An Italian Summer
(Almost) Everything is planned.
Pizza. Pasta. Vespas. Piaggio Autos. Julius Caesar. Romeo and Juliet.
Italy has been part of the urban Indian life for decades now.
So, it was no surprise that when we started planning our first Eurotrip as a couple, Italy was a strong contender. After weeks of deliberation and excited planning, we spent a fabulous two weeks traveling across the country and soaking in a culture that goes as far back as time itself.
Having recently written on the value of documentation, I decided to take a leaf out of my own book and put our planning process, itinerary and experience on the interwebz for the benefit of future vacationers. Of course, it also serves as a personal diary of the trip — an objective I always strive for and almost never achieve.
So, here goes the first post of this series.
Why Italy? Why only Italy?
This was my second trip to Europe but a first for my wife, Aanchal.
In my previous trip, my friend Utkarsh and I had hopped across Amsterdam, Prague, Vienna and Munich in a matter of 10 days. And while I loved every bit of it, on more than one occasion, I had wished I could stay and absorb more of a particular culture or vibe. So, we decided we will travel across only one country.
Aanchal’s vision of Europe consisted of cobbled streets, cute cafes by the road, street musicians, and of course a healthy offering of good food and culture. Fortunately, this resonated with my idea as well. As the idea of Italy took shape in our minds after some frantic scrolling on Google, Instagram & Pinterest, we both knew it was what we wanted.
Why these cities?
Rome and Florence were must-do’s from the word go. Shopping wasn’t big on our agenda so Milan was ruled out.
And then I turned to this website called Inspirock for, well, inspiration. I have used it in the past to open up a broad palette of the cities that would suit me.
It threw a mix of Ravello, Rome, Assisi, Florence and Venice. Validation for Rome and Florence, yay! Venice was no surprise either. Aanchal had been keen on doing the Amalfi coast from the beginning so Ravello fit in too.
Basically, the machines concurred. And when we consulted a few like-minded friends, they did too.
The order of travel remained an open question. While Inspirock’s itinerary began with Ravello, we both weren’t keen on starting with the beach towns. Moreover, we knew Rome and Florence housed a lot of must-do sites which would require a bit of running around. So it made sense to begin with those, when we were super energetic.
So, it was decided — land in Rome, head to Florence, do a quick hop in Venice (Venice was a point of contention for many days after, but more on that later) and end with soaking the sun in Amalfi.
Our walking graph reveals the peak of activity in the first few days followed by a more relaxed middle, ending with a modest adrenaline surge.
Book, book, book
Relatively speaking, Aanchal is more amenable to impromptu plans than I am. Generally speaking, we are both Indians who would prefer having a semi-rigid structure laid out for our trip beforehand. The surprises can be limited to within the days earmarked for each city.
Also, booking in advance is budget-friendly.
To-and-fro flights: I find my tickets on the very popular Kayak. Criteria for picking a flight — price, no red flags for the Airline, flight time post layovers not significantly higher than a direct flight and, preferably, little daytime flying. I found a pretty decent Kuwait Air flight, an airline I had flown before.
Accommodation: We love Airbnb. Especially in Europe, I would recommend choosing Airbnb or a hostel (if you are slightly more experimental) in order to enjoy the city’s vibe for what it is.
We made an exception in Rome by choosing the iconic Westin Excelsior, thanks to our access to certain privileges. Our packed schedule in Rome ensured we just napped at the hotel. However, its central location worked brilliantly for us.
In all other cities, we carefully chose Airbnbs.
When choosing a stay, it’s worthwhile spending time to look at all pictures, read through a bulk of the reviews and carefully evaluate the proximity to key city sites. Most Airbnbs also offer cancellation till the very end, so if the host is unresponsive, is not helpful or in extreme cases, is rude, don’t hesitate to change. A bad host can mar your experience more than you would imagine.
Thankfully, all our bookings turned out to be pretty great choices. Details on those will follow in the city specific posts.
Most of the sight seeing will have to be booked too, in order to avoid long wait times or potential unavailability. Some historic sites have placed restrictions on the number of visitors thus reducing the available slots.
Preparing for the trip
- Visa: All information pertaining to the Visa process can be found here. Apply as soon as you decide, and most definitely a month in advance. While our visa got processed in less than 15 days, I have heard of cases going beyond a month too.
You will need travel insurance — ICICI Lombard presented a pretty economical option which meets the guidelines. - Weather & Clothing: If you are going in early September, you need summer clothes only. Keep a light jacket for exceptional evenings. It can get pretty hot during the day so you should keep a pet-bottle to refill. Late September or October could have saved us some sun, but also brought higher likelihood of rainfall. So, it is not a straightforward call.
- Inter-city travel: Omio is a one stop portal for travel within Europe. Train travel is pretty inexpensive for the comfort it provides.
For the long stretch from Venice to Naples (for Amalfi), we found that taking a flight saved us loads of time and was equally heavy on the pocket. Just remember to add adequate luggage allowance to your tickets.
If your ticket is only a reservation, without seats allotted, you need to validate your ticket through a machine usually placed next to the ticket vending machines. A reserved ticket gives you the flexibility to take any train traveling that route in a certain time window. - Cash for trip expenses: Most booking will likely be done prior to travel — making food one of the major potential cash spends.
As for food, unless you are the fine-dining kind, daily budget for 3 meals + light snack would be in the €110-130 range. Some restaurants charge a per person cover (called Cuperto) and an additional service charge. Check prior to ordering or you could get a bill shock.
Of course, credit cards work in most places. So keep moderate amount of cash. Instances of mugging are, anecdotally, high in Italy. - SIM Card: If you want to use your India number to receive and make calls, get a roaming pack (If you are on Airtel and your trip is over 10 days, get a 30 day pack for ~4000 bucks). However, if you don’t care for the home number, go for local operator TIM which offers a 30 day pack for ~2500 including 15GB of data. You can activate International roaming on your home number to keep getting transactional SMSes.
- Don’t forget to pack a portable charger. Also, get a set of earphones. Rick Steves’ audio guide is a boon in Italy. Get the app and enjoy a range of tourist attractions and walking tours in the city.
- Keep basic medicines. There was a lot of winding hill rides in Amalfi, and antihistamines like Avomine could help.
That’s most of what you need to be vacation ready for Italy. In the next few posts, I will deep dive into our itinerary for each city, and offer helpful tips on the way.
Ciao.
If you want a quick run through of all the places we visited, you can check out the Italy highlight on my Instagram.
