Italy

Florence

Ciao Italia! We kicked off our Italy tour with a couple of nights in Florence. This was our second visit to Florence, and we were really glad we went back. Our first visit focussed so much on the museums and galleries that we didn’t get an opportunity to really explore the city itself. This time, we dedicated our time to roaming the streets and enjoying the food and the city itself. We even did a bicycle tour into the Florentine hills which was just spectacular. Florence was ultimately our favourite stop in Italy. As a tip if you ever visit, enjoy a lunch in the Mercato Centrale Firenze.

Rome

We took a train down to Rome to continue our exploration of Italy. We dedicated this second visit to Rome to visiting the landmarks we didn’t visit the first time – the Coliseum and the Vatican. We were staying in a great part of the city near Piazza Navonna, and had the best gelati in Rome a few meters from our doorstep (people were lining up for it)!

Coliseum and Roman Forum

We had arranged a tour of the Coliseum (including the underground part of it), and the Roman Forum. Unfortunately, due to a dispute between the Coliseum management and the tour operators – it meant that our tour of the Coliseum underground was cancelled (my name was misspelled and didn’t match my passport – which they checked for all visitors to the underground component). We did manage to visit the upper levels of the Colliseum and also went to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill (this was far more interesting than the Colliseum).

Vatican and Sistine Chapel

The Vatican was huge, and of course the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was the highlight (we even took a sneaky photo which was not allowed – shhh don’t tell). We even managed to see the changing of the Swiss Guard.

Naples

Naples was full of contradictions. We initially did not like the city – it was dirty, smelly and had the worst traffic of all the places we had been. However, we had consistently great food, and of course the best pizza in Italy. We initally were meant to stay for three nights, but a big storm hit the day we were meant to go to Capri, so we had to cancel at the last minute. The logistics would have been a nightmare. We did end up finding a nice part of town, luckily, where there were views of Capri, Vesuvius, and a nice long boardwalk. Ultimately, we did like Naples, and despite the rain we did have a nice time there.

Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi

We took a day tour to the Amalfi coast. Although it felt super rushed, we loved the beautiful views of the coast line. But wow, the traffic was intense, as were the number of tourits (even though it was late September). I think we spent a lot of our tour just trying to get in and out of Positano. Our first stop – Sorrento – was our favourite and we enjoyed some nice limoncello and it was the least busy place. We were also treated to a last minute boat ride from Amalfi and we really liked the signature lemon gelato of the town.

I think just one visit to these places is enough for our lives though.

Pompeii and Herculaneum

We did a day trip to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum, both of which were very interesting. The tour of Pompeii did feel a bit rushed, unfortunately – we felt like we got the ‘highlights’, but we are the kind of visitors who like to take our time, and put ourselves in the shoes of those who were there before us.

The photos below are from the Naples Archeological musuem. The artifacts are from both Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as a special exhibition of the Magna Grecia (Greater Greece).