jamiethekiller wrote:honestly had the best 10 days of my life over there. there isn't a single thing or day where i was like "man, this is a bummer."

Rome: i wasn't expecting to be blown away and i was. Absolutely incredible city. From the Ruins to the churches to all of the piazzas and then the Vatican. The whole city is just so overwhelmingly amazing that its easy to fall in love. It's easy to be a tourist or to wander down a side road and feel like you're in a neighborhood that hasn't changed in 100 years. The food is incredible. Pizza al Taglio is special. The tiny neighborhood of Trastevere(our AirBnB) is more local than touristy. wander into a restaurant and it's just a living room where the chef/owner takes your order then cooks the food for you. had 3 incredible dinners in Rome that i won't ever forget. The wine is all time cheap. we got a carafe of house wine for 10$(it was more than a whole bottle). Another place we got a bottle of house wine for 6$. The last dinner we had the bottle of wine was 18$(expensive!).

Cinque Terre is a tourist trap through and through, but its an amazing one. The towns are a lot of fun to walk around in. very small and very hilly. What makes Cinque Terre amazing is the hiking that can be done. All but 2 of the hikes were open. The two that aren't open are because of landslides. Its an absolutely incredible journey from town to town that is so breathtaking. It's a view and experience that you probably can't get in America hiking. I would definitely like to go back and spend another few days hiking into the more mountain areas of the towns. They have these little hand tanks that go along the trail for them to deliver food and water. one of them was loaded up with a half keg of beer and was like a mile away from the next town. a hell of a way of living.

Florence has some special stuff in it but overall is somewhat lame. The Uffizi is out of this world. The amount of classical statues and 15th century artwork will live you speechless. The churches and Duomo are incredible. The city itself is tiny. Since it's so tiny you can't get away from the amount of tourist traps. There's no respite from standard pasta place to pasta place. Even the 'guides' online are rife with touristy places to eat and drink. So as a whole i felt slightly cheated. Our AirBnB was kinda lame as well(no air). Overall it's still a place i would recommend going but it takes a little more research than the other places we went. Wish we got to do more museum stuff there than we did. I could have spent another 4 hours in Uffizi and i would have loved to do the Dante museum. The Cupola was a major downer. took us 3.5 hours from standing in line to standing in a tiny staircase to tiny hallways to finally get to the dome. then only to get stranded on the top of the dome lookout. a very stressful experience that didn't have nearly the same rewards as climbing the Cupola at St. Peters Cathedral.

We spent 3 days in my fiances family farm in Abruzzo. that was just an absolute blast. meeting all of her relatives to the big family lunches and dinners. going from the Farm to the beach to the "ancient" city of Lanciano then a 4 hour drive into the mountains to visit a family grave site. Saying goodbye was very hard. Its very hard to feel as welcomed as i did into a family that doesn't speak english. They went out of there way to treat me like i've been part of the family. My fiance can speak OK italian and i took some lessons prior to going so i can follow along to some stuff. But with such an language disconnect i didn't feel like i was on the outside at all. The way of living of her family over there is just so 'old world.' Generations of families under one roof. the 100 gallon drum of olive oil. the fields of grapes, olive trees, tomatoes and other produce. The lemon trees in the backyard. Homemade pasta and limoncello and wine for every meal. its has this idyllic quality from a novel that doesn't seem like a real place.

the whole trip feels indescribable despite my PTK level of words used. i can't wait to go back in a few years.

some galleries:
Panoramas(don't miss the church one thats kinda hidden on the left hand side halfway down):
https://goo.gl/photos/C6hx4PkdNVvgvShCA

Trip summed up by Google:
https://goo.gl/photos/GGJc2PSNXUQH89NL7

td11 wrote:it's cool to marry these hella italian ladies and then let them take you on a guided tour of the motherland

WilliamC wrote:

td11 wrote:it's cool to marry these hella italian ladies and then let them take you on a guided tour of the motherland

I want an Italian wife

WilliamC wrote:me too when I was at PSU altoona. She almost killed me and I still don't even know what I did.

td11 wrote:

WilliamC wrote:

td11 wrote:it's cool to marry these hella italian ladies and then let them take you on a guided tour of the motherland

I want an Italian wife

me too man i'm gonna do it

pacino wrote:from the few times i met her at bsg td's lady seems cooler than him.

TenuredVulture wrote:Mrs. Vulture is half Italian. But she has no known relatives in the motherland.

The Dude wrote:The tour was ok, pretty short, and you really only see about 100th of the church. Not a lot of information at all about the building, and you're quickly ushered through. They did say they were busier than expected today so that might explain that, and I was never asked for my ticket. Outside of the building is cool, inside looks/feels like a conference center