A Quick Guide to Italy

Right, its embarrassing that its taken me this long to update my blog. Much apologize for this. Its now exactly one month since my sister Erika and I flew to Italy for a week’s worth of touristing. We flew via Frankfurt and arrived mid-dayish in Rome. Our first hostel would fit perfect as a setting for a horror movie. At least seen from the outside. See picture below. We couldn’t believe at first that this was where we were gonna stay for 3 nights. It all worked out really great though. It was very central and within good distance to all major attractions the city has to offer.

Day 2 we started with visiting a local food market. Bought wonderful strawberries to complement our not very nutritious continental breakfast. We then headed for the magnificent Colosseum. I had been told in before that it was not as great as you expect… I do not agree. I think it was absolutely amazing!

The ticket (half price for European citizens age 18-24) was surprisingly cheap even full price. We took the guided tour but in hind sight we should have taken the audio-guide instead because the accent of the guide was really difficult to understand at times. Following the Colosseum we strolled around the site of all other roman ruins called the Forum (entrance included in ticket for Colosseum).

On this lovely day we also found time to visit Trevi Fountain. Its beautiful but absolutely crowded with tourists. It was hard to find the room to take a photo without someone else entering the picture.

Day 3 we visited the Pope in the Vatican city. Unintentionally we happened to get there for when the Pope speaks to the people. In the summer months he does this every Wednesday morning around 10am. Look this up if you’re interested. It’s a pretty cool thing to have experienced, and you can watch it from the side free of charge. See picture.

Twice during these three days we had dinner in the area called “Trastevere”. It’s a very charmy area with narrow medieval lanes. Restaurant prices are pretty descent as well. 3-course menu from 10-17 Euro.

Day 4 we left Rome by train at 11:00am. 1:30pm we arrived in Naples. Due to confusing maps and directions we decided to take a taxi from the station to the hostel. Boy, where we happy about this decision as the taxi took us up into very narrow and confusing streets. We would never have found it on our own. The taxi driver almost didn’t find it either. As he was driving around confused, asking people for directions, he kept mumbling “Mama Mia”. Made us giggle in the backseat.

Naples Pizza Hostel was truly a really great place to stay and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go to Naples. The guy at the front desk was extremely friendly and informative. He told us exactly what we could do with the rest of the day in Naples and then how to get to Vesuvio, Pompeii and the island Capri.

The following day the plan was to go see Vesuvio and Pompeii. We couldn’t believe our bad luck when at the train station we found out that there was a strike on that particular rail stretch today only. In order to not let the day go to waste we turned our schedule around and headed out to Capri by boat. 16 Euro roundtrip ticket was a good price. Capri is such a beautiful island. I wish we could have spent one night there. If I can, I will come back here at some point. Maybe when it is a little bit warmer so the water is warm enough for swimming.

The next day the strike was over (can’t help to wonder what they achieved through one day’s strike!?). 10am we arrived in the outskirt town Herculanium. From here we took the Vesuvio express bus to the highest stop on the volcano. The last bit you walk. The view is really something and seeing an active volcano is also a once-in-a-life-time experience. We saw smoke coming out of it. I strongly recommend getting there early in the morning as tourists were flooding in as we made our way back down again around noon.

We then continued by train to Pompeii. This is a place I’ve been wanting to visit since I first heard about it when I was around 10 years old. I find absolutely fascinating. Seeing a town frozen in time since 79AD is indescribable. The audio guide takes you around the town and helps you to locate the most interesting buildings. We spent roughly 2,5 hours there but I wished we had had more time. However our train back to Rome left Naples at 6pm and therefore left us no choice but cutting our visit short.

The two final night we stayed in a Bunglow at Flaminio Camping in the outskirts of Rome. On the Sunday we took the train into the city centre (10min) and spent the day in beautiful park Villa Bourghese and did some much needed shopping.

Before our flight home to Sweden on Monday, we spent 4 hours down by the river Tevere sunbathing, eating strawberries, bread and tomatoes. What better way to finish and fantastic week in Italy?