Rome-Orvieto-Cortona-Florence-Como

Rome-Orvieto-Cortona-Florence-Como

Sixteen Days of Italian travel for my group of eight lovely women. 

We began our journey in Rome…I always say that you need 4-5 days to see Rome at an Italian pace, but most of our group had been to Rome several times, so we decided to do “speed sightseeing”.  We arrived in Rome at 10 a.m., met our private van transfer service and dropped our luggage off at our centrally located hotel. We hopped on the metro and headed straight to Vatican City.

 We saw the line for St. Peter’s was impressively long, so we grabbed some lunch. After eating, half our group went to Castel Sant’ Angelo (aka Hadrian’s Castle- worth seeing)

 and the Trastevere neighborhood (just okay-but it was drizzling and the window boxes didn’t have flowers yet).  The other half of the group went to The Vatican Museum and Sistine chapel (advance tickets-Hooray). 

 By the end of the day we all managed to get into St. Peter’s- a place never to be missed!  Exhausted we ate an early dinner and went to sleep.

The next day, six of our group went for our early reservation at the Coloseum and Forum.

. I was so glad we picked the earliest entrance time, because the weather was misty and the time was early so we avoided all the crowds. It was amazing to wander both places almost by ourselves! Before we had left on this trip one of the girls used her phone to take pictures of the main pages in her Roman Forum guide book, so while we wandered through the Forum, we simply pulled up the camera pics and read about the sights. Yay, we knew what we were seeing, but didn’t have the hassle of a whole guide book. 

The other two in our group having previously seen to The Forum and The Coloseum, chose instead to reserve tickets for The Borghese Gallery.

After seeing the Forum,we jumped in a cab and headed over to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona .

 Our group ate lunch at my daughter’s favorite restaurant near the piazza..a UPS driver helped us find the street! I love the Piazza Navona neighborhood.

As I said, this was speed traveling, so we hopped in another cab and went back towards the Coloseum to a bicycle rental place.  We had reserved places on an Appian Way bicycle tour- 17 miles  6 hours- but all on electric assist bicycles-sweet!  Our tour guide named Meice was fabulous.  The whole tour was so well planned. We rode the bikes out of Rome, straight into the countryside- passing by golf courses with aqueducts as a back drop, 

horses, sheep, cows, chickens, small local parks with people strolling and walking their dogs and then riding on the Appian Way (and when the cobblestones got too bumpy we rode on the dirt shoulder of the Appian Way.)  The Appian Way is one of the earliest (312 BC) and most strategic roads in the ancient Roman empire.  This cobble stoned road stretched 350 miles to Brindisi on the SE coast of Italy- sections of this road still exist- this section outside Rome is the best preserved section.

We saw many old stone ruins on our bike trip

and even stopped for 45 minutes to tour San Calisto catacombs. (This gave our rear ends a chance to recover-kind of-lol) I would have gladly paid extra money for a comfort ride seat!

Our other rest stop was for wine and Pecorino cheese at an authentic Italian sheep farm (a bit stinky-but fun). The cheese was made from sheep milk.

  I am so glad we got to do this bike ride- it was one of the highlights of the trip.

  It was sunset by the time we finished biking.

 We took cabs to our restaurant,  but our table wasn’t ready so we quickly darted to Trevi Fountain before finally sitting down to a proper meal with plenty of wine.

We got up early to get our rental van- but the travel gods were not on our side at all today.

  The van was not at the rental place (and they had no clue about  our reservation)- so it took 2 brave ladies in our group, 3 hours to finally find a place that would rent us a van.  We left Rome at bit before noon.  We drove for about an hour and decided to eat lunch at a  seaside restaurant. We parked the van where it could be seen by us as we ate.  When we finished our fabulous lunch- disaster struck!! We returned to the van and found our luggage had all been stolen.

This is just a stock photo- but you get the idea!

  We drove to the nearest large town- found a police station and sat for 5 hours while each of us was interviewed for  a police report for insurance purposes.  It took so long because of the language barrier.(my report shows I lost a raincoat worth $2,000-really?-lol) 

This is also a stock photo, they wouldn't let me take photos!

We ended up staying a night in this town because it had many shopping choices and we all needed clothing and toiletries.  We found a cheap hostel for the night- this hostel was great- clean- wonderful and last minute cheap- breakfast was included- but also included  was a couple from Russia -who weren't expecting any other guests to check in that night.... 

This kind of looked like the Russian couple

This couple had their luggage stored in a temporary room, while their actual room was being cleaned earlier that day. We were assigned the room their luggage was being held in...but the Russians assumed that our room was theirs and hid their drugs in this room (taped under the dresser drawer-really, you can't make this stuff up..) ...so when we checked in, and they were directed to their actual room-the couple had to get their luggage AND extract, said drugs, from the nifty hiding place- a totally weird situation for all us. ANYWAY, this whole day had been a such a  "shit-show" this Russian event fit the theme of "what else can go wrong?". Right after this the Russians offered us some "shots"  for the confusion they caused,

but we declined, seeing that the liquor was a color not found in nature. (plus we didn't want to get "roofied"..which would have ended our day on a really bad note)

 We left for dinner and found a true Italian family place to eat, the food was good and a real Italian family was there. The grandpa was playing the electronic keyboard as his granddaughter sang,  and his daughter videoed us during a sing- a-long of Volare. It was a special dinner for all of us! (this is why we travel)

 I would like to say that the evening  ended on THIS high note, but it didn't (of course because nothing happened correctly today!).. the Russian man staying at our hostel, had a rough night with his drugs and when we returned to our hostel an ambulance was there- the EMS treated this man and he was fine. We finally ended our CRAZY day.

The saddest part of this horrible day, was we had to cancel (but still pay for) our next  hotel in the town of Pitigliano. We could have been dead beats and not paid  for this hotel (they had my credit card but couldn't  charge it due to CVC issues), but I knew this was a Ma and Pa, family hotel, and we had booked 4 of their 9 rooms. We did the right thing and paid our bill. The hotel owner was so grateful to us. I plan on taking them up on a free room in the future. Pitigliano, a town we never got to see.SIGH (this is what made me the maddest- it wasn’t about losing our “stuff”-though that was devastating)- my anger came from  missing out on 2 days of our vacation. 

The next day, in Civitivecchia, we shopped all morning until we had enough clothing to get us by. I ended up with 2 nice shirts, 2 pairs of black pants and 2 tee-shirts, and pajamas. The clothes we bought were mostly inexpensive and cheaply made- so when you look at our pictures don't judge our fashion choices or notice we keep wearing the same outfits over and over...lol

 Okay,  now is the time for my underwear story- it goes like this- Italy has no underwear that will fit a  USA size 14-16 woman- I guess all the big girls go commando!

 We were in 2 shopping towns after this and NO UNDERWEAR  (or bras) for me. Thank goodness the pair of underwear  I had on, when our stuff was stolen, was quick dry- I washed them out every night and wore them again the next day-and I threw them out when I got home-lol.

After shopping  in the cruise city departure town, we continued on. We had a brief stop in the lovely town of Civita- but it was quick- like take the picture of the bridge that leads to the city of Civita…the stop was brief because 2 of the girls volunteered to stay with the van for fear we would have our new stuff stolen too. So we went to the head of the Civita walkway and just took a picture.  The robbery, unfortunately, had taken its toll, we were super wary. (and lessons learned for me about trip planning- don't leave any stuff in your car unattended)

 That afternoon we arrived in Orvieto and could finally relax and put our stuff in our rooms. Orvieto was beautiful. Our hotel was right next to the Duomo-the hotel had valet parking.

  We had nice weather all today. We wandered the streets, shopped some more and found a gourmet restaurant for dinner- it was getting a bit chilly but we sat outside anyway and ate a really  fabulous meal. 

 By the time we had finished our meal, the outdoor patio, as well as the indoor dining room was full of guests. I guess we picked the right restaurant.

 The next  morning before leaving we hiked down the San Patrizio well. 248 steps down and 248 steps back up. It is an architectural marvel- and a must do when in Orvieto. 

 We ate lunch at a small deli that was down a side street. The meat and cheese platter and the salads were amazing. It all felt very Italian.

Leaving Orvieto I felt like I could breathe again- that I was on vacation

 Our next stop was Cortona, where were spending 2 nights. When we pulled up to the hotel, I knew I had hit a home run. The lobby was beautiful and the breakfast area was stunning

- but when I saw how amazing the views from our rooms were- I could feel everyone exhale.

 We wandered the town of Cortona for a bit

 and then were picked up by a tour-guide company that whisked us away to a local pub for appetizers and lots of wine

 and then onto a winery for wine dinner with the owner of the vineyard. Look at these faces,,we are not defeated..We are singing Whitney Houston songs (our Italian guide's favorite artist)

 Just as we thought our luck was changing, one of the girls slipped and fell and really hurt her back.  She had to lay down in the vineyard's owner’s home, while we continued on with the meal.  The wine dinner experience was fun- I wished our sweet friend had been able to share it with us.

We thought our sweet friend just needed rest, but it turns out she needed the hospital. Our tour guide took her and 2 other of our friends(for moral support) to the hospital. Fortunately, sweet friend had not broken anything… but unfortunately they didn’t give her the drugs she needed (which was a cortisone shot) and she spent the rest of her vacation in pain.(but she was a trooper and did almost everything the rest of us did, for the entirety of the trip).

 The next day in Cortona, a few of us went out to Le Celle to see the monastery where St. Francis of Assisi lived while he wrote his will,

 and also stopped at the house where the book Under the Tuscan Sun was written. 

 Two of us also wandered the crazy hilly town of Cortona taking pictures of flower boxes,

 and stopped for gelato to fortify us during this endeavor

The last morning in Cortona we got up and drove to the top of the hill to see the Medici Fortress- the views were spectacular

 And then we were on the road again... to Florence- Firenze!!.

 We dropped off the rental van- no need for transport in Florence, it is a walking town.  After the fabulous view rooms in Cortona, I could only pray that the place we were renting in Florence would live up to its online pictures.  The online pictures at VRBO.com showed nice sized rooms and ancient details like ceiling frescoes- but the way our luck was running (hot and cold)... I thought the frescoes might be cheesy wall paper-lol.  But when we finally found the VRBO (we drove in circles for a good 30 minutes before finding it) it SURPASSED our expectations

This was our living room/ dining room

.  This 4 bedroom condo was part of a huge mansion that took up a whole city block.  Our rooms were humongous- like ballroom big and the frescoes were real and hundreds of years old.

  It was such a privilege to stay in a section of this mansion. We were here for 3 nights.  We even cooked and ate in the dining room one of the three nights. And to top it off this place was just slightly more than a hotel room in Florence.  The buying power of 8 people sharing a place!

 We all had separate agendas in Florence- 

some shopped for Christmas presents-

 some went to see David-

 

or to the Uffizzi-

or the Duomo- 

or the Pitti Palace/Boboli/Bardini Gardens

or the Medici Chapel

Or the Bargello Museum

 but we all met for an olive oil, vinegar tasting one  afternoon- delicious!!.

 We even had a beautiful Florentine sunset

  It was nice to wander Florence and see all it has to offer.*(except underwear)

Next stop was Lake Como- we went by train from Florence to Milan.  We had brought a great picnic of wine and fruit and cheese on the train- you can’t beat train picnics!

 Arriving in Milan we found the rental car place and picked up 2 rental cars.  We zipped up the highway and found our last place to stay for FIVE nights- a villa- yes, a VILLA, right on the banks of Lake Como. Again the cost was just a bit more than a hotel!

 It was an amazing place.  The owner who greeted us, told us it was his grandparents house. And now he rents it out to help pay for the maintenance costs.  It was a totally custom home.  You will never see another like this one!

arched glass doors and windows

 They had had a big reception there  the day before our arrival, and the house had been decorated with beautiful flowers.  We are so glad they left the flowers for us to enjoy. 

 We hired a private chef for our first night at Lake Como, so we didn’t have to get groceries right away.  The chef cooked many delicious things for us- and then he cleaned up- and we had all the leftovers for many meals! 

During our stay at Como, besides enjoying the house- happy hours on the patio rocked

…we rode the ferries to explore different lake towns,

 we rode a funicular to get a view of the lake,

 we drove to Switzerland for the day to see "Heidi" mountains and to get beer and wiener schnitzel, 

 Some of us hiked the Sentiero del Viandante from Bellano to Varenna- about  a 3 hour hike, (the sights along the trail were fabulous.)

 we hired a driver and a boat to take us on a lake tour, 

Versace's villa

Villa Balbianello

our villa from the water

AND  we all learned to play bocci ball on the bocci court at our place.  

 Lake Como is exactly how we should have ended our vacation.  We were relaxed and laughing. 

When the unexpected happens just do the "towel dance" and move on!!

This trip taught us just how resilient we were and how much we loved each other.  We will also be much savvier travelers. I will not book a trip where our things are in the car or van as we explore.(we will get to our hotel early, drop off our things and then explore).  We were all lucky to have credit cards and passports with us and not in our suitcases. I always expected that (someday) someone's purse would get stolen, but I never considered our luggage being taken. . I will carry a money belt with me for my passport next time.  I think we all learned not to bring any expensive jewelry, or expensive clothing or electronics.   Will this experience deter us from traveling???-  Hell NO…I am already planning our next trip!!! Where will we go next???