Post thoughts on my Italian trip

Thanks for the trip report. I enjoyed reading it. I did my own 3-week swing through Italy in 2015. I landed in Rome and went to Orvieto immediately for a 1-night stay. Then Sienna x 4 nights, Florence x 3 nights, Lake Garda x 3 nights, Venice x 3 nights, Nocelle (above Positano) x 4 nights, and Rome x 3 nights. Lake Garda was my contrarian choice (instead of Lake Como); I rather enjoyed being around the middle class Europeans vacationing there.

I'm an aviation geek, so I flew from Vienna to Naples; it gave me a chance to fly a new airline -- easyJet! It was actually pretty easy. The gate we used at the Naples airport had an adjacent baggage claim area, so we walked off the plane, went directly to baggage claim (nothing to claim), and walked out the door at baggage claim to find our driver (arranged through our B&B) waiting for us. Certainly it would have been more complicated if we had taken public transportation to Nocelle.

Yes Vienna is further away so flying makes sense. We did it from Venice to Naples and seeing the countryside go by was lovely. For Lake Como was a 1.5 day visit. Venice 3 nights 2.5 days, Sorrento 4 days, Rome 2, Florence 5 days. Cinque Terre was supposed to be 3 nights 2 days but because I was a little under the weather, temp in Italy was cold and our lovely Airbnb was 20 minutes up a trail and more rustic. So we just extended our stay in Chiavari and relaxed more so then the beginning of trip which was museums and tours . We ended up going just for the day to Cinque Terre as I didn't have the energy to hike along the trails any way. If I had felt better our place would have been amazing beauty wise. Views of ocean with lemon and other fruit tress plus a picnic table under a portico. Trails to hike were all around. Chiavari is the larger town near where my dad is from so it was great to walk around the city there. I originally had another day there but gave it to Florence because there's a lot to see. The Take Walks tour of Siena and San Gimignano was great only two other couples plus guide and driver. Went to a great winery they stop at for tasting and lunch. This is where I ordered some extra virgin olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar. They own property In Modena to make Vinegar. My friend and I also found epic discount tickets from BA and flew business class. Sure I could have saved $1,500 and spent $500 RT in economy and used that $ for trip but being able to fully sleep laying down in my chair was the best. I've always been cheap airfare person but man business was so luxurious and I loved it. I'm not going to lie. It was great. I did prefer AA seats over BA though. Like I said food as we all know is great. My friend ate everything I wouldn't eat or couldn't. Rome water was delicious with just a little bubbly. Pretty much great water at every meal. Obviously if I had more time to research I love desserts so I'd have found places that had Gf free desserts and that were Vegan. Once I had a biscotti that was made with almond flour. The Dolomites, Southern Italy and Sicily are next. For anyone wondering what time is best to visit museums its In the morning. For Uffizi we had an 8:30 time and 9AM for Galleria. Also must on the Sistine Pristine tour. Getting to go inside the Vatican before the majority of people go visit was the best. Plus they gave is 20 minutes to look at the Sistine Chapel and yes they're serving breakfast again at the restaurant.

Welcome back and sorry you are not feeling well. Travel can be exhausting! Hope you are feeling better soon.

A couple things from your post that I wanted to clarify for future travelers-

We did a boat tour of Capri Island just make sure you know if your
ticket to the Blue Grotto is included or not. Also smaller tour boats
go to a smaller dock not the main dock near Capri village where your
then forced to basically pay for a tourist bus that picks everyone up
at the port,. Its a racketeering job and I was upset.

I don’t know which boat tour you used but no matter where the boat docks you still need to take the funicular, the bus or a cab to reach the village of Capri or Anacapri, so this is not racketeering. You would have had to pay for another ticket to get UP to Capri with any boat tour. Or walk.

The Blue Grotto is so often closed that I don’t think any boat tour is going to include a ticket to the sight- as I understand it you transfer from your larger boat to one of the smaller privately operated boats at the entrance to the Grotto- that is who you purchase your Grotto entrance from.
We skipped and it was closed that day anyway but it was made clear from our Mondo Guide tour that the entrance fee was optional and additional.

I looked at RS tours and did similar times for some places like Rome
but like I said before I wish I had 4 days minimum for everywhere we
went.

Not sure if you ever posted your full itinerary but most anyone here would have told you that the RS suggested itineraries are too fast paced. His guided tours are as well- IMO. 1 and 2 night stays are exhausting, might be OK with limited time and on a guided your where the bus drops you/picks you up at hotel and gets you to each destination but when traveling on your own things just take longer and need more time.
We avoid 1 and 2 night stays as much as possible. 2 nights in Rome is ridiculous. There are some locations that are fine as a 2 night stay- Orvieto, Siena, Lucca- smaller towns that don’t have a lot of sights where you don’t plan any day trips, etc. Next trip- do try to stick with 3 and 4 night stays!
It looks like you had 5 “water” locations- Como, Venice, Sorrento, CT, Portofino. Again most everyone here would have told you to drop 2 of those and give the time to Rome or elsewhere.

Oh don't try and carry on liquids such as olive oil or pesto in your
luggage unless the size is under your airlines carry limit. I thought
everything I had bought was carry on size when I got to Heathrow
London they bagged almost all my small gift food liquid items.

The 3-1-1 rule has been in place for 15 years. Not sure what you mean by “carry on size” and not clear how you got these items from Milan to Heathrow? Frankly I wouldn't have even put in checked luggage for fear of getting home to find my belongings dressed with olive oil and balsamic!

The Dolomites, Southern Italy and Sicily are next.

Next trip- slow down and drop 1 or 2 of these locations. I’ve been researching Southern Italy and Sicily, I thought it would be convenient to combine but each area really needs a minimum of 2 weeks. (Don't know about Dolomites but that's a far way from Puglia and/or Sicily. Maybe just head to Rome again at start or end of this trip and pick up what you missed there.

Piano! Piano!

Hello Christine, I have been to Capri before and knew about the funicular. I guess I felt in the brochure we were given from our hotel about the tour they didn't say that you will need to pay extra to catch a bus or what not. If that had been clearly stated then I wouldn't have been upset. Funicular is cheaper then a the bus and if we had wanted to just stay in Capri without going to Altra Capri we could have done that. Its not that I'm against paying the fee it was just thrust upon us and yes it is a racketeering job. You get to smaller port and they force you to take the bus. If we had just gone to main port we could have taken the funicular which would have been less expensive and just spent as much time in Capri as we wanted instead of being forced to rush to altra capri. I was hungry when we got to Capri so we stopped for some food at a cafe and that ate up all our time there so we didn't get to walk around and go to the gardens or visit the over priced tourist shops. If its transparent in the brochure this info then people can make decisions on rather they preferred to do said tour or not. Most small boat tours do the same where they stop at smaller port so your forced to take a bus to both villages. Likewise the way it was written in our brochure it looked like the cost of the Blue Grotto was included again not a big deal if it had stated clearly that it was an extra fee. We enjoy tour but I was not the only person annoyed by this.

In reference to the days spend in each place other than Varenna on Lake Como we had 2 nights minimum in each. Good to know that RS tours are considered rushed and although I used it as a template I came up with the itinerary for where to go and see myself. When I discovered Lake Como was so close to Milan I thought its so beautiful and I felt I had to add it. My friend didn't feel the trip was rushed just me because I'm not used to traveling with so much of the trip planned out. Yes I did share my trip on RS but don't recall what the feedback was specifically. You can't compare Venice to Sorrento and Cinque Terre. All three locations are water related but that's about it. Yes next time if it was just three weeks I would remove Lake Como but again my friend loved it and was happy we went there. I loved it too obviously.but would have added the day to Venice. Rome for sure was shorter than I would have liked post trip but now I know better. Next time of course unless I had lots of time in the world I would not go from the Dolomites to Sicily as the distance is great. I was just saying these are the next locations I want to visit in Italy not specifically all at the same time. I've missed Italy and have a lot of catching up to do.

For the carry on items I thought they were under size as the nice younger farmer son in Sorrento told us they were carry on size meaning we could carry them in our bags. I was naive and didn't do my work and check with the airport. Yes in Milan the security guy just wiped down my luggage handle area and then put the paper swab in the machine. Since it came back negative it wasn't an issue for an Italian who knows how to appreciate Olive Oil. Londoners not as much pus each airport has different rules and regulations. I had everything rapped up all nice in clothing, socks etc. If I want to get them out of lockup I can pay around $250 USD to a company that works out of the Heathrow airport. I'm not going to though. Anyways every trip you learn something new. Traveling in Europe/ Italy is very different from my trips down in South East Asia or Latin American where I just had a ticket and more or less an Idea of where I was headed and what I wanted to do. Italy is so touristy and because I wanted to learn the history of each major city we had scheduled walking tours and museums tours. Thanks for the great advice and yes with more time to travel I would have given more time to Rome, Venice etc.

each airport has different rules and regulations.

I'm sorry but this is simply not true. Basically ALL airlines/countries have adopted and enforce the 3-1-1- rule. There may be some slip thrus on domestic flights but in general it is the rule for all air travel.

You're correct and I'm sorry. My bag was full of liquids and the man at Linate let me through though without an issue.. I suppose if he had stopped me and said you can't take all those liquids than maybe I would have had an aha moment. Then I would have checked my bag which I should have done from get go but I didn't want to have items possibly break and figured it was safer with me.

Sorry... meant Venice, not Vienna... corrected it shortly after posting, but I guess you read it before I corrected!

I have found that Italy has some of the most lax airport security i Europe while Heathrow has the toughest.

Of course the farmer said you could carry on. He wanted to make a sale.

I also think I was in la la land. I was super excited to bring home all these oils, lemoncello etc so I could make fun gift baskets for family and friend that I didn't do any research on amount limits. I have honestly no one but myself to blame. It's all good though as a few things made it and I have oils being shipped to house. Yeah Heathrow is cutthroat but you have be as one of the busiest airports in the world.

Love your comment about the chocolate sorbet gelato! My wife got through Italy on San Carlo potato chips, olive oil bread sticks, salads and wine.

It sounds like you had a great trip no matter what others think of how long you should have stayed in one place.

Yes trip was great . I think because I'm a FT caregiver for my dad and also Bipolar sister so there's all this stress from unsupportive siblings and although I loved the trip sitting on a beach not running around would have been more of probably what I needed. Yes most of the time if I couldn't find anything I wanted to eat at one restaurant I'd look at a few others. The only time my options were slightly limited is in Chiavari which is a larger coastal town near my dads village. I ate but selection choices were not like larger cities. For those who haven't had it before farinata which is fried garbanzo/ cici bean flour is so delicious. Its like a flat bread but it's not bread and they bake it in a wood burning oven. Yummy and yes Chocolate sorbet ice cream was my dessert jam as not much else I could eat while out.

It sounds like you had a great trip no matter what others think of how
long you should have stayed in one place

OP:

I felt I'm too old and it was a little rushed with not enough full
days free of nothing.

I looked at RS tours and did similar times for some places like Rome
but like I said before I wish I had 4 days minimum for everywhere we
went.

My friend didn't feel the trip was rushed just me because I'm not
used to traveling with so much of the trip planned out.

I loved it too obviously.but would have added the day to Venice. Rome
for sure was shorter than I would have liked post trip but now I know
better.

although I loved the trip sitting on a beach not running around would
have been more of probably what I needed.

Liliana, You can try to make farinata at home: even without the wood oven it's quite tasty.

Ciao Dario, grazie yes my sister makes it in a cast Iron skillet when we come over for dinner ma no e la stesso. It's not the same taste. I need to make it at the house too because it is so easy. Nevertheless Farinata is not the same as the kind you get under the portico in Chiavari. It's thinner so maybe we need to do it with less batter. Likewise I've tried to make GF fuccachia but I can't even if I made it with regular flour its not the the same taste. Italians in Italy do every better. I'm going to see if I can find a GF bread making class and pasta making class here in the SF Bay Area. I'm sure there's classes offered.