Pardon me, I’m still basking in the glory of spending two whole weeks in Italy! I’ve been dreaming of the day that I could return to Italy again after my first trip during a study abroad class in college. During my first trip there, I went to Florence and Rome. I knew that with this trip, I wanted to return to those cities but also add a few places that I had never been to. 
Originally, when my husband and I were planning to travel to Italy we were thinking about doing the Almafi Coast along with a few other seaside cities but since we just traveled to Greece and enjoyed island hopping last year, we decided that we would stick to Northern Italy and enjoy the cities in that part of the country. During our two-week stay, we traveled to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Montepulciano Tuscany, and Venice. In this post, I’ll be recapping some highlights of our trip and dropping a few travel tips. This post is pretty long with only half the trip so it will be broken up in two parts.
THE BASICS
- We flew from Atlanta to Rome via Turkish Airlines. On the return home, we flew from Venice to Atlanta. We had a short layover in Istanbul, Tukey each way.
- We spent 5 days in Rome, 4 days in Florence, 3 days in Montepulciano and 2 days in Venice.
- 1-day trip to Pisa from Florence.
- I packed everything for this trip in a carry-on suitcase and a backpack (the only way I like to travel now)!
- We rode the trains to each city. We only rented a car in Montepulciano.
- I booked everything for this trip and didn’t use a travel agent, however, my mom who is a travel agent, did book our cooking class. We love going through her for our various excursions whenever we travel.
OUR ITINERARY
Both my husband and I love following structured yet “loose” itineraries on a trip – meaning, we create an itinerary of what we would like to do, see and eat but if something comes up we pivot as needed. My husband does a great job at mapping out itineraries so that they flow well based on where we are staying, the weather, the temperament of the day, etc. He did about 75% of the itinerary planning while I did most of the logistics/booking. I shared to my IG stories a lot during our trip, check out my IG highlights for a few of those.
A FEW HIGHLIGHTS
ROME – DAY 1-5
Highlights
- Tour to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum.
- Lots of amazing food, we fell in love with carbonara in Rome. We tried so many but a stand out was the one at La Locanda di Pietro.
- Amazing shopping but don’t spend your money all at once, the other cities have great shopping too!
- Must see the Trevi Fountain – tip! Visit in the early morning around 6-7 am or late in the evening around 9 pm or later.
- Have a cocktail on the Alto rooftop. You can see some breathtaking views of the city from here.
- Drinking water out of the outdoor water fountains. There are tons all around Rome and the water is pretty dang good.
- Daily siestas (naps) in the afternoon before the evening festivities
- Cooking class (I feel like this is a must in Italy!)
- Lots of great wines, and bottles were super affordable and we often had one with lunch or dinner. Be careful though because that wine is wayyy stronger than you think. HA, ask how I know.
- Exploring different neighborhoods, we loved Prati and Monti.
- The most delicious pistachio croissants I’ve ever tasted in my whole life. I loved the ones at Carale Caffe. It’s what I’m eating in this IG Reel.
- Gelato, gelato, gelato! It’s everywhere, have some every day. Guttilla was delicious and quite the experience.
- Can’t miss the pizza at Trieste Pizza, I think I’ll dream about it forever.
Tips
- If you can, schedule a massage for the day after you arrive. If you’re like me, traveling via air for hours takes a toll on you. We didn’t get to do this but I regret it. We spent so much time walking through Rome (I’m talking 20k step days), the massage would’ve really set me right.
- With that said, pack good walking shoes! I love my Hokas but brought some Brooks tennis shoes with me because they matched more of my outfits.
- Schedule tours to see the sights like the Vatican, Colleseum, etc. It’ll help you skip the line and you’ll get a better understanding of what you’re looking at!
- If you are on a budget, try to eat at the low-key spots that are tucked away. The food is super affordable and you’ll eat like a queen for the low. We received a tip from our cooking class host to look for places with “Trattoria” in the name, places that are family owned and places that are small and quaint.
- Book your hotel in a super walkable area. We didn’t use the train at all during Rome. We only took a couple of cab rides during the entire stay there otherwise we walked everywhere.
- Keep your passport on you especially if you’ll be shopping. They’ll need it for purchases, especially the ones that qualify for the EU tax refund.
Going from Rome to Florence was a bit of an adjustment for me at first. Rome was huge and spread out while Florence was a little quaint and tightly packed with people. What my husband made me realize is that the streets were smaller and the city center was smaller so that made it seem like Florence was more congested than Rome when in reality it was about the same. Either way, I was not feeling it for the first day or so. Once I caught my bearings, I really came to like Miss Firenze.
Highlights
- Our hotel was smack dab in the middle of everything. I loved it because on super crowded days we were able to retreat inside when the streets were too busy. The hotel also had a beautiful terrace that we went to a few times to eat our food. With that said, I highly recommend the Hotel Bernini Palace.
- Wine windows: yes, wine windows baby. Florence is filled with wine windows that seem to be connected to restaurants or wine shops. There’s a lot of history connected to these. I thought they were so cool and we went to a few during our time in Florence. You can find these by walking around the city and I was also able to find them on Apple maps. One of our favorites was the Osteria San Fiorenzo. My only regret is not going to more windows, so drink up!
- The most gorgeous bookstore/cinema – Giunti Odeon Libreria e Cinema. We wanted to watch a film when we visited, but there was a private event taking place. Maybe you’ll get lucky!
- Our visit to the beautiful Boboli Gardens. This place is gorgeous but lots of walking so grab those comfy shoes. I walked in sneakers but changed into flats whenever I wanted to take a picture.
- One amazing meal at La Buchetta Food & Wine, you’ve got to try the Gnocchi Angeli e Demoni if you go.
- Day trip to Pisa. Pisa is only about an hour’s train ride from Florence. We caught a train around 10 am, spent the day in Pisa then came back to Florence. This was about 20 euros per person for a roundtrip ticket booked with Trenitalia. Not going to lie, the Leaning Tower is a bit meh, but we explored the town of Pisa a little bit and it’s quite cute. We wished that we could spend a few more hours there.
- Our favorite gelato here was at Gelateria del Neri. Yummmmm. I will continue to daydream of how good it was.
- Florence is really pretty so take time to just walk around and soak up the sights!
- PS. Always, always look out for pickpocketers in Europe but especially in big cities like Rome and Florence. We’ve heard that they are always on the prowl.
Tips
- If a place that you would like to visit has a really long line, try going back at another time of day. We did this with a famous gelato coffee place called Vivoli. The line was wrapped around the building when we went around 3 pm, we went back the next morning and we were third in line.
- Vendors are trying to sell things left and right in Florence. I noticed that a lot of the items were the exact same in different stores and street shops. With that said, this gives you the flexibility to negotiate pricing if you do see something that you want to purchase – don’t just pay the advertised price, try to get it lower! And also, don’t be pressured to buy something if you really don’t want to. Say “no thank you” and move on.
- Try to look up pictures of the restaurant menu items on their website or Instagram. I ordered a steak in Florence and it was absolutely huge – way too much for me so I wasted a lot of it! If I would’ve peeked at their IG, I could’ve avoided that.
- “How did you go about finding places to stay??”
- To begin my search I start by researching the neighborhoods in the city I want to visit. Once I have that, I start searching the web for hotels in that area. I then plug the address of the different hotels into Google Maps to determine how far it is from the various sights, attractions and restaurants that I would like to go to. If the price point and proximity of the hotel align, I then book it. I usually book my hotels via my credit card travel portal, Booking.com, Hotels.com, etc. I try to make sure I am always getting some sort of cashback or rewards for my reservations by going through cashback sites like Rakuten.
- “How’d you deal with jet lag and being tired w/a packed itinerary?”
- Jet lag definitely hits me hard every time. I haven’t mastered getting rid of it at all but here are some of the things I try to do. Try lots of water on the plane and as soon as I touchdown in the new city.
- Follow the sleep pattern of the destination while I’m on the plane. So if it’s bedtime in my destination, I go to sleep. If it is not, I try to stay awake.
- In Italy, a lot of people drink espresso in the mornings. I am not a big coffee person but I did drink espresso many mornings so gives me an extra boost. Sometimes we drank them in the afternoon as well.
- This trip, we built in nap times. So around 2 or 3 pm, we would try to make sure we were back in the room for some rest.
- Take it easy. There was one day that I had to delay our plans for the day because I was so tired and my feet were still a little swollen from the flight and the day before. I am so glad that I took it slow that day because it really helped me to recoup a bit.
- Jet lag definitely hits me hard every time. I haven’t mastered getting rid of it at all but here are some of the things I try to do. Try lots of water on the plane and as soon as I touchdown in the new city.
- “Price per meal allotments.”
- I would say, on average we found:
- Breakfast: around 10-15 euros per person
- Lunch: around 15-20 euros per person
- Dinner: around 30-50 euros per person
- Spritz: between 6-11 euros per person
- House wine: about 4 euro per glass but a liter might be 10
- Of course, all this varies on your personal taste and restaurant preferences. If you haven’t already, check out my post on how we budget for travel.
- I would say, on average we found:
Well, that’s it for now yall! I will recap Montepulciano – Tuscany and Venice in part 2. I will also answer more of the IG questions in part 2. Speak soon. Ciao friends!
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