Monday, June 21, 2010
On the Road in Europe- Part 3- Austria
Our original plans for our vacation in Europe were to see Greece and Italy, but my daughters really wanted to see Austria as well. Since we were renting a car in Italy, it looked like a short excursion to Austria could fit into our plans. I really needed to visualize how to do this, so I pulled the map of Europe out of my suitcase to see which cities looked closest to the ones we would be visiting in Italy. Salzburg was almost directly north of Venice. If we were to go to one place in Austria, the appeal of Salzburg was the most desirable, after all, The Sound of Music is our family's all time favorite musical! Vienna appeared more east, and Innsbruck, more to the west. During or stay in Venice, we found an internet cafe (the internet at our hotel was not working while we were staying there). I looked to see what kind of hotels were available in Salzburg in our price range, and saw that I was given a choice of city or mountain hotels, and was immediately drawn to the mountain hotels. They reminded me of the scene where Julie Andrews had spun around as she had sung "the hills are alive with the sound of music!"
The next day we set the GPS to the hotel's address and were happy that the ride was only 4 hours from Venice! It was a beautiful drive as we came closer and closer to the Alps, passing clear streams and small mountain towns. When we finally arrived at our hotel, we were so pleased that we asked if we could extend our stay for an additional night. We ate a hearty lunch at the hotel. We ordered 4 entrees, as I planned to share with my youngest daughter. In Italy, 4 entrees might not have been enough food, but at our hotel restaurant in Austria, 2 would have fed all of us well! After lunch the girls changed into some pretty dresses, put wild flowers in their hair and ran through the meadows like Julie Andrews! I looked into the Sound of music tour, but since we had the car, decided to just plug the tour itinerary into the GPS and this way see other places of interest along the way and go at our own pace. We took our 2nd day in Salzburg to do all this, and by the end of the day we were all exhausted but very happy with all we saw. In retrospect, I think we could have enjoyed staying one or two more days. There was a lot to do in the area. I did not realize it is also quite close to Munich, Germany and the Black Forest. My advice is Salzburg should have a minimum of 3 days!
After Salzburg we travelled about 2 and a half hours west to Innsbruck. The mountains are really spectacular, although they were not as snow covered as I had remembered them on a summer trip I made in college. Innsbruck was the only place where we experienced rain during our entire 3 and a half week stay in Europe, yet it was still a beautiful place. I think the people who live in that area must be very health conscience. In spite of the rain, many people walked with umbrellas, were out for a jog, or riding on bicycles. Austria in general was clean and green! It was a short visit, but one of our top places that we visited. And a few added plusses- it seemed less expensive to stay in Austria than in Italy, it is a small country with lots to see and do within short distances, and if you live in Hawaii or Asia, and are used to eating rice regularly, we saw lots of Chinese Restaurants around! We actually took a late night stroll to a Chinese restaurant around the corner from our hotel and brought back some take out fried rice, satisfying that craving to last us the final week of our trip.
The next day we set the GPS to the hotel's address and were happy that the ride was only 4 hours from Venice! It was a beautiful drive as we came closer and closer to the Alps, passing clear streams and small mountain towns. When we finally arrived at our hotel, we were so pleased that we asked if we could extend our stay for an additional night. We ate a hearty lunch at the hotel. We ordered 4 entrees, as I planned to share with my youngest daughter. In Italy, 4 entrees might not have been enough food, but at our hotel restaurant in Austria, 2 would have fed all of us well! After lunch the girls changed into some pretty dresses, put wild flowers in their hair and ran through the meadows like Julie Andrews! I looked into the Sound of music tour, but since we had the car, decided to just plug the tour itinerary into the GPS and this way see other places of interest along the way and go at our own pace. We took our 2nd day in Salzburg to do all this, and by the end of the day we were all exhausted but very happy with all we saw. In retrospect, I think we could have enjoyed staying one or two more days. There was a lot to do in the area. I did not realize it is also quite close to Munich, Germany and the Black Forest. My advice is Salzburg should have a minimum of 3 days!
After Salzburg we travelled about 2 and a half hours west to Innsbruck. The mountains are really spectacular, although they were not as snow covered as I had remembered them on a summer trip I made in college. Innsbruck was the only place where we experienced rain during our entire 3 and a half week stay in Europe, yet it was still a beautiful place. I think the people who live in that area must be very health conscience. In spite of the rain, many people walked with umbrellas, were out for a jog, or riding on bicycles. Austria in general was clean and green! It was a short visit, but one of our top places that we visited. And a few added plusses- it seemed less expensive to stay in Austria than in Italy, it is a small country with lots to see and do within short distances, and if you live in Hawaii or Asia, and are used to eating rice regularly, we saw lots of Chinese Restaurants around! We actually took a late night stroll to a Chinese restaurant around the corner from our hotel and brought back some take out fried rice, satisfying that craving to last us the final week of our trip.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
On the Road in Europe- Part 2- Italy
We arrived home from our journey last Wednesday, and I am finally starting to recover from jet-lag. As promised in my last blog, I will now talk about our experiences in Italy.
Italy- the ultimate road trip:
Winging it usually works for our family, but when in Rome, I will advise, have some plans! We started out our Italian portion of our trip on the wrong foot. I assumed as we had arrived in Greece without reservations and easily found a place to stay, that we could do the same in Rome. NOT so. At least not in Rome. We arrived at the Rome Fuimicino Airport and proceeded to pick up our trusty rental car- a tiny Fiat. We were prepared for this, and happy we packed lightly, able to squeeze our luggage tightly into that little back cargo space of the hatchback. My friend's advice to pack a black sheet also came in handy, since we could cover everything so it wouldn't show where the back flap wouldn't quite go down all the way with our luggage in there. We also felt ready to go with our trusty GPS. The GPS helped us in Greece, but in Rome we had much more difficulty with it, especially on the many rotaries, narrow streets that did not look like real streets, and road construction areas that were not updated on the GPS. We were set and ready to find a hotel and begin our adventures in Rome. There was no internet or wifi at the airport, so we thought we'd try the ones listed on the GPS. Many of the hotels listed on the GPS were either not there, or full. Driving around for several hours, we searched for an internet cafe without success. We found a hotel that called some other places and told us of one that had rooms available, and programmed or GPS to find it. It was the most expensive, ugly, 4 star hotel in a sketchy area, and we decided that after a good sleep we would say goodbye to Rome and start off our Italian vacation in Florence. On the positive side, the hotel had internet in the lobby at a small fee, so we were able to get online to make sure we had a hotel available when we arrived in Florence.
Finding Hotels Online:
If you can find an internet connection in Italy, it is easy to make online reservations, we were even able to reserve hotels the day of our arrival. I found www.booking.com to have many hotels available with a great range of prices, good descriptions and comments made by people who have stayed in those hotels. I found the comments helpful, especially if they said the neighborhood was convenient, or not safe. I looked for hotels by price, internet availability, parking available, and proximity to sites.
The stops and stays along the way:
Florence- it took about 4 hours to drive to from Rome and we stayed 2 nights- this was plenty of time for us to see all the sites and museums we were interested in. Our hotel was in walking distance to the main part of the city.
Ravenna- 1 night- Ravenna was not a long drive from Florence, only a couple of hours away. Ravenna had interesting sites to see. I liked that it was not as crowded and was smaller than Florence, and had the most spectacular mosaics in the churches that I have ever seen. We went to a laundry mat when we first arrived which kept some of our euros when we put them into the machine, and discolored some of our clothes.
Venice- 2 nights- It took a couple more hours from Ravenna to drive. We stayed at a hotel just outside of Venice which was on the public transportation line. We tried the public transportation which was easy to use, but the next day we decided to drive since we were familiar with where to park and how to get there. We also took the boat to Murano that 2nd day, and I would highly recommend that if you go to Venice, you should make it a point to stop in Murano, famous for its glass. It came to my attention that many items sold in Venice and Murano are made in China, so check first to make sure the label says made in Venice or Murano.
After Venice, we decided it was time for a break from Italy, and we drove up to Salzburg, Austria for 2 nights (a 4 hour drive from Venice), and Innsbruck, Austria for 1 night (2 hours from Saltzburg). I will discuss Austria in my next blog!
Verona- a couple hours- We stopped in Verona for lunch on our way to Tuscany from Innsbruck.
Tuscany- 1 night- I think this was the nicest surprise on our journey. I am going to specify where we stayed. This was advertised as a 2 bedroom apartment at 73 euros a night. We didn't know what we were going to get, because we usually booked a double and triple room, costing much more. The picture and reviews on booking.com made me curious, and as it turned out it was very charming. The owner Giulio Gasperini, just opened it in March. We had a beautiful antique Tuscan 2 story apartment complete with 2 fireplaces, living area, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and bath. It was in a quiet residential country area, and a great place to just relax and unwind from all of our driving. I could have stayed a week here!
Hotel Residence Antica Villa
Address Loc.Fondaccio 235
Arezzo, 52100
Italy
Phone +393450511611
Fax +39057597426
E-mail info@residenceanticavilla.it
Italy- the ultimate road trip:
Winging it usually works for our family, but when in Rome, I will advise, have some plans! We started out our Italian portion of our trip on the wrong foot. I assumed as we had arrived in Greece without reservations and easily found a place to stay, that we could do the same in Rome. NOT so. At least not in Rome. We arrived at the Rome Fuimicino Airport and proceeded to pick up our trusty rental car- a tiny Fiat. We were prepared for this, and happy we packed lightly, able to squeeze our luggage tightly into that little back cargo space of the hatchback. My friend's advice to pack a black sheet also came in handy, since we could cover everything so it wouldn't show where the back flap wouldn't quite go down all the way with our luggage in there. We also felt ready to go with our trusty GPS. The GPS helped us in Greece, but in Rome we had much more difficulty with it, especially on the many rotaries, narrow streets that did not look like real streets, and road construction areas that were not updated on the GPS. We were set and ready to find a hotel and begin our adventures in Rome. There was no internet or wifi at the airport, so we thought we'd try the ones listed on the GPS. Many of the hotels listed on the GPS were either not there, or full. Driving around for several hours, we searched for an internet cafe without success. We found a hotel that called some other places and told us of one that had rooms available, and programmed or GPS to find it. It was the most expensive, ugly, 4 star hotel in a sketchy area, and we decided that after a good sleep we would say goodbye to Rome and start off our Italian vacation in Florence. On the positive side, the hotel had internet in the lobby at a small fee, so we were able to get online to make sure we had a hotel available when we arrived in Florence.
Finding Hotels Online:
If you can find an internet connection in Italy, it is easy to make online reservations, we were even able to reserve hotels the day of our arrival. I found www.booking.com to have many hotels available with a great range of prices, good descriptions and comments made by people who have stayed in those hotels. I found the comments helpful, especially if they said the neighborhood was convenient, or not safe. I looked for hotels by price, internet availability, parking available, and proximity to sites.
The stops and stays along the way:
Florence- it took about 4 hours to drive to from Rome and we stayed 2 nights- this was plenty of time for us to see all the sites and museums we were interested in. Our hotel was in walking distance to the main part of the city.
Ravenna- 1 night- Ravenna was not a long drive from Florence, only a couple of hours away. Ravenna had interesting sites to see. I liked that it was not as crowded and was smaller than Florence, and had the most spectacular mosaics in the churches that I have ever seen. We went to a laundry mat when we first arrived which kept some of our euros when we put them into the machine, and discolored some of our clothes.
Venice- 2 nights- It took a couple more hours from Ravenna to drive. We stayed at a hotel just outside of Venice which was on the public transportation line. We tried the public transportation which was easy to use, but the next day we decided to drive since we were familiar with where to park and how to get there. We also took the boat to Murano that 2nd day, and I would highly recommend that if you go to Venice, you should make it a point to stop in Murano, famous for its glass. It came to my attention that many items sold in Venice and Murano are made in China, so check first to make sure the label says made in Venice or Murano.
After Venice, we decided it was time for a break from Italy, and we drove up to Salzburg, Austria for 2 nights (a 4 hour drive from Venice), and Innsbruck, Austria for 1 night (2 hours from Saltzburg). I will discuss Austria in my next blog!
Verona- a couple hours- We stopped in Verona for lunch on our way to Tuscany from Innsbruck.
Tuscany- 1 night- I think this was the nicest surprise on our journey. I am going to specify where we stayed. This was advertised as a 2 bedroom apartment at 73 euros a night. We didn't know what we were going to get, because we usually booked a double and triple room, costing much more. The picture and reviews on booking.com made me curious, and as it turned out it was very charming. The owner Giulio Gasperini, just opened it in March. We had a beautiful antique Tuscan 2 story apartment complete with 2 fireplaces, living area, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and bath. It was in a quiet residential country area, and a great place to just relax and unwind from all of our driving. I could have stayed a week here!
Hotel Residence Antica Villa
Address Loc.Fondaccio 235
Arezzo, 52100
Italy
Phone +393450511611
Fax +39057597426
E-mail info@residenceanticavilla.it
After Tuscany, we drove to Sorrento and stayed 1 night. When in that area we drove to Amalfi and had dinner there, and the next morning headed to Pompeii to see the ruins, before heading back to Rome. This time we made sure we had reservations for our hotel stay in Rome.
Rome- 2 nights
Rome- 1 more night because we couldn't get on the standby flight home the day we planned.
Museums in Italy:
Before I left, I was told that any museums in Italy are closed on Sundays and reservations could be made in advance. I didn't have the opportunity to make advance reservations ahead, since we planned as we went along. The man at the front desk at our hotel in Florence told us that if we got to the Ufizzi museum early that we wouldn't have too long to wait. We got there about half an hour before they opened and got in after 45 minutes. No liquids can be brought in. I realized that we would be in Rome on a Sunday and thought that we were going to miss seeing the Vatican Museum. I checked into this with the front desk clerk at our hotel in Rome, and found out the Vatican Museum is closed on Sundays, but opened on the last Sunday of the month until noon. Fortunately for us we were in Rome on the last Sunday of the month. We arrived about an hour before the museum opened and the line was blocks long, but guides were soliciting for people to join guided tours and move to the beginning of the line. This was well worth it since there was no admission fee on that Sunday, and the cost of the guided tour ended up being the same price as if we had a regular weekday admission fee. Guides in museums are great. If you have the opportunity to see a museum with or without one, take the guide. I also found out appointments need to be made for a Papal audience, on Wednesdays only, and to see the burial site of St. Peter, under the Vatican, an appointment must be made 8 to 30 days in advance.
Food in Italy- It's not what you think!
My husband was looking forward to a big dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce. This was not so easy to find. I am not saying the food was bad, much of it was very delicious, but it is not like Italian food in the U.S.A. Pizza is different too. Food was much more expensive, and portions much smaller than we found in Greece and Austria, and is on the menu in courses. The other surprise was that most places charged a cover charge just for sitting down. We thought this was for the bread, but later realized it was a cover charge.
One last thing to say about Driving in Italy- Pray!!!
We thought Athens was chaotic until we got to Italy! Italians make their own lanes, drive incredibly fast, and love their rotaries! Again, all I can say is PRAY! I am so thankful our rental car came back without scratches!
Enjoy Italy! We did!
Rome- 2 nights
Rome- 1 more night because we couldn't get on the standby flight home the day we planned.
Museums in Italy:
Before I left, I was told that any museums in Italy are closed on Sundays and reservations could be made in advance. I didn't have the opportunity to make advance reservations ahead, since we planned as we went along. The man at the front desk at our hotel in Florence told us that if we got to the Ufizzi museum early that we wouldn't have too long to wait. We got there about half an hour before they opened and got in after 45 minutes. No liquids can be brought in. I realized that we would be in Rome on a Sunday and thought that we were going to miss seeing the Vatican Museum. I checked into this with the front desk clerk at our hotel in Rome, and found out the Vatican Museum is closed on Sundays, but opened on the last Sunday of the month until noon. Fortunately for us we were in Rome on the last Sunday of the month. We arrived about an hour before the museum opened and the line was blocks long, but guides were soliciting for people to join guided tours and move to the beginning of the line. This was well worth it since there was no admission fee on that Sunday, and the cost of the guided tour ended up being the same price as if we had a regular weekday admission fee. Guides in museums are great. If you have the opportunity to see a museum with or without one, take the guide. I also found out appointments need to be made for a Papal audience, on Wednesdays only, and to see the burial site of St. Peter, under the Vatican, an appointment must be made 8 to 30 days in advance.
Food in Italy- It's not what you think!
My husband was looking forward to a big dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce. This was not so easy to find. I am not saying the food was bad, much of it was very delicious, but it is not like Italian food in the U.S.A. Pizza is different too. Food was much more expensive, and portions much smaller than we found in Greece and Austria, and is on the menu in courses. The other surprise was that most places charged a cover charge just for sitting down. We thought this was for the bread, but later realized it was a cover charge.
One last thing to say about Driving in Italy- Pray!!!
We thought Athens was chaotic until we got to Italy! Italians make their own lanes, drive incredibly fast, and love their rotaries! Again, all I can say is PRAY! I am so thankful our rental car came back without scratches!
Enjoy Italy! We did!
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