Gelato preview

This past Saturday evening, Ryan and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.  We had a nice dinner at Cantina Laredo in Mall of America and calling our name nearby was a gelato shop.  So, of course, after we had a little post dinner walk we had to stop and get a little preview of the treat we'll encounter frequently in October!

We enjoyed and shared a cup with 4 different flavors: hazelnut, tiramsu, amaretto, and peach melba.  It was fabulous - great flavor and so creamy!  

Santa Marinella - YouTube Video

I love the technology that the internet and Google Earth provide,  that lets us preview the areas we will visit.  This is a cool video I found about Santa Marinella (on our scheduled beach stop toward the end of our trip).

Planning: Roma

Rome is the first and last city we'll see on our Italian adventure.  It is a "big" tourist city, but there is so much to see here.  It should be a comfortable first stop for a number of reasons.  First, having been there before I have some familiarity with the town, and second there are a number of great tourist resources (Walks of Italy tours, hop on hop off bus, etc.) that we can take advantage of.

This trip I want to make sure we leave time to relax, wander and discover things without being on a strict agenda.  On the other hand, wanting to make sure to hit some highlights and make the most of our days in this fabulous city.  Since we are not taking a planned tour, we can really dictate what we choose to do and when.

Here is my brainstorming for our first two days in Rome.

Day 1 day/afternoon: arrive train to Termini station, find hotel, explore, maybe a hop-on-hop-off bus tour

Day 1 evening: Walks of Italy Twilight Stroll tour w/ gelato, dinner

Day 2: daytime visit Colosseum, Roman Forum, Villa Borghese, evening Vatican City w/ tix for courtyard happy hour and museum entrance.  

Dreaming in Italian

Ciao!  Il mio nome è Kristin.  

Having studied Spanish in high school, I noticed on my first trip to Italy, that the languages are very similar.  When thinking about our trip this fall I've starting pinning language tips on Pinterest, listening to a language CD on occasion during my commute, practicing with the free Rosetta Stone Travel Italian app on my phone - and borrowing the Rick Steves' Italian Phrase book that my parents had from their trip to Rome last fall.

Tips I've picked up on from blogs and other articles (and past history) are:

1. Try.  Try to speak the language.  When traveling to another country be prepared to "give it a shot" and know a few key/polite phrases.
2. I've read Italians dislike when folks start speaking Spanish to them - yes the languages are similar, but they are not the same.  So, I'm hoping to avoid this mistake!
3. "il conto" = the bill (when you are ready to pay and leave a restaurant); "il canto" = the singing (resulting in your waiter looking at you sideways and singing for you :)

These are some useful infographics that I know I'll be referring to in October!

 

Planning: Where to stay?

Planning and research are fun and exhausting at the same time.  There is a plethora of resources, advice, Pinterest suggestions etc. that were used to narrow down the hotels we'll be staying at on our trip.  It is an extra challenge to coordinate all the details of a trip yourself vs. going on a planned tour but fingers crossed the locations/hotels we've picked will serve us well.

Resources used:

• Prior Experience (I liked the location near Roma Termini train station of our hotel, Royal Court, during my 2001 trip so we focused in that general area for Rome.  I don't have the best memories of our Florence hotel, so looked for other options this time around).
• Blogs, Pinterest
• Expedia, Trip Advisor, Oyster (great site with reviews and room pictures of most hotels), Booking.com

Rome:
The reviews/ratings and roof top garden drew us to the Hotel Diana Roof Garden in Rome.  This is where we'll spend our first two nights.

Florence:

After much research and reading reviews, finally settled on Casa del Garbo in Florence.  This small inn is located right in the Piazza della Signoria, right in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.  We'll be in the heart of Florence with the below view out the front of the hotel for the next 3 nights of our trip.

Venice:

Next stop is Venice for 2 nights.  Again, after much research and comparison "shopping" decided upon the Best Western Hotel Olimipa in Venice.  After reading what felt like millions of reviews and studying a map of Venice this seemed like a great option.  It is close to the Santa Lucia train station, so we won't have to wander too far and over too many bridges with our luggage when we arrive.  

Santa Marinella:

Heading back down south, I mentioned in a prior post, the plan is to head to the beach for a night. The hotel options in Santa Marinella are limited, but the Hotel Villa delle Palme looks beautiful and is right on the water!

Rome:

Final hotel, final evening in Italy.  We will be back in Rome, and decided to save a few dollars (we'll have some extra gelato!) and stay somewhere different from where we'll be the front end of our trip.  Also for nostalgia sake, we'll spend our last night in the Hotel Royal Court where I stayed in 2001.   The location is perfect near Roma Termini train station and I have fond memories of their cute courtyard and cappuccino with breakfast.