Rome Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Shared Adventures

These are a few of my favorite things..

September 28, 2017 by Ann Petronio Leave a Comment

Mother/daughter getaways….Surprises….Italy…The Sound of Music….need I go on? When Katrina contacted me to help put together a fabulous Italian adventure, and told me she wanted to surprise her mom Lori (a lifelong Sound of Music fan) with a stop in Salzburg at the end, I was all in! We managed to keep the secret until the very end, and the girls had an amazing and — as Katrina describes it — “life-changing” experience. I will be smiling for weeks 🙂

Hey Ann,

We had an absolutely phenomenal trip!! I feel like the order of things was perfect as we were thrown into the craziness right away in Rome and it only “lightened up” from there. All the hotels were great and very helpful in helping us get our bearings.

Rome was wonderful and we loved the history of everything. It truly made everything back home seem so inferior. The hotel (River Palace) was cozy and nice. The HOHO bus stop was a little further than expected, but once we figured it out we were all good. I did like that it was so close to the Piazza del Popolo which made it very easy to tell the (sometimes scary) taxi drivers where to take us. I also think the extra walking there sort of broke us both in. We could not believe the drivers there and how there were not more accidents. Also made me realize how bad our drivers here actually are 🙂

Florence was my mom’s favorite in Italy. The Bernini Palace hotel was absolutely perfect and we really didn’t want to leave. We had figured out the city and felt sort of at home by the end. I mentioned previously that the only hiccup in the itinerary was the thunderstorms, along with my mom being in some pain, kept us from taking the Pisa excursion. That ended up being a good rejuvenation day, so we don’t feel like we lost out on much. One complaint is the guide that we had for the Accademia. While he was knowledgeable and obviously passionate about art, he came off as extremely bitter and patronizing towards tourists. He belittled people for taking photos of a “naked man’s ass” after going on a rather lengthy rant about how this wasn’t a naked man. His name was Angelo, so I don’t know if you want to avoid that tour company or just him in the future, but definitely wanted to mention that. Our Vatican breakfast was such a cool experience and we truly felt like VIPs since we were in before the doors opened and got to eat out on this beautiful rooftop Plaza. We LOVED our guide, Gio.

Venice was my favorite as I love its charm and uniqueness. It was a challenge to find anything twice because there were many similar street names, but we had a blast getting lost in the streets. I would say fair warning that people should be careful of the porters at that train station. That was the first time they seemed a little aggressive and wanted to charge 10 Euros for carrying out bag down the stairs. The water taxi was very nice and was like a tour in itself. Perfect for arrival and dropped us off steps away from our hotel entrance (Hotel Bisanzio). It was pricey, so we took the water bus back to train station on the way out and it was pretty easy to navigate. Loved learning all of that! We preferred getting lost on the “back roads” and alleyways to the main thoroughfare to avoid the large crowds. It was always easy to find our way back to either San Marco or Rialto Bridge. The Murano/Burano trip was wonderful and I wish we could spend more time in either of those places.

Salzburg. Let’s start at the very beginning… (see what I did there?) I surprised my mom by sneaking in the bathroom while she was in the shower and playing the prelude to the Sound of Music. She jumped out and nearly ran out naked exclaiming “We’re going to Salzburg??” She was ecstatic. The train ride was absolutely breathtaking and you picked us the perfect seats. We sat next to a crazy man who refused to admit that he was in my mom’s seat. There were other empty seats so it was not a problem and we ended up going and sitting in the restaurant car for a while anyway. The only challenge ended up being a great learning experience. The train that we had booked only had about 10 minutes to catch the connection in Rosenheim, which would have been totally fine, but of course the train arrived 10 minutes late and by the time we got a few stops down it was saying 25 minutes delayed. I looked up other connecting trains in Rosenheim and was comforted knowing there were other options, however when we made it to Rosenheim we didn’t have time to get our luggage and get to the door before the train started moving again. We now know that one of us should have gone ahead and hit the button on the door (lesson learned). We ended up riding all the way into Munich and then getting a day ticket on their metro train (only 26 Euros for both) and it got us back to Salzburg. It was sort of like the Amazing Race 🙂 The Sound of Music tour was really great for fans of the movie and really the scenery would have been enjoyable to anyone. I have attached a photo that we took only from memory and only when we got back to the hotel/wifi did we look it up and see how close we got. Freaky!

Munich was great and it was wonderful to see our friends. The hotel (Pullman Munich) was very nice and in a perfect location. Also, two days at Oktoberfest was plenty 🙂

We seriously cannot thank you enough. While I mentioned the few challenges, I want you to know it was a perfect and frankly life-changing trip. Could not have been better.

Thanks so much for your help! I would recommend you to anyone planning a European adventure and now that we have the travel bug, I might reach out to you down the road for our next adventure.

I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Katrina

Strangest. Souvenir. Ever.

September 20, 2017 by Ann Petronio Leave a Comment

Andrea definitely wins the prize for the most unusual “souvenir” from her Italian honeymoon!! And I absolutely love all the details she remembered to report back to me. My clients truly are the best 🙂

Hi Ann,

Eric and I got back last night and had a GREAT time in Italy! We really appreciate all of your help planning and throughout the actual trip. Wanted to share a few highlights with you to let you know how everything went 🙂

Our United flight to Rome was really smooth and comfortable. We paid extra to get the premium economy seats to get the extra leg space and some other perks. We got a row with just two seats in it. So Eric got his window and I had my aisle 🙂 It was a pretty comfortable flight. When we landed we found our driver easily and got settled in the hotel. The hotel (Giulio Cesare) was very nice and comfortable. The first day we just walked around and explored Rome. We found Piazza del Popolo and enjoyed the space and shops. We had dinner at Su e Giu Cucina Romana, which ended up being one of the best Italian meals we had on the trip.

Our Vatican and Colosseum tours were great! The hotel was also close to a lot. If not walking distance, we figured out how to use the metro and used it quite a bit the rest of the time in Rome.

For our next stop, we took a taxi to the Rome train station. When we arrived at the Rome train station we were those confused American tourists, but figured it out. There was a “helpful” stranger or two, but just ignored them. Our train ride to Naples was smooth and comfortable. Our driver in Naples picked us up and we found him easily. There was a car accident near Sorrento, so our car ride to the hotel was about 2 and a half hours. We didn’t mind since we weren’t in a rush anywhere and just enjoyed the view, but to be cautious we bumped up our pick up time when leaving Sorrento just to be sure.

The Sorrento hotel (Grand Hotel Cesare Augusto) was nice, nothing fancy but did the trick! We were a 5 to 10 min walk from shops and the water. The first night we had dinner at Star Pub to get a break from Italian food (the burger there was REALLY good!). For our full day in Sorrento we took the ferry to Capri. The ferry was a little pricey, maybe 80 Euros in total for the both of us, and it was kind of hectic too, since it was so crowded with tourists and the ferry filled up fast. Nonetheless we made it to Capri, and planned on walking around and spending a few hours there. Well, when we got to the island we kind of wished we had planned ahead and booked a day tour because it’s a little confusing to book something once you’re on the island. But we just pulled up Google and read that Villa San Michele/Anacapri

/Scala Fenicia had the best views on the island. Google Maps told us it was a 25 minute walk. No problem. Well, we walked about a 10^th of a mile and then there were steps… lots of steps. We realized that Google Maps doesn’t clearly indicate altitude lol. The entire rest of our walk was steep cobblestone steps! Unknowingly, we walked up the famous Phoenician Steps. After our exhausting stair climbing journey we made it to the top of Anacapri, where we unexpectedly found plenty of cafés, shops, and tourists on a walking main street. The people walking around did not appear to have just climbed a thousand steps, so we were baffled on how all of these people got here and why no one was acknowledging that we just climbed these steps! Lol. We later found a plethora of taxis at the end of the main street and realized that this beautiful place was reachable by car lol. While there we enjoyed the view, did some shopping, and refueled with some pizza. The idea of facing the steps again, even though easier to go down, was daunting. So we paid 25 Euros for a cab ride back to the port to catch the ferry back to Sorrento. It was overall a pretty great day at Capri and one of the highlights of our trip.

That night we ate dinner by reservation at Ritorante Fuoro. This was probably our other best Italian dinner in Italy!

The next morning, we headed back to the Naples train station by the driver. The driver was great! We just caught our train in time since we’ve been unlucky with Sorrento traffic and of course it was a rainy morning causing traffic. Our train ride was comfortable, smooth, and pretty easy since we were now experienced Italian train riders 🙂

When we arrived in Florence it was easy to take a taxi to our hotel (River Hotel). We checked in… well then you know the rest from there about check in. lol. After some back and forth with the hotel, the third room was a charm, and we were quite comfortable the rest of the trip, but highly recommend only the renovated modern rooms that you booked for us. The second room they put us in was an unrenovated room (what they call to be “classic”) and was really out of shape and bathroom was beyond outdated. None of the rooms have controllable air so were still advised to use the breaker panel to turn off the air if we got cold. But there’s not too much you can do if you’re hot since there’s no way to lower the temperature.

We did quite a bit of walking in Florence. The hotel was tucked away in a more quiet area, and about 1.5 to 2.0 km from the central restaurants and shops we visited. Bus and taxi didn’t seem very viable since the streets are flooded with tourists, so walking was our mode of transportation (which was our rationale on why we could get extra gelato, lol). The Dan Brown Inferno Walking Tour was really good. Our tour guide was great and we had a small group of only five people. I never saw the movie, but I definitely want to now. The tour only spent about 10% of the time on the movie, the rest was history and was very interesting.

After the tour we had the day to explore – well, we ended up exploring a dentist office. I had an old filling that ended up falling out of my tooth (lovely, I know) and had an urgent dental matter. This was quite an anxious search for a dentist because foreign country dentistry is a world of unknown. We found an English speaking dentist (who had high Google reviews – because what else do I go by for an emergency!) and he ended up being fantastic. The office is Studio Odontoiatrico Firenze Guasti e Massai if you ever need to give a client a dental recommendation, lol. The dentist office was a general dentistry and the doctor spoke well enough English to get me through. The receptionist also spoke decent English. Comfortingly, everything about my dentist visit was comparable to a trip to an American dentist, minus the fluent English speaking. 440 euros later I had a new filling and it’s actually really good! My Florence souvenir was a new filling I’ll cherish forever.

The next day we had nothing officially planned and decided we wanted to see the leaning tower of Pisa. We didn’t book a tour, and just took the train as you recommended. It was only 16 Euros round trip per person and we got to see the tower in person and get photos.

The next morning we took a 15 euro taxi ride to the Florence train station to head to Venice. The train ride was easy and comfortable. Once we got out of the train station and ready to head to the hotel we assessed our options. The water bus was about 14 Euros total, while a private water taxi was asking for 70 euros. So the water bus it was. The ferry system from the train station to the island is a bit confusing, but your instructions and map were clear. We didn’t end up taking the water bus number 2 to San Zaccaria, by our own fault. We took bus number 5.1 which also had a stop to San Zaccaria, so it worked out.

The Venice hotel, Hotel Bisanzio, was great. This was our favorite hotel for location, staff, room, etc. from our trip. (Our next favorite hotel was Rome). For our first day in Venice we decided that we needed a break from hotel breakfast (all the hotels’ breakfasts were pretty similar), but there really weren’t many place in Venice for breakfast or brunch. We found a cute café called the Florian. It’s pretty fancy and pricey, but you get what you paid for. They have a cover charge of 6 Euros per person which they call their “music charge”. There’s a live music group with piano, violin, singing, etc. while you eat. Kind of reminded me of high tea in London. There’s lots of little sandwiches, specialty coffees, hot chocolates, teas, etc. while you relax and enjoy the music. After Florian we headed to our tour and gondola ride. There was rain in the forecast so they had us do the gondola ride before the walking tour. It was pretty awesome! The tour afterwards was just about an hour and was nice to hear some history and other information about the city.

For our final meal in Italy, we spent it at the Hard Rock Café of Venice lol. We needed a change from gnocchi and lasagna. Our last night we debated between the Alilaguna Ferry and private water taxi to get back to the airport the next morning. The ferry was cheap (17 Euros per person), while the private water taxi was 120 euros. The ferry would take 1.5 hrs because of all the stops, while the private water taxi takes only 25 minutes. We knew we had a long day ahead of us with flights and a connection, so we splurged and did the private water taxi. They picked us up at the water way right behind our hotel and took us directly to the airport. In my opinion, it was well worth the money… Eric needed a little convincing but I think he’s glad we did it. We had a long day of flying and got to our house by 10:30 pm EST Saturday and went straight to bed.

We had an absolutely fantastic honeymoon! Everything went SO smoothly. We even said multiple times – thank god Ann planned this all out because there is no way we would have figured out any of this! We are both so happy with our trip and will forever remember it for our lifetime!

THANK YOU!

Andrea & Eric

Amalfi Dreamin’

August 2, 2017 by Ann Petronio Leave a Comment

Is there any place more romantic and relaxing than Italy’s Amalfi Coast? I’m not sure, but after reading this trip report from honeymooners Meg and Henry, I’m ready to pack my bags and go!

Hi Ann!

We had an amazing honeymoon! Thank you so much for helping us set it all up.

I think it was really nice to have a few relaxing days in Gaeta to recover from the craziness of the wedding. The hotel (Grand Hotel le Rocce) was beautiful, clean and had a fantastic small private sandy beach set several steps down the cliff-side. It was nice having the rental car for this part of the trip, we were able to take the short drive into the little city of Gaeta, do some sight seeing and explore some restaurants and bars. We got down to Sorrento and dropped the car off without issues, we ended up taking the ~35min taxi to Positano from there (~65 euro).

Positano was awesome. Hotel Posa Posa was adorable and they were extremely friendly. They ended up giving us a free upgraded room with a balcony once they found out it was our honeymoon. We hit up Fornillo beach a couple of days there, all the way down the many stairs that start right outside Posa Posa, we enjoyed this beach much better than the Main Beach. Our favorite Restaurant for dinner in Positano was Ristorante Max. It was a little more expensive, but a great experience. We did our boat cruise that my bridesmaids got us, through the company Amalfi Sails. This was an amazing private day trip to and around Capri and up the Amalfi coast, allowed us to do some swimming off the boat and lunch on Capri before heading back to Positano.

Praiano was also great! Hotel Pellegrino was very nice, clean, and updated. What made this hotel stand out was the hospitality from its owner Luigi, he was so welcoming and gave it a nice small family run business feel. He also made an amazing breakfast each morning! We enjoyed walking down the many steps to Gavitella beach. It was definitely more quiet of a town, and without one town center but a string of shops/restaurants closer to the hotel Pellegrino as well some cute seaside restaurants by the main Marina di Praia Beach.

Likely our favorite thing we did was the day trip to Le Vigne di Raito. Fabrizio was great for the transfer ( i think next time we would save some money by taking the ferry from Positano to Salerno then taxi to the vineyard, and taxi/transfer from the vineyard back to the hotel). We had a blast walking through the Vineyard and learning about the wine-making process, then had an amazing 4 course lunch with plenty of wine tasting at the top with a beautiful view! We brought some delicious wine from there home with us.

The trip up to Rome was easy with the transfer/train ride. Hotel Siena was small, but clean and updated and in a great central location. Our Vatican and Colosseum tours were great! I think if we did it again we would only have spent two nights in Rome. The transfer to airport was smooth as well.

Thanks again Ann! Let us know if you have any other specific questions we can answer for you.

Best,

Meg and Henry

Easy, Breezy Italy

January 27, 2017 by Ann Petronio Leave a Comment

Loved, loved, loved receiving this feedback from Jaime and Matt! Not just because they had such a fabulous time in Italy, but because it was the little touches (great guides, fabulous and reliable drivers, pre-arranged train tickets, and helpful concierges) that made such an impression on them. Anyone can plan a trip to Italy, but a true travel professional knows how to make it all seamless so that you can just relax and enjoy the ride 🙂

Hi Ann!

We can’t thank you enough for your amazing planning expertise. Our trip was wonderful and your itinerary made it so easy. I could have seen us making some mistakes with language barriers and perhaps booking trains and maybe making an error so we both agreed it felt so nice to have a professional take care of all the arrangements so we could just relax and enjoy!! Not to mention the hotels were amazing and in great locations.

I’ll start with Aer Lingus… really nice flight, the red eye on the way there was a bit difficult. I was a zombie pretty much the first day but we did push through as you recommended and I was fine the next day. On the way back, Aer Lingus was a bit hard to find in the airport in Venice but we also arrived 3 hours early so we had to wait for them to set up their check in. That could be a bit confusing for people if they arrive early like we did… also Aer Lingus seemed to share check in space with Jet Blue. The flight back was much better as we got back around 8 pm from Boston and it was really 2 am for us so we were able to go right to sleep and then wake up this morning being fully rested and ready to go to work. It was helpful that we cleared security in Dublin and when we made it back to Boston we were already done. It was nice you gave us a heads-up because that could potentially be a bit confusing it seemed like we had to go through twice.

Our driver who met us at the airport in Rome was wonderful and awaited us with a sign with our names. Made it super easy and nice to have someone waiting. He even bought us a cappuccino since our driver was running a few minutes behind schedule but our driver was amazing! So helpful, informative and spoke great English… I would definitely use Rome Cabs again!

River Palace was awesome! The people at the desk were so helpful and informative. They gave us a complimentary bottle of wine. The hotel was in a great location. We felt very safe and were able to walk to sites. The concierge provided a map and circled places of interest, called cabs, and were just generally friendly and helpful. It really felt like a little home for the few days we were there. I loved all the detail you provided on the itinerary about local city tax and credit card for incidentals… etc… just helped us know what to expect. The concierge also confirmed our tours for us!

We loved our tour guide for our Colosseum tour. His name was Gigi he was so passionate about the information and very funny! The only thing I would say about this tour is again we arrived very early to the meeting place and were a little worried because it wasn’t an office it was just a park, but as soon as it got closer to the time of the tour we saw plenty of people also waiting, i think initially we just weren’t sure we were in the right place.

Our Vatican tour was also really great, we liked that the meeting place was in an office and we actually showed up right on time for this one so we were very lucky it was easy to find!

Next we set off for the Naples train station. We were happy you shared to be vigilant. We didn’t run into any problems but we did witness a man take advantage of some ladies traveling alone. He grabbed their luggage despite their protest and took the bags on the train, then he stood there until they gave him some money and when they gave him one euro he was not happy and let them know it!! Just another heads-up story for people about the train station. He wasn’t in uniform but wore clothes very similar to one and was sort of an imposter, asking to see people’s tickets to try to confuse them into thinking that he was an employee and then grabbed their bags and demanded tips.

Next we met our absolute favorite driver!! His name was Carmine and he was just the sweetest! He was practically giving us a tour on our drive and was super friendly! The only thing was we thought we could pay by credit card and he said it was cash only so we were just happy we had enough…

Posa Posa was a great hotel in Positano. It was more basic and more beachy feeling with a tile floor and just basic furniture, did not have a luxury feel like the Rome hotel but we were happy with the mix. Plus, the balcony was amazing! We literally woke up to a view of the sea, it had a table and chairs out there so we were able to sit and drink wine and relax!! That was our same view for the breakfast each morning as well! The people working at this hotel were also very nice and helpful with anything we needed. It was a great location. A few restaurants in Positano that we greatly recommend are di Vincenzo’s, Constantinos, and a very cool experience where you get taken to a place without a menu and they serve you a 6 course meal for 40 euros made by “mama” called La Tagliata. We hiked the Path of the Gods while we were there and took a boat to Capri which we recommend. Our driver back to Naples was also very nice, (he knows you) Fabrizio.

The trains that you booked were fast and easy. We loved not having to purchase tickets and just having to hand them to the staff!!!

Our Florence hotel was amazing!!! So swanky haha… the breakfast was quite impressive!! They hooked us up with some champs, and aperitivo, when we arrived. I think if we had to do it all over again, we would have done one more night to explore more in Florence and one less night in Venice, just our personal preference.

The only time we “messed up” was we didn’t realize you booked our rental car pick up at 10 am and we didn’t show up until 12-1. It didn’t end up being an issue. We picked up the car and put it in a lot so we could spend a few more hours exploring Florence before driving out into the countryside.

The next part of the trip was probably our favorite!!! We absolutely loved Radda in Chianti! The view from our room in our hotel looked like a back drop or a painting!!! We absolutely loved this hotel and Linda our favorite receptionist. She sent us to 3 wineries, one a small family run and two others, one was a castle, and one an old monastery. We did not expect so much history on our wine tasting tour but it was so interesting!! The mom and pop winery gave us a free tour and tasting and of course we bought some amazing wine! But it was pretty cool to have a private tour and see how the wine is made, and a private tasting as well!!!! We also drove to check out San Gimignano and Siena — very cool to explore. Returning the car was very easy and the car came with a gps which made navigation a breeze.

Our least favorite part of our trip was Venice. It’s very cool to see because it’s unique, but we just loved the other places so much more. The hotel there was just ok compared to the others as well as the concierge and location. We had been so spoiled though to be honest… we got off the train and found the water bus without a problem… it was only 7 euro each for a one way, and only took about 45 minutes, plus the boat ride was pretty cool. We did the same on the way back to the airport, all the people at the waterbus ticket stations spoke English and were able to explain exactly what to do to catch the waterbus back to the airport. It was only 15 euro each and took about 1 hour and 30 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes with a private taxi. We were happy to save a few bucks here and it worked out with our flight times so we didn’t mind that it took a bit longer. We didn’t really feel like we even needed too much time in Venice as we were kind of spent on seeing churches and sites and just wanted to chill at this point.

The only other thing we wished was that we gave ourselves a bit more spending money in our overall budget because we did end up spending twice as much as we thought we would. We never skipped wine at dinner and always had more than one course haha… plus we shopped a bit to bring back wine and leather 😬

Overall we felt like our itinerary was a great mix of adventure, relaxation, sight seeing, and learning/ touring. Italy is our new favorite place and we absolutely want to return!!! The people were great, food amazing, views incredible, wine delicious, and just overall history and culture so interesting and impressive.

Thank you so much for your time and attention to detail with planning this trip. We kept mentioning how incredible it was that after only meeting once, we felt like you completely got our vision and nailed it!! We loved that you yourself have used some of the vendors on your own trips! We will definitely be calling you as soon as we save up for our next trip and send our friends your way!!

With gratitude,

Jaime and Matt

These are a few of my favorite things..

Strangest. Souvenir. Ever.

Amalfi Dreamin’

Easy, Breezy Italy

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