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DRIVING THRU ITALY TO FLORENCE, TUSCANY, ROME, POMPEII, SORRENTO & AMALFI, Our Ancient Civilization Trip
Our two week Ancient Civilization trip continues. We leave Greece and Fly to Italy. We start in Florence. Here we stay at the Sina Villa Medici Marriott Autograph Hotel. This property is in a great location for walking everything in the historic area of Florence. We climbed the duomo (make sure to make your reservations as only so many people can climb at once). We visited the Medici Palazzo (house) and walked the Ponte Vecchio (the bridge with the houses on it). We tried to attend church but with a marathon going on we could not make it as the running line trapped us in the historic center. I had the best truffle pasta at Hostaria Il Desco.
After Florence we loaded into our 9 passenger van, which makes total sense in the USA and not so much in ancient cities; and drove thru Tuscany on our way down to Rome. We did the Chianti region which was beautiful, full of charm, and even though it was rainy and cold the hills were still full of color.
In Rome we stayed at the Marriott Grand Hotel Flora, here we had a two bedroom which was fun to be all together. This hotel is next to the ancient wall and close to the Vatican City. The first morning we headed out early to the Vatican City. Here we had a tour guide so we skipped the line into the museum, saw the Sistine Chapel, St Peters Basilica and admired all the marble.
Afterwards we headed toward the Colosseum and had a 2 hour lunch at a restaurant that really knows how to make yummy soup. Gli Angeletti its on Via dell’Angeletto, 3, Roma
After warming up with soup we headed over to the Colosseum ran around for a bit, then took a crazy cab ride back to the hotel.
That night steer being exhausted from a long day we stayed in with room service.
The next morning we packed up and drove down to Pompeii. This was what Turner really wanted to see on this trip. Pompeii was much larger than I ever thought and we spent about 2 hours walking thru the 165 acre complex.
Then we continued on to Sorrento where we had an AirB&B in the heart of Sorrento. The location and space was great. In fact its by a “Super Host” and overall it was fine and would work for my family of 6 if we returned.
However, I don’t know if I will ever go back to Sorrento or the Amalfi coast. I felt like its this hyped up place but in all honesty there really isn’t anything special. We all agreed it felt like the whole area had been turned into a destination for cruise ships, the food isn’t great and everything about it feels extremely tourist. Solerno at the end of the coast is actually better. Still we had trouble finding well prepared food. We were not on a budget but seriously finding really well prepared food in Italy was difficult no matter what we spent. Its frustrating because you think Italy will have amazing food flowing everywhere but the truth is that because so many areas only cater to tourists I think they lower their quality and change the authenticity to suit what travelers think they want. I had the best luck with soups. The truffle pasta in Florence and actually the pizza crust in Sorrento was really good.
After Sorrento, we drove back to Rome and took a flight to Istanbul. Turkey is a true highlight of this trip.
#jifutravel #drivingitaly #pompei
