Easily Excitable

It’s official! We’re back from Italy! 

If you’re friends with me on Facebook, chances are, you saw pictures from the trip. 

I know y’all are probably sick of hearing about this trip, but I can’t stop thinking about, and, as a result, talking about it. 

I’m sorry. 

Italians are a loud and passionate people. I, too, am a loud and passionate person. I felt seen, and now Italy is my whole personality. 

I should never be allowed to travel outside of Cochran, Georgia for this very reason. 

I thought about changing this to a travel blog, but honestly, with the exceptions of weddings, my everyday trips are largely limited to Bleckley County High School, Walmart, and Harris Kuntry Grocery. Might not get the people going. 

Or maybe that’s exactly what we need? A travel blog wherein I treat the everyday places like a first time traveler? 

Hey, secretary? Bookmark that. That actually might be a good idea. 

Okay, back to business. 

So, we went to Italy. 

We spent two weeks over there, so this will require a two part post (sorry, sorry- in all fairness, I DID tell you that you’d get sick of me talking about it), so just know, this is your time to get out. 

This first part will look at the preparation for the trip, Rome, and Tuscany. 

Another reason why I need two posts to do this is because Trey and I are the types of tourists who are unabashedly touristy. 

We will try all the things. We will walk all the places. We will try to speak a language we are woefully unable to speak.

So, our itinerary? It was jam-packed. If you, too, are planning a trip to Italy, this might be useful to you, as you’ll be able to handpick your activities. 

Here goes. 

Our preparation for the trip

In short? Trey was in charge. 

No one has more fun than me, but if details are left in my corner, specifically when it involves international travel, I will make everyone on said-trip miserable. 

So, whenever we decided on a trip to Italy, Trey asked me where I wanted to go. Heavily guided by Chelsea, Andrew, and Instagram (two are my beloved in-laws, one is not), I named five places: Rome, Tuscany, Venice, Florence, and Amalfi Coast. 

We flirted with the idea of adding on other places, including another country, to our itinerary, but even we thought that would be too much. 

So, when I told him the places, Trey and ChatGPT got to work. 

They planned out the whole thing- top to bottom- beautifully. Name a more dynamic duo. 

Trey planned out everything, with the exception of my input on AirBnbs and some* dinner reservations. 

The next factor was what we should take packing-wise. 

Being that much of Italy involves cobblestone streets, we didn’t want to drag, and thereby ruin, our suitcases. 

So, Trey also got all in the weeds on travel gear. He got us some incredible backpacks.

We had three backpacks and one duffel bag, and it worked beautifully.

Coming off this trip, I’m here to tell you that I will avoid overpacking as long as I live, both domestically or internationally. 

Getting there was actually uneventful. 

I got us these really cool eye-mask pillows: we attached them to the back of the seat and created slings for our heads.. 

Very cool. Very hip. Very in. 

That being said, I still got about one hour of sleep on the plane. This isn’t surprising, as I am a finicky sleeper in the best of situations. 

But when you’re headed somewhere cool? Sleep can be dealt with later. So, here is our itinerary for Rome: 

Rome

(DAY 1- Arrived around 12ish)

• Car ride to the AirBnb 
• Vatican museum tour
• Dinner food crawl in Trastevere
• Walked the town, specifically along the Tiber River
• Crashed at the AirBnb in a loft apartment- AC not great, but we dealt with it. 

DAY 2- Started the day around 7ish

• Bike tour of Rome for 2 hours
• Brunch 
• Walked almost every historical site in the city
• Piddled around the Campo de Fiori open-air market
• Ate lunch there on the outskirts
• Went back to AirBnb and got ready
• Rooftop dinner at Angelica’s

Things that stood out in Rome: 

1. I am not made for vegetarian food. 

Or rather, vegetarian food is not made for me. On the plane ride over, we got dinner on the plane. There was a chicken curry option, as well as a vegetable ravioli. 

Well, I wanted to get a jump start on Italian food (i.e.- pasta) with the Delta Airlines ravioli. This was a mistake. A few hours later, in the midst of the Vatican tour? 

My stomach started cramping up. 

It chose to do this when we were an hour and a half into the tour, in the midst of shoulder-to-shoulder foot traffic on the way to the Sistine Chapel. 

There was no AC. The air was still. I almost had a small freak-out moment. 

2. Walking is the best way. 

The Romans are darling people, they really are. They are incredible drivers, too. 

But they are highly aggressive. What we would consider a two lane road is jammed with four cars and Vespa scooters weaving in and out.

Step off the sidewalk at the wrong time? It might be the last thing you’ll ever do. 

We Americans are not made for this kind of driving, so your own two feet are your best bet. Walking is really the only way to make sure you can see all the sights, too. 

By the end of the day in Rome, I had 38,500 steps. And I loved every bit of it. 

4. Ordering dinner? It’s complicated. Somewhat. 

Our last night in Rome, we went to a rooftop restaurant across the Tiber named Angelica’s. 

This was a legit Italian restaurant.

So, we got up top and used Google Translate on the menu. We saw that there was an appetizer, a first course, a second course, and a dessert. We are not dessert people, but we are food people. 

We got the ‘chef’s choice’ appetizer- there were five dishes. All were delicious. 

We both then ordered the pasta, as well as lamb chops to share for the second course. We assumed we would eat on the pasta for a bit, and then the waiters would bring the lamb chops. We could eat the pasta and the lamb at the same time.

After all, as Americans, we like our proteins with our carbs, right?

This is not the Italian way. 

They watched anxious expectation for us to eat every bit of the pasta before they brought the meat.

Halfway through the noodles? We were in bad shape. I was weary.  

Finally, Trey had to tell the staff we wanted the lamb chops along with the pasta. By this point, he’s (in his mind) made himself persona non grata. The manager of the restaurant looked unhappy when he went to the bathroom.

Much to their dismay, the servers did bring out the protein. I had space for one lamb chop. Trey manned up and ate the rest of the food. 

They almost had to roll us out of there. It was a learning opportunity. 

The biggest thing here? Apps, carbs first- as a standalone!- then protein. 

We Americans like it all mixed up together. That is not the Italian way. 

5. We got to be apart of an Italian Mass. 

We wandered into a cathedral on the bike tour, and we were not dressed for the occasion. There is a dress code for all cathedrals in Italy.

It was a Sunday morning, and we were not supposed to be there, but then another American stepped over the velvet rope, so we also stepped over the velvet rope.

In another part of the church, the priests were singing. It was beautiful.

The Sistine Chapel was incredible, but this church was probably the prettiest one in my opinion. 

6. Everything is so much bigger in person. 

The Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, the Vatican- it was all so incredible and so incredibly large.

It’s a lot to take in, but how crazy is it that these are ancient relics? It was a bizarre feeling.

7. The ancient Roman aqueducts saved our lives. 

Everywhere in Rome, there are water fountains, but they look like golden fancy water spigots. I know that the Italians wouldn’t like that comparison, so don’t tell them.

What’s more, there are even some fancier marble sculpture fountains you can drink from, too. We began the day by only filling the water bottles. By the day’s end, we were practically bathing in them. 

These are actually the same aqueducts built in ancient Rome. Insanity. 

Tuscany

After a day and a half in Rome, it was moving time. Here’s our Tuscany itinerary: 

DAY 1- ARRIVAL

• Private transfer to Tuscany
• Stopped halfway and visited a castle called Civita di Bagnoregio
• Breakfast, coffee, and pictures at said-castle
• Continued driving
• Checked into the AirBnb
• Lunch + hanging out at a winery called Castello Vicchiomaggio
• Explored the Greve in Chianti square
• Sat at a cafe called Caffe Lepanto. Met a lovely Dutch couple and hung out with them for a couple hours
• Dinner on the square at La Locanda Di Greve

DAY 2- VESPA DAY

• Woke up + coffee
• Picked up our Vespa
• Rode throughout the Tuscany countryside
• Stopped at several towns throughout
• Swam in a waterfall in Diborrato
• Explored a castle town called San Gimignano
• Returned to Greve
• Got dinner and ate at Caffe Lepanto- met another couple who’d moved to Italy. Talked with them for an hour or two.

Tuscany Things to Note

1. We are still country folks. 

Rome, Venice, Florence- all the cities were incredible. They are beautiful places. But my people are from the countryside, which made the Italian variation hard to beat. 

This was also the case for my Memphis-reared husband. We adored Tuscany. 

The rolling hills; the produce farms; the grapevines as far as you could see; the olive trees; the random, secret waterfall right outside of a small city- it was gorgeous. 

2. Our traveler’s arrogance is unmatched. 

When Trey said Vespa, I said, “LET’S GO!”

Neither of us considered that we don’t know a THING about Italian road signs. Again, I cannot emphasize this enough: we know next to NO Italian.

The most we learned at one sitting was a lesson from a driver in Rome. And being that he couldn’t understand us a whole lot either, it was a short lesson. 

And yet, these two Americans hopped on a scooter and scooted alongside the Tuscan drivers. Too stupid to be scared? This is us. 

3. The actual Vespa

Trey rode motorcycles. I would never. 

Erego, he did give me a tutorial on being a good passenger, but it should be said, I’m not a good passenger. At one point on a hairpin turn, I was supposed to lean in, but I, instead, chose to wave at a passing couple, rather than leaning into that turn. 

They didn’t even wave back. 

At one point, we almost ended up on an interstate. 

At another, we DID end up on a gravel road. 

Later, we ended up in a bona fide storm.

We waited it out and got back on the road in no time. Tuscany has twisty turns, and I had to shut my eyes at various times. I did get a little nervous. 

4. If you ever get a chance to go to Greve in Chianti, GO. 

The town square was like being transported back to the 1950s.

In the evenings, people of all ages sit and hang out with their friends while kids play in the square.

On our last night there, we shut Caffe Lepanto down. We were sitting outside, so they told us we could sit there as long as we wanted, but they closed and locked up shop.

After they’d closed, a group of Nonnas (Italian grandmothers) came and sat at a table near us just to enjoy the night. Imagine ending each day by hanging out with your best friends and neighbors.

Could it get any better than that?

The Food in Rome and Tuscany

Really, this is what you came here for, and with good reason: Italian food is unbeatable.

Italians are passionate about their food, and it shows. I didn’t have a single meal I didn’t love. Here are some of the things we ate:

• Chicken liver pate 
• Pizza 
• Carbonara
• Ragu 
• Chicken 
• Caprese 
• Prosciutto/ cured meats board 
• Foccacia bread
• Fried calamari
• Lamb chops 
• Ham + cheese toast (what we would consider a breakfast sandwich)
• Bruschetta (All types- tomato, brie and preserves, stewed meat, etc.)
• Roast beef
• Fried zucchini flowers
• Tomatoes with some type of sauce (this was a chef’s special, so I do apologize for lack of proper name)
• Fried noodle balls (the chef is cursing our names for my calling it this. This was a verbal recommendation, so I couldn’t understand the name for these. They tasted like macaroni and cheese, though.)
• Sardines and onions
• Roast pig

I know there are some missing off that food list, but I forgot the dish if I didn’t take a picture of it.

I know that the Italians would not like how I described some of those, so please don’t tell them about this because I really loved everything I ate. 

One thing about the food: if you get the chance to trust the chef and blindly order whatever he suggests, do it. My favorite meal was a selection of chef recommendations.

Again, this is just part 1. 

If you’re exhausted after reading this, just know we’re still recovering from this trip. 

The people were great. The activities were great. The food was great. The company was great. 

And if there is one takeaway I had from the very start? 

Watching your spouse mispronounce a word or say the wrong word entirely in another language? It is the truest form of comedy.

Relatively speaking, Trey picked up a fair bit of Italian while we were over there. Personally, I somehow got worse at English.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week for part 2- a dive into Venice, Florence, and the Almafi Coast!