Italia!

Everybody should have a fantasy destination. Some place that they dream about visiting a little too much. Gives you a goal, you know?

For Rebecca, Italy is that place. She’s wanted to visit it since she had a toddlery afro. Maybe even before. So imagine her delight when we had time enough at the end of our travels to spend a whole month there.

Our trip took us to Venice, to Milan, to Florence, to Syracuse, to Sorrento, and finally to Rome, where we stayed for a whopping ten days.

Let me walk you through it:

 

It started with a train ride from Munich.

The scenery outside the window outdid some of the prettiest destinations we visited:

Not that I saw any of it:

 

After 5 hours of whizzing through the Alps we got to Venice. It enchanted Rebecca immediately. She, like me, is a sucker for municipal ferries:

 

Though, wow, those rides were pricey. Much like everything in Venice (more on that later).

We stayed out on Lido, an outlying island from the city. I’m happy we did, because we got to experience a strange Lent-related (?) festival, that, as far as I can tell, was only on the island:

I couldn’t really connect the dots between Snow White and Lent, but this guy came over to explain it to us:

He was super helpful:

 

Reba had a great time!

Don’t worry, we did other things beside getting pummeled with confetti.  We saw a lot of the tourist stuff, like the Rialto Bridge:

and the Piazza San Marco:

 

But mostly we just took strolls around scenic, scenic Venice:

 

Now, confession time: I’m not a big Venice fan.

I understand why people love it. I really do. It’s gorgeous. Reba loves it, even.

If I’m gonna be in Italy, though, I’m there for the food. And Venice just ain’t the best place for it. More often than not the restaurants you’ll stumble upon will be the kind of joint where you pay 80 Euros for warmed-over Boyardee. So, so sad.

The next town had a much better scene for that.

 

The experience of walking through Milan in my raggedy travel clothes was…humbling. Fashionistas abounded around there. But, so did excellent food. Somehow, someway, we had so many vegan and gluten-free food options for Reba.

Our favorite was Bebop. I stole this image from Tripadvisor because I didn’t take any pictures of our meals.

Trust when I say it was outstanding.

We only spent a day here, but it was long enough to eat some good food and see our good friend, The Last Supper.

 

That pic isn’t mine either.

Overall I loved Milan. Aside from the food and the one painting, the nightlife gave the impression that Italians know how to have a good time.

It was a quick trip there, and then off to one of my all-time favorites from days’ past:

 

 We had a delightful time in the city. It was two-a-day pizzas, mid-afternoon gelatos, and campari spritzes every evening for a week.

I sold Rebecca on the place, that’s for sure.

Although, I didn’t think it was possible, but I enjoyed our destination even more.

 

It took a looooooong time to get there, though. We had to travel all the way down the boot, and then some, to the island of Sicily.

You might wonder how the train makes that little jump across the water. Here’s how it’s done.

That’s a train shunted into the cabin of a ferry. Genius! It looked like this on the top floor:

The ferry dropped us off late in the evening in Syracuse. The town is a great place for history buffs — thethe Greeks settled there before the Italians did, and they left there mark. Most notably here:

That Christian exterior is all pretty recent. But it was built as the new face of the Temple of Athena, which the Greeks set up in the 5th century BC. Here’s what that foundational structure looks like:

Love this building.

Syracuse also happens to house what used to be one of the largest Greek amphitheaters of the ancient world:

Not too shabby. And Syracuse also happened to have the world’s best sandwich shop: Caseificio Borderi. Way too much to handle.

You walk in the door and the owner immediately forces globs of ricotta into your hands. Then you ask for a sandwich. No menu, just “I want something spicy” or “what goes well with your olives?”, and they slap something together.

They work hard at Borderi. We went there three times in two days, including 3 to go subs (each) for out train wide to…

 

Not literally. But he was a pony-tailed Neapolitan who worked for a family friend in New Jersey for a few years. Close enough for me.

Sorrento itself was dazzling, too.

And it was an awesome sightseeing base, for stuff like the ruins of Pompeii…

…and the isle of Capri, reachable only by ferry:

Capri is unspeakably beautiful.

We took a ski-lift all the way to the top:

And this view awaited us:

Could do a lot worse.

Sorrento obviously didn’t disappoint. We didn’t even have time to think about how sad it was that our next city would be our last. On the whole. 8-month-long. Trip.

 

Woah. There it was. The ancient West’s biggest deal. And wouldn’t you know it — I got horrifically sick.

I came down with some kind of fever, coupled with stomach stuff. Reba too. I spent 3 entire days in bed! That means I missed a few photo opportunities.

Reba went out and saw the Coloseum without me. And some other ruin-y stuff. But when I got well again we got ambitious.

Saw a little bit of this:

 

And a little bit of this:

 

And some St Peter’s Square:

 

And some Pieta:

 

And the Vatican’s map room:

 

 

And the Pope (briefly, from far aware):

And the REAL Pope:

And several dozen of these:

 

Now, as much as we liked those pizzas, they didn’t stack up to the Two Big Meals we had in Rome.

The first of which was at Stazione di Posta, a hip modern place

in a weird, weird location:

It was waaaay out in the middle of this barren lot, far from the city center, and next door to a children’s library.  The food more than made up for the confusing walk out, and then the expensive Uber home.

The second of the Two Big Meals happened on our very last night, at La Pergola, which is on the top floor of the Waldorf. If that sounds fancy to you, you have good instincts. It was crazy fancy. Too fancy to even photograph the food. But here’s us enjoying it:

And here’s the view of the Vatican from the balcony:

 

I’ll only say about this meal: single best one of my life. And the wine was just as exciting as every dish was.

It was a fitting send-off to the whole travel experience. Reba and I have an awful lot to reminisce about.