick during the day, a rose by night and an umbrella if it’s raining. Everything was €10, whichever town you were in. And no we didn’t buy anything.

Many of our fellow travellers were happy to book everything when they got here and to see the same things as us but without a formal guide or transport arranged. We were happy to use city buses in Garda and Rome and “Moovit” app was excellent. However we had booked our major tours before leaving the UK via either “Viator” or “Get your Guide”. We were conscious of trying to do too much to “fit everything in” to our three weeks and wanted it to be restful and fun as well as informative so we didn’t book something for every day, leaving us plenty of mooching time and we got the balance right. However, we came to appreciate the value of an excellent tour guide. They can literally make or break your experience. For us they made the history and the art come alive and furthered our understanding and consequently our appreciation. Without them our visits would have been more superficial. The tours that included transport were also well worth the investment in the time saved queuing in the heat and affording us the luxury of space in a private car or small minibus.

It was a good call, pushing the boat out (sic) for our final hotel. All our hotels were in great locations with views, particularly the more rural ones. All had great bar areas, rooftop ones in the cities, more food than we could eat at breakfast, plenty of hot water and powerful showers. But the terrace, pool and seaside areas here are what we needed at the end. Whist waiting for a couple of hours for the airport taxi, I’m writing this in a shaded terrace covered with wisteria and jasmine, and bordered along the whole length with every herb you can think of. The aroma from those and the lemons and jasmine is wonderful. There are a few photos below. I mean what better place to recover from our exhausting Spritz sampling, carb consumption and gelato gorging. It’s been so hard we need a holiday, and the planning might just start now . . .

P.s we have a plan to avoid another hand luggage debacle and beat Lufthansa’s ridiculous weight restrictions. . .