Italy Part I

Another early morning flight, but that enabled us to explore Venice for the day and night. Given that we didn’t have any time to get food during transit, our first stop on arrival was to grab some food and in the land of Italy, we settled for a margherita pizza. There are a few different ways you can get to Venice from Marco Polo airport – private water taxi (€40), Alilaguna water bus (€18), or an express bus (about €10). We settled on the water bus as we wanted to experience arriving in Venice by boat. The only problem was that we arrived on a day where travel by water was extremely restricted because of the The Vogalonga – a major, non-competitive rowing event that takes place on the 24^th of May every year. There’s usually three lines that operate from the airport to Venice – the blue, orange, and red line. Because of the once-a-year event, only one line was operating. That meant waiting over an hour to get on a boat which normally takes no longer than 10mins.

It was then about another 30 or so minutes before we arrived at our stop and walked to our accommodation. Venice isn’t the easiest place to walk around with suitcases – there are quite a few stairs and in the middle of the day in summer? It gets hot. After checking in to our accommodation, we went out to grab some food – I had a focaccia from i’bacro de’ bischeri. They only had one vegetarian option but the employee suggested one of the meat ones without the meat and that ended up being really nice.

Venice is insanely pretty. It's actually surreal looking back at some of the photos we took. It's also reallyyyy busy, especially in the middle of the day. That’s why a lot of travel blogs recommend you stay for at least one night so you can explore the city without all the day tourists there. We explored a little bit when we got in with one of the priorities being a caffeine intake. I found a place called Majer which was this really small hole in the wall shop with about 15 different types of coffee beans. The employee was so welcoming and knowledgeable – we both had different espressos, one of which was the nicest espresso I’ve ever had. We enjoyed the experience so much, we ended up buying three bags of beans to take home with us as gifts for others. If you’re in Venice – you have to go here! It’s also really affordable too (prices vary dependent on the bean you choose to try). Just keep in mind, there are multiple Majer shops – this one in particular is called Majer San Stae Coffee house.

Majer Stan Stae Coffee House

After walking around for a few hours, we then took a much needed nap from our 3:30am start. One of the things we wanted to do in Venice was a gondola ride because well, you’re in Venice! There were a lot of options on Getyourguide and Viator and for varying prices too. A lot of recommendations were not to do the shared boat rides with strangers as you might get stuck on a part of the boat without great views (if you’re doing it for the gram). Other recommendations were also not to do the serenade option as that’s a bit of a tourist trap (expensive for what you get). We settled on a private gondola from one of the random pick up points around the city – the prices are the same everywhere - €90 during the day and €110 at night. Admittedly, this was extortion for what it was – a 30 minute (ends up being about 25mins) boat ride around Venice. But, we are still so glad we did it. We had a brilliant guide who was really engaged and happy to answer any of our questions. Some of the other gondolas had guides who were on their phone and looked extremely disinterested. So choose your gondola wisely! In hindsight, this is probably another thing we should have looked at booking in advance. We just weren’t sure how we’d feel with the early morning travel.

After our gondola ride, we went to Liberia (not the country!) which was a very hip bookstore with a residential cat! We found some really cool gifts here. We wanted to explore a place called Serra dei Giardini – a greenhouse that apparently sold great coffee, but because of its location and hours, we didn’t have time to get there. A lot of shops sell the Murano glass – something specific to Venice if you’re looking for unique gifts. At the time, we didn’t realise it was unique to Venice so thought we might be able to find some elsewhere in Italy to no avail. For dinner, we didn’t really know what we felt like and didn’t want to spend too much money (given what we had just spent on the gondola ride!) so we found a fresh takeaway pasta place for dinner, Pasta & Pasta – Fresh pasta to go. You choose your type of pasta and the sauce – I had the parmigiana and tagliatelle while Jas had pesto fusilli. For $15 (€9) each, this was a great dinner choice. Fresh pasta just hits differently.

Given that we were only here for the night, we went and explored some of the touristy places – Doge’s Palace, Saint Mark’s Basilica, Bridge of Sighs – but we didn’t go inside any of them (1. because it was booked out and 2. because of the cost - doing both is about €60-80pp). Just viewing these from the outside though was incredible, especially with the local bands playing at the restaurants in the square. To top off the night, we walked back to Bacaro del Gelato for an incredible gelati which we had as the sun set over the water. Our accommodation was conveniently located for accessibility to shops, but given the restaurant below, we heard everything until the early hours of the morning (something to think about when booking).

In the morning, we had a bit of time to explore before we needed to check out so we wanted to grab a coffee. The only problem was that a lot of coffee shops didn’t open until 9 or 10am (to accommodate the ‘day tourists’). We had heard very good things about Caffe Florian – a 1700s café in the square but at €13 for an espresso?! We thought better of that. I’m not even sure where we ended up getting a coffee from but it wasn’t good. And we weren’t allowed to spend less than €5 so were forced into ordering things we didn’t want. Upon check out, we had about a 20mins walk to the central station in Venice where we caught a train for €1 each to Venice Mestre as this was where we were picking up our car from.

The guy serving us at Europcar was nothing short of a twat. He was extremely condescending and asked us to sign off on the damage before we had even seen the car (not to mention that all the damage listed was in Italian so you couldn’t understand it anyway). I refused (and didn’t sign it) then checked the car, took photos of all the additional damage and went back, stated that I hadn’t signed it, to which he mocked me “Oh I’m such a bad guy mwahaha I’m going to steal all your money. Is the car okay? Yes? Then just sign the piece of paper and take the car.”

Driving in a new country is stressful – you’re trying to learn the speed limits as well as navigate foreign road signs. In Italy the speed limits are 130km/h on the autostrada (toll roads), 110 on highways, 90 on two lane roads in country towns, and 50-70 in smaller towns. The cities have ZTL (limited traffic) zones which cost you a lot of money if you accidentally drive in there and Google Maps doesn’t warn you before you enter them. Given that we had quite the drive to the Dolomites, we tried to get some food from a grocery store but struggled. We managed to find a store where we bought fresh mozzarella (which was ridiculously cheap!), some tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh bread.

As we were flying into Venice over the Dolomites, I saw this stunning lake out the window. I looked on Google Maps to see what the lake was called (Val del Mis), then Googled whether you can visit it and swim there. Because we weren’t able to check in to our accommodation until after 4pm, we needed to kill some time on our way to the Dolomites and decided to take a detour to Val del Mis. What a stunning stop this was! There’s a small hike you can do - a 4.3km loop that takes you to these incredible rock pools halfway through (which we swam in). When we finished our hike, we had lunch and went swimming in the lake – it was beautiful. Before our hike, we had our first experience of ‘bush toilets’. Essentially, they’re almost like a long drop except the toilet isn’t raised. You have to squat into a hole in the floor. For someone with shitty knees, this was a challenge!

An Italian 'long drop'

Our ETA to our accommodation was about 8pm – another 3 hour drive to go. It ended up taking us nearly 4 hours though because some of the roads in the Dolomites are not the most user friendly. We had a small Fiat Panda, which was excellent size-wise, but absolutely gutless. On our way to our accommodation, it took us through Passo Giau – an incredible viewpoint of the Dolomites with a mere 29 hairpins to get up there! Given how late it was, we regretfully didn’t stop to take in the view (which was during golden hour too). On our way down from Passo Giau, we were stopped by two tourists who were in desperate need of a lift. Long story short, they had embarked on a hike which was closed at the top because of snow, so they had to take a detour around it. Their 13km hike had now become 20km and they still had another 4km to their car. So we managed to squeeze both them, their backpacks, and our two suitcases into this tiny little car. And to think the guy at Europcar questioned how we would fit our suitcases in the car! We finally arrived at our accommodation (Holiday apartment ❤️ Farm Stay in the Dolomites - Kuhnehof – South Tyrol) at 9pm. The place we had booked was incredible – extremely spacious with our own fully equipped kitchen and views of the Dolomites.

After making dinner (you guessed it, pasta!), we looked up the hikes we wanted to do while in the Dolomites. We had tentatively listed a few, so it was more about hashing out the logistics of each of them. One of the hikes we wanted to do was Tre Cime di Lavaredo, but we couldn’t. There was no parking available (as it’s booked out in advance) and buses weren’t operating yet as it wasn’t ‘summer’. So we decided on Lake Sorapis.

We had breakfast in the morning and instant coffee too (as there weren’t a lot of ‘cafes’ around), packed lunch (mozzarella, tomato, pesto, and basil sandwiches), and some snacks then ventured out for the day. The hike was stunning and not too difficult (despite what everything online says). It’s about a 12km hike from start to finish (plus an additional 600m from the free parking lot) with a few steep sections but the majority is flat. It took us about an hour and 40minutes to go up and an hour and 20 to come down so about 3 hours of moving time. We took about an hour break at the top to walk around the lake, take photos, have our lunch, and skim some rocks.

On our way back, we stopped off at Lake Misurina for a photo op of the famous hotel with the Dolomites in the background then to Lake Landro for a swim – unfortunately the sand was not sand but clay. So it wasn’t the nicest place to swim. We managed to swim at Lake Dobbiaco though, we just had to awvoid the swans. Parking at these places was cheap too – €1 for 30mins.

Given that we were a bit sore from the Sorapis hike, we decided to do Alpe Di Siusi (Seiser Alm) the next day. This is an extremely difficult place to visit! The road is closed between 9am-5pm for private residents, so if you want to go there you have to get there before 9am or after 5pm. If you drive during the closed times, you’ll get a hefty fine. Despite leaving at 7am for a 1.5 hour drive, our 8:25 arrival became 8:57 because of a crash on the autostrada. We parked at car park 1 (for free!) and hiked the 15mins up to car park 2 (which costs €30!). Then completed a 13km loop. I can’t even remember the trail that we did (I think it was along 6B at one point) as the sign posts don’t make the most sense and despite people saying that it’s a ‘gentle stroll’ – there were some rather steady inclines. All I do know though is that the views were out of this world amazing. Everywhere you looked was stunning - meadows, rugged peaks, snowy mountains. 10/10 would recommend visiting.

We then went back to our accommodation for a nap before taking dinner to Lago di Braies, the ‘famous’ lake in the Dolomites. Parking here is ridiculously priced too – the furthest parking lot (about 800m from the lake) was the cheapest at €7, whereas the closest one was €30 and the middle one €15. The only saving grace is you get the park for the entire day – so if you wanted to make a day of it, it ends up not being as expensive. The lake itself wasn’t the prettiest we’ve seen, but the row boats do look aesthetically pleasing. We went during a time when a storm was coming in and the sun was covered so missed out on seeing the blueness of the lake. If you’re an influencer, maybe you might want to hire out the boats privately for only €150 or if you just want to experience a rowboat, expect to pay €50 for the hour. My honest opinion is that this could easily be skipped. Or if you really just want to take a quick snap, I think there’s 30mins free parking at the top carpark.

The next day we were leaving the Dolomites. The accommodation we were staying at offered a breakfast hamper that you could buy for €13pp. We decided to do this on our last day because we knew we had a big day of driving. My God the hamper was incredible! Homemade bread, fresh milk from their cows, cheese, homemade jam, homemade yoghurt and honey, and freshly brewed coffee. Such good value – we ended up having to buy takeaway containers at the local shop to take most of the food with us. Another random fact about Italy is that they are very strict on separating all of their rubbish. This particular accommodation that we stayed at had 9 different bins. Yes, you read that correctly, NINE! Plastic containers, plastic bottles, aluminium, glass, deposit bottles, paper, cardboard, organic, then unsorted waste. I’m pretty anal about separating things back home but we only have four bins – recycling, general rubbish, compost, and 10c deposit bottles.

On our way to Bologna, we decided to take a detour back through Passo Giau again to take in the views as we rushed them last time. All up, it took us about 5 hours to get to Bologna – without the detour, it was probably only a 4-hour drive. We planned to stop at Bologna to break up the drive to Tuscany and because we had heard great things about it. Our Airbnb host was so lovely, despite not speaking any English. There were lots of ‘treats’ in the apartment from lollies, to breakfast, to cold drinks in the fridge. Given that Bologna is a University town, the city itself is one big ZTL zone, so a lot of accommodation (with a parking spot) isn’t within walking distance. We weren’t really sure how the buses worked (in regards to paying for them) as they have a tap and go on the bus but a lot of people didn’t pay? And the instructions were in Italian. Plus one thing we were about to learn in Italy is that buses were veryyy unreliable.

A lot of restaurants didn’t open until 7:30, so we had plenty of time to kill. We went to Melee café for excellent coffee then went and explored some op shops. Jas found a really cool pair of vintage Adidas trackies for only $30 at Humana Vintage. We were looking at a few different vegetarian restaurants but ended up settling on Zenzero – the food was delicious but the serving sizes were quite small. The sauce we had on the eggplant parmigiana was mwah – Bellissimo! We wandered around a bit more before grabbing a very affordable gelati at Gelateria Gianni – seriously, the gelati in Italy is next level!

Because we weren’t able to check in to our Tuscany accommodation until after 4pm, we asked our host if we could leave our car in the secured parking spot in the morning to explore the markets in the city. She generously agreed so we went back to the city and had coffee, pancakes and crepes at Aroma Specialty coffee, before exploring the flea markets (which were massive!). There was a small section of homemade stalls, and then a very large section of what looked like an in-person temu shop (cheap and nasty clothes). We grabbed a second coffee at Melee before getting our car and driving to Tuscany.

We were restricted with our plans this afternoon as the Airbnb required us to arrive strictly between 4-7pm…even though when we arrived the host wasn’t even there. The views of the rolling hills during sunset were incredible. Jas found a great place to have dinner at the Farm Shop Pizzeria di Sting e Trudie. The atmosphere here was lovely and the perfect place for a family outing as there’s plenty for the kids to explore. When we got back, we jumped on our laptops and started looking at pasta making classes during our time in Tuscany. Again, something we definitely should have booked in advance because a lot of the more intimate classes were already booked out. We found one, booked it, paid for it, then received an email that they are actually away and are not running classes on that day. So we then had to look at another class, booked and paid for that, but again, were emailed the following day to say the hosts were ‘busy’. We finally managed to secure a place on a small Chianti farm with a former chef. There were a lot of spots available in cooking classes out of Florence, but we didn’t want to be in a class with more than 10 people. The one we booked ended up being 8 people from 11:30am-2:30pm for $160 each.

This was our favourite experience from our entire Europe trip. Our host was fantastic – extremely personable and encouraging with obviously a wealth of experience. We learnt how to make pasta (spinach and ricotta ravioli) from scratch and tiramisu too. I highly recommend doing a pasta making class for anyone visiting Tuscany! Just make sure to book in advance and try to avoid the ones in Florence with large group sizes. After the class, we drove 30mins to Siena to explore. We parked at the soccer stadium, ‘Parcheggio Stadio’, as Siena also has ZTL zones. Siena was really pretty, but reminded us a bit of Dubrovnik in Croatia – very touristy. We didn’t stay for too long as we had a Champions League final to watch back at our accommodation. RIP Arsenal.

The next morning was our last full day in Tuscany – in hindsight, we would have liked to have stayed for another day/night as 3 nights really only becomes 2 days. We had a slow morning lazing around by the pool – reading, writing, and swimming. We then drove 40mins into Florence to explore the city. We parked outside the city at 9 Via del Gelsomino, 7, 50125, Firenze. Parking here is about €1 per hour and it’s about a 30mins walk into the city centre and most importantly, avoids any risk of running into a ZTL zone!

Our first stop was lunch at I' Girone De' Ghiotti – a really popular (and delicious) focaccia place (although it’s not called focaccia in Florence, it’s called schiacciata). We weren’t anticipating the long line (or wait) so had to bust it to get to the coffee place we had eyeballed, Fluid, before it closed. Because we were here on a Sunday, there was a really cool market open at Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio that sold unique gifts at an affordable price. After spending a few hours in Florence, we drove to Colle di Val d’Elsa for a swim. This would have been a really pretty walk if we had more time – plenty of places to swim along the river with some stunning waterfalls too.

On the Monday, we packed up our things and headed back to Florence to return our car. We had heard horrible things about the car return in the city centre, which is where I had originally booked given its proximity to the train station. I had spent ages the night before Googling how to access this return without going through ZTL zones, but kept getting so many conflicting messages. I had contacted Europcar a few days prior to ask for directions or to return it to the airport, to no reply. We tried calling them, but were told we didn’t need to go through a ZTL zone to return the car, just follow the boulevard to the car park (there were 5 roads called ‘boulevard’). We decided to call Europcar at the airport and asked if we could please return the car there instead and asked how much it would cost – they said yes to returning it and that there was no additional charge as we had already paid the one-way fee. We just had to make sure we returned it before 11am (which is when we picked the car up the week before…even though the email said 1:30pm return [probably how they charge you for an extra day]). We dropped it off at the airport, had the car checked and signed off, then caught a shuttle bus back to the airport and train to the city for €1 - all for the peace of mind of no ZTL fine! Totally worth the minor inconvenience.

Before we got on the 4-hour train from Florence to Salerno, we went and grabbed breakfast and coffee from Fluid and Coffee Mantra respectively. We had our suitcases at this point and lugging them around Florence was not ideal. We tried to catch a bus to save us time and the inconvenience of walking with our suitcases, but it ended up taking us longer because the buses either didn’t show up, or got stuck in traffic when you were on them. Next stop? The Amalfi Coast!

Travel tips summary

Italy – in general

• Coffee is more expensive if you dine in, but cheaper if you get a takeaway

• Italians typically consume their espressos at the bar – this is the most common drink to order

• The outlets are different here too! Switzerland travel adaptors work here

• A lot of Italians don’t speak any English

• They are very big on separating their rubbish (it is often the responsibility of guests at accommodations to do this before checking out)

Venice

• Can be accessed three different ways from the airport; water taxi, water bus, or bus

• I recommend staying for at least one night to avoid all the ‘day’ tourists

• Be mindful of having to lug around your suitcases up and down stairs

• Murano glass is specific to Venice – buy some here!

• Book a gondola ride in advance for more choice of what you see, for how long, and how much

• Visit Majer Stae Coffee House for the best espresso you might ever have!

Dolomites

• Most incredible place we’ve visited

• Plan to see Val del Mis on your way there – hidden gem that not many people know about. Short hike but stunning lake

• The drive to Passo Giau has a lotttt of hairpins but the view is so worth it

• HIRE A CAR! A lot of blogs state you don’t need one, but we went end of May and a lot of buses weren’t operating. Plus it gives you flexibility for hikes and accommodation

• We stayed in the most incredible accommodation, about 25mins from Lago Di Braies, on a farm – Kuhnehof.

• Make sure your accommodation has a kitchen as the Dolomites aren’t commercially built up i.e. it’s hard to find cafes and restaurants outside main areas like Cortina

• We packed lunches on our hikes – mozzarella is insanely cheap at the shops so we lived off fresh basil, mozzarella, tomato and pesto rolls

• There aren’t any toilets on the hikes and if you’re fortunate to find a toilet, it’s probably just a hole in the ground. There aren’t places to fill up with water either, so come prepared

• Tre Cime di Lavaredo – must book a parking spot in advance to do this hike

• Lake Sorapis – a lot of the 12km hike is flat with a few really steep sections

• Alpine di Siusi – so many trails here for all different fitness levels. Plan your route before you arrive and make sure to arrive before 9am or after 5pm to avoid a hefty fine

  • if you park at car park 1, you can save yourself €30 with a 15mins walk

• Lago di Braies – a bit overrated and expensive to park. Again, if you park at the bottom, it’ll only cost €7, at the top, €30 and middle car park €15

• We were looking at doing the Adolf Munkel trail but ran out of time – would recommend at least 4 nights, but could easily stay longer to explore more

Bologna

• Really cool city, but if you have a car have to stay outside due to the ZTL zones

• Great op shops

• Cafes we’d recommend were Melee and Aroma

• Visit The "Little Venice" (La Piccola Venezia) window

Tuscany

• Loved loved loved this place too. Would recommend at least 4 nights if not longer and definitely need a car

• So much to see – from exploring cities to the countryside to wine tasting

• Book a pasta making class well in advance – avoid anything in Florence or ones with class sizes larger than 10

• Florence is beautiful, give yourself at least an entire day to explore it

• ZTLs in Florence are no joke – avoid them at all costs! Try to get a car or return your car to the airport rather than the mestre to save yourself stress (and money)

  • Research and plan where you’re going to park before you drive anywhere to save you the stress of accidentally turning down the wrong street

• Recommend visiting Siena and Colle di Val d’Elsa

• Coffee at Fluid or Coffee Mantra and lunch at I' Girone De' Ghiotti in Florence

• Check out the Sunday flea markets in Florence if you’re there on a Sunday