Trip motivation
In 2016, Ben and I took a kid-free trip to Europe. We love our kids and love traveling with them. However, it is glorious to take trips with just Ben and be able to enjoy the cities, wine tours, museums, and all the things we couldn’t do or would have to prioritize differently with a baby in tow. If you’re able to, I highly recommend taking time to dedicate to an adults-only trip. This was a whirlwind of a trip! If you want to read about the logistics of our flights, and learn more about how we used credit cards to save money, see this post here.
Day 1: Rome arrival
We arrived in Rome late on Sunday evening and went through Customs and Immigration. We stopped by a nearby kiosk to purchase a sim card for our phone. When we finally arrived in Rome, we were informed our big luggage bag never made it. After trying and failing to resolve our issues, we took the train to our hotel: San Pietro Suites. This area was conveniently located next to public transportation and the Vatican area. After dropping our bags, we walked around the block for our first Italian pasta meal. We then went back to our hotel to sleep.
Day 2: Vatican City and Rome
We started the morning and walked to the Vatican area for our reserved tour. It was about a 20-minute walk from our hotel. It’s a country of its own, inside Rome, and is home to world-famous sites including the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. There’s a ton to see, including magnificent staircases and the Sistine Chapel.
After our busy morning, we walked East and snacked on pizza and window-shopped along the main streets near the Vatican area. We then caught a train to the Colosseum and did a tour using an audio guide from Rick Steves. Built in Roman times as a space for holding public spectacles, the Colosseum is most famous for being the home of gladiators, who would battle it out in front of audiences that could number as many as 80,000 people.
Because our time in Rome was short, we didn’t purchase a Rome pass for this trip and just stood in the long line when we arrived. If we were traveling with kids, we would pre-plan better. Also, as of 2019, you will need to reserve your time slot ahead of time. The Colosseum ticket is also good for the Palatine Hill next door, but we decided not to add to it on this trip. We took a break to return to the hotel and spend some time on the phone trying to track down our suitcases.
In the evening, we took the train to the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps area. We read from our guidebook highlights regarding the area.
We ate a fantastic dinner and enjoyed the evening hustle and crowds of happy travelers. We also spent a little bit of time shopping for replacement clothes and eating gelato. We relied heavily on the Google Translate app and charades to find new clothes, chargers, and toiletries. New underwear and gelato helped put us in good spirits.
Day 3: Rome to Cinque Terre
Ideally, we would have had more time to explore but cut our time short because we were told we could pick up our lost luggage at the airport. Unfortunately, they had received our luggage and sent it by car to our hotel which we had just left and wouldn’t be returning to as we were on our way to our next destination, Cinque Terre. We told them to send the luggage on to Florence.
We caught an afternoon train to Cinque Terre. We purchased tickets ahead of time. The train ride took about 5 hours. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 villages a short distance from each other. This pretty locale in Italy looks as beautiful in real life as it does in the pictures. We based ourselves in the second village, Manarola. In the evening, we wandered around town, took a ferry to the first island, Riomaggiore, and enjoyed happy hour at an outdoor cafe. We took a quick 10-minute train back to our hotel and ate dinner nearby.
Day 4: Cinque Terre to Pisa to Florence
This was a busy day. We woke up early and did a hike from our village to the next one north, Corniglia. It took about 2 hours and was absolutely gorgeous.
We ate some gelato and then took a train back to our hotel to check out. We had to see all 5 villages so we took the train to island 4, Vernazza, left our luggage at the station, and did a quick kayak rental around the caves. We took the train to the northernmost village and ate some seafood for lunch at the seaside. A perfect morning.
We then took the train towards Pisa. After about an hour, we passed through Pisa and decided to make a quick stop to explore. We stored our luggage at the station, had time to take our obligatory tower pics, eat some dinner, and then, of course, more gelato. Late in the evening, we took a train and a quick bus to our hotel in Florence where we were reunited with our luggage!
Day 5: Florence
We purchased a Firenze pass for 72 hours and entry to multiple Florence museums. When adding up the sights we wanted to see, the price made sense, and it also allowed us the flexibility to stop in smaller museums when we felt like it. We started the morning by walking to the Duomo and climbing up the tower. We then spent some time walking to other sites using Rick Steves’ map as a general guide, including the Palazzo Vecchio.
We visited the Uffizi Gallery, which is the most famous museum in Florence. It showcases art from many different periods, including Renaissance Art, which is prominent all over the city.
Next to the Uffizi gallery is the Galileo Museum, which was really cool and one of our favorite things we’ve done in any city. Visiting the museum, you will find yourself in front of over a thousand instruments and scientific equipment and his preserved finger! So weird! For dinner, we walked to a nearby restaurant and had a yummy large charcuterie board with wine, wine, and more wine.
Day 6: Florence Vespa Tour
On this day, we escaped the city and took a tour to a nearby castle and winery. The company we used was called Tuscany Cycles. It was pretty pricey (100 euros per) but we had a great time. We met our driver at their tourist office near the main areas. They took us by van to a castle where they gave us brief vespa lessons. Fun fact: I have never been a very good, confident balanced bike rider, and vespa driving was a similar skillset. I ended up being Ben’s passenger. It was more romantic that way, anyway. After driving around vineyards and overlooking vistas for around an hour, we returned to the castle for a short tour and lunch.
After our tour, we were driven back to Florence to an overlook across the river where we had some panoramic views and a bronze replica of a David statue at the Piazzale Michelangelo. We rounded out our busy day with a visit to Academia, some steak and pasta for dinner and some more gelato and a cute market.
Day 7: Florence to Venice
We didn’t have any plans for our last half-day in Florence except to head back to the market for some snacks. Just wandering the streets and catching pokemon with Ben. We’re super dorky sometimes. 🙂 We packed up and went to the train station for our adventure to the next destination. The train rides were actually nice decompression times between cities. The ride took about 2 hours on the fast train and the views out the window were beautiful. We had wifi and uploaded pictures from our trip so far to social media.
Once arriving in Venice, we took a ferry to our location. We relied on Google Maps on our phones to help us navigate, but we ended up getting on a longer one instead of an express boat. It was still beautiful floating down the canals. After getting settled in our hotel, we walked around the back alleys and streets and explored the cool bridges and the city. For as big as the main square area is, the small nooks and crannies felt cozy and far away from it all.
Day 8: Venice
After breakfast at our hotel, we walked and ferried over the main part of the city and went to the Doge Palace. After lunch, we actually went back to the hotel to nap. We had stayed up to watch some football and our days of non-stop adventuring had caught up to us a little. We definitely didn’t prioritize down time as much as we typically do on trips these days with kids. In the evening, we were able to attend a mass at St Marks’ . This was our last night in Italy, and we went out with a slightly more expensive but spectacular risotto dinner that I still dream about sometimes from Terazza de Nobiles.
Day 9: Venice to Home
We woke up early and took a ferry and train to get to the airport and departed at 11am. Make sure you save lots of time for international departures in foreign countries. You really don’t want to miss that flight.
Final Thoughts
I know a lot of people would look at our itinerary and think it was too fast. This trip was without kids and we were very much go go go-ing all over each city. Train times were when we really got to sit and relax and then we were back to sightseeing and taking it all in. It was a whirlwind but such a pleasure and privilege to travel with Ben and enjoy each other’s company and this amazing country.
