Italy 1990, 1991, 1998, 2005, 2013, 2018

Italy - 2018

This story is about the most recent trip we made to Italy, in May-June, 2018.  It was our sixth trip, the first was in 1990.  For each trip, we chose one part of the country and spent several weeks driving through that area.  Our early trips were to the north, and we discovered the wonders of Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, the Tuscan villages, Lake Como and Bellagio, Lake Garda and Sirmione, Cinque Terre, and many small villages.  One early trip was to Sicily and the southern areas referred to as the “boot and heel.” 

The early trips were made before Boeing and Airbus had built thousands of jumbo jets, carrying millions of tourists to Italy.  Before cruise ships began plying the surrounding seas, bringing millions more people.  We were fortunate to have seen this country while it was still relatively quiet, approachable and not expensive. 

But this most recent trip has shown us that Italy, despite the hordes of visitors, retains its magic and charm, and likely will for many decades to come.  It will always be one of our favorite destinations.

It’s difficult not to love Italy.  There’s so much to like:  the architecture, history, the melodic language, the easy-going people, the wine and perhaps most of all, the wonderful food.  I’ve always felt Italy was a mixture of France and Spain; the sophistication of the French and the laid back manner of the Spanish, or maybe the Portuguese.

Italy is blessed with wonderful geography. It’s surrounded on three sides by five seas, the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian on the west, the Adriatic and Ionian on the east and the Mediterranean on the south, as well as the Alps, Apennines and Dolomite Mountains in the north.  Mother nature was very generous with Italy.

We had decided that mid-May would be a good time to visit because kids are still in school, the weather is pleasant before the summer heat begins and the dollar was strong against the euro. This trip focused on the south, particularly Sicily, which we had briefly visited in 1993. 

We began our trip in Milan, a city we’ve always enjoyed. From Milan we took a train to Rome for two days, flew to Palermo, where we rented a car, and spent two weeks exploring Sicily, spending two nights each in Palermo, Marsala, Agrigento, Noto and Taormina.  We then crossed into mainland Italy at Messina and drove north spending two nights at Tropea, in Calabria, Maratea in Basilicata and Naples in Campania, finally driving to Rome to fly home.  A great three-week holiday with lots of good experiences.

We spent only two nights in Milan, and could easily have spent a week.  It is Italy’s second largest city, its commercial center and it always seems to take second fiddle to Rome.  We’ve been there several times before but this time it seemed livelier and was teeming with tourists.  We learned there were several auto races scheduled for the weekend, perhaps one reason why it was so busy. Before leaving, we watched a parade of vintage European cars pass by our hotel, a rare treat since most of these cars don’t exist in the US. The main attraction in Milan is the Duomo (cathedral), which we skipped this time because the lines were horrendous. Five years ago, on a previous visit, there were no crowds and we spent several leisurely hours exploring the interior and ramparts.

We had made reservations on Tren Italia for a train from Milan to Rome, a three-hour journey through the Italian countryside, at 250 km an hour (about 150 mph).  We had mistakenly booked second class, but easily corrected that on board and, for an additional fifty dollars, were able to enjoy the comfort of a first class coach.

We arrived Roma Termini station at 5:00 pm, exactly on time because, as we know, Mussolini made the trains run on time.  We taxi’d to the Hotel Locarno, located near Piazza Popolare, and were upgraded to a large room with a bathroom as big as some hotel rooms.  The hotel was built in 1924 and was great in every way, including a patio, where we began our mornings with coffee and breakfast.

Rome is often referred to as the “eternal city” and has also been called “Caput Mundi” or capital of the world.  These epithets are appropriate, considering Rome’s dominance of the known world for many centuries.

Rome is a special place and there is no other city quite like it.  It teems with antiquity and has a mystique that attracts travelers from all over the world.  Paris, New York, London and many other world class cities are extraordinary, but only Rome has so many buildings and monuments dating back two thousand years. 

It’s surprising to see these ancient structures in relatively good condition, like the Pantheon and many of the churches. There are nine hundred churches in Rome and you can’t walk more than a block without seeing another church. Apparently during WWII an appeal was made by the Pope to President Roosevelt to spare these treasures and focus on military targets. 

Since we were only in Rome for two days, and on previous trips had seen most of the sights, we decided we’d just wander the streets and absorb its magic.  What better way to see Rome than to just “roam” around.

On our first night in Rome Misti made a dinner reservation at La Matrichella where we had an excellent meal: a Caprese salad, the house special pasta and a meatball dish that Misti felt was divine.  After our recent trip to India we had decided to avoid eating red meat, but since we were going to Italy we put that plan on temporary hold.  

For our second night in Rome we made reservations at a restaurant in Trastevere, recommended by the hotel. When we arrived I didn’t particularly like the menu, so we left and looked for something better. Trastevere is sort of a Greenwich Village kind of area, on the other side of the Tiber River, with many bars and restaurants.  

We lucked into what probably was the best restaurant in Trastevere and had a great meal including a walnut pasta that was outstanding.  While waiting for an available table, we found a tiny bar with jazz music blaring out the door.  So we sat drinking Americanos, listening to American jazz music, and enjoying the wonderful ambiance

On previous trips to Italy, our usual before dinner drink was Campari and soda, a drink we often have at home.  But on our first night in Milan we discovered the Americano cocktail, essentially the same as Campari and soda but with the addition of sweet red vermouth, and an orange slice.  The vermouth cuts the bitterness of the Campari and makes for a very drinkable cocktail. 

But the most popular tourist cocktail throughout Italy now is the Aperol Spritz, and you see it everywhere.  Aperol is similar to Campari but is orange in color and has half the alcohol content.  It’s made with Aperol, prosecco and soda. We tasted it years ago and I prefer the taste, and alcohol content, of Campari while  Misti likes the lighter Aperol Spritz.

My use of Italian held up well on this trip. I had a decent vocabulary from previous trips, and my accent is good, probably because of the Italian friends I had as a kid growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940’s. Their parents didn’t speak English and my ear must have picked up their tone. On each trip to Italy my vocabulary improves, so I’m able to get by in most situations and usually get lots of smiles.  I think we sometimes get a better hotel room or table in a restaurant because I try to speak my Italian, and Italians appreciate my effort. 

From Rome we flew to Palermo, a one-hour flight on Vueling Airlines, for only eighty-five dollars, and spent two nights at the Eurostars Centrale Palace hotel. The hotel is well-named because it is centrally located at the Quattro Canti (four corners), the center of Palermo, and was at one point a palazzo.

Palermo is the capital of Sicily and, because of its location at the southern edge of Europe, near both Africa and Greece, one finds a mix of ancient civilizations.  Byzantine churches and mosaics compete for your attention with Arabesque domes and souk markets.  Tourists have only in recent years discovered this more remote part of Italy, and hotels and restaurants are struggling to keep up with the demand.

We had no hotel reservations beyond Palermo and needed to plan our itinerary for the next two weeks.  We would either spend two weeks in Sicily and then fly back to Rome, for our flight home, or spend one week in Sicily and drive back to Rome, about six hundred miles.  Another option was to take a ferry, with or without the car, from Palermo to Napoli or Rome, to reduce the driving distance.

That was when we met Veronica, the woman at the hotel desk, who spent an hour helping us plan where we might go.  She was totally knowledgeable about Sicily and, with her help, we planned a route that would take us around the island.

After two days in Palermo we taxi’d to the airport to pick up our Avis rental car.  We had reserved an Audi A6, but when we found out it didn’t have navigation, we decided on an Alfa Romeo, that did have on-board GPS.   We had Avis set it for English, and at first we had difficulty learning how to use it, and of course the manual was in Italian.  But after a quick lesson from Google we mastered it, or at least until we got caught up in the tiny back streets of the old historic sections (centro storico), where the GPS got itself lost.  There are many streets that were created thousands of years ago and modern GPS likely doesn’t know they exist.

From Palermo we headed south toward Marsala, but first stopped at Trapani for lunch.  We found a seafood restaurant in the port and feasted on sardine pasta and a caprese salad. We walked off lunch by strolling Trapani’s main street and watching a craftsman who was restoring several church statues.

We booked the Baglio Oneto Hotel in Marsala, for two nights, and got a suite with a small balcony overlooking the valley and the Mediterranean.  Since the hotel was about ten kilometers from the center of Marsala, we had dinner both nights at the hotel, which we don’t normally do, but the restaurant was excellent and we don’t like driving at night after drinking.

Marsala is the wine center of Sicily and we did a wine tasting, through the hotel, which was both fun and informative.  At the tasting we met David and Kathy who recently had moved from San Diego to Tucson.  We struck up a friendship and joined them for dinner and conversation about our respective travels.

The next day we drove into Marsala and found it to be a pleasant town, with a medieval center and a beach along the Mediterranean.  We had a seafood couscous lunch at a small restaurant that Misti found online.

From Marsala we drove two and a half hours to Argrigento, known for its Grecian temple ruins.  We had booked a B&B near the city center but the GPS was having difficulty finding it.  The old city is located on a hill, with narrow winding streets barely large enough tor a car to pass, As we went higher the streets became narrower, until we finally came to a dead end, and two men had to help us back out and turn around.  We then found a taxi and followed it to the B&B (taxi navigation), and it turned out the B&B was actually on a main street and should have been easy for us to find.

LaAlba sui Templi (Sunrise  on the Temples) was the name of the B&B, located near Agrigentro’s old town, in a building overlooking the city.  Salvatore, the owner, met us and went over everything we needed to know.  The room and facilities were all excellent and Salvatore gave us background on the city, and restaurant suggestions.  He was one of the nicest B&B hosts we’ve ever encountered, and we recommend him and his B&B to anyone who is traveling in that area.

The next day we headed to Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples) and were impressed with what we saw.  It’s the largest archeological site in the world and several of the temples, especially Concordia, are in amazingly good condition, considering they date back to the 5th century BC, and the region is subject to earthquakes.

We had read in Lonely Planet about a town called Noto, located in the southeastern corner of Sicily.  It’s located at the end of a fifty kilometer road which traverses a series of baroque towns in southern Sicily, which we decided would be a nice day’s outing.

We booked the Porto Reale hotel in Noto for two nights and got a spacious room, with windows opening onto the main street.  Driving in the centro historico (old city) would be impossible, so we took advantage of the hotel’s valet parking.

When we arrived, we were blown away by the beauty of the town.  Its main street, Corso Vittiorio Emanuele, where our hotel was located, is a baroque beauty, almost like a movie set, but the real thing. The street is closed to cars and is lined with restaurants, cute shops and many churches, palazos and piazzas.  In the evening, as the sun sets, the buildings glow with a soft inner-light.

Since we had never heard of Noto, we were surprised at how many tourists were there.  It’s a small town without many hotels, but apparently tourists bus and train in from Syracuse and Taormina. After two days and nights in Noto, we headed for Taormina, about three hours away, by way of Syracuse and Catania. 

Misti had read about the famous fish market in Catania, which was on our way from Noto to Taormina, and we decided we’d have lunch there.  A good choice, but the market was just closing as we arrived, so we had a great seafood meal in a small restaurant adjacent to the market as we watched the men clean up.

About Taormina. Taormina is an absolute gem in what must be one of the prettiest settings on the planet.  The city is built on a series of hills overlooking the Ionian Sea, with magnificent vistas of Mt. Etna.  We had booked a room with a sea view at the Villa Paradisio Hotel, and the hotel was aptly named.  We were upgraded to a suite with large French doors opening to a view of the sea, and the hotel was located smack in the center of all the shops and restaurants.

We had visited Taormina twenty-five years previously, but truthfully, I didn’t remember much about it, other than the Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre) and the fact that the city was quiet and not filled with hordes of tourists, as it was this time.  Taormina is definitely on the tourist route, and gets several cruise ships a day.  But the tourist facilities, hotels, restaurants and shops, are spread out so there’s no feeling of being crowded.   For anyone planning a trip to Southern Italy, I would recommend putting Taormina on your short list.

At this point we decided we’d spend only another two nights in Sicily, then take the ferry across the Straits of Messina, to Calabria, for our drive to Rome, where we’d return the car and fly home.

We loved Sicily and had lots of good experiences, but felt that ten days was sufficient time there, and we wanted to explore more of Southern Italy, namely the Calabria and Basilicata regions.  We studied our maps, used Google, to determine driving distances, and decided on Tropea and Maratea, both towns on the Tyrrhenian coast, and lastly Naples, before ending our trip in Rome.  Each of these cities is about a three-hour drive up the coast, along the Tyrrhenian Sea.

After leaving Taormina, we took a thirty-minute ferry across the Straits of Messina, to the Italian mainland, and immediately began to notice differences from Sicily.  The roads were bigger, the scenery greener, the buildings newer, it was hotter and more humid and the food was different.

Going north to Rome, we chose Tropea for our first stop, because there aren’t many coastal towns in Calabria, and we liked what we had read about it. It was a good choice. Tropea is on the Tyrrhenian Sea coastline, often referred to as the Costa Degli Dei, or “Coast of the Gods, an area with dramatic cliffs, sunny beaches and known mainly to Italians, Germans and Brits.  Americans haven’t as yet learned about this bit of heaven and the cruise ships haven’t arrived - as yet.  It’s somewhat like the more known Amalfi Coast, further north, but more scenic, with far fewer tourists and facilities, and lower prices.

After difficulties navigating streets of hilly old town centers, we thought we’d stay close to the coast, and booked a bed and breakfast in Tropea, right on the beach.  This worked well since it was only a few minutes drive to the center of town, where we had lunch and dinner and strolled the streets filled with shops and restaurants.  We no longer lie in the sun, advice from our doctor, so we spent little time on the beach, a shame since the water was warm and crystal clear.

Tropea is known for is its cipolla rossa, or red onions, which are on display in every shop, along with jars of cipolla rossa marinade, jam - and there’s even cipolla flavored gelato; we passed on that.

About the food: On this trip most of our time was spent near the sea - Sicily and then along the Tyrrhenian coast, so we mostly had fresh seafood, along with pasta and salads.  Pasta is a way of life in Italy, with estimates of more than three hundred types, and we had a pasta dish with almost every meal.  Italian menus all list several courses, which are antipasti, primi, secondi, contorni and dolci.  Main dishes (primi and secondi) don’t come with any vegetables, so they are ordered separately from the list of contorni. 

We found that even though wonderful fresh vegetables could be found in all stores, the only ones available in restaurants were grilled eggplant and zucchini, and that gets tiresome very quickly. 

At first we were ordering all three courses, antipasti, primi and secondi, followed by dolci (desert).  The food was so wonderful, and not very expensive, so we got carried away with ordering, until we realized it was too much to eat and we cut back to just two of the three courses.  We would always specify “uno per due”, which means one for two, and we were sharing all dishes. Italian food has always been one of our favorites and our meals were consistently excellent.  The wine of course is always good, never a bad glass or bottle.  And because of the strong dollar, everything was perhaps a third less than California.

After Tropea, our next stop was Maratea, in the Basilicata Region, a three-hour drive north from Tropea.  We chose to take the slower, more scenic, coast road along the sea, rather than the faster autostrada.  It was a beautiful drive and we realized how undeveloped this part of Italy is, perhaps because it’s so remote.

In Tropea we had bought a tea towel with a colorful map of Calabria, showing all the towns.  While we had a detailed Michelin map, Misti put the tea towel on her lap and used it to see which towns were ahead.  We coined a new term, “Tea Towel Navigation,” or TTN. 

Since we were coming to the end of our trip, we decided we’d splurge on our last two hotels. In Maratea we booked two nights at the Santavenere Hotel, and for Napoli, the Eurostars Hotel Excelsior.

The Santavenere hotel was exceptional and we were given a large room with a balcony looking out to the mountains and bay.  While the setting for the town of Maratea, and the surrounding area, is serene and beautiful, we were somewhat disappointed with the town itself, because it didn’t have much in the way of tourist facilities, as did the other cities we visited.   

From Maratea we drove north to Naples, mostly taking the autostrada, since the smaller roads weren’t along the sea.  We had planned to drive up the Amalfi coast, which we did years ago, but got lost in Sorrento, so went back to the autostrada and shot up to Naples.

Misti had booked the Eurostars Excelsior hotel and we got a deluxe room with a view of both Mt. Vesuvius and Capri, looking across the Bay of Napoli.  The day we checked in was the 110th anniversary of the hotel, and dignitaries from throughout Naples and Campania were invited to a gala celebration.  It was fun seeing the men and women in their elegant evening wear, arriving throughout the evening in limousines and taxis.

Naples was a surprise.  We had briefly gone through it on a previous trip, only stopping for lunch, and were hesitant to spend more time because of its seamy reputation.  But we recently had read that Naples was making a comeback as a tourist destination, so we thought we’d see for ourselves.

Turns out, it was perhaps our favorite city on this trip.  It is a bit rough around the edges, but it oozes with history, character and good vibes.  It reminds me a bit of New York City when I was growing up in the 1940’s, when so many southern Italians had recently emigrated to NYC. And, of course, there is also the world famous pizza.     

We asked a taxi driver to take us to the best pizza restaurant in Naples, and he took us to Michella’s, with a line winding around the block.  I don’t like waiting in lines, and certainly not for a pizza, so we went across the street to a nondescript looking restaurant with a sign saying it had been serving pizza since 1923.  A good choice; it was one of the five best pizza restaurants in Naples.  We shared a pizza Margherita, they’re huge, with two beers and bottle of frizzante water, for thirteen dollars.  Best pizza I ever ate.

Pizza Margherita was created in Naples in 1889,  when Queen Margherita visited the city. A baker wanted to celebrate her visit by creating a food that had the colors of the Italian flag; red for the tomatoes, white for the mozzarella cheese and basil for the green.  Voila- the pizza most of the world knows and loves.  And yes, pizza is much better in Napoli than in the US.

Looking back, I think I enjoyed Naples more than Rome, mainly because we had seen Rome several times previously, and while there were many tourists in Naples, it wasn’t nearly as overrun by tourist hordes as was Rome.  

About driving in Italy:  It’s not for the fainthearted, but is lots of fun. Italian drivers are generally very good, but they’re impatient and fast.  Slow and over cautious driving doesn’t work, and would only cause problems.  I’ve driven in many other countries with fast and aggressive drivers and I seem to be able to pick up their style quickly, and I follow their lead.  It was easier with the Alfa Romeo I was driving, since it was very fast and demanded respect. 

After three wonderful weeks in Italy, we arrived at Fuminicello airport in Rome for our flight home by way of Frankfurt; two hours via Lufthansa to Frankfurt, and then another eleven hours to San Francisco.  After boarding the Lufthansa flight, the pilot announced that there were thunderstorms all over Europe, and our takeoff would be delayed.

That was the beginning of a minor nightmare. We sat on the plane on the tarmac for two hours, and then arrived in Frankfurt two hours late, to discover that our flight to San Francisco had already left.  This resulted in our having to rebook our United flight home for the following day.

We learned that the Frankfurt airport often shuts down and cancels flights, more than one hundred flights were cancelled that day, because of electrical storm activity in the area.  Apparently, years ago, a baggage handler was killed by lightning, and ever since when there is a storm in the vicinity, the baggage handlers stop working (strong union), which essentially shuts down the airport. 

So our trip was extended by one day, since we had to spend the night in a hotel near the airport.  We had a long, but uneventful, flight home the next day and thus ended our Italian adventure.

Art Faibisch, June 15, 2018