Travel 2004, ITALY...
Next we flew into Rome, Italy and immersed ourselves in quite different surroundings. We stayed at the Sheraton Roma and it was nice...
but it didn't quite look like this. When we arrived it was early December and rainy and a bit cold, but not too bad. We managed a few trips into the heart of the city and did a bit of sightseeing...
You really can't go anywhere in Rome without stumbling across it's ancient history and while we were interested in that to some degree our real focus was on the food and wine! We tried a number of locations looking for the best pizza in Rome and a number of vintages of wine!
The pizza here is very different from any we've tried in the states. It's a much simpler blend of a thin crust, amazing sauce and light but tasty toppings cooked in wood fire ovens...
It is by no means junk food!
We also found some great food and beverages right at the local markets where we stocked up for our train ride to Venice. Nothing like a little picnic of prosciutto, olives, cheese, bread and wine while watching the scenery go by!
We booked our passage on Italy's rail system through Rail Europeand opted for the first class passage, which is just a little comfier and worth it!
We arrived in Venice later in the evening just as it was starting to get dark. I had booked us into a hostel on the island of Giudecca called Ostello Venezia and we reached the place via water taxi from the train station. We were VERY disappointed in this place and it rivals the crappy location of Bondi Sands in Australia! Ostello Venezia is a stark walled dormitory building with mens bunks upstairs on one side and womens on the other. The place was nasty dirty and reeked of pot smoke! We were so disappointed and, quite frankly disgusted, that we didn't even bother to stay one night and instead rallied ourselves and got on the next water taxi back to the train station and found the tourist hotel information office, which was still open! The tourist hotel office at the train station is a little office with one person working the desk, but she was great and found us a nice B&B within walking distance from the train station for the night! We got to the B&B after a little confusion with the directions, checked in, dropped our bags and then found an internet cafe to make a better booking than the Ostello.
We booked the rest of our time at the Hotel Danieli which is a gorgeous place and formerly a palace!...
YES, it REALLY looks like this and being close to the holidays it was also fantastically decorated with a huge tree and holiday trimmings everywhere. They treated us very well and the accommodation was AMAZING! Both Heather and I say that this is the finest hotel we have ever stayed in! Everyone was very friendly even when we stumbled through the doors in jeans sporting huge backpacks or carrying pizza boxes to munch on in our room! LOLOL Really, this was a highlight of our trip and made Venice that much more amazing.
We spent our days roaming the labyrinth of streets lined with cafe's, restaurant's, boutiques and galleries and managed to pick up a few unique items. One gallery that we especially loved was a colorful artist shop called Itaca Bottega Artistica. The place was filled with the work of the owner, artist Monica Martin showing a variety of beautiful perspectives of Venice...
Awesome work and we definitely bought a few pieces!
We also had to do the token tourist gondola ride through the canals and although it was a bit pricey, it was worth it!...
Overall, Venice was wonderful and we'd go back in a minute! We spent several days there and then hopped the train once again for our next location, Ancona Italy, which is a little port town on the eastern coast on the Adriatic Sea, and this would be our departure point for Split, Croatia via an overnight ferry boat trip!
but it didn't quite look like this. When we arrived it was early December and rainy and a bit cold, but not too bad. We managed a few trips into the heart of the city and did a bit of sightseeing...
You really can't go anywhere in Rome without stumbling across it's ancient history and while we were interested in that to some degree our real focus was on the food and wine! We tried a number of locations looking for the best pizza in Rome and a number of vintages of wine!
The pizza here is very different from any we've tried in the states. It's a much simpler blend of a thin crust, amazing sauce and light but tasty toppings cooked in wood fire ovens...
It is by no means junk food!
We also found some great food and beverages right at the local markets where we stocked up for our train ride to Venice. Nothing like a little picnic of prosciutto, olives, cheese, bread and wine while watching the scenery go by!
We booked our passage on Italy's rail system through Rail Europeand opted for the first class passage, which is just a little comfier and worth it!
We arrived in Venice later in the evening just as it was starting to get dark. I had booked us into a hostel on the island of Giudecca called Ostello Venezia and we reached the place via water taxi from the train station. We were VERY disappointed in this place and it rivals the crappy location of Bondi Sands in Australia! Ostello Venezia is a stark walled dormitory building with mens bunks upstairs on one side and womens on the other. The place was nasty dirty and reeked of pot smoke! We were so disappointed and, quite frankly disgusted, that we didn't even bother to stay one night and instead rallied ourselves and got on the next water taxi back to the train station and found the tourist hotel information office, which was still open! The tourist hotel office at the train station is a little office with one person working the desk, but she was great and found us a nice B&B within walking distance from the train station for the night! We got to the B&B after a little confusion with the directions, checked in, dropped our bags and then found an internet cafe to make a better booking than the Ostello.
We booked the rest of our time at the Hotel Danieli which is a gorgeous place and formerly a palace!...
YES, it REALLY looks like this and being close to the holidays it was also fantastically decorated with a huge tree and holiday trimmings everywhere. They treated us very well and the accommodation was AMAZING! Both Heather and I say that this is the finest hotel we have ever stayed in! Everyone was very friendly even when we stumbled through the doors in jeans sporting huge backpacks or carrying pizza boxes to munch on in our room! LOLOL Really, this was a highlight of our trip and made Venice that much more amazing.
We spent our days roaming the labyrinth of streets lined with cafe's, restaurant's, boutiques and galleries and managed to pick up a few unique items. One gallery that we especially loved was a colorful artist shop called Itaca Bottega Artistica. The place was filled with the work of the owner, artist Monica Martin showing a variety of beautiful perspectives of Venice...
Awesome work and we definitely bought a few pieces!
We also had to do the token tourist gondola ride through the canals and although it was a bit pricey, it was worth it!...
Overall, Venice was wonderful and we'd go back in a minute! We spent several days there and then hopped the train once again for our next location, Ancona Italy, which is a little port town on the eastern coast on the Adriatic Sea, and this would be our departure point for Split, Croatia via an overnight ferry boat trip!
posted by Heather & Pauli at 9:05 PM
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