Flashback to September of 2017. I get regular travel deal emails from Expedia and Kayak and sites of the sort, and I sent Jessica a screenshot of one for an Italy "Fly & Drive" trip, just to feel it out and see what she'd say. After some questioning and researching... we had it planned out and decided we were doing it! A group of four was assembled - me, my boyfriend Chris, Jessica and Coach D!
The next day, I made it "Facebook official" and let the world know our trip to Italy was booked!
None of us had been abroad, and February, our departure date, finally came after some searching on Google and using Duolingo to try to learn the language basics. We were going to have a rental car, two hotels and free range to do whatever we wanted. The travel site we booked through was Gate 1 Travel - we all would recommend them. We were worried about getting to the car rental place or hotels and our reservations not being real, or being in a weird hotel, etc etc BUT it was so easy and the hotels we stayed in were amazing, clean, staffed with friendly and helpful people, and in good locations. We stayed in Hotel Puccini in Montecatini Terme for most of our trip. We were four blocks away from bars/restaurants and the train station.
Our flight to Milan left at 10 PM from JFK, so us Florida folks flew into NYC in the morning and spent the day in the city, went to the Nintendo store, met up with D's cousin for dinner and experienced taking the subway. We flew with Emirates, tried our best to sleep on the plane, and woke up in Italy! We found our way through Immigration, got our bags, and headed off to find the rental car location. After figuring out the signs and asking for directions (luckily airports aren't too hard to navigate) we were in the car and on our way! Jessica was our designated driver. Italians drive FAST and go through a lot of round abouts.
On Italy's autostrada, the speed limit is 130 km/h which translates to about 80 mph. Headlights are supposed to always be on, no matter the weather conditions. The left lane is for passing or for fast drivers, and if you're coming up to someone going slower that you want out of your way, you flash your lights and they get over and let you continue without slowing you down.
So our first drive was from the airport in Milan down to the town we were staying in, which was about a 3hr drive. We drove through mountains and hills. We tried to get familiar with the signs. We relied on Google Maps (until the next time we drove, Jessica found the car's GPS and found how to make it English and in miles). We stopped off somewhere, that ended up being a shopping mall, to get food and had our first coffee experience at a little food court with tiny coffee cups with strong espresso. Italians are serious about their coffee. We got back on the road, tried to stop off in a little town to see what we could find, but it was rainy and getting dark and we didn't stay long. It gets dark early this time of year in Italy, so most of our drive was in the dark after this and we couldn't see much anymore. We got to the town, parked by our hotel, checked in and we decided to go put our bags away and find some food.
Italy is 6 hours ahead of us back home, so the next morning we were off to a late start. Chris and I woke up first, and after not hearing back in the group chat from Jessica or D, decided to go walk around the town and see what's what. We found a carousel, ferris wheel, restaurants, people walking dogs, coffee, and the train station.
The girls woke up, we got food at a place by our hotel, then found our way to the train station to head to Pisa! This is when we found out we could get espresso shots, a cappuccino or really any coffee from vending machines!
Since we had a later start to our day because of the time change, we got to Pisa in the early evening time and the tower closes down at 6, so we didn't go up it and the area was dying down. We ended up shopping at the vendor tents and grabbing dinner then walking back to the train station. Pretty sure when we got back to our town, this was the night we tried Italian pastries at a bar in the town center.
So we're on to Sunday. The hotel receptionist had told us that Carnivale was going on in Viareggio and it would be worth going to, and that we could take a train. We decided to go to Florence, spend the morning and then hop a train to Viareggio. We didn't make it to the Carnivale because we ended up staying in Florence. It was so weird, because you'd be walking down the street and there would be a Victoria Secret's or a Disney store, but then the next place you looked was a huge cathedral or a group of sculptures. We crossed over the Ponte Vecchio and found a restaurant to eat at with an amazing view that I had found on Instagram.
We had plans to go to Rome the next day, which was a 2hr+ train ride or a 3 hr+ car ride. We didn't get up as early as planned, and the hotel receptionist recommended we go earlier the next day and told us about Cinque Terre, which translates to Five Lands. She highlighted two of the five she recommended the most, and we set out in the car. Jessica, luckily, handled the mountain roads amazingly and we were all laughing as it is so out of the norm from the flat terrain of Florida. We kept stopping along the way to take scenic pictures because it was so beautiful.
The town is 500+ years old and is home to only 1,000 people. It was definitely in off-season, but we could still see the town's charm - with boats in the town center waiting to be taken out and a bit rusty foosball table.
We all want to go back and were just lost in the views this little town offered. We had to park the car and walk down the mountain to find this little town - the kicker was when we walked back up in the dark and in the rain, the gate for drivers was open!! I still wonder why it wasn't just always open.
That night we had dinner in Montecatini Terme and found the best. bread. ever. Our waiter wasn't as fluent in English as the rest of the people we had encountered thus far and we did the tourist thing and used Google Translate to have conversation outside of ordering food and drinks. He didn't seem to mind and used it to talk back to us. We were drinking, and the girls were trying to convince me that we (they) were gonna wake up to catch the train to Rome at 5am or some crazy hour like that. We decided upon a later train departure time that would have us in Rome by mid-day as there was a long travel time. Anyways, we made it to the train station the next morning to end up driving.
Rome is the picturesque Italian city. People on scooters whipping through the narrow, cobblestone streets. Ancient ruins everywhere. We found a parking garage and walked to go find food and the Trevi Fountain. Google Maps was really instrumental to us getting around. After we threw our coins in the fountain, we started walking in the direction of the Colosseum. We also made out way to Vatican City to see St Peter's Square.
