Last fall, I started asking questions here on the Italy board about planning our first trip to Italy. Thank you for all of the excellent advice I received. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
We started in Ravenna. Thank you for all of the advice about where to stay, about flying into Northern Italy, etc. Ravenna was wonderful. We live in a small village in Vermont, so having time to adjust in a small city like Ravenna was great before tackling Rome. The mosaics in the churches were gorgeous, the main part of town easy to get around in, etc. We loved people watching The smell of jasmine blooming was a wonderful little bonus for late May, too! Our hotel was great. We stayed at the Albergo Capello and loved our gorgeous room with a marble bath tub. The staff there were so helpful and friendly. Breakfasts were great--a lovely buffet of various items and we were able to eat in the small courtyard in the interior of the hotel. An unexpected delight was stumbling upon an antique car and motorcycle show in the main piazza.
Again, thanks to much careful reading of the board here, I managed to figure out how to buy train tickets both directly at the stations for travelling from Bologna to Ravenna and in advance for our travel to Rome. We had an excellent train trip from Bologna to Rome on the Frecciarosa train in Business class for such a low price! Rome itself was both beautiful and exhausting. Thank you to those who advised taking a taxi to the Vatican for our early morning "skip the line" tour of the Sistine Chapel. That was 10 euros well spent! And I can recommend the Viator "skip the line" early morning tour of the Chapel. Well worth the extra money not to drowning in the crowds!
For those of you who are rose lovers, or simply want a break when near the Circus Maximus, I can now recommend the rose gardens just up the hill on the Aventine Hill. It's on the Via de Valle Murcia. We saw some announcements of the Rose Festival while near the Victor Emmanuel monument, tracked down the street address, and spent a pleasant hour or so admiring the flowers, the views of the Palatine Hill, and relaxing in the shade, and refiling our water bottles in the fountain!
I could go on and on, but I hope I have conveyed just a bit of my gratitude for all of the advice that I received, both directly and indirectly.
Christie