Italy

Okay. It's been just over a month since we got home from our lovely Europe trip. :) Suppose I'll actually post some more. (If you want a quick refresher on our itinerary, check here.)

I'm going to start with observations and thoughts about Italy...and a very small sampling of photos...

First, some general thoughts:

• People in Italy smoke. A lot. Coming from a community where there is very little smoking (and, particularly, very little public smoking), we’ve come to take fresh air for granted.
• In Italian, “pepperoni” means bell peppers. If you order a pepperoni pizza, expect bell peppers. ;) (Micah and Noah both ordered this our first night in Rome, lol.)
• When you order a pizza in Italy, it doesn't come sliced. Unless ordering just a slice (which seemed to only be available at very touristy fast food areas), we didn't eat at a single place where the pizza came already sliced. Slicing pizza with the knives provided at the table was tricky. We still have no idea how one was *supposed* to eat the pizza. ;) If we hadn't been traveling as much as we were, we'd have considered buying a pizza cutter to carry with us, lol.
• Even “bad” gelato is good. (Our food tour guide was awesome and instructed us to always look for food a bit further away from tourist attractions; and, specifically, to look for gelato that was not heaping (pumped full of air) or covered in toppings. We did our best, but sometimes you just want the nearest gelato, lol.)
• You can’t rush Italian meals at restaurants. Expect for them to be leisurely.
• Apparently, parking is allowed anywhere. ;)
• We decided Italians are so fit because they walk everywhere and have to be able to squeeze into their tiny cars, which are often parked very close to other tiny cars.
• Maybe so many of the statues are naked because it was easier to sculpt them naked. Sculpting the details of fabric in marble seems very tricky.
• Ice in drinks appeared limited to cocktails. We did adjust to not having ice in everything but also appreciated it when we got home. :) 
• At train stations, if you get there early (because of early check out times or a desire to get some food first or just because you prefer to be early), don’t expect to find out which platform you’ll be at until about 30 minutes before departure (or less). People tended to mill around the big display boards waiting for the information to be posted and then everyone would hurry to where they needed to be. It was a different experience from airports in the US where we tend to get to our assigned gate early and then venture out for food or to use the bathroom or to finish up some shopping or whatever.
• Remember to take humidity into account when doing laundry! None of the places we stayed at had a dryer (only a washing machine), and the boys’ laundry (cotton tees and jeans) took a long time to air dry. (I brought portable clotheslines, though, which helped.)

• If possible, on the buses in Rome, don’t stand at the back of the bus if it’s summer. The engine is back there and gets hot. Of course, most of the times we used the buses it was plenty crowded so there wasn’t much choice.
• Throughout Italy, if you sit down at a table, they expect to serve you like at a restaurant…which takes longer and generally costs more. If you just buy something from the counter or bar, don’t expect to be able to sit at one of the tables there; those are reserved for people who will sit and be served.
• Dress appropriately. At many of the churches throughout Italy, shoulders and knees must be covered to be admitted. When we went to the Vatican, for example, I made sure to wear one of my longer skirts and brought a scarf to cover my shoulders. 

And now some thoughts specific to each city we home-based from...

ROME

• Rome has plentiful public fountains. Beyond the fancy, famous ones, they have lovely little Nasoni fountains everywhere. (I believe “Nasoni” means something related to the nose? It’s descriptive of the spigot.) We were told that unless there was a sign saying otherwise to assume that you could drink from any of these fountains. (There’s even an app to find them, though we found the app slower than just looking around.) So glad we each carried a water bottle every day. We definitely used the fountains to stay hydrated.

• Highly recommend the Eating Italy food tours!! We were staying in Trastevere, so did the Trastevere for Foodies tour and absolutely loved it. We scheduled it for our first full day in Rome, figuring it would help us learn some of the local customs and cuisine right off the bat…and it did just that! We learned about local specialties, were instructed on how to order things and what to look for, and tasted so much deliciousness. 
• Our food tour guide (an Italian married to an American) also instructed us on being pedestrians in Rome…explaining that we needed to be confident and proactive, that if we waited to see if a car would stop for us, they wouldn’t. 
• Ostia Antica is a lovely alternative to day tripping from Rome to Pompeii. It’s closer and has more shade among the ruins.

• We bought the 48 hour Roma Passes for each of us. We didn’t utilize it as much as we could have but got our money’s worth using it to skip the line at the Colosseum and for public transportation during those 48 hours. (Note, we purchased these when in Rome, as you had to pick them up in person anyhow.)

• Definitely get your tickets to the Vatican Museums ahead of time! (The Vatican isn’t included in the Roma Passes since it’s not technically part of Rome.) Even if you’re not doing a guided tour, you can buy your tickets online. Having that printout means you get to use the WAY shorter line to get inside. This actually was true for most of the places we visited.
• Visiting the Vatican Museums usually ends with the Sistine Chapel. If you’re standing inside and facing away from the altar, exit through the rear RIGHT door if you’re heading to St Peter’s next (and you don’t have an audio guide that needs to be returned). Going through the right door will save you walking all the way around the outside and going through security again. (Note. From my reading, the rear right door is generally reserved for tour groups. Just join the crowd; no one will check. Also, apparently, they don’t always use both doors so cross your fingers.) We did this and were able to immediately get in the short line to climb St Peter’s dome.

FLORENCE

• Wake up early and enjoy the quiet. We started earlier in the day (before 9, so not crazy early) and the city was just waking up.
• We bought the Firenze Cards (just for Nathan and I…generally, kids under 18 were free, so it didn’t make sense to buy a card for the boys). We’re not sure if they actually paid off but were definitely more convenient. The card allows entrance to 72 attractions over 72 hours with priority access, meaning shorter or no lines. (Again, we bought these in Florence, as there was no option to have them shipped ahead of time. I think now, though, there is an option to get a digital pass, though that’s very recent.)
• Climbing the Duomo (dome) is one of the few things that still required a reservation even with the Firenze Card. A great alternative is climbing the Campanile (bell tower). The line is considerably shorter, no reservation is required, and you’ll have a great view of the Duomo.

• We were in love with the Mercato Centrale. The downstairs level had all sorts of booths with meats and cheeses and bread and other yumminess…basically a giant farmers market. The upstairs level had food and drink vendors. We went there for many of our meals in Florence, as we could each go to whichever booth we wanted and grab food then sit altogether at the tables in the middle. So convenient and delicious!

• Just outside the Mercato Centrale was a street lined with vendors selling scarves, leather goods, souvenirs, paper goods, and the like. Given how often we visited the market, we became rather familiar with the street vendors and noticed that you can definitely get a better bargain if you wait and go later in the day, just before they start packing up. 
• We loved visiting Pisa (easy day trip from Florence) and climbing the Leaning Tower! They’re very strict there…you must check all bags and be on time for your scheduled ticket. We rather appreciated that, though, as it meant things were running smoothly and were less crowded.  

• Get gelato at Venchi! Not only was it delicious and with flavors we didn’t find elsewhere, but the service there was terrific. (Asher accidentally dropped his cone just outside the shop. I went inside to buy him another and the staff gave it to me at a considerable discount.)
• I know people like the Palazzo Vecchio museum and the Uffizi Gallery. We didn’t find them to live up to the hype. I’m thinking, though, that may partly have been because we’d already been to the Vatican museum which was so packed full of similar era items. Just beyond the Uffizi, though, you can go to the Galileo Museum. My sciencey guys and I much preferred that and it was considerably less crowded.

VENICE

• Venice is full of free exhibits. We had no idea…just happened to chance upon them and absolutely loved the ones we visited. We particularly enjoyed the architecture and design ones we found. 
• It was lovely not having to watch for cars. Could have done with less humidity, though. :) (I’m guessing that’s just personal preference, as I’m so used to the dry climate at home. I wouldn’t say that it was overly humid…just more than I liked.)  
• Learning and adjusting to vaporettos (water taxis) took a bit but we managed. 
• Micah and I loved shopping at the many little shops on Murano before we visited the glass museum there. 
• The island of Burano also has a leaning tower, though you can’t really get to it and climb it. We mostly just enjoyed walking through the very colorful houses and shops, grabbed some gelato, and then headed out again. If you need to do some portraits, this would be a grand spot for it!

• We didn’t leave enough time to actually tour anything in Venice, though we’d intended to go to the Correr Museum and the Doge’s Palace. Given more time, we’d definitely enjoy more of Venice.

Okay, that's no where near everything but is a fair start. :) Paris and London will be up next...