So I have a friend who is going to Italy in a month or so, and I just finished typing out some notes for her based on my own trip in 2004. I figured, if for no other reason than my future reference, I'd repost most of the info here.

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Montepulciano -- Definitely a town that gets my highest recommendation. Smack dab in the middle of Tuscany, surrounded by vineyards, and the first thing we saw when we entered the town walls was a store in a cave stuffed with nothing but cured meats, cheese, and Italian wine. We stayed at a place right near the entrance of the city, called Albergo Il Marzocco (http://www.albergoilmarzocco.it/):



This was the view out our room window:



And this is some of the stuff around town:


San Biagio church


Sitting on the town walls.


The famous Punchinello clock. Unlike the literary and theatrical Punch, this one only beats a clock tower bell; not his wife.


View of Tuscany from the edge of town, with San Biago down there in the corner.


Luxury sedan.

There's an old wine cellar in Montepulciano called Contucci (http://www.contucci.it/) -- take the tour, drink the wine. It is bold and will knock your socks off. Nothing subtle about it, but that's Italy. There is also a famous cafe called Caffe Poliziano that is well worth a couple visits for food and drinks and dessert: http://www.valdichiana.it/expo/caffepoliziano/index.uk.html.

From there, we drove to Siena but did not stay the night or nights there (mistake). Instead, we pressed on to Florence and stayed at a place called The Hotel Dali http://www.hoteldali.com/pages/view.htm), which we picked because they had a parking lot. The place was fine. Nice couple. The guy helped me get my car into the actual parking area, because I had no idea how to get to it -- I could see it, but an attempt to actually get to it left me in a maze of conflicting one-way streets that sent me further and further away. So I just left the thing on the road, and he drove it for me. It turns out that going backwards down a one-way street is perfectly acceptable.

I think I mentioned that if you hit the Uffizi Gallery, have your hotel guy call and get tickets for you in advance. Otherwise, it's like a two hour wait in a courtyard with Machiavelli staring at you the whole time. I also highly recommend the Museum of Science (http://www.imss.fi.it/), just a few blocks away. It's pretty awesome, with lots of Renaissance science stuff. Oh, this was our room:

Bidets, baby. You'll learn to love them. Going back to toilet paper alone was harsh.

After that, we ditched Venice because of the sewage problem and blizzard and just booked at random, so I can't help much with suggestions as I don't know the names of most of the places. I might have them scrawled down somewhere on some lost sheet of paper, so I will keep looking. But here are the cities we stayed in:

Pisa: this is an afternoon, not a city to stay in. However, we did have one of our best meals here. But basically, you see the Tower and that's pretty much it.


Cinque Terre: a definite must hit spot. There are no real hotels per se, just guest apartments that you sort of pick at random. Because this was sort of an impromptu thing and we got in late, we ended up staying at a hotel in La Spezia, once again because they offered free parking. You can catch the train to Cinque Terre from here. It's a short ride. I recommend taking it all the way to the last town then working your way back. A hiking trail connects all the towns, and you wander up and down terraced lemon and olive groves with the Mediterranean below. Hikes are a bit strenuous in spots, but worth it in my opinion, even if you just do one.







Lucca: another great walled town. The way toward the town is a network of earthwork ramparts and bunkers, and the wall itself is made so you can rent a bike for a few Euros and ride around on top of it. We stayed at an awesome place called Piccolo Hotel Puccini (http://www.hotelpuccini.com/intro.html) which was really cute and romantic and all that. Also, we ate some of the best pizza I've ever had (outside of New York, anyway). Town is awesome, but the only drawback is that to eat somewhere other than a pizza stand, you need to book ahead. Easy enough. Let the guys at the hotel took care of you. There are only a few restaurants and since they are only open a couple hours, they fill up quick, making reservations a must. Also, Lucca has had a standing feud with Pisa for like six hundred years now, and the big duomo in the center of town still sports "Lucca merde!" vandalism graffiti from like 1610.

Volterra: Another absolutely fabulous Tuscan hill town. It's home to some ancient Roman ruins and baths, and also the Museum of Medieval Torture (closed when we were there). Stayed at a place called Albergo Nazionale Volterra, which was dirt cheap at the time and one of the most awesome rooms we had. http://www.hotelnazionale-volterra.com/index.asp. We got a balcony overlooking the valley and perfect for sunsets and wine. The hotel also has it's own restaurant, which was good.

We stayed in Volterra a few days because 1) it was pretty, 2) I found free parking outside the city walls, and 3) it was central to taking day trips to other towns. we went to San Gimignano, which is a must-visit and also has a museum of medieval torture, which was also closed in mid November. They have a bunch of old medieval towers all over the place, good food, and a cool market if you are there at the right time.

After that, it was Rome, and I can't help you there because we got shuffled away from the place we originally booked and placed somewhere else. It was a pretty good hotel, and the guy who ran it was some affable Middle Eastern guy with a huge gut and a tendency to laugh heartily and talk like a con man. But we had nothing but fun, and it was across the street from some comic book store where they sold reprints of old Italian comic books like Diabolik, as well as lots of porno comics like "Creamy Wanton Housewives." All of the cab drivers in Rome are crooks. Coliseum was awesome, but it was closed because they were having the MTV Europe Music awards there that night. Still, we got to hear Franz Ferdinand and Kylie and I'm sure Robbie Williams, which was pretty boss. The Vatican Museum is a must-see. Blew my mind. And they have lots of Egypt stuff. We got lost in the middle of the night down by the Forum and stumbled upon some massive palace that had been converted to an archaeological museum. Lots of famous stuff there. And we got lost in the Vatican museum because the thing is massive. Sistine Chapel is worth weaving your way through the maze. We were sort of tired of Italian food by Rome, so we ate at a Chinese restaurant down the block from where we stayed, and it was tasty.

And that was Italy. I might even have the names of the restaurants we ate at, but we pretty much just asked for suggestions at the hotels or picked at random. Two weeks and dozens of meals, and we only had one bad one (it was lunch). Drink wine. Drink lots and lots of wine. Any day I wasn't driving, I spent tipsy, and it was awesome. Bottle of wine on the terrace in Volterra at sunset? Nice. And pick me up a bottle of Brunello di Montepulciano. It's expensive here. It's expensive there, too, so maybe forget about it. A liquor store in Florence is where I bought my first bottle of real absinthe.

Oh -- and eat lots of gellato. It puts the crap in America to shame.

Labels: Travel