Day 1 Arrival In Venice, took water taxi to hotel
We were very excited for our first trip to Italy, world famous wine and tourism destination. Having planned the trip in late spring we experienced amazing weather with less crowd, throughout our 10 days of road-trip. We started our journey through the entire country, right at the top, from Venice. The first view of this floating town at night, cruising under the grand Rialto Bridge, with people enjoying their evening walks and having dinner alongside the canals, made us really happy to be here finally. We reached our hotel lobby with help of small water taxi, known as vaporetto, arranged by our hotel.
Day 2- Explore Venice, Burano
The next day we started early, to explore the streets, canals and landmarks of this famous city on the water. After seeing the mesmerizing Rialto Bridge in the moonlight previous night, we couldn’t resist to go check it out again in the morning. Venice being a small island city, gets pretty crowded during the day, so its wise to start early in the day. After that we boarded the local vaporetto for nearby islands and headed towards the colorful town of Burano. We spent half a day checking out this colorful town, its beautifully painted houses, local shops and restaurants beaming with visitors. Later we returned back to the main island and decided to hangout at St Mark’s Square for rest of the evening. There were tons of pizzerias and gelato shops tempting us to try out everything on the display. It was Italian feast every evening for us, all along this trip.
Day 3 Venice in morning, drive to Lucca via Modeno Ferrari visit
Our second day on Venice island, we decided to start the day at Saint Mark's Basilica. It is situated on one side of a vast area, known as St Marks Square and is a huge monument which usually has big lines to get in. Since we went early we were able to get inside quickly and tour the beautiful basilica. We explored the area around the church after that. Next we took a ferry to go to another basilica on the adjacent land. Unfortunately, that Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute was closed. Missed checking out the visiting hours before visiting this place. Nonetheless the views and architecture around was mesmerizing so we enjoyed being out, around the canals before we had to head back for our journey ahead.
We took vaporetto back to the airport and picked up our Italy special - Fiat 500 - mini car to start our road trip in Italy. First stop on our road trip was sleepy town of Modena, the hometown of Ferrari. We were very excited to see the birthplace of Ferrari and view the historic Ferrari models in the museum there. Tired for the day, we drove directly towards our residence for the night in town of Lucca.
Day 4 Pisa, Lucca, Florence
We started our day heading to the world renowned Pisa town, famous for its leaning tower. We were there for about a couple of hours and had lots of fun, exploring multiple monuments in Pisa and taking tons of funny pictures of ourselves and many around us. It was almost lunch time and we decided to head back to small town of Lucca. Bustling central area of Lucca has well-preserved Renaissance walls encircling its historic city center and cobblestone streets leading in and around it. While having lunch in the central patio, there were walking tours going around us and some local singers entertaining the crowd etc. It was a pretty scenario to be in, with delicious Italian lunch. Next stop on our road trip was the iconic Florence city, home to renaissance art and architecture and its masterpieces. We started by visiting the Uffizi gallery, then walking down the Palazzo Vecchio, checking out Giotto's Bell Tower and Piazza del Duomo, capturing moments all along the way. We got our daily share of gelato and headed towards Ponte Vecchio, an arch bridge traditionally known for its gold trade. We spent the evening looking at the world class view of Italy from Piazzale Michelangelo with backdrop of the setting sun. As the day ended we drove to the town we were most excited for in this trip, town of Chianti.
Day 5 Chianti vespa tour
In Chianti, we stayed at Salvadonica (http://www.salvadonica.com), a place known for its agro-tourism. It was a great place to spend the night. Early morning they took us for a long trail on the grape and other farms explaining about their Italian ways on farms. After the tour we had nice picnic brunch setup for us, overlooking the vineyards. The fresh ingredients from farm, paired up with world class Chianti wine produced in-house was fantastic way to begin the day. After that we got our little Vespa scooter and headed out for wine hopping tour in the town of Chianti. Our day was spent well driving endlessly on the narrow roads along the mustard fields, no traffic, no rules or directions to follow. We came back to our hotel and our wonderful day ended by driving to our last stop for the day - San Gimignano.
Day 6 San Gimignano, Sienna, Stay at castle
San Gimignano, has to be our most favorite town in the Tuscan area, after this trip. After reaching our artistic Airbnb(http://www.maggiesmilliondollarview.com/home-eng/ ) in evening, we decided to visit the town centre post dinner. Experiencing it amongst the still and hushed ambience at night without the tourist crowd was a moment to cherish and it immediately made us fall in love with this town. The medieval towers, stoned pathways and 13th century houses around us, gave us such a different feeling of medieval times. We went back home with beautiful impressions of the town to dream about. The next day we couldn’t be more thrilled to go back to the town centre and see it in the day light. We explored Duomo di San Gimignano, Piazza della Cisterna, Torre Grossa and then ended up going to Museo del Vino which is a wine museum and wine tasting. After spending lots of time strolling and shopping in this beautiful town we headed to the next stop on our trip, town of Serre.
We stayed at Castello delle Serre (https://castellodelleserre.com ), which is a historical castle converted to B&B in heart of Tuscany. Since it was shoulder season, there weren’t many guests and we were received by the owners themselves. The family members who assist guests for all their needs also treated us in true, homey Italian style. We spent the night in this beautiful castle, a dream come true for us.
Day 7 Val d'Orcia, long drive to Positano, pizza in Naples
Next day was the time to leave the stunning castle with heavy heart to continue our journey further south. We were sad to leave but had no idea for what was waiting ahead for us. We drove through the breathtaking scenery of Tuscan towns and took a quick pitstop at Val d'Orcia. The landscapes imprinted on our minds as the quintessential image of Tuscany and kept us gazing for hours. We had our lunch in town center of Montepulciano, yet another unique wine region in Italy known for its exquisite Brunello wine. Next we headed to Chapel Vitaleta, a scenic church surrounded with cypress trees, a perfect location for a much needed afternoon nap. We had a long way to drive ahead so a short break with the striking views of Tuscan countryside was enough to refuel us. We headed south to our next stop, the touristy colorful town of Positano. The highways were narrow and the super winding road towards the very end, made the journey vivid. The world famous Naples pizza kept us energized through this long drive down south.
Day 8 Positano, Pompeii, arrive in Rome
Our day in Positano started with the hike - Paths of Gods. Later we came back to the harbor for a quick lunch, watching the peaceful sea. We spent some time walking on the beach and viewing the beautiful coastal scenes of Positano. We headed to historical town of Pompeii next. We took the self guided tour there and explored the place on our own. It was time to head back to last town of the trip, famous city of Rome.
Day 9,10- Rome
Rome is known for Fontana di Trevi, widely known as Trevi Fountain. We started our day pretty early to catch a glimpse of this beauty without the infamous crowds. Next we headed to Colosseum, where the gladiator fights took place, back in the days with 50,000 spectators. Next stop was Roman Forum, the place known for most of the important structures of the Ancient Rome. On our way around the city, we crossed this beautifully architected structure many a times, its called Famous Vittoriano also known as Altar of the Fatherland or Memorial of victims of WWII. As the busy day was coming to an end we visited Pantheon, a former Roman temple and now a present-day church. At last, as very hot summer day started to set down, we grabbed our double gelatos and sat at the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna. The crowds and the hustle-bustle surrounding us, made us feel like a typical summer day in Europe.
Day 11- Vatican
The last day of our trip was here and we were excited to visit the tiny country in heart of Italy - Vatican City. The epicenter of Roman Catholicism, St. Peter's Basilica is centered in Vatican City and that was where we started our early morning tour. Its a great tour and well before the crowds so highly recommended. It covered Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel and other details throughout the day.
