North Italy tour

Hello,

Outline; we had ten days, some train tickets and a hunger for an adventure. Some bags to trouble us on the way and a few problems with the American Express. So first, a few words of warning; American Express is not widely accepted in Europe and even places that advertise a possibility to pay with it might not accept it after all. Also, especially nowadays, you are not allowed to take big bags into the cathedral and museums (partially because the old hallways are very tricky even if you are allowed to take your bag with you. Some museums offer cloak storages and most Italian train stations have one.

The journey; we started our road trip off by taking a bus on a Saturday morning (way too early) towards Milan. Spent the day exploring the ins and outs of the Duomo Di Milano, strolled through the shopping streets and into the royal museum. There is nowhere to store your bag near the cathedral, the closest place is the central train station. Due to this, we had some difficulties at first to see the cathedral and to enjoy it. We were lucky enough to be able to leave my friend’s bag in a hotel lobby. The Duomo is beautiful and it is very exciting to be able to climb on the terrace at the roof.

After exploring the cathedral, we continued our way through the luxury shopping streets to the royal palace and museum. All the museums in the city have a free entry during their last opening hour. We quickly visited the  Michelangelo and Da Vinci exhibitions and strolled around the quad. Quick dinner before heading back to the train station again. Milan is definitely a beautiful city and has more to offer than the centre but we were determined to see as much of the North as possible and seeking out the places that we like the most in order for us to plan our future stays better.

From Milan we headed to the freezing city of Trentino; cute spot hidden in between the mountains. Trento was probably the loveliest place on our trip! This has surprised all the people we discussed our trip with but truly, Trento is a beautiful, peaceful area where you can mesmerise the authentic Italian lifestyle. It was a Sunday, so as we hiked to the slopes behind the city, all church bells started their beautiful song which echoed magically in the valley. The temperature made the sun rays shine even brighter off the colourful buildings and the blue mountains. The palace in Trento was probably the emptiest tourist location we went to. It was fantastic to have the peace to explore it, the building is very well preserved and tourists are allowed to investigate it independently. We took a cable car up a hill on the riverside of the city and ran into some lonesome vineyards. You could almost taste the frost and the morning dew in the wine. Our final hike was to a local Roman-style temple. The hike looked awfully long from the ground but ended up taking us less than half an hour. I would recommend good shoes for it. You are not allowed to go into or on top of the temple, but we may have taken a sneaky peak. Breathtaking views. 

The palace in Trento was probably the emptiest tourist location we went to. It was fantastic to have the peace to explore it, the building is very well preserved and tourists are allowed to investigate it independently. We took a cable car up a hill on the riverside of the city and ran into some lonesome vineyards. You could almost taste the frost and the morning dew in the wine. Our final hike was to a local Roman-style temple. The hike looked awfully long from the ground but ended up taking us less than half an hour. I would recommend good shoes for it. You are not allowed to go into or on top of the temple, but we may have taken a sneaky peak. Breathtaking views. 

Third stop: Verona, the city of love. Verona was everything we expected it to be, I would definitely recommend it. Sadly, our hotel was a quite far from the train station so we had to spend our day with all our belongings with us. Verona is a very easily walkable city, every corner has a chocolate or a macaroon shop to keep you going. You will want to spend some time around Piazza Erbe; see the views from the top of Torre Dei Lamberti, buy some souvenirs, enjoy some local food, and the best; Veronian red wine. I can honestly say that I had my favourite meal (taste wisely) at this Piazza. The house of Juliet is right around the corner. Prepare yourself with a permanent marker and if you happen to have a loved one, with a love lock. Lovelocks are very popular in Italy, we ran into thousands on our journey. 

The house of Juliet is right around the corner. Prepare yourself with a permanent marker and if you happen to have a loved one, with a love lock. Lovelocks are very popular in Italy, we ran into thousands on our journey. The courtyard under Juliet’s balcony is always super busy, filled with tourists taking pictures of each other rubbing Juliet’s bronze nipples (apparently for good luck in your love life) and people trying to find the perfect spot in the walls to write their love confessions. I would also recommend going to the Arena in Verona. It is not quite like the Colosseum but that is also a good thing: it is well preserved, not crowded with tourists and the view of Verona from the highest seats is beautiful. 

Bologna was our next stop. It definitely earns its title as the city of food; the dinner on our first night was beyond this world. As an experience, it was definitely the best meal we had. We were actually merely googling places where my friend could pay with an AE and we happened to find this one near our B&B. We had no idea what to expect and my only regret is that I wasn’t more hungry. The host is a fantastic, lively man. The dinner starts with their selection of appetisers; there were more than twenty different plates of tasters brought to our table and we did our best to empty them as they came. Mission impossible to say the least. We were so busy with our food, we even forgot that we actually had a nearly untouched wine bottle on the table. After the appetisers were cleared away, we were promised a ten-minute break to enjoy our wine and to recover from the vast amount of food. After our break, the same food rush repeated itself with desserts (we had to refuse the ‘main meal’ part of the meal). If possible, I feel that the dessert rush was even more ridiculous than the appetisers; we had at least seven whole cakes at our table, our host came made us an entire tub of homemade vanilla gelato right at the table and this was followed by fruits and marinated walnuts. It was nearly painful to walk home from the restaurant. I have to say, it was a very expensive experience but well worth it and in a perfect place; in the city famous for its food. 

The next day we strolled around Bologna, visited the ancient university and climbed up the famous two towers. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and the view from the top was pretty non-existent. We were looking forward to seeing the Fountain of Neptune, but it was under reconstruction. After enjoying an authentic lasagna, we decided to leave the city. As good as the food was, Bologna was our least favourite city on our trip.

Florence was fun! Our Airbnb was rather horrific but the city was very impressive and could have entertained us for days. Our time was limited and mostly spent climbing into the bell tower and the Duomo of the central cathedral. You can actually leave all your bags for free to the museum behind the cathedral. The views from the top were perfect. I think my favourite moment of the trip was being on the roof of the Duomo at sunset and watching the sun paint the buildings and clouds pink. We relished some local wine at the Piazza Della Signoria whilst admiring the gorgeous outdoor statutes. I did manage to taste some yummy macaroons, I believe I have a sixth sense to find macaroon shops. 

We stopped by Pisa for an hour and a half just to see it and to take funky pictures with the leaning tower. Luckily, it is off season and it was late so we have the tower nearly to ourselves and got to witness the sunset behind the shining white buildings. 

Our final stretch was the ‘Cinque Terre’ on the coast of North West Italy. It wasn’t recommended to be done during the winter but we went for it anyway. Totally worth it! We started from La Spezia and headed to the Terre; Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso Al Mare, and finally Levanto. As this was our home run, we decided to keep up our tradition of tasting some local wines in each city. Due to rushing through five cities at once, we may have been a little tipsy at the end of them. The cities are all different from each other, but they have a magnificent view of the blue, raging ocean, colourful little building and exciting cliffs to climb onto. I am sure that during the summer, these cities will be full of rainbow coloured flowers and funky fishing boats. 

We stopped by Genoa on our way home and found an ice ring to entertain us! It was actually so amazing to jump on skates after such a long time and just skate away in the sunny harbour. 

Home sweet home.

Mira