Has anyone been to Italy??

[Lucinda]

As a last trip before starting dialysis next month, I am going to Italy for a few weeks.  I have never been there before.  We are going to Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan, Portofino, Verona, Venice and Naples.  We are doing the obvious tours but if anyone has any tips about what we should do then I would be very grateful.  We are staying an average of two days in each place.  Any help would be warmly appreciated. xx

[Sunny]

If you are planning on going to the major museums, book reservations for your time slot in advance wherever possible.
This works to see "The David" in Florence, "The Last Supper" in Milan, "The Cistene Chapel" in Rome, etc. Maybe a travel agent will know exactly how to do this or maybe you can do this on the WEB now. All I know, is that if you don't plan for this, you will be waiting in very long lines or miss out altogether. Have fun. The food is great and the Italian people are nice.

[monrein]

It's been a long time since I visited Italy but I really like the Michelin Green Guides to various areas.  I've not used them for Italy, more for France but they're usually pretty reliable. You might want to check them out in a bookshop or possibly library, since it might get a bit expensive to buy them for all the regions ,but I usually find them helpful with what-not- to-miss type info and it's not always the standard touristy stuff. 

Other than that, I'm simply green myself, with envy.    

[twirl]

would you eat a real pizza from Italy and describe every bite to me
( that is my dream)

[pelagia]

Oh Lucinda, you will have a wonderful trip!

You can easily fill two days in Rome with the big stuff.  I've been all around the world, but still found ancient Rome to be the most awe-inspiring. For me it was the Forum that was most amazing.

We stayed in a hotel near the Pantheon.  Just around the corner is the church where Galileo was excommunicated. It's called Santa Maria sopra Minerva.  You can get a great gelato across from the Pantheon (when looking out to the square from the entrance to the Pantheon, the gelato place is in the far right corner, or close to it).

We also enjoyed a quiet walk through the Jewish ghetto.

I haven't been to Florence

I went to a conference in Bologna back in 1990.  What I remember most about that city is the unfinished Duomo, Santa Stefano (a religious complex), and the unbelievably good food (also featured in all it's mouth-watering beauty in shop windows).  This is a region where you should eat Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and prosciutto di Parma ham.  And little almond candies (like marzipan) and cakes and cookies and...

From Bologna I took a day trip to Ravenna, known for its churches with amazing mosaics.  I also remember a wonderful "green sauce" served in this area with meat and fish.  It's made from parsley, giardinera (pickled vegetables), oil and

Milan is a busy, cosmopolitan city with very expensive clothes.  My Italian friends tell me that many Italian business women in northern Italy own only 1 or 2 suits that they wear everyday with a new blouse - but they save up to buy the best designer they can afford. 

We have friends who live north of the city in Busto Arsenio.  They take us driving in the hills north of Milan to a place called Sacro Monte di Varese  http://www.sacromonte.it/info_sacromonte.html.  It's a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Good for hiking around and lots of little places to have lunch.

Haven't been to Portofino... but I have been to Genoa (Genova to the Italians).  Eat seafood, gnocchi and pesto!

Naples... haven't been there either.  Probably the best place on the trip to plan to try aranciata (fried cheesy rice balls filled with tomato and meat sauce) based on what my Italian friends grandmas made for holidays - they were all from Naples or Sicily.

Verona - Romeo, Romeo, were for art thou Romeo?  While Romeo and Juliet are fictional characters, you can still visit a balcony said to be Juliet's.  I think the arena is the highlight in Verona.  If you are drinking wine, this would be a place to try Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) and risotto, which is big in the rice growing region of Italy .

Venice - we went to Venice on a very hot summer day and it was packed.  Try to have coffee at Caffe Florian on St. Mark's Square - very famous! http://www.caffeflorian.com/ 

I love going to the outdoor markets in any town.  I love food (can you tell) and a market is a great place to buy great cheeses, bread, ham, olives, fruit and nuts. All the attractions will start to look the same after awhile.  But it doesn't matter because you can have a great time in Italy just sitting in a square eating and drinking and watching people.  Have coffee or an italian soda or a campari and just soak it in. 

HAVE FUN!!!!!  (and have a Margherita pizza for Twirl!)

[Lucinda]

Thanks so much - espeically to Linda.  that was an epic post and extremely helpful!!  Because it really is my last trip minus the dialysis shackles we are spending the next 10 years holiday budget on one trip.  We are doing the hotel tour with Baglioni hotels. They all seem to be very central so we are staying with them the majority of our trip.  In Portofino we are staying at the Spendido and The Grand in Naples.

I will keep in contact while I am over there and if I can work out how to download pics on my new computer I will post them as well.  Sorry to the administrators in advance if I stuff that one up.  I might email them to RichardMel and get him to put them on the site for me.  He is good with that stuff. Maybe I should just take him with me!!! Now there's a thought.....

I don't eat pizza Twirl but just for you I am going to have a piece.  There is evidently a doctor at Modena Unversity who has put an Italian gourmet diet together for people with renal failure.  I am trying to track him down.  He went to university with a friend of mine who is now a cardiologist here in Sydney and he told me about him.  I will definitely post that if I can get my hands on it.

Thanks again for all the help. xxx

[paris]

My daughter studied in Austria and would visit Venice.  Her big tip is to take the history gondola ride, not the singing gondola.  Of course, she was a history majoy,  and said you can hear singing anywhere, but it was fascinating to have the history of what she was seeing explained.   Have a marvelous trip.  I firmly believe in not putting off until tomorrow what you can do today, especially when it comes to fun things.  Looking forward to seeing lots of pictures!

[pelagia]

and another thing I thought of this morning -- take the warnings about pick-pockets seriously.  My father, a very seasoned traveller, had his pocket picked in Rome by a woman and a baby!