Twelve days of Italy in a nutshell

From October 31 through November 11, I traveled by train through Italy. My lovely friends outside Zurich let me leave my fairly bulky duffel bag with them, and I hit the rails with a few changes of clothes in a backpack. Fortunately the weather was quite mild so I only needed a sweater and wind/rain shell in case of weather. I traveled very lightly, rewore clothes a lot (thank goodness for wool t-shirts) and did sink laundry a couple times! 

I had two goals for my Italian sojourn: return to Rome; see Pompeii. I didn’t have a return date in mind but figured it would be a week or so.

I did a lot more than that! Here’s how it shook out - six cities, 12 nights, 2 food tours, 3 walking tours, 3 museums, 2 fancy restaurant meals, 1 (negative) covid test/slight cold, innumerable Rick Steves audio walking tours (at least .. 8?) and one full day in the ruins of Pompeii!  

  • Monday Oct 31: train from Zurich to Milan; one night in Milan
  • Tuesday Nov 1: train from Milan to Venice; 2 nights Venice
  • Thursday Nov 3: train from Venice to Rome; 3 nights Rome
  • Sunday Nov 6: train from Rome to Naples, then local train* to Sorrento; 2 nights Sorrento, one day Pompeii
  • Tuesday Nov 8: local train from Sorrento to Naples then train to Florence; one night in Florence
  • Wednesday Nov 9: train from Florence to Turin; 2 nights Turin
  • Friday Nov 11: train from Turin to Zurich
That is a LOT of travel when you stick it together in a list like that. When you consider I was 5 weeks into traveling at that point, it’s even more amazing to think I had the energy - but on the other hand, perhaps I was recharged and in a good travel rhythm. And, I would never have planned a trip with so much hopping around if I’d been building it out far in advance. 

However - that’s the beauty (I’m learning) of having time available. When I left home at the end of September, my Europe plans were totally unformed and I thought surely I’d be home by the first week of November. By the time I hit Zurich on Oct 23rd I still hadn’t decided on my return plan. That’s the joy of one-way tickets and having a good-sized bank of air miles! By the time I left Zurich I had two (cancellable) one-way tickets booked home - one on Nov 11 out of London; one on Nov 20 out of Amsterdam. Those are the only cities with direct flights to Portland, and I knew I was going to want to do a single push and be done by the time I was going home. 

When I started my Italy leg I figured I’d see how the first few cities went/what I felt like doing. If I was kind of over it I planned to beeline to Rome and then Pompeii, but I found out pretty quickly I wanted to take a bit of time instead. 

I’ll get into details in the next posts. 

*I’m listing the Naples->Sorrento train separately because it was the one leg that was not obvious when I was making plans. The apps I was using for train travel in Italy - Trainline and Trenitalia - didn’t offer train connections to Sorrento. Turns out it’s a locally-run regional train line, and you just have to walk up to a ticket counter to buy a ticket. It’s technically in the main Naples train station, but was about a 15-minute walk underground to get to the tickets and boarding area. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July = Family time

Image
 I’m spending time with family and have been getting some real summer in!  I flew to meet up with my SIL and niblings, and we four went to see my parents. We got in lots of beach, park, and library time, along with some summer food faves like lobster rolls, frozen lemonade, and ice cream. Plus a very successful sea glass-hunting expedition! Then I flew with them to their home in much hotter places, but I get to see my brother and enjoy a few more days with the kids.  One cool game we played is called Dixit. Everyone is dealt a few art cards, and one person picks a card and says a word that their card evokes for them. Then everyone else chooses a card from their hands that evokes the same words or feeling. We didn’t bother with scoring but it was pretty fun, and great to get a glimpse of how their little brains work. This is the set of cards we used for the cue “patience”: And the adults are having fun working on a backlog problem my brother has from a cocktail subscription kit! 
Read more

Elephant visit

Image
  It’s been amazing and I’ll post more later when I’m on better wifi. We’ve stayed at a posh lodge on the Lewa Conservacy, did a walking safari & camped two nights (supported by 13 camels and 8 Maasai tribesmen), visited a school and village, then flew north to the Samburu region.   It’s a lot to absorb! Today, to get something up here, I’ll share about yesterday’s visit to the Retiti Elephant Sanctuary. Young elephants sometimes fall in wells, or their parents die, or they get separated from their herd somehow. Community members spot them and call the Sanctuary.  Sanctuary staff come assess the elephant calf, give immediate assistance if needed (getting them out of the well, for example), and wait 72 hours to see if the mother/herd return to collect the baby.  If not, they’ll take the calf to the sanctuary for as long as 5 years, feeding them, reintroducing them to the wild, and eventually helping them integrate with a herd. They give lots of chances for the younger ones to find t
Read more

Two weeks of not so much!

Image
 It’s official - I’m kind of bored. I’ve had the last two weeks at home between trips, and I haven’t really done much with the time.  I’ve gone to four water aerobics classes I did a short overnight to the coast I read a few books.  I did a puzzle  I went out for dinner a few times I went on a nature outing I started a film class I went to the blues festival I went to a 4th of July potluck I made a berry cake & a summer slaw I did a Tuesday night singalong I'm also grimly marching through a book for my book group and am so happy it’s due tomorrow.  The thing is, I could have done all of the above AND been working; I haven’t yet found things to do in the daytime that are more than filling/killing time.  Well, I kinda figured this might happen, and it’s okay. I just want to be truthful about it! Monday I head out of town for ~10 days. Then I’m home 2 weeks before leaving for 4-6 weeks. Then I’m back for ~2 weeks before another 4-6 weeks away. So… I don’t know when I’ll have time
Read more