Hi everyone,
Wow, I'm so excited to be posting here with a trip actually planned again! Anyway, my husband and I are planning a somewhat last minute trip to Italy as we decided to postpone a planned trip to Kenya due to the current Covid situation in East Africa. The week in France was always part of the trip as we're meeting my mom and her boyfriend for the week, and that part of the itinerary is a little hectic I know, but we're currently filling in our Italy portion and always happy for recommendations and tips from this group. We're really looking to relax and take things easy this trip--not over plan (hard for me). I'm mostly looking for any recommendations on can't miss restaurants, maybe walking/food tours or experiences. We're not big on museums but will pop into one or two if there's something we want to see. We do have our accommodations booked and I'm pretty happy with them but they are changeable if there seems to be any glaring errors. So here it is:
8/4
Fly Seattle to Naples (stop in Frankfurt)
8/5
Arrive Naples, spend the night at B&B MediNaples (near the port)
**Any can't miss restaurants in the area? This is our only night in Naples proper. We'll be recovering from jetlag so hoping to just stick close to the hotel, keep ourselves awake for a couple hours and then crash.
8/6
Ferry to Ischia where we'll spend the next 5 nights at Hotel Nettuno in Forio.
**Restaurant or tour recommendations? We're hoping to spend at least one day out on the water, either renting a boat ourselves or taking some sort of tour, possibly to see the Amalfi Coast from the bay
8/11
Ferry back to Naples, train to Rome. We have 5 nights in Rome at a B&B in Monti not far from the Colosseum. Only thing booked is the Colosseum with underground tour at 11am on Thursday the 12th; we have 3 completely open days. This might be sacreligious (literally) but we're sort of ambivalent about the Vatican. I'd like to see the basilica/Sistine Chapel, but that's kind of all I care about... any suggestions for the best/most efficient way to do this?
8/16
Train to Modena. We're on the waiting list for a reservation at Osteria Francescana and we have our AmEx Platinum concierge working on it for us as well... not holding my breath on such short notice but fingers crossed! We have 4 nights in Modena at an AirB&B in the center and would like to do at least one tour from Parma to visit a dairy farm, Parma ham and balsamic etc.
8/20
Train to Milan where we'll spend two nights at the NH Hotel Milano President (close to the Duomo).
8/22
6am TGV to Paris (my husband is SO EXCITED for this train ride lol)
Arrive Paris around 1:30pm, staying overnight near Gare de Lyon
8/23
RER to CDG to meet my mom at the TGV station where we'll then head to Reims for two nights. We have a full day champagne tour booked with A La Francaise. Any other must see's in Reims or restaurant recommendations?
8/25
Back to Paris, staying 4 nights at Assia et Nathalie B&B in Le Marais. We have booked:
8/26
4:30pm cheese & wine tasting experience through AirB&B
8pm Eiffel Tower
8/27
8pm Le Calife Seine dinner cruise
8/28
Open--will need to get a Covid test
8/29
Depart CDG 7:30am back to Seattle
I should also say, this will be our third trip to Paris but my mom's first, so my husband and I may skip things like the Louvre and whatnot and let them go do that on their own. We're much more interested in the food, wine, shopping, etc. :) We have also spent about a week and a half in Italy but in Venice, Bologna and Florence so all of our Italian destinations will be new to us.