Final Thoughts on our Italy Trip

We have had a great trip and a great time!  We have sampled Italy and seen many of the "major" sites everyone expects to see.  The Monograms independent travel worked well and we would do that again.  We have eaten great food at nearly every meal and enjoyed some wonderful Italian wine.  The Italian people we have met were warm and welcoming, and always willing to be helpful.  English worked well most everywhere, much to our surprise, and we were grateful for that.  Italy is expensive in most of these tourist locations, but that is to be expected.  

Two weeks goes fast and I am writing this post over the Atlantic on the flight from Paris to Atlanta.  It seems we were just on our way.  But that is always how it goes when you are having a great time!  I have taken over 1100 photos and posted most of them through this blog.  That is my way of remembering a trip, as the photos become what you remember years later.  I don't know how many blog readers have actually viewed all of the photos, but I took them for us first and the blog was just a way to share them. If someone thinks he/she has seen them all, I would like to hear about it!

For anyone who has followed this blog from the start, I hope it has been at least a little entertaining.  It was harder to keep up that I envisioned, and I had many other topics in mind along the way to blog about, but had to give up at some point as there just wasn't time.  The blog is our diary of the trip, and I will leave it up indefinitely.  But, this is probably the last post.  Thanks to the very few who commented or emailed about the posts.  I learned it is nice to have some feedback, even when you are blogging just for yourself.  It's nice to know someone is reading.

Until the next trip... Jim

Photos from the flight home.

Independent Touring

We arranged this trip via Monograms, an independent touring division of Globus.  They call this independent touring because you have a small amount of organized activities included and a lot of independent time on your own.  The hotels are arranged, the transfers to/from the hotels are arranged, and certain touring activities are arranged.  For example, in Rome we already had an 8am appointment for the Vatican tour, bypassing the crowds and the multiple-hour wait just to buy s ticket.  Likewise at the Colliseum later the same day.  In fact, what we did in Rome in one day would have taken an individual two or three days to do on his/her own.  

While there was a "group" of us, the members changed along the way as all were not on the same itinerary.  You could have as much or as little group involvement as you wanted.  Breakfast was included in the hotel arrangements as is standard in most of Europe, and no other meals were planned.  We all ate where and when we wanted.  Everyone we met on the tours was just like us, wanted some help and advice and arrangements, but lots of freedom to be on our own.  Overall we were very pleased.  It was a good way to travel in Italy.

Another Venice

Our first day and a half in Venice had been fun, but we were put off by the size of the crowds and the press of people in and around St Mark's Square.  The square is huge and during the day it literally was full of people, pressed close together!  The streets close the the square were equally jammed.  We soon learned that the overload of people come from the cruise ships that dock early and stay all day. The crowds they dump onto Venice really distort the environment around St Mark's Square.

We decided to get away and see what else Venice had to offer. So Saturday morning we had breakfast in the beautiful hotel garden room, then set off for the Rialto Bridge, which is lined with shops like the Ponte Vecchia in Florence.  There are also produce and fish markets near Rialto that we wanted to visit.  After crossing the Gande Canal on the Rialto we walked through the produce and fish markets, then set off to explore farther away from St Mark's Square.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a cleaner, calmer, more enjoyable Venice.  We found local people shopping at the markets, European couples and families on holiday but away from the tourist areas.  We walked through residential streets and discovered small squares (called Campo's) that were like a small community with its own shops, cafe's, hotels and markets.  We saw small boutique hotels and B&B's that look really interesting.  It was a different Venice.

Below are a few favorite photos from that day, and the full album link is below.  These are some of my best photos of Venice.

Another Venice Photos

Where is the Recession?

You would not know that there had been nor still was any recession in the world based on where we have been.  From Capri to Venice and every stop in between, the shops and restaurants were full every day.  There were plenty of tourists from around the world traveling this past two weeks.  Capri and Sorrento were pleasantly busy, but not crazy.  Rome was very busy but still manageable.  Florence and Pisa were very busy but again manageable.  Venice was a madhouse around St Mark's Square and to be avoided!  The rest of Italy may be in trouble, but these tourist areas are going strong!

Water & Coffee (caffe), the other beverages

In an earlier post I discussed how wine is a common beverage for Italians.  Water and coffee deserve a mention as well.

As in Europe in general, the Italians drink bottled water primarily.  The exception was in Venice, because the people of Venice are vey proud of of their clean drinking water that is piped from the Alps.  You could drink the water from the public fountains, and many people (including us) filled their water bottles there.  But otherwise, it is bottled water everywhere.  So, at dinner you order a bottle of water with your meal. Bottled water comes in two forms, carbonated and not.  They call the carbonated water "with gas" and the un-carbonated either "still water" or "natural water".  

Coffee is generally available in three forms: americano, cappuccino, and espresso.  Americano is generally very strong and is served with hot milk available.  Using hot milk is superior to how we do it in the US as it helps keep the coffee hot as well.  We had many cappuccino's and they were generally available for breakfast.  That was a great way to start each day!  We will miss the regular cappuccino's!

Asking for the Check

An interesting difference we noted is that in any restaurant in Italy you must ask for the check before they will bring it.  No matter that you have finished eating and have said you want nothing more, until you explicitly ask for the check, they will not bring it.  It was certainly nice to have time to sit and enjoy the evening, or whatever the situation offered.  But it was certainly something requiring adjustment.

Venice, St Mark's Square Flooding

The tide affects Venice like any other place located near the ocean.  That means the canals and surrounding water rise and fall with the tide.  It is a regular experience for the rising tide to flood St Mark's Square, and they are prepared for it.  They have portable walkways stacked around the square that they can used when needed.  In the women's fashion stores we even saw fashion photos of models in dressy clothes with fashionable rubber boots wading through the square!

Friday night after the Gondola ride and a rest at the hotel, we walked to St Mark's Square after dark to see it lighted and to hear the music played there.  When we arrived at the square around 9pm, we found it flooding on one side (the low side).  The water was rising through the drain pipes in the square that are there for the water runoff.  I can only speculate that the runoff drainage system actually drains into the underlying lagoon, so when the tide rises it rises through through the same pipes.  We could see that the square was sloped to drain into those drains, so the rising water was pooling first along the line of drains.

The next day we spoke with a couple in the group who attended a concert Friday evening near the square.  When they came out of the concert hall, they were trapped by the water and had to remove their shoes and roll up their pants to wade through the water to dry land! They laughed and thought it was a unique experience.

Below are some interesting photos I took of the reflections in the square with the water.

St Mark's Square Flooding