[Previous entry: "Sienna...not. Then to Rome - July 6"]
07/08/2004: "Trip Recap"
Thanks for reading everyone! I'm sure that you can tell we had an excellent time throughout Italy!
Here's our favorites and not so favorites...
Favorite Overall Place: Sorrento - This would be a great trip to anyone looking to vacation for about a week. Our hotel was the Il Nido (www.ilnido.it) - the room was nice, the view was spectacular, the restaurant was good, it was a family run place, so the staff was great.
Runner Up: Venice - what can we say? It was like a movie...
Best Place to Be Outdoors: Cinque Terre - the hiking was great
Best Hill Town: Orvieto (also had the best white wine and Formaggi Assortiti)
Smallest Village:Volastra in Cinque Terre
Scariest Place: Naples...don't go there!
Best Weather: Cinque Terre
Biggest Ripoff: Everything in Capri and dinners in Venice
Best Nightlife: Piazzas of Florence
Best View: From our hotel in Sorrento, runner up is at the top of the Duomo Campanile in Florence
Best Hotel Room: In Ravenna
Most "interesting" hostel experience: Florence
Mike's Favorite Meal: Lasagne, our very first day, near the Spanish steps in Rome
Katie's Favorite Meal: Walnut ravioli thingies, in Cinque Terre
Best Breakfast: Full Buffet in Milan, runner up was breakfast brought to the room in Venice
Best Panini: On the ES train...everything else was disappointing
Best Gelato:The place in Rome by our "apartment"....runner up is the "31 Flavors" place in Florence
Best drinks: Fanta, Lemonsoda
Worst drink: GRAPPA
Worst Walk: The "death stroll" in Venice, runner up is our walk to our hotel in Milan
Hottest Train: The "ghetto train" through Tuscany near Sienna
Best Church: St. Peter's in the Vatican
Best Sculpture: "David" in Florence
Best Painting: "Birth of Venus" in Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Best Ruins: Pompeii
Biggest Sightseeing Disappointment: Coloseum...don't pay to go in, the best view is outside
Most Unexpectedly Cool Place to Go: Juliet's Balcony in Verona
Scariest Bug: Scorpion in our room in Cinque Terre
Smallest Elevator: At the Beehive "apartment" in Rome
Best Place to feed Pigeons: St. Mark's Piazza in Venice
Best Public Bathroom: McDonald's
Best dog: Bulldog in Piazza della Signoria in Florence
Fun words: Grappa/Crappa/Groppo, Funicolare, Aqua minerale naturale, Assortiti, Rusticucci, Binario/Binario/Binario, my eyes are bleeding....