London-Italy, August 2007

Our summer 2007 journey to Italy, with a one-day stopover in London.

One month after Allie returned from her People To People trip to Australia, we turned around for a family vacation in Europe. It was time to introduce Allie to Italy. I thought about different itineraries but settled on very basic highlights of Venice, Florence and Rome. There was a lot more I wanted to see and do in Italy but there was only so much we could fit into 10 days or so. I figured we could get back again sometime to explore the country in more depth. So far, it hasn’t worked out that way, but maybe someday.

When planning for this trip in early 2007, we didn’t originally think of adding a stopover in London. As I researched flights, I found a good trans-Atlantic price on Virgin Atlantic to London and a cheap fare from London to Venice on British Airways…but the British Airways flights were from Gatwick Airport rather than Heathrow. The thought of flying across the ocean, getting a bus from Heathrow to Gatwick and then getting on a plane to Venice all in one day was too much, so that’s when the idea of getting a hotel in London for the night arose. I decided on getting a cheapish room near Gatwick Airport so we could catch an early flight the next day. That would give us a day to show Allie some of the highlights of London for the first time, too.

I decided to rely on TripAdvisor for hotel recommendations in Italy. We had good luck with Costco Travel on our trip to Greece the year before, but they didn’t really have a good set of Italian options. So instead, I scoured TripAdvisor, which I had used for our California-Oregon trip the year before, but wasn’t sure how comprehensively they covered European destinations. I settled on small, centrally located hotels in Venice and Rome, but in Florence I wanted a taste of the Tuscan countryside. I decided on a villa outside of town, close enough to commute into town to see the sights. That was the thought, anyway. Eventually, with travel arrangements all made by me and the Internet, we prepared to set out.

Saturday, August 11 – Dulles to London

We departed from Dulles airport at 6:40pm. It was our first time flying Virgin Atlantic and we quickly fell in love with the extensive in-flight entertainment options. It was the first time we encountered a nearly endless library of films, TV and music selections — an airline feature that has become ubiquitous but then was quite novel. We each settled in with our individual choices and didn’t do a very good job of getting much sleep on our red-eye flight.

Sunday, August 12 – London

We arrived at Heathrow at 7am and walked what seemed like miles with our luggage to find the bus to take us to Gatwick airport. We finally found it and slept most of the way around the outskirts of London in rush-hour traffic (I hadn’t taken that traffic into account). We finally made it to the airport and our Gatwick Hilton hotel at the South terminal. Our room wasn’t ready but they let us change and store our bags. We then caught the Gatwick Express train to Victoria Station in London.

I’m not sure where I found this London in One Day itinerary but we followed it pretty closely. Our first stop near Victoria Station was for a little bit to eat, I think. Then it was on to Buckingham Palace. We were late for the changing of the guard, but we joined the throng of tourists at the Victoria Memorial just outside the front gate. Obligatory photos were taken.

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Next, we walked to Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben via St. James’s Park. Allie was thrilled to find a phone booth that could have been the entrance to Harry Potter’s Ministry of Magic along the way. There was a long line for Westminster Abbey and Barb and I had been inside on earlier trips with our respective parents. We decided not to push it on Allie this day…we had other things to see.

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We headed past Downing Street to Trafalgar Square, communing for a short while with the pigeons and lions under Nelson’s Column.

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After a short while taking in the sights of Trafalgar Square, we caught a double decker bus heading to the Tower of London. We got upstairs seats as we rumbled down Fleet Street and passed St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The Tower was our main destination for the day. We took a guided tour, learning some of the history which largely went in one ear and out the other for me. I was overwhelmed by the collection of suits of armor and swords. The Yeoman Warder tour guide gave a proper show of the site where Anne Boleyn was beheaded. After the official tour, we stood in line to see the Crown Jewels which were suitably impressive in their air conditioned vaults. It was the first time I’d done either of those things.

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After the tour, we lingered Thames-side for a while, taking pictures of the Tower Bridge while we waited to catch a City Cruise tour boat to ferry us upriver to Westminster.

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The boat gave us good a view of riverside sights including London City Hall, a very interesting and anachronistic building just across the river, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, the Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern gallery, the London Eye, and more views of the Houses of Parliament.

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The tour boat let us off at the Embankment Pier on the south bank of the Thames, right near the London Eye which was perfect because that was our next activity. It was nearing six o’clock in the afternoon and we were pretty worn out but figured we had energy for one more touristy thing.

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A few more shots of Allie and the Eye. There was a Star Wars exhibit at the County Hall which made for an interesting juxtaposition of storm troopers.

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Our day nearly complete, we walked across Westminster Bridge and got a few more shots of Big Ben.

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As you can see, it was about 7:15pm and the sun was setting. We were worn out and ready to head to the hotel. It had been an excellent day but here is where I made the biggest miscalculation of the day. I figured we should get some dinner in town before getting our train back to Gatwick and the hotel. I figured we could find someplace between Westminster and Victoria Station. It was only about a mile and we were sure to find some decent pubs or restaurants along the way, right?

We started trudging up Victoria Street but soon discovered that most of the buildings were government offices with barely a hint of restaurants or other tourist services…and what few things we passed were closed on a Sunday evening. The one mile walk seemed to stretch forever as our legs gave out and jet lag hit all three of us at once. We finally happened upon a scruffy little touristy place that at least offered food. We would have never gone in under other circumstances but in our distress we shambled in and were pretty much the only customers. We had a perfectly lousy meal of tourist burgers and other crap that was way overpriced. We would have been happier at McDonald’s. But it was food and I got a beer. It was enough to sustain us a bit further to the train station and our Express ride to the airport. We made it to the hotel by 9pm and somehow got unpacked and each got showers before collapsing. We had to get up at 5am to get ready for our 7:30am flight to Venice. It had been a pretty wonderful day in London even if, by the end of it, we were convinced that London had won.

Monday, August 13 – London to Venice

We made it to our early British Airways flight and landed in Venice at 10:40am. A short walk from the airport took us to a dock where we boarded a motorboat for the nearly hour-long to Venice. It was exciting and only seemed proper to arrive in the city from the water across the lagoon.

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We were deposited by the boat near the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square), the heart of Venice. We paused for a few minutes to snap obligatory photos…none of them with any of us in them.

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Like millions of tourists before, we tugged our luggage across Piazza San Marco and the ever-present pigeons, trying to find our hotel: in our case, the Residence Corte Grimani.

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We made it to the hotel, which was very nice…a small apartment, really, very centrally located. We unpacked, freshened up and headed back to St. Mark’s to begin proper touristing of Venice. We got a better view of the square from one of the facing balconies. We then wandered toward the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge. I’m sure we stopped somewhere TripAdvisor recommended for food but I don’t remember where.

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Allie really, really wanted to take a gondola ride that evening but Barb and I were not enthusiastic. We had been on them in our youths with our parents and viewed it as a tacky, very expensive tourist ritual. We were also pretty tired that first evening, so we said no, maybe tomorrow…to Allie’s great and continuing disappointment.

We ended our day relatively early, still lagged out from the Atlantic flight and London adventure. But we saw a nice sunset from our hotel room before retiring.

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Tuesday, August 14 – Venice

We rose early for our one full day of Venice touring. In addition to TripAdvisor, we relied on Rick Steves’ recommendations on touring the city. We discovered Rick via his PBS shows and we checked his guidebooks out of the library. Barb didn’t entirely trust these secondary sources, so she also spent a chunk of time in the morning chatting with the hotel staff and looking at a wide selection of Venice guidebooks in the lobby.

We started as early as we could by going up the Campanile for a great view of the square and the city. Many photos were taken while we were up there. Why not? It’s one of the best views in the world.

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Many photos later, we skipped going into St. Mark’s Cathedral but we lined up for a guided tour of the Doge’s Palace. We got a good dose of history and art inside, and crossed the Bridge of Sighs.

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After the Palace, we went back into Piazza San Marco and went into one of the glass shops that had a glass-blowing workshop in the back.

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In the afternoon, we took a vaporetto up the Grand Canal, consulting our guidebooks to try to figure out the different palazzos along the way. Though the vaporetto was crowded, we found spots on the stern so we had good views, including many more shots of the Rialto Bridge.

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The taxi took us as far as the train station where we scouted out what we would need to do the next day. We also took some shots of Allie for KidsPost.

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We tried to follow Rick Steves’ advice and sought out a small, off-the-beaten track restaurant that he recommended. We wandered streets and alleyways further and further from the tourist areas before finally giving up. We stumbled upon an out-of-the-way little piazza with a couple of restaurants with outdoor seating. We found a table and had a nice early dinner. It wasn’t exactly a gastronomic adventure — I think we had very ordinary plates of pasta and sauce. I remember at the time being a little ticked off that we missed a chance to go to a “recommended” restaurant, but it was pleasant little neighborhood that gave a sense of people actually living their lives in Venice. I wonder if it’s even there anymore.

We found our way back to the Grand Canal and caught the water taxi back to Piazzo San Marco as the sun was setting. Eventually, we headed back to our hotel. Sorry, Allie, no gondola ride.

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Wednesday, August 15 – Venice-Florence

We checked out of our hotel and caught the vaporetto again to the train station at the top of the Grand Canal.

Here is My TripAdvisor review of the Corte Grimani, filed after the trip…

Our family of three stayed two nights at the Corte Grimani and found it to be excellent. Very good location a short walk from St. Marks but quiet enough to be pleasant. We had an excellent two-room apartment on the 5th floor with a bit of a view. Very clean, comfortable, with a kitchen — we used the refrigerator and microwave for no charge but were told there would be a substantial charge for real cooking in the room. The free computer in the lobby with internet access was nice, as was the “lending library” of Venice guidebooks and other local books in the lobby. The staff at the front desk were also excellent, very friendly and helpful. They made our short stay very enjoyable. We have no hesitation recommending the Corte Grimani and we thank TripAdvisor for helping us find it.

This was our first experience with Italian trains and in fact one of my first experiences with trains in Europe. I long had thoughts of taking train trips around Europe but we’d always ended up driving or flying. I liked the idea of the efficiency and convenience of European trains and looked forward to using them to get to Florence and then to Rome. Getting our tickets and finding the train was relatively easy, even with our luggage, and we settled in for the 2.5-hour ride to Florence. The train ride itself was perfectly fine and easy, but I found that — just like with Amtrak — the tracks basically give you a view of the gritty industrial backyard of the nation. Magnificent vistas are very few and far between, and fleeting if they occur at all.

We arrived at the station in central Florence and found a taxi to get us to our countryside hotel, the Villa Poggio ai Merli, “located on a panoramic hill at just 6 km from the historical Centre of Florence.” It may indeed be 6 kilometers as the crow flies but the crow doesn’t have to deal with Italian city traffic. The taxi ride took about 25 minutes and was a good deal more expensive than I expected, partly because it was an “out of town” destination. Barb was none too pleased about the distance and cost; we vowed to avoid taking any more taxi trips to or from town if we could help it.

The grounds of the Villa were lovely, with olive trees, a swimming pool and nice views. The Villa itself was an older building, of course, but our room was disappointingly spartan. The old, dark, heavy furniture was a little bleak and nothing, including the bathroom, seemed especially clean or modern. It wasn’t bad, necessarily, but it wasn’t what we were used to. We settled in as best as we could and headed back into town for lunch and some afternoon sightseeing.

Getting back into town without a taxi proved to be a more formidable challenge than we anticipated. We had to walk nearly a mile from the Villa into the small town of Matteoti Paoli, then wait for a bus into the city. There were several bus routes to choose, some of which were more direct than others, and each on different schedules. Under the best circumstances, the trip into town could take about 45 minutes, but that was if you happened to catch the right bus at the right time. We didn’t. It took us more than an hour, by which time we were hot, hungry and frustrated…some of us more than others.

We got a quick bite of food around the Piazza della Signoria and got in some basic sightseeing. We enjoyed the pigeons interacting with the replica of David in the piazza. Barb sought out the Porcellino bronze statue she remembered from her youth and we hit the souvenir stands in the nearby market. We made it to the Ponte Vecchio and River Arno and generally got ourselves oriented.

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I had contacted the hotel some weeks ahead to get us a reserved time to see Michelangelo’s actual David at the Galleria dell’Accademia, as the guidebooks suggested to avoid the long line. We had a 4pm slot and it worked out fine. We ooh’d and ahh’d along with the rest of the crowd. It is certainly an awesome piece of art, but there’s also very much a quality of box-checking to actually see it. Seen it, done it.

We decided it was important to make it back to the hotel before dark and we knew it was going to be a challenge to get the right bus back. We headed in the direction of the train station which was effectively the bus terminal as well. We found a small restaurant near the station and actually had a nice little dinner before catching our bus for the winding ride back to Matteoti Paoli. We made it back to the hotel (the walk back was more uphill than we realized) in time for sunset. I enjoyed some wine and spent as much time soaking in the views as I could while Barb and Allie adjourned to the room for the evening.

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Thursday, August 16 – Florence

This was our day to see the Uffizi Gallery and its incredible collection of art. We had reserved tickets starting at 9:15am and got audio guides to help us understand what we were viewing: one highlight after another of Renaissance art. It was truly awe-inspiring, particularly the works by Botticelli, da Vinci, Titian and Caravaggio. Simply some of the most beautiful works of art I’ve ever seen, very well presented with enough space to appreciate them without being overwhelmed by the crowds. We spent at least four hours working our way through the gallery and weren’t worn out by the experience as we often are with art museums (sad to say).

After catching our breath with some lunch, I think we found a basic bus tour of the city for the afternoon. I’m not sure why I don’t have any photos, possibly because we were discouraged from bringing a camera into the Uffizi, but I remember seeing sights including the Duomo, Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens…from the outside, at least.

I had thoughts of renting a car and driving in the Tuscan countryside for the afternoon and next day, but we didn’t end up doing it. I was intimidated by the traffic in Florence and decided against the hassle of renting and returning a car. That’s why we opted for the bus tour of Florence in the afternoon, and bus tour to Pisa the next day. I figured at some other point we could come back to Tuscany and explore the countryside and surrounding towns.

I think this was the evening we opted to bite the bullet to take a taxi back to our hotel and ordered a pizza to be delivered for dinner. It was actually pretty good, but it was also very frustrating that there were no other food options near the hotel. Barb remembers spending the evening listening to a Harry Potter book on tape, sharing headphones with Allie.

Friday, August 17 – Florence/Pisa

We hiked and bused our way into Florence to catch a tour bus to Pisa, just over an hour away. Leaning Tower here we come! It seemed like an obligatory stop for a 12-year old. Barb and I each remember seeing it when we were about that age. What else do you do in Pisa other than take lots of goofy pictures?

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After an hour or so of taking photos from every conceivable angle, we headed back to the bus and thence to Florence.

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We did some souvenir shopping and had one more meal in town, then it was back to the hotel for one final evening. I took some more shots outside among the olive trees and grape vines.

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I wrote a long, two-star review of the Villa which I’m not going to reproduce but you can click the link if you want. It was the most negative review I wrote on TripAdvisor and the one that over time got the most views and feedback. The fact that a negative review got more feedback is one of the biggest reasons I stopped posting on TripAdvisor. The two other reasons were I didn’t like that anyone could track where I’d been and I realized that as a reviewer I was the one adding value to the site and getting little of substance in return. The experience is what pointed me toward starting a blog of my own to do restaurant and local lifestyle reviews, what became LiveInHowardCounty.com for a while.

Saturday, August 18 – Florence/Rome

We caught a 10:53am train from Florence to Rome, arriving at Termini station at 12:30. It was a 15-minute walk to our hotel, the Marcella Royal, and I’m pretty sure we dragged our luggage there ourselves. After getting ourselves settled, we spent a couple of hours wandering over to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. The Pantheon, particularly its interior with the oculus open to the sky was very impressive. The Trevi Fountain was impressively crowded. The Spanish Steps were simply steps with a lot of folks milling about. The shopping street leading away from the Steps was more impressive to Barb and Allie.

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Sunday, August 19 – Rome

We discovered one of the nicest things about our hotel was the continental breakfast at the rooftop restaurant. We started each day with a lovely view of Rome as Barb loaded up on little sandwiches and snacks for our days of touring.

The theme for this day was Ancient Rome. We started by walking past the massive Victor Emmanuel II Monument; we preferred the colloquial name that Barb remembered from her youth, the Wedding Cake. I somehow had always associated this edifice with Mussolini which is only partly correct. The monument was conceived and started shortly after Victor Emmanuel II’s death in 1878 and mostly designed by 1885. The monument was partially opened in 1911 and was completed by the Fascists in 1935. After World War II it was stripped of its Fascist symbols and mainly served as a monument to Italian unification and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Evidently, part of what they were working on under the scaffolding in 2007 was a set of elevators to enable tourists to see all of Rome from the roof of the monument.

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We plunged into the Roman Forum, relying on our guidebooks (mainly Rick Steves) to tell us what we were looking at. They weren’t a whole lot of help and maybe we should have sought out a guided tour, but mainly we were working our way to the Colosseum. We walked down the Via de Fori Imperiali, past Trajan’s Forum with its namesake column, the Forum of Caesar with the three columns of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, and the Forum of Augustus with its House of the Knights of Rhodes. Having looked all these up so many years later, I’m still not too sure of what we saw. There is just an overwhelming abundance of history in Rome.

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I enjoyed seeing these four depictions of the geographic extent of the Roman Empire over the ages. Most of what I knew about Roman history at that point came through watching I, Claudius, an entertaining but not necessarily accurate account of a few crucial decades. I actually still don’t know much about the history of Rome. I fear I may actually have to listen to Mike Duncan’s extensive podcast on the subject at some point.

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We made it to the Colosseum and I think we ended up getting tickets for entry a bit later so we had some time to kill. We started with a look outside, including a dedication from Pope Benedict XIV added in 1750 — papal graffiti. (translation: “The Flavian Amphitheatre, known for its triumphs and performances dedicated to the gods of the Gentiles and to an impious cult, was redeemed from impure superstition by the blood of the martyrs. So that the memory of their courage will not be extinguished, the plaster monument erected on the walls by Clement X, Pontifex Maximus, in 1675 but erased by the injustice of time, was redone in marble by Benedict XIV, Pontifex Maximus, in 1750, the tenth year of his pontificate.”)

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We headed to the Via Sacra and the Palatine Hill complex of palaces, including those of Augustus and Tiberius. From the top, we took in a view of the Circus Maximus and then headed back down to the Arch of Constantine.

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It was time for our tour of the Colosseum. We decided against getting a human guide from the dozens that aggressively touted their services outside. Instead, we opted for audioguides (or maybe we just rented one and shared it…I can’t remember but it’s possible we were being cheap) which were serviceable but maybe it would have been better for Barb to have a human to ask questions of. Allie and I would listen to the basic overview material but Barb listened to every additional detailed description, getting her full money’s worth. The Colosseum is undeniably impressive, no matter who’s leading the way. I was glad that they limited the number of tourists in at a time so you didn’t have to jostle too hard with others to get good views of the arena.

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Views from inside the Colosseum looking out, including the Temple of Venus and Roma.

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Just hanging around, waiting for Mom to finish.

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After the Colosseum, we headed down to the Circus Maximus, then to the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth). We had to wait quite a long time in line to get our moment for a photo with Allie’s hand in the Mouth of Truth. Unfortunately, our one photo came out blurry…but at least Allie’s fingers weren’t bitten off so we know she was a truthful child.

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I can’t recall where we ate after our long day of Roman history, but I’m sure it was tasty and I’m sure we had a good night’s sleep.

Monday, August 20 – Rome

After conquering ancient Roman history yesterday, today’s focus was the Vatican. But first, we started with a stroll through the Piazza Navona, my favorite square in Rome. I say square but it’s really a rectangle in the footprint of the Stadium of Domitian. The piazza features three wonderful Bernini fountains, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Moor Fountain and the Fountain of Neptune.

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Next we crossed the Tiber and headed toward the Vatican, passing the imposing Castel Sant’Angelo.

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We arrived at Vatican and St. Peter’s Square fairly early but it was already crowded. We found our way to the line for the Vatican Museum.

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We spent quite a few hours in the many buildings of the Vatican Museums, and we took a lot more pictures that I will spare you. We were very impressed with the Roman and Egyptian sculptures; I didn’t realize that one of our favorites, Laocoon and His Sons discovered in 1506, was actually the impetus for opening the Vatican Museums in the first place. We particularly enjoyed the many painted masterpieces, especially Raphael’s School of Athens, the Gallery of Maps, and the Sistine Chapel, of course.

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The day’s Vatican tour ended in St. Peter’s Basilica which was also overwhelming. By that point we were more than a little worn out but it was still awesome to see the vast and beautiful interior, the main altar by Bernini, and Michelangelo’s Pieta. Our photos did them no justice so I’ll spare you those, too. We finished with a few shots from St. Peter’s Square for the sake of the Washington Post. It was another exhausting day in Rome, but I think we did pretty well.

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Tuesday, August 21 – Naples/Pompeii

We could have easily taken another day to see things around Rome but we decided to take an all-day bus tour to Naples and Pompeii. We got up early, Barb packed more sandwiches at the hotel’s breakfast buffet and off we went. Our first stop after about a 2.5 hour bus ride was harbor-side in Naples. Photo ops!

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The bus guide took us on a short walking tour of the immediate vicinity, including the Piazza del Plebiscito with the Royal Palace, Galleria Umberto and Castel Nuovo. He gave us a few basic facts, but mostly we just oohed and aahed as we stretched our legs for about 45 minutes.

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Then it was back on the bus for another 30 minutes or so to Pompeii. While Barb and I had been in Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome in our youthful family travels, this was the first time either of us had been to the ruins of Pompeii. It turned out to be a memorable and moving few hours. The site is larger and more extensively excavated than I expected. You truly get a sense of Pompeii being a thriving town 2000 years ago until the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but they are in store for quite a commemoration in 2079. Too bad I’ll miss it.

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The town lay buried for nearly 1500 years before being rediscovered and slowly excavated over the centuries. The archaeologists and researchers have pieced together more of the history and stories of each building that I realized. I also wasn’t really prepared for the number of casts of bodies that have been recovered. It makes for a grisly reminder of the actual lives and victims of the town’s catastrophe.

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The bus ride from Pompeii back to Rome was even longer than 3 hours thanks to some bad traffic on the highway near Monte Cassino which gave the guide plenty of time to tell stories about the World War II battle there. Barb seemed to know even more about it than he did.

That’s the end of our photos from Italy. We returned to our hotel in Rome, had one final dinner (no doubt I had one more drink at the hotel’s rooftop bar) and flew back home the next day, via London, in one fell swoop. Here’s my review of our Rome hotel.

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Thus concluded our sojourn to Italy. As I mentioned earlier, I would have figured we would have returned by now to see more of this fine country, to enjoy its glorious cuisines and interesting history, but it hasn’t happened yet. Instead, we have traveled there vicariously through countless TV travel and cooking shows. I feel like we’re ready. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before we return.