2 Weeks in Italy

Pinch me! What a treat these past 8+ months have been since leaving corporate America and taking my life back. I have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit over the last decade, and every trip I took required some level of 'fuck it, I'm booking it' because it was never going to be the right time, there was never enough PTO, money or mental capacity. These two weeks in Italy was different, it was like I was celebrating my honeymoon to myself and it was absolute perfection! How freeing not having to schlep a second laptop, check your work email each morning and carry the weight of your inbox around all day long. PTO my ass, something always comes up that forces you to check in, and if you don't get enjoyment out of your work, that is a vacation mindset killer. Check in with work/email every day on your vacation and a big piece of your energy and capacity is sucked in with it. This was not only the longest vacation I've taken in my adult life, but what a difference it made now that I am passionate about the work I'm doing and it weaves into my daily life naturally, no matter where I am physically.

My bff/roommate/mentee Madison studied in Rome for one semester in 2022; I took full advantage of having a close friend in this great city and visited twice during her 5 months in Italy. We saw Rome, Florence and Positano during my two trips and each was magical; but this past adventure was less stressful and had a new level of joy to it. We booked our airfare about a year in advance - initially planning a trip that wasn't well-timed and then pushing it out so that it would be a celebration of Maddy's graduation from college, and my decision to leave behind a career that did not fulfill or appreciate me.

Our intent was to spend some time in Rome, then travel around the northern Italian countryside and see Lake Como, Cinque Terre and Portofino. We took travel advice from a friend that has been living in Florence with her family for a year; highly recommend reaching out to people you know that live or have lived somewhere you want to vacation. Our Rome Airbnb was located in Trastevere, a lively part of the city that is off the beaten path and gives you a peek into true Rome living. On Sundays in the spring through fall, Trastevere hosts an outdoor market that spans about 20 blocks, it's magnificent and insane and thrifty and overwhelming all at once - totally worth seeing! Night life is abundant in this area, and it's also home to the best suppli in Rome: Suppli Roma. When in Rome, you must experience this at least once, put it on the list! We had already done all of the main touristy things in the city, so our days were spent roaming many miles on foot, stopping for cafe lattes and treats as we pleased, several trips to Zara, a dinner with our lovely friend Giovanna and an afternoon in one of the most beautiful parks in the world, Villa Borghese. Shopping in Europe is not comparable to the US; Zara hits different across the pond in all the best ways. Imagine a place where there are too many great options, and they all look good on you and fit your budget - BAM! You're at a Zara in any city in Europe. Funny story about our excessive Zara runs...we didn't have room in our luggage for more stuff, I paid an overweight baggage fee on the way there, and Maddy just barely made the cutoff. We knew we had to buy a piece of luggage for our trip home and wouldn't ya know they had tons of luggage at the Trastevere market! Maddy worked hard with her fake Italian and got that sucker for 40 euros when they were selling in stores for 150 - we're problem solvers.

Some tips for visiting Rome:

• refill your water at one of the many spigots around the city; delicious, clean and cold water all over Rome and you'll see people filling their cups or drinking right from the spigot

• stay away from restaurants that have pictures depicting the menu items; don't get bullied into eating somewhere (some restaurants have greeters standing outside to close-talk you into eating there); empty tables is not a good sign during peak dining hours - dinner is typically between 8-10pm, no one eats between 5-7pm

• it gets hot during the day in Rome and can drop 25 degrees the minute the sun goes down, be prepared

• make sure you see the Coliseum, even a drive by will give you the chills that only one of the Wonders of the World can do

• stop by Suppli Roma and try all available flavors - typically regular, Cacio e Pepe and Amatriciana (the latter two are my favorite Italian dishes)

Maddy and I don't have the best track record for timeliness; we once missed 2 trains from the same station in the same day. In fact, for this very trip we missed the bus to the airport in Boston and ended up having to drive ourselves. Totally fine, but there was a bit of concern for how it would go over the next couple weeks since there were approximately a dozen scheduled trains in our future once we departed Rome. I'm happy to report that we did not miss a single train in Italy!

Our first stop was one night in Milan. Neither of us had been, and it was largely undersold. We had the tiniest studio apartment in the heart of the shopping district and wished we had another night to spend exploring the city. Throughout Italy there are many impressive, jaw-droppingly beautiful churches and the Milan Duomo ranks in the top 3 for me (my opinion is #1 Florence, #2 Venice and #3 Milan). Shopping was insane, obvs, with Zara leading the pack, and the city was clean, quiet, unique, beautiful and very livable - big fan of Milan!

Next up was Lake Como, and this was our first travel day hiccup - but we didn't miss the train so there's that. Milan is a travel hub in Italy, you can get anywhere from Milan's Central Station and we did what made sense and took a train from there to Como City, located at the southwestern point of the infamous upside-down-Y-shaped lake, and planned to take the high speed ferry to our location in Varenna. We were trying to save money and not take Uber everywhere, so when we arrived in Como we decided to walk from the train station to the ferry. It was a poor decision, considering we had a lot of luggage and it's all cobblestone streets with many, many steps. Hindsight my friends, it's 20/20. We made it to the ferry and stood in the very long line to get our tickets for the boat that left in one hour, as we found out, the last express ferry of the day. That sucker sold out two people before we got to the ticket window - OOF. So we booked the longer ferry, which takes 3 hours to get to Varenna from Como City and we had 90 minutes to kill before it left (with all of our luggage, so fun). A couple cafe lattes, some gelato and one Brandy Melville later we were loaded on the ferry with my huge suitcase and 19 other bags, to finally embark on our 3 hour ferry ride in the fake rain. Varenna was our favorite of the Como villages that we saw, we were happy that was where we chose to stay. It reminded us a lot of Positano - lots of stone steps to climb up and down, but incredibly beautiful and mind-blowing how they built the homes into the rocks. Lake Como is just off the edge of the Italian Alps, which makes the views that much more beautiful. In these small villages, dinner reservations become quite important! We messed that up our first night and ended up at the only place that you didn't need a reservation....once seated we looked around and every single table was occupied by Americans. Every. Single. One. Stupid Americans, make a reservation.

Two nights on beds that were not the best, offset by having an apartment that opened up to the most incredible view of the lake and mountains. It's give and take in these older villages, and my opinion is that the indescribable beauty is worth some discomfort on a thin mattress; the color of the lake's water alone is enough to make you look twice because I had never seen a shade of blue like that before. Once we had been around and talked to the locals we realized there was a train that went direct from Varenna to Milan...which was better than a 2 hour ferry and then another transfer before being en route to Milan. Don't get me wrong, we loved our free boat tour, I mean ferry ride, up most of the lake...but I was tired of schlepping my stuff and one less transfer was it for me!

Varenna --> Milan --> Camogli

And we're off to the Italian Riviera! Some of the most beautiful landscapes that I have seen with my own eyes, with more villages built into the side of the mountains along the Ligurian Sea, and the train running along the coastline. We arrived in Camogli, and walked from the train station to our apartment - cobblestone streets and steep steps, they sure known how to make a short distance feel long over there. It was not a pretty scene lugging my 60 pound, extra large suitcase up 7 steep and narrow flights of concrete stairs to our place. It would have been a bit better had I not also had a backpack, purse and canvas tote strapped to my body. Let's just say there was blood, sweat and tears with one very close call near the top where the weight of it all nearly sent me backwards to my doom. I'm dramatic but this was warranted! And then, I stepped into the most beautiful apartment and see Maddy had opened the shutters and we stood and looked out at the beach and village center and suddenly all is forgotten. I was not prepared for what the Liguria region of Italy had in store.

You better like seafood because that's pretty much all they got, but they are proud of their fisherman and their catch and even if you don't like it I recommend pretending you do! We took the train to Portofino for a day...well, we took the train to what we thought was Portofino, and it took us about 45 minutes and one Saint Barth shop to realize we had not yet reached our destination. There is no train that goes into Portofino, you either take a ferry, walk/bike up the narrow, windy and often steep incline, hop on the generally-crowded bus or pay for a private taxi from Santa Margherita (the nearest train station). To the bus we went! Portofino is a very small and upscale village - we had a wonderful meal and the smarts to know we couldn't step foot in most of the shops or my credit card would explode. The villages along this stretch all look similar with apartment-style homes built into the countryside, painted in the same colors and patterns with fake windows painted on the outside walls to give symmetry where it may be lacking, shops and restaurants that open up on the ground floor each day. I became accustomed to the loud chime from the church at the top and half of each hour, signaling the passage of time. Could I live here? You bet your ass I could!

The final leg of our trip was to Cinque Terre, The 5 Towns on the southern portion of the Liguria region of Italy. We were still in big-time seafood country, however this is the birthplace of pesto and boy do they show off their skills with basil and olive oil! We had an Airbnb in Montorroso al Mare, the northernmost of the five towns, all are connected by train, but there is also a walking path between these five villages. Montorroso has the best beach in the Cinque Terre, and is the flattest of the bunch; there are some inclines but nothing like the other four! I was enamored by Riomaggiore, the village that inspired the Pixar film, Luca, which I watched 3 times while we were there. In these villages there is a port where small and often colorful fishing boats come and go, some have a beach for locals and tourists to enjoy, but in each there is one roadway leading upwards. You'll find a few cars, some bicycles and vespas but mostly people walking on the road up and down the village. Along the way there are apartments, shops and restaurants, laundry hanging on lines up above the street and beautiful flowers on the stoops and windows. Carefully built on the side of the mountain in each village are their crops (lemon, grape, olive and basil) with narrow walkways built in for the farmers to manage. You walk up, up, up, stop in shops along the way, get to the top, look around and take a pic then it's time to head back down. It's pretty much the same in all of Cinque Terre, except for Corniglia. In my opinion Corniglia is the most beautiful of the Cinque Terre, but you gotta work for it! The main village is all the way at the top, and this one is STEEP. We made the mistake of walking it instead of waiting for the bus....I got back to our place that night and my tracker said I did 54 flights that day. Along the steep incline to the town are the most gorgeous gardens and views of the entire region...with the best one of all at the very top, of course. This was where I experienced basil flavored gelato, and I would have never guessed it but it was delicious!

Back to Roma we go for our final day and night before heading home. We intentionally booked a hotel instead of Airbnb for our last night, hotels have wonderful services like luggage storage and bellhops, with breakfast included. Another trick is that hotels usually have the handy tool to weigh your luggage so you don't have to be embarrassed at the airport counter, moving dirty laundry around to avoid a 100 Euro charge....or so I hear. Our hotel looked like a bomb went off the night before....but damn if we didn't have 3 large suitcases each weighing a perfect 50lbs when we left in the morning. Cue up an incredible breakfast, one of the best cafe lattes we'd had on our trip, and off we go to Fiumicino and home to our fur babies. Arrivederci!