Countdown to Italy:
Summary: A 10-day Italian adventure beginning in Rome, where we will explore iconic landmarks like the Colosseum and Vatican while indulging in classic Roman cuisine. Next, soak up the beauty of the Amalfi Coast on the island of Capri, with its dramatic cliffs, charming towns like Positano, and refreshing limoncello. Finally, unwind in the beach town of Tropea, enjoying its crystal-clear waters, delicious ‘nduja, and breathtaking sunsets.
Wednesday, April 30: Travel
Summary: Let’s get this party started. Finish up everything at home, and head south to the Charlotte airport for our overnight flight.
Wednesday, April 30th.
Afternoon:
There is a chance we will run into traffic in Charlotte, so we better leave a bit earlier; maybe 1 or 1:30.
Parking Reservations are at “The Parking Spot” right outside of the airport. There is a QR code that is our reservation in my email, and this has also been printed out in our folder.
It is American Airplines Flight 720, and leaves at 6:40. The flight has changed a bit since we orginally scheduled it, so check the app on the phone to see what is current.
If you get a moment, on the way down, check out this website describing the 4 types of traditional pastas in Rome, to get a little more excited for dinner tomorrow.
To get ready for the jet lag, start sleeping earlier and waking up earlier.
Thursday, May 1: Rome‘s holy places
Summary: Today’s schedule is hard to plan because I don’t know how much energy we will have after our flight. The best way to get over a time-zone change is to just power through it.
Also it is hard to tell how long we will want to spend visiting the holy places. But, if we see 1, or if we see 10 things, the day will be a success! There is plenty of room to be flexible.
Morning: Land at 9:15 AM in Rome. Gather our bags, and grab a taxi.
The Taxis are outside terminal 1 and terminal 3; a ride from the airport to the hotel is 55 euros; do not let them charge us more, this is a local, set price.
For getting around Rome, I downloaded the ItTaxi app; its like Uber, but only in Italy because of a lawsuit between Uber and the Taxi union.
After getting bags and going through customs, take the 40 minute trip to our hotel: Boutique Hotel Campo De’ Fiori. The address of our hotel is: Via del Biscione 6 00186 Rome Italy
Our room may be available, if not, the hotel said they would definitely take our bags for us.
Afternoon:
DECISION TIME:
We can either:
- Walk and see the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Borghese Gallery, a total of 2.4 miles from our hotel, in a northern direction. Good news is, we already have tickets to the Borghese Gallery, should we want to go.
- Walk the path outlined below, mostly east of our hotel, a total of 4.9 miles.
- Or, we could use this time to see St. Paul’s Basilica. St. Paul’s is an 18 minute car ride, or an hour walk, south of our hotel, and goes through the culinary district, Travesteres
Time for our Holy Pilgrimage of a lifetime! Below is the recommended order, a total of 4.9 miles to see some of the following things:
Where to go: Below is the recommended order on Google Maps to walk from one to the other. All of these are saved in Google Maps, so we should be able to navigate easily.
| Mamertime Prison | Where Peter and Paul were kept in Prison. | 0.8 miles |
San Pietro in Vincoli: | The chains from when Peter was in Prison | 0.6 miles |
Basilica dei Santi Silvestro: | the head of John the Baptist | 0.4 miles |
Basilica Saint Mary Major: | Holy crib, shards from the cross, tomb of st. Matthew | 0.2 miles |
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme: | Relics include the Titulus Crucis, the inscribed sign which hung over Christ during his crucifixion; two thorns from Jesus’s crown of thorns; and three pieces of the True Cross. Here you’ll also find the doubting finger of St. Thomas. | 1.0 miles |
| Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano | Reliquaries include the heads of Saints Peter and Paul; the Holy Stairs (Scala Santa), taken from the palace of Pontius Pilate; and wood from the table used during the Last Supper. | 0.6 miles |
The Court Bar | Drinks to end the day | 7:30-7:30 |
| TOTAL | 4.5 miles |
We have reservations at 4:30 at Mr. 100 Tiramisu – where they have 100 flavors of Tiramisu (also a wine bar and it’s near the trevi fountain).
Dinner reservations at Osteria Pasquino at 7:30- a 5 minute walk from our hotel. This was a place recommended by Allison and Andy.
We could grab a taxi and head to the Trastevere neighborhood if we like 🙂
But be sure to get to bed early, we have a big day tomorrow.
REVISION: Our flight landed a little bit late, so we skipped Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Also, the Court requires reservations, so we were unable to go. And, our visit was right after the death of the pope, so we were unable to see St. Mary Major, as the lines were around the building.
Friday, May 2nd: Coliseum
Overview: Where warriors have a chance to prove themselves! The highlights for today are the 3 hour tour of the Coliseum, followed by a visit to St. Paul’s Basilica, and dinner reservations.
Morning:
The tour starts at the Basilica San Cosma and Damiano, and is a 21 minute walk/11 minute drive from our hotel, so we should leave the hotel by 8:30; because of jet lag, it will feel like 2:30am.
The destination can be found in our Apple Maps Guide, or it should open in apple maps when clicking this link .Bring the document we have and exchange it for a ticket to enter the coliseum.
The tour starts at 9:30 (originally was scheduled for 9:00) and should last two and a half hours. After the tour, head to the Roman Forum, then towards the Capitoline Hill and the Pantheon (this is roughly back to our hotel) if we want to keep walking.
DECISION TIME:
We can do either:
- See St. Paul’s Basilica.
- Wander around Rome
- walk and see the relics we didnt see yesterday (they are pretty close to the coliseum)
- A combination of the above.
Afternoon:
Depending on how tired we are, we can head back to the hotel (which isn’t far), or take a taxi to our next stop.
Visit St. Paul’s Basilica Outside the walls; it is 2.3 miles from the Coliseum, so we should get a taxi. The Apostle Paul was buried here! There is no tour here, so we can just wander around, talk amongst ourselves, and see the gardens.
If time allows for our 7pm dinner reservation, head to to Tre Fontane, the Trappist Brewery via a taxi (11 minute drive). There are only 11 in the world. According to legend, when Paul was beheaded, a spring opened up where his head hit the floor. A monastery was built on this spot, and less than 200 years ago, they began using it to brew beer.
To be a true trappist, the beer must be brewed by monks in a monastary and the money from income must be given to charity. So, in the land of wine, grab this special pint and drink up!
After the Abby, take a 27 minute taxi back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.
DINNER:
On Friday may 2nd at 7pm, we have reservations at:
Salumeria Roscioli This was a recommendation from Allison and Andy, and they have some seriously delicious caccio peppe. This reservation is printed, and saved in our iCloud drive.
Update: This was the best pasta possible: I had the Grice. And, the Coliseum was very, very crowded. Also, I was glad our coliseum tour included Palatine Hill, it was worth seeing.
Saturday, May 3: Vatican
Overview: Rise and shine! We have an early morning tour of the Vatican in order to beat the crowds. The Vatican has over 9 miles of hallways to visit, and is where the Apostle Peter was buried. Time to geek out about history. This will be the most crowded part of our trip, but it will be worth it. After the tour, we can do an afternoon in the catacombs, or skip for something else.
Morning: tour the Vatican.Be sure to bring your passport and dress modestly. Long sleeve shirts and pants, but click here for more information.
The confirmation email has been saved in our Italy files, and printed.
The tour starts at 7:45. The location to start the tour is in our Apple Maps guide: it is a 13 minute ride, or 33 minute walk from our hotel to the start of the tour, and the tour lasts 3:30. It will be a great time to see the Sistine Chapel, which is the size of the Temple in the Bible.
This is also the site of Peter’s burial, and where ancient Romans used to kill Christians for sport.
We should be done by 11am, and grab lunch somewhere before our next tour.
Afternoon: The afternoon is wide open. At this point we have a good idea of the city, and this time can be used to visit things on this list we haven’t seen, or we can go see something new.
Dinner: Let’s go to the Trestevere neghborhood. There are plenty of places to eat here, but they do not take reservations. It will be Saturday night, so there is a chance they will be crowded, but let’s enjoy our last night in Rome!
Update: Rome is the safest, livliest city I have ever visited. It was way more walkable than I thought, and we saw almost everything in our list. After the Vatican tour, we just walked and saw the Spanish Steps, and many other things we were unable to identify, but they were beautiful and the weather was perfect.
Sunday, May 4: Rome, Pompeii, and sleep in Capri!
Summary: Today is a big day of travel. In order to get everything in, we should leave our hotel fairly early, see Pompeii, and make our way through the top pickpocketing areas of the country. We got this!
Rome was heavily planned out- it had to be, it is the biggest, busiest of the cities. Amalfi will slow down among the upscale vacation travel vibe, and things will slow down even more when getting to Tropea.
Morning: Rome to Pompeii.
When it is time to say goodbye, take a taxi to the Rome Termini Station . Lets try and leave the hotel around 8 so we can have time to find our train: it is a 25 minute drive from our hotel to the station.
When arriving at the train station in Rome, validate the train tickets before getting on board.
Tickets from Rome > Pompeii have been purchased through the Omio website/app, and the information has been printed. The train departs at 8:53, and puts us in Pompeii at 10:55 a.m, and the app is on my phone with tickets. The train stop is right outside of Pompeii, so we will have to find a place to store our luggage.
Pompeii to Capri: After we leave Pompeii, go to the same train station, and head the same direction, to the end of the line: Sorrento. This ride should take about 52 minutes.
Then, take a bus to the ferry which takes us to Capri. The Ferry from Sorrento to Capri is 20 minutes. Once we arrive at the port in Capri, it is only a 10 minute, very windy road to our hotel. Or, we could take the Funicular, which is across the street from the port. If we take the Funicular, our hotel is just a 300 yards from the top of the lift.
Check in time is at 3pm.
Our hotel is the Sina Flora Hotel in Capri, located at:
Total travel time, including 3 hours in Pompeii: 6.5 hours.
We have dinner reservations at Gennaro Amitrano, near our hotel, at 6:15. This is a solid, kinda fancy restaurant; it is not a Michelin Star, but it was on the Micheline Star website as a “recommended” place. It is an 8 minute drive, or 24 minute walk (0.9 miles). This will be a great way to get situated with Capri, stretch our legs, and see a bit of the island. It has been added to our “guide” on apple maps. The reservation is in my email.
Update: After many days walking around Rome, I didn’t consider how tired we would be. Pompeii was nice. We did a tour, but this travelling part was a challenge.
Monday, May 5: Capri
Summary: IN Capri, there is plenty to do. The island is only 4 square miles. We could see the Giardini di Augusto., which is right near our hotel on the way to the Marina Piccola, a small beach. Tour the beach town of Spiaggia, or take a boat tour of The Green Grottoes, a cavern on the water that glows from the angle of the sunlight hitting the water.
Morning: The goal of the day is to see the Blue Grottoes. The chances of seeing it are about 30%- it depends on the tide, the condition of the seas, and even the crowds! Luckily we are here on a Monday in early May.
Then, we can plan the rest of the day around that. Here is a high-level recommendation:
Go see the blue grottoes first thing. After breakfast, walk to the Funicular down to the Marina Grande. It costs under 3 euros; from the Marina, hop on a boat to the Blue Grottoes.
Afternoon: After the Blue Grottoes, we can walk from the Blue Grottoes to the town of Anacapri- the east side of the island, and a little less busy than where we are staying. The walk is about 4km (2.5 miles). If we are tired, we can grab a ride.
There are lots of delicious lunch options, and when we walk around streets like these, time will pass too quickly!
Since we had a fancy dinner lat night, and our Michelin Star restaurant experience tonight, a simple, light lunch would be sufficient; just open Google Maps, there are plenty of restaurants to pick from.
After lunch, we can make our way to the top of the island and see the Gardens of the Gods, or catch a ride back to our hotel, or just stroll around the shops. Just be sure to get back to the hotel at a reasonable time freshen up for dinner.
For dinner, we will eat at our first Michelin Star restaurant ever, Le Monzu.
Our reservations are Monday, May 5 at 7:30pm.
It is a 6 course meal, “Terra Firma”. Buckle up, this will take us to the moon!
Update: We ended up cancelling this reservation, because our meal the night before was so good and we didnt need two fancy meals in a row. Also, the blue grotto was even more amazing than we expected.
Tuesday, May 6: Morning in Positano, Travel to Tropea
Summary: Today is another day of travel. We will leave our vacation resort, and head south to- another vacation resort! It is a 2.5 hour train ride, and a 1+ hour car ride to our hotel.
Morning: Checkout: 10:30 am, so we can get the hotel to hang onto our bags while we enjoy the last of our time in Capri. The latest we can leave is 2pm.
Directions: After checking out, take the 10 minute ride down to the port to catch the ferry to Salerno. The express ferry should take only 30 minutes.
Make our way to the train station and catch the ItaliaRail train to Lamezia Terme Central at 3:05.
Tickets are in the icloud drive, and printed, and the ride is 2.5 hours.
Once we arrive in Lamezia Terme, we need to get our rental car. It is about 1.3 miles from the train station to the car rental places in the airport; we can either hail a cab, or walk.
Then, it is a 1 hour drive to Tropea.
While we are driving, Taylor can read this article about some of the best things to see and do in Tropea. Here is another good link.
Our hotel is the Hotel Rocce Della Sena.
Check in to our hotel is 3pm, and once we arrive, we can do whatever we want: no dinner reservations tonight!
Via Paolo Orsi 6
89861 Tropea VV
Wednesday, May 7-Saturday, May 10: Tropea
Summary: Ahhhhh, the beach. We made it. Now that the hustle and bustle of the city is behind us, get ready to relax. We made it to the southern town of Tropea, the best place to visit in Calabria, the southern state of Italy (the “toe” of the boot).
It has a beautiful beach; plenty of local restaurants to explore, and is a great home base for whatever adventures we want to explore; also, famous for a specific type of sweet red onion, not found anywhere else in the world.
There is 1 michelin star restaurant in the area, Qaviz. We can book if we want to, or not. No big deal.
There are two day trips we want to do from Tropea:
Trip #1: Drive East
This day will start with a lazy morning, and a drive east to the Ionian Sea. We will stroll around the town of Badolato, with its awesome, meandering small streets in an ancient town. It is a 90 minute drive, so we can leave around 9 or 10, and be there in time for lunch.
After we are done strolling around the historic part of town, we can head down to the boardwalk on the water for a drink and a quick stroll on the beach to see waht this town is about.
Hopefully we can leave by 3, because there is more to do before the day is through!
Afternoon: On the way back we will stop by PIZZO; be sure to wear your bathing suit because the beaches here are some of the best in the area; also see the castle, and enjoy their unique type of Gelato: Tertufo.
The drive from Badolato to Pizzo is 1:15 and directly on the way back to the hotel.
Enjoy this place as long as we can; it is just 35 minutes from our hotel, so let’s see if we can stay up past 10pm!
Trip #2: Drive South
Morning: Sleep in and take our time in Tropea; maybe walk on the beach, have a cup of coffee. Then, we drive 1:15 south to the little town of Scilla; this is known as the “Venice of the South” and is known for their small fisherman focused history, and amazing swordfish.
We can rent a kayak and paddle around the shore; there is a small divide in the beach, and just on the other side is Chinalea; also a castle as a backdrop, and a great restaurant with karaoke on the water.
Afternoon: After a grilled swordfish sandwich, the fun continues in Reggio Calabria- home to the most beautiful kilometer in all of Europe! It is a marble promenade that stretches beside the sand and was built in the past 200 years after an earthquake devastated the town.
Check out the gelato place in the green building- it should be easy to find as it will have a long line.
If we could possibly be hungry still, we can try and make it until dinner here. I’m not gonna research any options: we will just have to find them when we get there.
Then, start the 90 minute drive back to Tropea.
Last Day: Stay in Tropea
For our last day, we will be as lazy as possible: hang out in town, no driving.
There are two small things that may be fun:
- Get a massage in the town next door, capo vaticano.
- Take a small boat trip; there are snorkeling trips that last only 2 hours.
Saturday, May 10
On Saturday, it will be an early morning and a long trip home. Drive about 1 hour to the Lamazia airport, and fly back to Rome in time for our 12:05 flight back to Charlotte.
Flight info is printed, and saved in the cloud.
Our first flight is from Lamezia Terme (SUF):
Depart: 6:20am
Arrive: FCO
Flight: AZ1162
Airline: ITA Airways
If we miss this flight, or if it is late for any reason, we can get another flight to Rome that day, there are plenty.
Assuming all goes well, this will put us at the airport in Rome at 7:30am, about 4.5 hours before our flight 🙂
American Airlines flight AA721
Depart FCO at 12:10pm