Note: This travel blog is contributed by my niece Fiza Zaheer, a student of grade 9 who recently visited Italy and sharing her inspirations.
Italy. The name itself has always made feel a deep desire to visit one of the world’s most famous tourist spot. One of the reasons for my fondness of the country is my interest in history, and since Roman history dates back to the 7th century BC, I thought “why not?” Besides that, I’ve always viewed Italy as an aesthetic and elegant country.
This year my brother also happened to show some fascination in the idea of visiting Italy, so (finally) we managed to convince our parents to make Italy the summer spot of the year.
Planning
First things first – Italy is not a huge country, about 301,338 km². There are, however, a great many places to visit and sights to see, so I think you need at least two weeks if you want to visit the main and central attractions, roam around a bit, and avoid some of the hassle. Oh, and while planning your travel agenda you should definitely keep in mind that Italy is best visited in May, June, July, August and October. Although, the dates around 15th of August can be a trouble since they have a public holiday “Ferragosto” and many places might be closed down. Another factor to be taken into consideration is that booking apartments in some cities, such as Rome and Florence, is much cheaper and convenient than hotels, according to our experience. You can book from sites such as Trip Advisor or Booking.com, but from wherever you book you have to do it way beforehand – at least a week or two earlier. The earlier the better otherwise you might just experience what we did, that is, every apartment, guesthouse or hotel had just one or two rooms left. Our ten-day stay in Italy was divided up in the following way:
2nd August 2016
Flight to Rome – 4 nights – Rome Together Guest House
(We booked a tour for the second day in Rome that took us to Naples by road, and from there to Capri Island by ship)
6th August 2016
Train to Florence – 3 nights – Duomo Guest House
9th August 2016
Train to Venice – 2 nights – Hotel Bisanzio
11th August 2016
Flight to Paris to Doha to Lahore
Places:
Rome – the Eternal City
As the old saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Well, you can’t see it all in one day either. I had heard about the charismatic charm of Rome and had seen a lot of amazing pictures, yet I fell victim to the captivating elegance of the Eternal City. Even the most obscure streets had a classic historical touch.
We visited (of course) the Colosseum or “Colosseo” as the Italians call it, or even the Flavian Amphitheatre, as was its original name. The main transport we used in Rome to get around the city was the metro, which was very easily accessible. It is also quite easy to book skip-the-line guided tours, online or at a tourist point. We had booked GreenLine Tours that gave us a tour around ancient Rome, which included the Colosseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill.
We also booked a tour for the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, all of which hold a huge significance when it comes to art. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (measuring 133’ x 46’) having been decorated so beautifully in shockingly intricate patterns by Michelangelo in just 4 years (which is quite a short time considering that he was alone and that it was entirely hand-painted). On the other hand, St. Peter’s Basilica, while being the largest church, is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture.
Naples / Capri Island
We also booked a tour to Capri Island. It was a nearly 3 hour drive to Naples, and from there an hour or a half to Capri by ship. At Capri, you can choose various activities to do while you are there. You can have a boat take you around the entire island, you can go up to Ana Capri the highest peak on the island, you can go into the Blue Grotto cave, though I have to warn you that there is a really long waiting time for the Blue Grotto (minimum of 1 hour) and you only get 5-10 minutes inside.
Florence – Cradle of the Renaissance
Rome to Florence by train takes nearly 2 hours. Our stay at the Duomo Guest House was a very pleasant one, plus the location was amazing as the “Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore” or simply the Florence Cathedral or Duomo was just beside us and it was a 5-10 minute walk to Piazza di Santa Maria Novella and the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, as well as the Renaissance bridges on the Arno river.
The Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery were also on a fair walking distance from our guesthouse.
Siena
We had a private transport arranged from Florence to Siena, where we stayed for nearly 2 hours, walking around the small city. The first thing we noticed was the Torre del Mangia, the landmark tower, and then went on to see Piazza del Campo where twice a year a horse race would take place (on 2nd July and 16th August), the Palazzo Publico and the Siena Cathedral.
San Gimignano
San Gimignano is a hill town in Tuscany, and has structures of mostly medieval architecture. Here you have museums and churches to see. Besides that you can shop here for souvenirs and such items, better yet, San Gimignano has the best gelato in the world at Gelateria Dondoli, where there’s always a queue to eat gelato master Sergio Dondoli’s gelato. No worries though, you won’t have to wait long.
Venice – La Dominante
The train ride from Florence to Venice took about 2 hours 15 minutes, and then we took a water taxi (of course, since there are certainly no other means of transport around the city) that took 40 minutes and dropped us off at a 2-minute distance from Hotel Bisanzio, where we were warmly received and had a pleasant stay. Most gondola rides cost a good 80 Euro for 30 minutes but it was worth it. Exploring Venice in a gondola, I realized that everything I had heard about Venice was true: “City of Canals”, “City of Water”, “City of Masks”, “The Floating City”, “City of Bridges”, “Queen of the Adriatic”.
The markets of Venice are a must-visit. There is everything between simple tiny stalls and branded stores in these markets. Due to an upcoming public Italian holiday known as “Ferragosto” we found a lot of shops and stalls selling the masks that Venice is famous for, though one little shop stood out for us, at the back of which was a little workplace where a quiet old man was molding and decorating masks in such a way that the whole process was quite fascinating to watch. We found the Rialto market significantly convenient in terms of variety, although it was a bit more crowded since the Rialto Bridge is a popular tourist spot as it is the oldest of the four bridges that cross the Grand Canal.
Wandering San Marco, we saw the beautiful Basilica of Saint Mark, Piazza di San Marco and the wondrously lit up San Marco Campanile, which looked even beautiful the darker the sky turned. Along with a cup of caffé latte in the chill evening air and with a couple of opera groups performing, you couldn’t ask for more.
Thank you.
Very nice Fiza, its on my travel list now 🙂