Got The Travel Bug? Explore Italy!

Travel makes one modest. You see what tiny place you occupy in the world.

Gustave Flaubert

When we finally opted to explore Italy, we were stoked! Can we speak any Italian? Absolutely not. But, do we enjoy exploring new cultures, especially through food and architecture? We sure do! We thought we ate and drank our way through France, but Italy took it up a notch.

If you’ve been sitting around over the last couple of years wondering if you’d ever be able to take a trip again, or thought to yourself you should’ve gone when you had the chance, you’re not alone. This was our last big trip as we went in the Spring of 2019. Sure, we went to Mexico in February 2020, but to a repeat, resort destination doesn’t count IMO!

It is easiest for us to fly direct to London, UK from Vancouver, BC. Now, sure the goal was to get to Italy, but we love to pop into London as the flight is super easy, and then we’re not worrying about a connection. We love to fly EasyJet when in Europe, but sometimes they’re not so easy jet.

We flew from London City airport to Milan, IT the day after arriving in London. We weren’t super excited about Milan, but let me tell you – we were so wrong! Obv, I was feeling good about seeing the Prada store, but the architecture and food in Milan were stunning. And of course, Jason made me climb a bell tower. This is a common occurrence in all of our European travel adventures.

We stayed in an Airbnb when we were in Milan and our hosts were phenomenal. The condo was gorgeous and if we go back to Milan, we’ll definitely stay there again. It was super close to everything we needed within walking distance. 

Like the Aperol Spritz bar. Delicious & refreshing after a day of touring around! What more could you ask for 😉 

We did take a day trip to Lake Como and we found gorgeous weather! I would definitely recommend going. It is so colourful and it wasn’t at all busy when we were there in May. 

Addio Milan, Ciao Venice

The sinking city! Venice is nothing short of breathtaking. If you haven’t been yet, I’d get there stat! Wandering through random alleys and getting lost in the maze that is Venice, is a great way to stumble upon little shops you’d never see if you stuck to the main area.

We stayed in an Airbnb here as well, which was off the beaten path so we were far away from the busy area. I will say, that we are not ones to do your typical touristy things, but we absolutely did partake in the traditional Gondola ride down the canals. It was SO MUCH fun! We saw our guide again after our ride, and he waved and yelled hello so basically, you’ll make yourself a new BFF.

Italians are the best. Try not to be anywhere in a hurry when you’re in Venice as it really is a maze, especially if you’re staying off the main canal. And trust me, your cell signal will lag. We stayed here for two nights and would recommend anyone going to do the same.

Fun fact: Venice is the only place in Italy where your Aperol spritz will come with an olive. Needless to say, we asked for olives in our Aperol for the remainder of our trip. And yes, some servers looked at us strangely but we may have converted a couple on our travels. Trust me, it’s delicious and it is uniquely Venetian.

Addio Venice, Ciao Vernazza

The Cinque De Terre is spectacular! If the weather gods are in your favour, you can hike the trail along all five villages. The weather was not in our favour leading up to the trip, and parts of the trail were closed but we did get to hike a couple of times, and the views were stunning.

We stayed in Vernazza, and we arrived by train. We did pay for a porter to take our backpacks up to where we were staying. It is straight UPHILL, and we’re fairly fit people. Definitely worth it to pay anything to get our bags to the top.

We live in an area that has mountains and ocean views, but when it’s in a foreign country it is extra special somehow. And the colours! *chefs kiss*

We walked over to Monterosso from Vernazza and did a wine tasting and would definitely recommend if you’re into wine.

When we were leaving Vernazza, did I feel like I was going to topple forward with my bag as we tried to get down to the train station? Yes. Did I make it without injuring myself? You betcha!

Ciao Florence

Florence is the epitome of old-world charm! The architecture is next level and it is such a walkable city. When we were planning our trip, and determining where and how we would explore Italy, Florence was on both of our lists, and high up. As we went from North to South, this city fell in the middle of our trip, but it was one of our favourite cities on our whole trip.

Honestly, not a bad country to explore at all, so I wouldn’t say there’s anywhere we wouldn’t recommend going. Ish.

Back to Florence. I had the idea to do a cooking class of some kind when we were in Italy. Either pizza making in Naples, or pasta making anywhere really. We did a pasta-making class in Florence, and it was amazing. Making traditional Italian pasta turned out to be insanely easy, and we brought the recipe back home with us. We got to eat the pasta that we all made as it was turned into lunch with us, and paired with wine.

Honestly, if I weren’t Scottish, I’d definitely be Italian. Pasta + Pizza + Wine = Perfection.

The only horrible experience we had was that we were heading home after dinner, and I suddenly had to pee. So we tried to hail a cab as it was about a 25-minute walk back to our Airbnb and we weren’t successful. It wasn’t that busy, but clearly, they just didn’t want tourists. Typically, we walk everywhere and now we get why we do that!

Continuing To Explore Italy; Ciao Siena

Straight up Medieval village which is full of cobblestone lanes and I swear you walk more uphill than downhill. Siena is the town of the annual Palio which is a wild bareback horse race. The rain fell a lot while we were here, but we always found cute places to duck into for coffee or a meal. Part of our hotel had an underground cellar where you could do wine tastings and olive oil tastings.

12/10 highly recommend.

Explore Italy – The Heart Of Tuscany

And you’ll need to rent a car. There isn’t any way around that. To travel throughout Tuscany, you will need to be able to rent a car as travelling by train isn’t feasible. When we picked up our rental car, all I wanted was a Volkswagen Polo. I want this car every single time we rent a car in Europe and never do we get it.

In 2019, my luck changed. We got to drive a Polo! It’s basically a lesser-powered Golf – in manual transmission obviously. So we’re already familiar with VW since we’ve had golf, GTI, and now an ID4. You can get cars in an automatic transmission, but we don’t. It’s far more fun to drive a 6-speed!

We stayed in a castle, and I was living my absolute best life. I am not a small town kinda person, but my gosh, I was happy as a clam here.

Big City Time; Ciao Roma!

When you think of Italy, you likely think of Rome. Flashbacks to grade school and learning about the Roman Empire anyone?? The Roman Colosseum dates back 1,900 years and is the largest amphitheatre. How crazy is that?!

We met up with our London friend Jackie, and she brought her partner with us so we got to meet him which was fun! We did our own thing during the day and met up for dinner and drinks. On our second night, we found ourselves off the beaten path – as we love to do – at a place that looked like a hole in the wall, with some chairs and tables outside as well. Honestly, we had the best meal ever, and no one there spoke a word of English, and obv we don’t fluently speak Italian. We trusted them to bring us whatever, and they did not disappoint.

Go off the beaten path – you never know what you’ll find and it may very well be one of the best experiences of your life.

Touristy Hotspots

When in Rome, don’t miss out on the Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Forum Romanum & Palatine, Spanish Steps, and Vatican City. It was hot as balls in Rome when we were there and we hit all the hot spots and walked over 20KM in a day. We did not go inside the Vatican, mainly because it was hot as balls and I was wearing a tennis skirt and knew I wouldn’t be allowed in. But it is surreal to stand in the centre of Catholicism and look all around you knowing this is the centre of it all.

Honestly, we’re not big museum-type people, so Rome wasn’t our favourite place. But it’s an absolute must-see destination.

End By The Sea – Ciao Positano

It’s quite the venture to get to the Amalfi Coast, and we had good luck on our way with no train strikes. We had friends warn us about constant train strikes in Naples/Sorrento. We took a bus along the Amalfi Coast to drop us in Positano. I figured this would be no problem as I don’t get car sick. I was worried a little about Jason, but so long as he’s not reading anything, he’s OK.

WRONG! I felt immensely sick on the way. It is a super windy road – duh, you’re following the coastline – and narrow. If you get car sick, it may be worth it for you to rent a car or hire a car to drive you, if you have the budget for that. You can also take a ferry and honestly, i’d do that next time. I told Jason I will never take that bus again.

We stayed at the Hotel Marincanto, and it was gorgeous. It was up on the cliff, with a phenomenal pool overlooking the sea. Honestly, I was in heaven.

When you’re visiting the Amalfi Coast, make sure to see the Blue Grotto. Again, we don’t do usual touristy things, but this was WELL worth it. An experience with every Euro.

Definitely head to Capri for a day trip, but it’s VERY expensive so make it a day trip. Unless you have the budget and desire to stay there. But we stayed in Positano and would recommend staying there to everyone.

It was the end of our trip, so we really just took it easy. We spent an afternoon in the pool with drinks and then would just wander down by the water to see the shops and get an Aperol spritz before dinner. And we ate lots of delicious pizza while here; don’t let anyone ever tell you that there’s too much pizza. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life.

Off To Naples For More Pizza …

Or so we had hoped. We got off the bus in Sorrento excited to hop the train into Naples to get pizza before boarding our flight to Paris.

Except, there was one of those pesky half-day train strikes. Legitimately, the exact same thing happened to our friends when they were heading to the Naples airport like TEN years ago. So knowing we have a flight to catch, the clock is ticking. The strike wasn’t over until like after 1 or something, which was too late for us to get to Naples.

We eventually found another charter bus (yay – love that for me) which was expensive, but less so than hiring a car to drive us to Naples. I mean, if we would’ve had to hire a car, it would’ve been cheaper to miss our flight.

Learn from us and our friends. Don’t book a flight from Naples the same day you’re arriving there from anywhere else in Italy. Trust us.

Addio Italy, Bonjour Paris

We barely made it to the airport in time. I had bet Jason neither of our bags would make it on our plane. In typical EasyJet fashion, our flight was delayed which worked well in our favour. We made our flight, landed in Paris and hit up a place for a cheese board and wine before heading to dinner for Jason’s birthday. Our bags did in fact show up, so at least we had a somewhat better experience than our friends had 😉

We did go to the LV store, but it was too close to closing and they had closed the line. Great, we had to be there first thing in the morning. I’m sure Jason was more than happy to not spend the first part of his afternoon/evening in Paris on his birthday.

We did get up early and head to Champs De Elysee to the flagship Louis Vuitton store to purchase a bag (this was planned not just me being random) and get a soccer jersey for Brett at a nearby store. We grabbed pastries, saw our flight was delayed, grabbed our bags and headed to the train station to hop the train to the airport.

This is where Jason would like to say our vacation ended.

We get to the airport and I deal with my paperwork for my luxury purchase to get the VAT back. Jason was getting our backpacks ready to be checked. We go to drop them off, and the agent tells us that drop off is closed. So basically, we an’t catch our flight unless we want to leave everything behind.

We call WestJet and they worked really hard to get us on another flight anywhere in North America where we could connect to Vancouver. Unfortunately, they’re the last flight of the day so they could get us on a flight the next day. We lost our upgraded seats, but honestly, with WestJet covering our flights, we couldn’t, and wouldn’t, complain. We spent over an hour trying to find hotel accomodations and eventually we did.

There was a cab strike. So we waited for the hotel shuttles to come around. Honestly, we were ready for some food and a drink. Get to the hotel, check-in, go to find food and there is none. But we could get a drink. Spent some time in the pool as we watched an intense storm roll in with crazy winds and rain. We had one of the worst dinners we’ve ever had and then we legit just crawled into bed with the intention to be at the airport THREE HOURS early the following day.

What in the actual chaos is this?

We get to the airport in time to drop off our bags and I had to modify my VAT thing as our flight was now on a different day. We head to passport control.

IT WRAPS AROUND THE ENTIRE BUILDING. On the bottom level. There was the upstairs level to get up to. We were like, there’s no way we make our flight; what is actually happening here. It took us two hours to get through passport control and then we still had to get through security. We ran only to once again hit a long ass line. We walked onto the plane at the time our flight was supposed to be taking off. And we were not the last ones. Whatever. We’re going home and we wound up having a row to ourselves.

On our flight, on the opposite side of the plane, same row, a child was throwing up endlessly. We land in Calgary, with a somewhat tight connection, as our flight was late leaving Paris. None of us are allowed off of the plane. Canadian Border Control gets on the plane to talk to this lady and her child. 

Y’all. I am not missing another flight on this trip. Let me off this plaaaaaane.

30 minutes or so later, we’re allowed to disembark. We had a customs sitch (my fault – we’ve always claimed together, but apparently you can’t) so I had to go pay duties and I sent Jason with our bags to drop them off so at least if I don’t make it to Vancouver, our bags do and he does. I had my little backpack with toiletries in it. 

Our flight was delayed. Delayed again. Gate was changed. Delayed again. We finally board a flight at like 8 pm or something stupid, land in Vancouver, grab our bags, and my sister and Brett were there to pick us up. They ferried over the day previous, you know when we were supposed to fly home. I was cranky and really just wanted some food and a shower.

Oh, and the sick child? Also on our flight to Vancouver.

The whole Paris situation just felt like some sort of parallel universe, and it was unlike anything we’ve ever experienced in our life.

Explore Italy, Leave From Italy

Don’t add on any other trips. Just fly home or fly to your usual connection city, and then home from there. I am very much never flying home from Paris ever again. I am pretty firm on that stance. The writing was on the wall in Sorrento/Naples, and never again will I say “what else could possibly go wrong” when travelling anywhere again!

Have you been to Italy? What was your favourite place? What has been your weirdest travel experience? I wanna hear it all! We had a weird experience in Belgium too, but it wasn’t travel-related 🙂