Italy 2024

 

Myung and I talked about going to Italy for a long time. She had never been to Europe at all. So finally, we went, for five weeks. Italy is obviously a country where one could spend a lot more time, but we figured that five weeks would be long enough for us at this point in our traveling lives. Endless backpacking is over for us. The only question was, do we make it open-ended and come back when we felt like it, or just buy round trip tickets and plan to return on a specific date? We chose the latter, also figuring we could change the return date for a charge. It turned out that five weeks was a good amount of time. We were ready to come back home right about then.

Our itinerary was to begin in Rome, where we landed, then go to Venice, Florence, more of Tuscany, Salerno/ Pompeii, and finally Sicily. We mostly went to places tourists usually go, but also had the time to wander a certain amount by not being compulsive about seeing “everything”. I uploaded not too many photos. Most people have seen many pictures of Italy, and I don’t need to show too much of what everybody has already seen many times.

In Rome, we went to three or four of the most popular museums. There is something about seeing famous art in person. You get better appreciation, of course. I most wanted to see Bernini’s sculptures, which I didn’t have a memory of from 44 years ago. In fact, I didn’t really remember seeing them at all.

I suggest you go to Full Screen to view the photos. Most of them are tall and you won’t be able to see the whole photo without scrolling down through it.

Everybody appreciates how Pluto’s fingers grip Persephone’s soft thigh.

How many pictures do we have of ruins? Too many. You’ve seen hundreds of those pictures, and I don’t have any which offer any new perspectives. So here’s the one I’ll post. You’ve seen it, too.

Altogether, we spent six days in Rome. That was enough. We saw museums, ruins, the Vatican, lots of art, Appian Way, other notable places, and wandered. We had our semi-timeline, and the crowds and city business were becoming oppressive (though it’s much worse during the tourist season), so it was time to go. That said, it’s not too hard to lose the crowd. There are nice places to chill out and get a view.

From there, we took the train to Venice. To me, Venice is practically a theme park. Myung wanted to see it, though, which is reasonable if you’ve never seen it. We wandered around there for three days, seeing the usual stuff, taking the usual pictures, enjoying the narrow alleys and bridges, watching glassblowing on Murano, and riding around on the vaporetto water buses. Here are a few photos. I’ll spare you St. Mark’s.

From there, it was off to Florence. Again, we did things one would expect with a few days in Florence. It was here where we started to focus on the food.

The Uffizi Gallery was the highlight. We have photos from in there, lots of them, but you can look at them online. I’ll just post these of Florence.

Then we spent a couple of days in Siena. I liked Siena. No crowds. It seemed very liveable to me. It’s got its medieval and Renaissance sites, but it’s functional.

After that, we did one of the things I was looking forward to, driving around Tuscany. Though driving in the little lanes of medieval towns was not fun, but it was fun to cruise around leisurely, looking at the countryside and having the freedom to explore without relying on public transportation, as good as that is in Italy. (Aside, few people pay on the buses in Italy. People just get on and get off where they like. The drivers don’t care.) Tuscany is full of quaint towns and villages, perfect for strolling through picturesque lanes in these old places. We went around Val d’Orcia, Pienza, San Gimignano, Montepulciano, Pitigliano, Sovana and a couple of places I can’t remember right now. For the most part, these places are well-known destinations, but at this time of the year, it is pretty quiet. In fact, the economies are dependent on tourists, so many hotels, restaurants and shops are closed. Fortunately, Airbnb’s are almost always available, and that’s where we stay almost all the time.

Above is Pitigliano.

From there, we went all the way down to Salerno. We wanted to go to Sicily, and Salerno is on the way. We thought about going to Naples, but decided not to tackle another big city just then. Salerno is nice, another liveable city with sites for the tourist.

And it’s close to Pompeii. Both of us have interest in ancient history, so Pompeii was a must. We were going to see the Greek temple near Paestum, but skipped it because we were going to Sicily, where there is a lot of that.

We also took the ferry to one of the most popular towns on the Amalfi Coast, Positano. Nice ride. Sort of crowded again. though.

From there, we went to Sicily. They just roll the train cars onto the ferry, and you continue on from Messina.

We rented a car again. Driving westward on the southern coast, the first stop was Taormina. Taormina is probably the most popular tourist destination in Sicily, outside of Palermo. It is most famous for the Greek amphitheater.

But it’s plenty nice all over town. A couple of days there is just about right.

Then we went to Ortigia, old town Syracuse.

Then it was on to the picturesque towns of Noto and Ragussa, with their cute, narrow lanes.

Then we went to Agrigento, where the Talley of Temples is. There are a couple of kilometers of Greek ruins there.

Finally, our time in Italy was winding down. We spent the last few days in Palermo. Palermo is definitely a big, busy city, but had a rich history. One can easily walk around there for several days.

I could go on and on with photos of monumental buildings, fountains and the like. but this post getting too long. So I’m going to wrap this up. Oh, wait. There are the scrumptious intestine burgers. They really are good.

I’ve skipped over a lot, like churches and food. I did want to add these two items because I like the photo and the video of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo.

Okay. So this is it. I’m done. In conclusion, we had a great time.

Be well, all of you.