No. of Recommendations: 5
DW and I are back from our 16-day trip to Bologna, Florence, and Rome. It was wonderful: good weather, relatively uncrowded, lots of inspiring and enjoyable things to see, experience ... and eat!
If you've not been to Italy or haven't been in a long time, I offer two recommendations. 1. Go! Find a way or make a way, but go. 2. If you possibly can, go in late November/early December. The weather is comfortably cool, the crowds are far less bothersome (or even nonexistent), and prices for flights, lodging, and even some attractions are reduced. Plus, the holiday lights and Christmas markets!
We bought train tickets online in advance for our trips between cities, using Rome2Rio. This not only reduces travel anxiety but can also save up to 50% on fares and lets you bypass queues at the ticket booths. We also bought advance tickets online to the Roman Colosseum and to the Vatican Museums.
We'd visited Bologna last year, and we've spent nearly a month altogether in Florence in recent years, so we didn't do much in the way of research for those legs of our trip, other than to see if there were any events we wanted to see (or potentially avoid). But I'd never been to Rome, and DW had been there for only a couple of days a half-century ago, and so we did a good deal of research ahead our five days there, including watching an informative Great Courses lecture series by a professor at the University of Toronto. All in all, we had a good idea of what we wanted to do in Italy, but other than the two big-name Roman attractions for which we got time/day-specific tickets, we left the rest to improvisation as the spirit and weather moved us. It worked out wonderfully.
Some highlights
Bologna. Piazza Maggiore; the Christmas Market; the walk beneath the 2.3-mile-long portico leading to the hilltop Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca; the Basilica of Santo Stefano, a conglomeration of seven churches dating back from as early as the 400s up through the 1100s; a day trip by train to Modena to visit that city’s Cathedral, Bell Tower, and City Hall on Piazza Grande, which comprise a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Florence. We stayed in the Santo Spirito neighborhood near the Pitti Palace, and hung out and dined on the lively piazza there. We walked directly into the Duomo, Pitti Palace, Boboli Garden, and the Bargello Museum: no lines, very light crowds. We sat in the sun and had coffee and cornetti at a cafe in Piazza di S. Pier Maggiore, wandered over to Sant' Ambrogio Market, along Borgo La Croce, filled with fascinating little shops and cafes, and visited the Christmas Market in Piazza di Santa Croce.
Rome. What a fascinating city! We’d rented a rooftop apartment on a tiny street off Campo de’ Fiori. After unpacking and doing a quick shop at a nearby grocery, we strolled down to the area of the former Roman Ghetto, where we stumbled upon the ancient Portico of Octavia and visited the 8th-century Church of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria, where an evening mass was in progress. On our first morning in Rome, we wandered through the lively market in Campo dei Fiori and continued on to Piazza Navona. From there we caught a city bus and went for a walk along the Appian Way. Later that day, we visited the Pantheon, waiting no more than 5 minutes in the "cash only" line to buy tickets (5 Euros). We strolled along Via del Corso with the evening passeggiata crowd.
Wednesday, our last full day in Rome, began with a visit to the Colosseum on a brilliantly sunny morning. From there we walked to the nearby entrance to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, which are included on the admission ticket. Although the Colosseum typically gets top billing, the Forum is at least as awe inspiring. We wandered amongst the ruins for a good two hours. Next, we hopped a tram to the Trastevere neighborhood, across the Tiber, where we ate lunch al fresco at a cafe facing the Basilica di Santa Maria. After lunch, we visited the Basilica, had gelato at the excellent Otaleg (“gelato” spelled backwards) gelateria nearby, and strolled back to our apartment via the 16th-century Ponte Sisto pedestrian bridge.
Vatican City. We visited St. Peter’s Basilica on a Tuesday morning and returned at 4:30 PM to visit the Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel. Other than a brief security check, there was virtually no queue to enter the Basilica and it was quite uncrowded. We gaped in awe for at least an hour. The entrance to the Museums is at the opposite end of Vatican City from St. Peter's Square. Once again, we experienced no delay in entering other than a brief security check. Using a tip we'd seen on YouTube, we headed directly to the Sistine Chapel and then backtracked to enjoy the other galleries at leisure. By that time (around 6 PM), we had the galleries virtually to ourselves and even made a second visit to the uncrowded Chapel. We finished the day with dinner at a pleasant Greek restaurant in the nearby Prati neighborhood.
