Terri and Adam’s Philosophy, Food, and Art Tour (PhFArt)(May/June 2023)
My son Adam graduated from college in May 2023 after a tumultuous college experience. Because of Covid, the death of a friend, and changing schools halfway through, his world got very small. And since he was a philosophy major and loves Roman and Etruscan art and history, I took him to Amsterdam, Paris, and Italy on a 19 day adventure.
We traveled very well together despite jet lag and being together 24 hours a day. We visited four countries (including Vatican City), 17 cities, countless sites, 16 museums, and drove 1174 miles. We’re not going to discuss the number of aperol spritzes we enjoyed in Italy, or the gelato (which was one less than what we wanted). But I can tell you we were pretty sick and tired of the Lays-like potato chips that were served with every adult beverage we ordered in Italy.
We drank a lot of wine, ate some great food, played a lot of Monopoly Deal (highly recommend), and leveled up our relationship which is so very important when our kids become adults.
Overview:
We flew direct from SFO to Amsterdam on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 and arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday, May 25, 2023. We returned (Rome — SFO) on Monday, June 12, 2023.
We spent 2 nights in Amsterdam, took the train to Paris and spent 2 nights there. We flew to Venice, spent 2 nights, took the train to Bologna, stayed the night, and started the lightly charted road trip to Rome via Florence, Tuscany, and Umbria before dropping the car and spending our last 4 nights in Rome.
We had hotel reservations in Amsterdam and Paris before we left California, along with tickets for some museums and sites (post-Covid, most places require advance tickets), and plane, train and rental car reservations. We decided to figure out the rest while on the road. This ended up being too stressful for Adam so next time we will have hotels/accommodations reserved before we leave.
Unlike my trip with my other child Finn in the summer of 2022, we didn’t meet up with any friends and we went to a lot of museums and historical sites, with a focus on Etruscan and Roman history in Italy.
Adam is obsessed with antiquities, especially statues, and spent more time looking at the art than I did, which was a delightful surprise. Adam is definitely my museum / church / historical site traveling companion.
What We Loved and Our Favorite Moments
— We loved Venice and Umbria so much so that my husband Zeke and I are planning a trip to to Spain, Italy, and France in May 2024 and I am taking him to Venice and Umbria. I even plan to have us stay at the same hotels (Hotel Papadopoli in Venice and Castello di Monterone in Perugia)
— In Venice, we had dinner at the same place both nights. We stumbled into it the first night and liked it so much, we made reservations for the next night. The first night we sat next to a father and his 15 year old son from Venice who used to live in the neighborhood. We had a lovely conversation with them (in English), but the next night we sat next to two women. One was from Spain and the other from France and neither spoke English, so Adam and I cobbled together our Spanish and French to have a delightful convo with them. We were pretty proud of ourselves.
— We are both claustrophobic and have a fear of heights and yet each time we had the opportunity to climb a clock or a bell tower, we did. The views were worth the anxious moments.
— The palazzo (palace) museums in Rome were fantastic with few crowds, unlike the larger attractions like the Colosseum, Vatican or Trevi Fountain. We aren’t the only ones who loved them. I found a blog post with a guide to 10 of them, which means Zeke and I have new ones to go to in May. Adam and I loved the Palazzo Barberini, Palazzo Altemps, Palazzo Massimo al Terme. And don’t miss the Baths of Deocletian right next to the Massimo.
— The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is stunning. Both of us can’t wait to go back and explore more of the galleries. We were there for a few hours and it wasn’t enough.
Epic Failures and Challenges
—FICO Eataly World in Bologna was a bust. We thought it would be like the Eataly Silicon Valley which has a few restaurants, wine, gelato, and a grocery store with Italian products and we even brought a soft-sided cooler to stock up on snacks for the road. It was empty except for a few school groups, and other than some tasteless bread, there were no snacky snack provisions to procure.
— The super-scenic road from Bologna to Tuscany was washed out during the floods a few weeks prior, and in our attempt to get over the the mountains, we had to backtrack back to Bologna and take a different route getting us into Tuscany much later than we had planned. We may or may not have done a little accidental off-roading in our attempt to circumnavigate the road closures.
— We didn’t have accommodations in Tuscany and while on the road, found what looked like a lovely villa in Montespertoli, Italy through Booking.com but when we arrived, quickly realized it was not as advertised. There was no restaurant, the pool wasn’t open for the season, breakfast was not included, and they were hosting a wedding on the second night we were there which, despite their reassurances to the contrary, made the property inaccessible to us (other than our small room). Note: I am no longer using Booking.com.
— We stayed at a very cool castle in Perugia which had some fairly steep steps. One morning, Adam missed a step, fell down a few stairs, and twisted his ankle. Fortunately it didn’t appear to be broken and didn’t really slow us down, but it still hurts him over 4 months later.
— On our way to Todi (from Spolet), we nearly ran out of gas and when we got to the gas station, the machine wouldn’t take our credit card. Eventually we figured it out, but it was really stressful going over the mountain without a town or fuel pump in sight. How did I almost run out of gas on both of the trips with the kids? Note: in Europe, the card readers at the fuel stations do not always work for US credit cards and in Italy, where we were, the stations were often unattended.
— Adam hated the drivers in Italy and was stressed the entire time, even when I was driving. Despite getting him an international driver’s license and paying extra for him to drive a rental car in Italy, he drove one day for about an hour and a half and decided that he’d had enough. If you see him, ask him about Italian drivers. Or maybe you shouldn’t. I love driving in France and Italy and had no trouble with it although the roads were a bit rough, not unlike here in California. Note: if you drive in Italy, know that the lanes, speed limits, and road signs are suggestions for Italian drivers and they love to ride your bumper if you aren’t going fast enough. Be aware and drive aggressively and you will be fine.
— Throughout the places we visited in Italy, the bread was tasteless and somewhat gross. We expected salt-less bread in Tuscany as a result of salt being heavily taxed in the middle ages, but not in Venice, Rome and Umbria. We did not find it a good accompaniment to heavy sauces as rationalized by one article I read.
— In Italy, we couldn’t find small markets or grocery stores to purchase snacks for the road. In Montepulciano, we purchased a cantaloupe and cheese from the only shop open on a Sunday afternoon, and some wine from the shop across the cobblestone street. This was the only time we saw a shop like this. We couldn’t even find a large grocery store anywhere along the way.
Daily Travel Logs
Like I did for my trip with Finn in the summer of 2022, I wrote (am in the process of writing) about this trip in 24 hour increments beginning with our arrival in Amsterdam. It too was a trains, planes, automobiles, gondolas, buses, metros, and Bird scooters type of experience. This time, I took better notes while on the trip making it easier (hopefully) to create the daily travel logs linked here. Note: I will be adding links as I complete the posts (11/7/2023).
Day 1: Arrival in Amsterdam (plane, cab, metro)
Day 2: Amsterdam — Paris (metro, train)
Day 4: Paris — Venice (Bolt, plane, bus)
Day 5: Venice (gondola)
Day 6: Venice — Bologna (train)
Day 7: Bologna — Montespertoli (Tuscany) (car)
Day 8: Tuscany: Certaldo and Volterra (car, funicular)
Day 9: Tuscany: Florence (car)
Day 10: Tuscany to Umbria: Siena and Montelpulciano to Perugia (car)
Day 11: Umbria: Rest day at the castle in Perugia (car)
Day 12: Umbria: Assisi and Spello (car)
Day 13: Umbria: Spoleto and Todi (car)
Day 14: Perugia to Rome via Orvieto (car, Bird scooters, iTaxi)
Day 15: Rome and Vatican City (iTaxi)
Day 16: Rome(iTaxi)
Day 17: Rome (Bird scooters)
Day 18: Rome — SFO (iTaxi, plane, car)
That’s four countries (including Vatican City), countless kilometers, and twelve different modes of transportation.
Some More Info
Accommodations: Once again, we mostly stayed in Accor Hotels when we could as they are fairly predictable and often include breakfast. We stayed in Mercure properties in Amsterdam (brand new), Bologna (old and tired), and Rome (nicely renovated). In Paris, we stayed in an Ibis near the train station and it was terrible. Ibis is their lower end hotel offering and the quality varies based on what we saw with three of them within 200 feet of each other. We accidentally went into the wrong one and thought it was great only to be redirected to the shitty one across the street. We splurged in Venice and stayed at the Hotel Papadopoli which is an M Gallery property. Loved it!
While previous bookings with Booking.com had been mostly successful, the ‘villa’ we booked in Montespertoli, Tuscany was not good and Booking.com’s customer service was not helpful.
I’ve since been using United to book hotels.
Flights: we flew United because I continue to be sucked into the cult of MileagePlus. We flew direct from SFO-Amsterdam, and Rome-SFO and I upgraded us to business class. This gave us access to the lounge at SFO but the lounge in Rome was not United and, while we were comfortable, the food options were limited. I did make myself an aperol spritz (or two) as we waited.
We flew EasyJet from Paris (Orly) to Venice. I paid extra to be at the front of the plane and to bring carryons onto the plane. These low budget airlines are easy to use to get around Europe but for any level of service, you have to pay extra.
We have Global Entry, TSAPre, and Clear. None of these work outside of the US.
Trains: from Amsterdam to Paris Nord, we rode Thalys (now part of Eurostar). This was a quick and easy trip with the only challenge being that we had trouble finding the platform in Amsterdam. It was downstairs, tucked in the back.
From Venice to Bologna, we rode Italo. I paid for what I thought were the best seats not realizing that we were in a 4 seat ‘room’ within the first class coach and could very well have had two other people in there with us. It was tiny. We were provided with a beverage and a salty snack and the so-called lounge at the Venice train station didn’t really have much in the way of amenities. Next time, we will take the next level down…the seats looked more comfortable.
The other tricky part is making sure you are standing in the correct spot for your assigned train car. That wasn’t always easy to identify but with assigned seats, it didn’t really matter since we weren’t racing to get baggage storage and seats.
Bus: in Venice, we took a bus from the airport to essentially the train station, the last stop, so we could walk across the bridge to our hotel. There are no cars on the main island of Venice. Fortunately, our hotel was really close to this stop and we didn’t have to drag our bags all over Venice, up and down over bridges. Nor did we have to take a water taxi. We got our tickets for the bus inside the plane terminal although it is possible to purchase them from a kiosk near the buses. It was a 10–15 minute bus ride and we rode all the way to the end of the line.
Car Rental: in Bologna, we rented a car from Europcar. The offices were near the train station and the cars are in the garage deep in the bowels of the station. We kept walking and walking and walking, seeing very few people, wondering if we were in the right place. Eventually we found the car.
In Italy, we were told we would need international drivers licenses. The gal at the counter didn’t look at them. I also thought I paid extra for Adam to drive since he’s under 25 but I don’t think they actually charged me the $250 for it.
I was concerned about driving in Rome (I didn’t need to be) and found a train station on the outskirts (Rome Tiburtina Railway Station). This office is super tiny with only street parking, but it was easy to drop off the car and catch an iTaxi (using the Uber app) to get to the hotel.
Car services: we used Bolt (like Uber but the company started in Estonia) in Paris, and the Uber app in Italy to book taxis through iTaxi. It was less expensive.
Scooters: after two glasses of wine I reluctantly got on a Bird scooter in Rome which in hindsight was somewhat reckless. I can’t believe we survived. There are electric scooters, bikes, and ebikes all over Paris and Rome.
Baggage: like on the trip with Finn, we each took a roller bag and a backpack which we carried with us on the plane with us from SFO-Amsterdam. We had the same number of bags on the return flight.
The bags were easy on the trains and I paid extra for overhead space on the flight from Paris to Venice so we could have our bags with us.
Money: My Chase Infinite card doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee so most of our purchases were charged to that card which means I get more miles and continue to be part of the United borg. At some gas stations, we had to try all of the credit and debit cards we had to find one that worked. Note: In Italy, the gas stations are often unattended with no one to provide assistance.
We used more cash than on previous trips to Europe. I brought 100 euros (all that I had) and used my ATM card to get euros in Amsterdam and Italy. With my Schwab card, I don’t get charged foreign or general transaction fees. Zeke would get me euros from Bank of the West in years past but they don’t offer it any longer, even as BMO.
Snacks: we brought a soft sided REI cooler bag for travel snacks but didn’t really use it because we couldn’t find snacks to buy in Italy when we needed them.
Laundry: we found a laundromat around the corner from our cheesy hotel in Bologna and did laundry there. We thought we needed laundry detergent and brought Earthbreeze laundry sheets. We couldn’t figure out where to put the detergent and later realized that it was automatic with the washer. For the rest of the trip, we did laundry in the sink and hung the items to dry in the bathroom
Wifi: where we could, we used free wifi. All other times, I paid Verizon $10/day (sometimes more if we used a lot of data) for each of us to remain connected. Adam was great about looking up stuff as we traveled and it was worth it to have him as a tour guide for so many places we visited.
Photos: all photos were taken with my iPhone 13.
What’s Next?
We (my husband and I) are mapping out an itinerary for May after he completes a 2 week cycling trip in Portugal. Right now we are thinking about:
— meeting up in Madrid for 2 nights (flights for me are cheaper than to Italy)
— fly to Venice for 2 nights
— take the train to Milan for 2 nights
— rent a car and drive through Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Saturnia (thermal baths anyone?)
— then to Perugia to see Umbria
— then to Le Marche to see the Adriatic Sea
—then to Rome for 2 nights
— and finally, fly to Paris for 3 nights before flying back to San Francisco
Sounds like a lot but I’ve built in one rest day so he shouldn’t complain!
Any favorite spots we should check out in any of these places? Or should we consider something else? Let me know if the comments or send me an email at pilotingyourlife@gmail.com
About the Author
Terri Hanson Mead is the multi-award winning author of Piloting Your Life, Managing Partner of Solutions2Projects, LLC, and an advocate for women through all of her platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and this blog. Terri is the mother of two (one in college and one who just graduated!), is based in Redwood City, CA and in her spare time, loves to travel, cook, play tennis, and fly helicopters around the San Francisco Bay Area, especially under the Golden Gate Bridge.
