Hi all. Some notes from our trip. We just returned from Rome, Florence, Ravenna and Venice. We travelled by train.
In Venice, the Alilaguna water bus is a great way to get to and from the airport, but if you are going TO the airport, be aware that the boats are small and could be full when they arrive at your stop. Then you have to wait for the next boat. So leave enough time to be able to miss a boat or two. Our first arrival wouldn't let anyone on. The second (30 minutes later) allowed 2 of us. The boat seems to fit about 25 people. Of course, this might depend on which line you ride and which stop. We were on the Orange line, San Stae stop.
Looking for bathrooms? We stopped in several public libraries. For instance, there is one just a block or so from the Duomo. Free and no waiting.
St Clementi Basilica is worth seeing even with the restoration going on. Tour the lower churches.
I didn't see any pickpocketing but we did see a ton of police. Lots of police presence in Rome especially.
The Trevi Fountain is crazy busy, but it only takes a minute or two to get up to the railing in the free area. So don't despair when you see the crowd.
Even with a reservation, we waited 45 minutes to get into St Peter's.
EES was quick and easy. It took about 2 minutes arriving in Rome at 11am. And it took about the same leaving from Venice. We barely stopped. And with Global Entry, we whizzed right through JFK too.
Now, for stuff that's my opinion.
I wish we'd skipped the Vatican Museum. The Sistine Chapel was packed, even at closing time, and I hear it's always that way. You're crammed together like sardines while the guard yells at people to quit taking video and people ignore him. Humanity at its worst. And it's a one direction musuem. So, when we missed the Raphael rooms, what I really wanted to see, we had to go all the way around again to see them. The guards wouldn't let us cut through the other way. The crowds were too thick for it anyways. It was crowded when I saw it 40 years ago, but a different level of crowded now. I felt the same about St Peter's. We saw so many beautiful churches in Rome without the crazy crowds.
The Borghese Gallery was our favorite museum of the trip. Not too crowded because they limit entry. Not too big of a collection. Gorgeous building and grounds. Perfection. The Uffizi was our second favorite. It was crowded, but not too bad. And they had a lovely terrace cafeteria. Speaking of which, the terrace cafe at the Capitoliine was great, too.
The 20 minute arena tour of the Colosseum was enough for us. And they didn't enforce the time limit, but 20 minutes was enough. No waiting to get in either. Easy!
Ravenna is worth a trip! I think I liked it better than Florence. More Italians than Americans. The mosaics are stunning.
Domus Aurea was worth getting up at 3am to book tickets.
My big opinion: I don't understand day trippers and cruisers and many of the tour groups. The experience looks awful. My favorite times in all the cities we visited were early and late, especially in Florence and Venice. I know I'm part of the problem being a tourist, but at least I brought some money to the local economy. And the number of tourists I saw who I didn't even try to speak Italian, even to say grazie or buongiorno, was disappointing. They'd sit down next to us at a cafe and start right away with English. My Italian is sorely lacking, but one should try. We've travelled other places in Europe and I have never seen as many "ugly Americans" as I have on this trip to Italy. My husband had never been to Italy except our trip to the Dolomites so we were doing some big sites.. I expected Florence and Venice and Rome to be full of American tourists, but I didn't expect their behavior to be so poor. So many people seemed to be there to take photos (of everything) and shop.
We still had a wonderful trip. Hope you do, too.