Tag Archives: Italy

Italy Spring 2017

Ellen and I are departing for a two month sojourn in Italy. We arrive in Palermo and take a leisurely drive along Sicily’s north shore to Messina. From there we’ll take a ferry and train to Salerno, visit Capri and the Amalfi Coast, then drive from Salerno to Florence.

We will stay in Florence for six weeks making side trips to hill towns and wineries in the vicinity of Florence.

We leave for Palermo tomorrow. I will be blogging about our trip along the way.

We booked our flights through “just fly” from San Francisco to Rome. “Just fly” made reservations through British Air who subcontracted with Air Lingus. That’s one convoluted booking. We arrive in Rome with 1:20 to make a connection between Terminal 3 and Terminal 1 to catch our flight to Palermo. Alitalia assured me that if we have no booked luggage, a 50 minute connection is fine. This is the one connection in all our plans that presents a logistic problem. We’ll see how this goes.

Our itinerary is planned out until we arrive Florence. Our goal with six weeks in Florence is to live like a local to the extent that two Americans who speak very little Italian can. This will be big fun for us and for those of our friends who can make it out to visit.

Our first few stops:

1. Overnight at Don Ciccio’s Sea House in Carini near Palermo Airport.

This looks to be a comfortable B&B along the coast. This will be more of a pit-stop for us to just stay briefly overnight. We look forward to a comfortable bed and breakfast .

2. From Don Ciccio we drive to Enrice, a medieval hill town on the way to Trapani. Trapani is on the north west shore of Sicily. We will stay in Trapani for two days at what looks to be a comfortable apartment in central Trapani. We’ll stay two days in Trapani and take a ferry to Levanzo one day. Photos of Levanzo show crystal clear waters though the restaurants on the island may or may not be open. We’ll see.

3. From Trapani we drive to Palermo to stay at Villa Igiea for a few days. On the way there we may visit Scopello and/or Castellammare del Golfo. Brief scenes from Montalbano “the sense of touch” were filmed at Trapani, Levanzo, and Scopello, though my research shows that the hotel at Scopello is rundown.

More about our trip and experiences as we go.

U.S news is poor at best, Florence in November 2016

Italy: Clashes at anti-government march in Florence

5 November 2016
From the sectionEurope

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Media captionProtesters turned out in Florence over the Italian referendum

Hundreds of hooded anti-government protesters have clashed with Italian police in Florence as they demonstrated against a constitutional referendum put forward by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

They threw smoke bombs and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas.

The bill aims to reduce the role of the Senate and cut powers of regional governments. Opponents say it will lead to an excessive concentration of power.

Mr Renzi has vowed to resign if he loses the 4 December vote.

He says the plan will streamline the Italian parliament, cut costs and give Italy more stable government.

But recent opinion polls suggest voters will reject it.

Demonstrators clash with police during a protest against Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, in Florence Image copyrightAPImage captionOfficers in riot gear and protesters clashed during demonstration A protestor is arrested during clashes between police and protesters at an anti-government demonstration in Florence Image copyrightEPAImage captionIt was the first time that a protest against Mr Renzi’s government turned violent in Italy

The young protesters were marching through the centre of Florence trying to reach a building where Mr Renzi’s Democratic Party was holding its annual convention.

Demonstrators, some carrying banners reading “No to Renzi”, tried to separate from the police in riot gear by dragging metal fences into the streets.

Reports said they were among a larger group of peaceful protesters against the referendum.

Florence’s Mayor Dario Nardella condemned the protests, saying: “Demonstrating is a right, but the use of violence is despicable and unacceptable.”

One officer was hurt in the leg during the clashes, Italian media said.

Planning for Spring in Italy

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Today Rick Steves, ” A Pocket Guide to Florence” arrived in the mail.

Last year we visited Rome ahead of a Seabourn cruise of the Greek Islands. The cruise landed in Venice, where we met our friends, Markus and Alexandra, before moving on to Florence for four days. We absolutely loved the Greek Islands and Italy. We vowed to return to Italy for an extended stay. We also hope to do some island hopping in Greece, but on another trip. For us, a return trip to Italy came first.

Today, thinking back on our last Italian sojourn, Florence stands out as the place to stay for an extended time. Rome and Venice are outstanding. We had a wonderful time learning how to live in both cities; walking the streets seeing the piazzas, seeing world renound art in museums and discovering lesser known ones. We both enjoy taking chances on trattorias with an occasional forgettable experience. Rome and Venice are perhaps the most stunning cities in the world. In spite of all that, for us, Florence felt like home.

I remembered vividly two Florentine restaurants where we had lunch.Unfortunately I did not remember their names and couldn’t locate them on a detailed map. But… looking back over our Florence blog, I found one is “Il Barroccio”. I remember that the other is closer to the Giardino della Gherardesca and the Four Seasons Hotel. There it was in our blog: Trattoria Cibreo. Many other restaurants were memorable for service or for their location. These two restaurants were unassuming and served the most wonderful dishes.

This trip first lands us in Palermo, Sicily where we rent a car and drive the north shore of Sicily to Messina. From Messina we take a ferry and train to Salerno. From Salerno we self-tour Capri, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello before renting a car for a month at Salerno. From Salerno we drive the coast visiting Paestum, Pompeii, Torre del Greco, Erculo, Bacoli, Gaeta, and Sperlonga before turning inland toward Tivoli. We will visit some of the castle towns of Velletri, Genzano, Ariccia, Albano, Laziale, Castel Gandolfo, or Frascati then stop in Tivoli. The road from Tivoli to Orvieto runs near Calcata and Bagnoregio. From Orvieto we drive to Florence. All our lodging for this eighteen day trip as well as our six weeks in Florence is now booked and confirmed.

Booking accommodations was amusing if sometimes frustrating. I used bookings.com, homeaway.com, tripadvisor.com, and hotels.com. Often a listing was common to all with different prices. Sometimes one site would have a listing the others did not. Where prices differed, some included the taxes and fees in the price, some included just fees or just taxes, some included neither. The least expensive listing often was acutally the most expensive after fees and taxes. We booked six stays through bookings.com, four through homeaway.com, three through TripAdvisor, and two through hotels.com. We booked our stay at the Villa Igiea, Palermo directly.

We would book our connections now, but it is not possible to do so online. Train tickets can only be booked 120 days in advance and the 2017 ferry schedules are not yet avaiable online. Then too, it may be better not to book ahead to avoid missing a connection.

What a marvelous adventure awaits.

Here are some stock photos that present the scope of our travels from Palermo to Florence.

Lavenzo