Return to Bob's Home Page

Excerpts from our 1994 Italy Trip

Photo Overview

The thumbnails displayed below are 100x75x256 GIFs; if you click on them (and have a JPEG viewer) you will see the original scans, approximately 400x300x256 JPEGs compressed using a medium-lossy factor - to save space.

Firenze Cortona Amalfi

Paestum Pompeii Roma

For a full trip presentation, see Karen's 1994 Italy Trip pages.

Trip Overview

We spent the first week in a small villa in Cavasagra, near Castel Franco - a working town built inside of an old French castle half way between Verona and Venice. From there we took day trips to Venezia (Venice), Verona and Ravenna. Ravenna was magnificent.

We spent the following week in Firenze (Florence) and took day trips to Fiesole, Siena and Cortona. Florence was packed with American tourists - not a pleasant sight. Siena was one of Karen's favorite towns; Cortona was mine.

After Cortona, we went to Pesaro on the Adriatic Coast and then to Urbino. I felt that Urbino's art museums surpassed Florence's Uffizi, in quality of presentation and content.

From there we trained down the coast to Lecce and stayed several days in Torre del Orso, on the heel of Italy. The towns were very Greek, and the coast was filled with Minoan/Cretian, pre-Helenistic ruins.

After that, we went up to Paestum - home of some of the largest and best preserved Greek temples outside of the Acropolis. It also had a great beach area. From there we went to Sorrento, took a day trip to Pompeii, and then bussed down the Amalfi Coast to Amalfi and Ravello. Ravello is a truly beautiful town precariously hanging off a mountain above Amalfi.

We then spent our remaining week in Roma (Rome). As amazing as the rest of Italy was, Rome was still awe-inspiring. The massive scope of its architecture is unsurpassed.

Regional Impressions

With the exception of Florence, I refrained from speaking English and spoke mostly in broken Italian - and with the exception of a couple of hilarious faux pas, we managed to make ourselves understood. It seemed that Italians were more likely to know German than English as a second language.

Again, with the exception of Florence, Italians were very friendly and helpful. Florentians seemed to be pretty fed up with Americans and typically preferred that you speak English, rather than attempt to speak Italian.

The wine in northern Italy was wonderful; less so as we moved south. The food was great everywhere, particularly if you got away from the tourists. We ate mostly pasta, seafood and vegies. Italians know pasta, and they know seafood. I found the best gnocchi (served with a creamy broccoli sauce) in Florence. Pizza in out-of-the-way mom&pop shops were generally excellent.

Food tended to have more of a creamy/buttery base in northern Italy; southern Italy tended to be more olive-oil-oriented. Paestum had the most incredible buffalo mozzarella cheese - served with fresh-from-the garden sliced tomatoes and basil, it formed a splendid entre.

I was not impressed by their bread or pastries; we have better in the San Francisco area - but the gelato (when you found a good place) was fantastic.

There was one desert, called panna cotta (steamed cream) that was exquisite. It's a bit like a flan, but without the color or egginess of custard - just a luscious, creamy white pudding that saturates your palette. We found that you could order it in most restaurants, even if it wasn't on the menu.

Words for food changed in various regions: apple is pomo in the North, mela in the South. Italian pronunciations changed considerably from region to region; listening to how each town said the number 10 was a real task - important for understanding the price of a ticket or a deli snack.

Nothing seemed to open up Italian shop keepers more than being able to give them the correct change - most tourists seemed to just hand the shop keepers a wad of money, without bothering to figure out what the coins were worth.

My favorite towns were those built on Etruscan hilltops. The Florentians and Romans seemed to like building towns in swamps - right where the mosquitoes tend to breed. The Etruscans, on the other hand, seemed to prefer the hilltops where you have cool breezes and magnificent views of the farmlands below.

Roman and Florentine food and art is more refined; the Etruscan architecture is quite rustic and the food hearty. The people in the Etruscan towns were initially reserved, but warmed up to you once they got to know you - it'd take them a couple of days before they'd say ciao (they'd use the more formal bon giorno, instead). In constrast, the people in southern Italy tended to be very familiar, saying ciao to any passing stranger.

Over all, the trip was as perfect as any I've been on - we are definitely planning to return to Italy as soon as possible.