Carolyn Coulson

I’ll keep this one short and sweet!

From Italy, I’ll be heading to France for a couple of weeks in June, staying in Colmar, Lyon, and Perigueux. I’ve never been to any of these towns/cities, and I’m ready to fill up my Instagram and soak up the beauty of them!

Getting from Vicenza, Italy to Colmar, France at the best rate has required a lot of research, but I finally have FOUR trains booked in one day, going from Vicenza to Milan, from Milan to Lugano (Switzerland), from Lugano to Basel (also Switzerland), and from Basel to Colmar. I managed to get this rather epic journey for a little over $100 using Trainline. I’m on trains from the companies Italo and Trenitalia (Italian rail), SBB CFF (Swiss rail), and SNCF (French rail). The journey begins before 9am, and I arrive in Colmar around 6pm, if all goes as planned. Fingers crossed!

Photo of Colmar, France, courtesy of Frommer’s

I have an AirBnB in infinitely Instagrammable Colmar, right in the town’s cute center. From Colmar, I’m planning a day trip to Strasbourg and perhaps some other Grand Est/Alsace towns. I’ve purchased a SNCF Carte Avantage, to get some discounts on French trains. 

Photo of Old Lyon, from hotels.com

After four days, I’m heading to Lyon, the history of which dates back to the Romans. Fortunately, this journey only requires one train, which takes about three hours. I had friends spend over a month in Lyon and heard wonderful things. I’ll be staying in the old part of town (“Vieux Lyon”), not far from the Roman Theatre and with a view of the cathedral from my bedroom window. 

Photo from Frommers “Why Lyon is one of France’s most underrated cities”

After Lyon, I’m heading to Perigueux, in the Dordogne. There is no good way to get directly from Lyon to Perigueux, and since my partner is joining me and flying via Paris, I’ll be taking a train to Paris, meeting him, and then traveling down to Perigueux. It will be a long day!! But then we have 8 days in the beautiful Dordogne, visiting Bordeaux, St. Émilion, Lascaux, perhaps Sarlat, and just soaking up the region (which is high on my list as a possible retirement locale)! Perigueux has history back to the Romans and was an important medieval city. Our AirBnB is close to the river and the medieval Saint Front Cathedral, and I look forward to market days!

Saint Front Cathedral, Perigueux

One of the benefits of being a professor is having a sabbatical. This semester, I will be using part of my time to travel for research, writing, and conference/festival attending. I’ve spent some of the first part of my sabbatical planning this trip, and I’ll be blogging while I’m on it, but I thought it might be fun to write about planning it first. So here we are. One might call this the Saga of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I think there are at least six different airlines involved in this adventure.

As a medievalist and theatre professor, I’m trying to focus on history and theatre. I have lots of Roman ruins, especially theatres, on my list of things to see, along with Renaissance theatres in northern Italy. I’m also mostly avoiding the giant tourist cities and exploring more historically evocative locations. 

In May, I’ll begin my trip in Italy. Fortunately, my daughter has two weeks off from her grad program which coincide with my plans, so she’ll be with me for part of it. Together, we’ll visit Milan, Lake Como, Rome and Florence. Then I’m going on a writing retreat for a week, and she’s exploring Lucca and Siena. If you have suggestions for can’t-miss sights, send them my way!!

MILAN and LAKE COMO

We’re flying into Milan, via Heathrow. At first we were supposed to land in Milan in the early afternoon, but our first flight got pushed back after booking. So after two hours on the phone with Expedia, we now arrive in Milan on a Sunday evening, which means we’ll have to run out and see the Duomo around sunset or after dark. Honestly, I don’t have a ton of interest in Milan. It’s just too modern for me! But I do want to take a gander at the facade of the cathedral. I last visited Milan about thirty years ago. We’re staying in a hotel in Milan near the train station for two nights, although most of the trip I’m using AirBnB. The fees associated with AirBnB are so much better in Europe than in the US (it’s gotten prohibitive in the US). 

MONDAY: We’ll get up early and take a day trip to Lake Como, via train to Como San Giovanni, which takes less than an hour. Much appreciative of Maddy’s Avenue for suggestions on a self-guided day trip to Lake Como as well as Earth Trekkers. I want to wander a bit in Como and take the funicular up to Brunate or the cable car to Pigna for the views. Then we’ll take the fast ferry to Bellagio (45 minutes), enjoying the views from the lake. Plans for Bellagio include lunch, exploring and just taking in the beauty. I like to have a general destination but leave room for exploring on a whim.

After Bellagio, we’ll move on to Varenna – either by ferry or a bus, not sure yet, although I think ferry. I want to visit Villa Monastero and its botanical gardens, and more exploring, and perhaps dinner in Varenna before catching a train back to Milan. 

TO ROME (Tuesday and Wednesday)

Tuesday: We already have booked our train tickets for 7:30 am, which will put us into Rome by 11am. The last time I rode trains in Italy a million years ago, their timetables were highly unreliable, but everything I read indicates that they are much better now, especially the Freccia trains which are Italy’s fast network. And that’s what I’ve booked. The earlier you book, the cheaper the tickets, although I don’t always like to lock in so early. But we want to get to Rome as early as possible since we only have two nights there. I’m not sure if I would have included Rome on this itinerary if my daughter wasn’t coming with me. But you can’t take someone to Italy for the first time and skip Rome! 

The AirBnB we have booked is a metro ride from the train station, and we can’t check in until the afternoon, so we’ll probably leave our luggage at one of the many luggage storage places in or near the station. We are traveling light; I’m just taking a carry on and a backpack, but we will want to leave things somewhere before seeing the sights. I’m still figuring out what order to do things in, due to the days of the week we are there. I was thinking of doing the ancient sites (Colosseum, Forum, etc.) on Tuesday and then doing St. Peter’s, Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, but apparently there are papal addresses on Wednesdays which disrupt the times that St Peter’s is open to visitors. So I have to figure that out. Nevertheless, the ancient ruins and the Vatican area are our priorities for this whirlwind Rome visit. I also plan to get us 48 hour RomaPasses, which include metro fares and one site in their price (as well as other discounts). The cost of the Colosseum and fares alone should be worth the price of the Pass. 

Eliza has Villa d’Este in Tivoli on her list, which is about an hour’s train ride outside of Rome, and I’ve never been there, so we’ll try to fit that in! We may be able to go there on Thursday morning heading to Florence. More on Florence in Part two….coming soon…