Roma

They say if you make it to Rome and you still like Italy, push on, otherwise, pull up and go home, because it only gets more intense.

Rome is certainly intense, a rewarding, but exhausting place to visit.  Most people head straight for the Colosseum, the Roman ruins, and the most famous museums.  If you can get away from the crowds (and there will definitely be huge crowds in the summer), the side streets are a great place to get away and get a feeling for Italy off the tourist trail.  Like just about everywhere on the Euro-package tour circuit, it's probably a lot more pleasant to visit off season, even if the weather is more challenging.

We had our share of travel frustrations in Rome - slow rental car agencies, broken elevators, and overpriced food - but it's something you just have to expect when you get there.  They say the Swiss welcome travelers, the French tolerate them, and the Italians scam them and, well, I wish it wasn't true, but it kind of was in our experience.  Be careful of places to exchange money - we wound up paying a whopping 25% fee on a $1,000 exchange.  The fees were all in plain site, except they were in Italian and no one would have thought they were cumulative and summed to 25%.  Of course, once you get off the package tour trail all this stuff disappears, but unfortunately very few people ever do.

The highlights for us?  Soaking up the energy of the city as we walked around, especially near the main shopping area.  There are thousands of people and their fast-paced, fashionable energy is contagious.

Strolling through the old Roman Forum - definitely top of the list.  Another reminder of how civilizations come and go...

And finally, the food.  The further South you head the better the values are and you can wine and dine for a bargain.  Hang out in a cafe, enjoy your wine or espresso, people watch, and let the hours go by.  You'll be in the company of a lot of locals doing the exact same thing.

Late night in Rome.

Lights near the fountain of Trevy.

Crows near the fountain of Trevy.

The famous fountain.

There's a touristy t-shire for every taste and budget.

The Colosseum.

Rome wouldn't be Rome without broken elevators...

The Forum

Chilean Health Food

Here's a long-lost post from the depths of my blogger archive... like a message in a bottle!

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Chilean food rocks.  Follow the truckers and you'll be happy... today's gem of a lunch included a big, hearty serving of biscuits, with lard,  lamb ribs (with the fat on the bone), potato and corn soup, and beef tripe with chilies and rice.  Damn.

Chilean food is delicious in a Mad Men, heart-healthy be damned kind of way.  Those truckers looked they knew a good meal when they saw one, and you wouldn't catch any of those guys eating a salad at Panera Bread.

And then on-the-road meal number two was another killer guac, hot-dog, mayo churrasco, served out of an old container.  Man vs. Food, where are you?

Gourmet.  Follow the truckers.

Small town Sienna

For a long time Italy wasn't a country, it was a bunch of cities that fought with each for power and influence. Sienna and Florence were two of the top contenders, and their rulers tried to out-do each other for centuries.

Like the modern day sponsors of Burj Dubai, or the Three Gorges Dam, or the Maglev Train in Shanghai, or the Space Race, huge public works that creates lots of buzz around your city-state were the way to go.  Look!  We're so rich and powerful that we have the biggest, most bad-ass cathedral in the world!  Thank you, peasants of yesteryear, for paying the taxes and providing the labor that lets us ooh and aah at the cathedrals your rulers built.  

Florence gets all the attention these days, but Sienna is the way better place to spend an afternoon.  Sure, you can't check the box on seeing Michelangelo's David or some other famous works of art, but it's way less crowded, way more charming, and the gelato is pretty damn good.

Are you into freaskish Saintly treasures?  That's another good reason to come to Sienna.  The patron Saint of Sienna, St. Catherine, is sort of celebrity in Catholic circles and her mummified head and thumb are still on display at one of the cathedrals.  It's easy to miss until your guidebook says (3): Mummified head of so and so and you're like no way!  It's really there!  I'm not sure I could spend a whole Mass with her eerily staring at me from her glass jar.

For a taste of small-town Italian life, find one of the little hole-in-the-wall trattorias and let the family in charge pick a plate of Italian cold cuts and some appetizers.  Then, wash it down with a glass (or a couple) of the house wine while you watch the locals come and go, shoot the breeze with the owners and each other, and live the small town life.  It's pretty damn charming.  Even if you love being anonymous in a huge, bustling city like New York, there's something about that small town intimacy that hits at a place really deep in our soul, where we wish we had that local bar where everyone knows everyone else (or... maybe that's just me.)

Also, in my purely personal and highly amateur opinion, Sienna won the Cathedral wars.  Sure, Florence's has more square footage, but the inside of Sienna's is breathtakingly over the top.  Their medieval square also has a nice slant to it, is located right outside the entrance to the town hall, and has a bunch of great gelato joints.  Even giving Florence some points of shopping and great art, I think Sienna squeaks by with the win.

Charming Sienna, city on a hill.

Less charming and way more creepy - the mummified head of St. Catherine of Sienna.

Her thumb

Back to charming - a little trattoria in the medieval center.

Family pride

The steep streets of Sienna

Another example of out-of-control Church architecture.

Sculptures of popes heads line the main chamber - all of them.

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The outside - looks a lot like the cathedral in Florence, doesn't it?

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The other, less fancy, church, just outside of the city walls.

The picture-perfect drive home.

Tuscan villages.

Florence

Florence, where Italy starts to really feel like Italy and centuries of wealth and influence are packed into a few city blocks downtown.

It was hot in Florence when we arrived.  Not just any hot - so hot you walk around with sweat dripping down your neck, while you fan your face and wonder why you didn't stop at those beautiful beaches just north and, hell, how cool can a 20 foot tall marble statue be?  Can it be worth the pain of walking blocks and blocks through Chinese tour groups just for that picture?

Well, maybe.  That's actually a great reason to visit Florence some other time of the year - Spring would be nice, maybe even winter.  You won't be able to sit in the cafes, but then again you probably won't be able to sit in the cafes in late July anyway.  You'd rather be in a McDonald's with killer air con.

One of our favorite parts of Florence was our hotel, actually.  I'm not much of a house-hunter-find-the-ideal-hotel kind of guy, but when a deal came on this cute little B&B on the outskirts of town (with parking, but also within walking distance of downtown), we went for it.  It was charming, with a little garden out back, a great place to have a glass of chianti, talk excitedly with wild gesticulations, and wind down at the end of the day.

Which brings me to our second favorite experience in Florence - the restaurant our hotel recommended.  It was another one of those hole-in-the-wall (the only place to eat in Italy, I've decided, after our 100% batting average with them).  It was a family affair, with hearty, home cooked food and generous pours of wine.  The Olive Garden may say you're family when you're there, but here, we really felt like family.  Turned out the guy spent some time working construction in New York before coming back with a healthy amount saved, so he bought a place and got married.  Loved his family too much to leave them for America. Now that, that is family values.  We loved the place and went back for second helpings the next night.

What about the famous museums?  Well, they're interesting, but unless you're a real art history expert its hard to truly appreciate the contents.  The museums aren't in great shape - the AC was broken, the lighting is off, and a few exhibits were closed for renovations, and the lines are ridiculous.  The statue of David is actually really cool - it's worth checking out regardless of your knowledge of art history.  Or, better yet, study up on the Italian renaissance before you go and then take a knowledgeable guide with you.

Or, just head to a small Italian town and drown yourself in incredible home-cooked food, wine and hospitality.  That's still our favorite part of Italy.

Home in Florence - classy!  The further south you head, the more and more value you get for your Euro.

The cathedral in Florence.

Candles in Florence.

The cathedral in Florence, very big, and very impressive.

Over the top decorations.

Every square inch of this thing could be its own sculpture.

Ben & Jerry's making inroads into the gelato capital of the world.

And, if you're not in the mood for gelato, there's always truckloads of tacky tourist souvenirs.

The non-touristy side of Florence.