Tourfolio

I now know what la dolce vita (”the sweet life” in Italian) really means after traveling to Rome, Naples, Venezia and Sicily during a European cruise. The idea of going on this cruise was thought of by my parents to get the entire family together before life gets a bit tougher with everyone either in college or entering the working world.

These are my travel notes, from what I remember, during my trip to Italy with my family.

Rome (Roma):

1. The day began by flying across the pond from Newark, NJ to Rome, Italy, with a connecting flight in between to Amsterdam, Belgium. Once we landed in Rome, we took a taxi ride to our hotel (Albergo Della Lunetta), located a few seconds away from Campo de’ Fiori. The hotel did not have the typical American amenities, but who cares for them when you want to see the normal way of life in a country. I dropped my bags off at the hotel and decided to explore the surrounding area, just to get my bearings straight, so why not Campo De’ Fiori first? This rectangular plaza holds a fresh good market on the weekdays; however, I just missed this by a few hours as it was mid-afternoon. I met up with a few family members and we all decided on getting a local beer and people watch in the plaza.




2. The next few days spent in Rome, Italy was visiting the typical tourist sites, such as; Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Vatican, as we only had a few days before going boarding our cruise ship to reach Naples, Sicily and then Venice.




3. As touristy as it sounds everyone should visit the Colosseum, just based on the sheer historical factor that about an estimated 500,000 people and over 1,000,000 animals have died in the Colosseum games. I saw a lot of people try to take pictures with locals dressed up as Roman soldiers or gladiators, but be wary as if you take a picture of them, you are supposed to tip them. They did get a bit angry at a few people from what I saw.






4. We got to the Vatican pretty early as we were told that the lines to enter can get pretty long at times. Speaking of churches and such, let me remind the men reading this that you CANNOT wear shorts in churches in Italy, while women CANNOT wear short skirts, dresses, or shorts. The rule of thumb I was told is not to show your knees. Secondly, for the women, be careful showing your shoulders while entering a church, as you will not be allowed to enter. They might have scarves at the entryway, but if not, you probably should wear clothing that does now showcase your shoulders (e.g., no tank tops). With that being said, I highly recommend to anyone to explore the Vatican or any other local churches throughout Rome or even Italy for that matter. The history behind each of them is so overwhelming.




5. As our time in Rome came to an end, we all took a taxi to Civitavecchia, a port town located northwest of Rome. I always despise waiting to board a cruise ship as it seems to take forever. The next stop on this cruise would be Naples, mostly known for the Island of Capri, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.





Naples (Napoli):

6. We arrived at Naples and disembarked to meet the driver of the private luxury van company to transport us down the Amalfi Coast. The roads were beyond twisty and curvy, which made a few family members of mine pretty sick due to how steep some of the cliff faces. We stopped at a restaurant right off the road, as it was recommended by our driver. We ordered many different local favorites that included mostly shellfish and pasta. Delicious! On top of the great food, we also had a great view of the Mediterranean Sea through the open windows.




7. While we did not have time to visit the Blue Grotto at the Island of Capri, we did manage to make our way to Pompeii to see the destruction brought on by Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. As told within numerous history text books, the volcano erupted on August 24th and buried the towns of Pompeii and other smaller nearby settlements in nearly 2.8 meters (9 feet) of pumice. I found it amazing to see many of the buildings still standing with no damage. This helped me visualize what life was like in these barren streets with guides leading tourists around. It was a bit breathtaking to see the towering Mount Vesuvius in the distance, along with the outline of the crater. I was also surprised by the teams of archeologists still on-site within the ruins of Pompeii who were still excavating buried items.





Sicily:

8. The next stop on the trip was to the largest island, Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea to visit Taormina and Mount Etna.




9. We made our way by bus to Taormina, the Gem of Sicily, in which was filled with various stores selling souvenirs and postcards. Once we made our way past all the touristy shops we reached the ancient Greek theater that Andrea Bocelli once performed on. I couldn’t imagine how neat it would have been to watch this performance with the local environs.




10. We re-boarded the bus and drove towards Mount Etna, one of the three active volcanoes within Italy (as of August 2005). It was intense to walk up volcanic rocks along the side of the mountain. If I was to do it again, I would have left the sandals on the ship and brought some sneakers as those rocks ripped my feet apart on my trek. It was crazy to look down on the craters formed by the continuous eruptions knowing that at some point they had the ability to be devastating.




Venice (Venezia):

11. Our second to last stop in Italy was the famous island city of Venice, known for the water canals, gondolas and Venetian masks. While travel on gondolas is mostly used for tourists, weddings or other ceremonies, it is rarely used by locals, considering how expensive it is to travel on them (80 euros for about 30 minutes). The locals use the vaporetti (”water taxi”) to make their way through the canals which is more budget friendly. A few cultural landmarks to stop by at while in this city should be; Saint Mark’s Square (known for the way to friendly pigeions), Saint Mark’s Basilica, The Rialto Bridge and The Bridge of Sighs.




12. On a side note for parents of those families with older teenagers or young adults is to give them time to make friends near their ages on a cruise ship. We formed a group of about fifteen of us or so on the cruise ship that led us to explore Venice at night and hang out at a local’s bar. This was great time as it allowed us to talk with locals in broken Italian and learn more of the city. This led us to get a bit tipsy by the end of the night in which we drank a few more beers on the vaporetti back to the cruise ship. Overall, good times for all involved.





Florence (Firenze):

13. Finally, we reached the port city of Livorno on the western coast of Italy. We disembarked the cruise ship and boarded our private van to head east into the center of Tuscany. The van dropped us off near the Accademia dell’Arte del Disegno (Academy of the Fine Arts) allowing us to quickly get in line to view Michelangelo’s Statue of David. If you do not wish to view the original statue, they also have a reproduction of the statue that sits outside in Palazzo Vecchio. It’s also important to know that you CANNOT take pictures of the statue as the guards will yell at you. My sister found this out the hard way. If you want to take pictures, I recommend you find the reproduction in Palazzo Vecchio.




14. The rest of the cruise brought us to Dubrovnik (Croatia), Nice (France) and Barcelona (Spain), which were all amazing; however, due to the limited time at each of these countries my travel notes are a bit sparse. If you are looking for additional photos from these countries, please check out my Flickr.com Photostream.