Our Travel Blog

The vacation has been a dream. When we arrived back in Rome, we ate dinner at the Mercato Centrale in Rome. Trappazino, pizza, and gelato was the perfect meal to end our trip. We do recommend this mercato over the Mercato Centrale in Florence. The hotel we stayed in for our last night on vacation was nice. Because they were aware it was our honeymoon, the hotel gave us two free drinks at the bar. We did have one last Italian breakfast of a cappuccino and cornetto at the airport (I, Gary, splurged and had 2 cornetti.) Ciao, Italy! A doppo! We will return! 

We had an easy walk to the train station in the dark at 5 AM, but we felt completely safe in Lucca. We wanted to make a quick stopover in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. We would love to at least visit Lucca in June and July of every year for Lucca's jazz and classical music festivals. A taxi is unnecessary when visiting Lucca because the city is very walkable. One tip, d on't get in a hurry at a dinner in Italy. Take the time to have another drink. You will have to ask, "Il conto, per favore," for the bill.

We woke up early for a 7 AM train to Lucca. While we were in Florence, we had the best stay at Hotel Perseo. We stayed in the 4 floor suite with a private terrace on top, which really made an amazing trip even more amazing. We loved hearing the church bells from our hotel room. We found Firenze (Florence) to be a walkable city. We just suggest you carry along a map and have good walking shoes. FYI, Skechers might make one trip to Europe, but forget about them making two. Other insights we had: The colors on some of the 600 year old paintings are still amazingly vibrant (especially the frescoes at San Marco). People from the US shouldn't expect the same level of service that you are used to, specifically in restaurants. Remember to check your train number on the departure board. The city listed on the board could be the last stop of the train while your stop might be along the train's journey.  

We had a couplet of takeaways from our time in Siena: Tuscan hills are real. One needs to be in decent cardio shape before visiting. We really fell in love with Siena. It really doesn't matter if it's early morning or late at night, but the Piazza del Campo is gorgeous!

On Thursday, September 15th, we woke up at 5 AM to catch the train to Siena. Apparently, Rome was sad to see us go because it rained on the way to the train station. In our visit to Italy, there has been no language barrier. We have felt much more fluent with our rudimentary Italian than we actually are. The Italian breakfast of a cappuccino and cornetto (pastry, usually filled with cream, apricot jam, pistachio, or Nutella) is so good.  The train ride to Siena through the Italian countryside is gorgeous. Train times in Italy are approximates. If you have to change trains during a trip, there is no guarantee of making the connection on time. You may want to go ahead and factor in extra time and, maybe, a visit to customer service to take the next available train. If possible, purchase train tickets that don't involve a change.  We can't say enough about the hop on-hop off buses in Rome being a good deal. Some of the buses are even air-conditioned, which is handy in the mid-90 ...