{"id":239,"date":"2024-02-14T17:00:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2024-02-14T17:38:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T17:38:58","slug":"planning-an-epic-trip-in-2024-italy-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"PLANNING AN EPIC TRIP in 2024: Italy part one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image from Go Ahead Tours<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019ve spent some of the first part of my sabbatical planning this trip, and I\u2019ll be blogging while I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a medievalist and theatre professor, I\u2019m 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\u2019m also mostly avoiding the giant tourist cities and exploring more historically evocative locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, I\u2019ll begin my trip in Italy. Fortunately, my daughter has two weeks off from her grad program which coincide with my plans, so she\u2019ll be with me for part of it. Together, we\u2019ll visit Milan, Lake Como, Rome and Florence. Then I\u2019m going on a writing retreat for a week, and she\u2019s exploring Lucca and Siena. If you have suggestions for can\u2019t-miss sights, send them my way!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MILAN and LAKE COMO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re 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\u2019ll have to run out and see the Duomo around sunset or after dark. Honestly, I don\u2019t have a ton of interest in Milan. It\u2019s 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\u2019re staying in a hotel in Milan near the train station for two nights, although most of the trip I\u2019m using AirBnB. The fees associated with AirBnB are so much better in Europe than in the US (it\u2019s gotten prohibitive in the US). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image from Viator, Milan by Night<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

MONDAY: We\u2019ll 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\u2019s Avenue for suggestions on a self-guided day trip to Lake Como<\/a> as well as Earth Trekkers<\/a>. 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\u2019ll 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image of Lake Como from Veranda.Com<\/a> and Daniele Mezzadri\/\/Getty Images<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After Bellagio, we\u2019ll 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image from Villa Monastero website<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

TO ROME<\/strong> (Tuesday and Wednesday)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s fast network. And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve booked. The earlier you book, the cheaper the tickets, although I don\u2019t 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\u2019m not sure if I would have included Rome on this itinerary if my daughter wasn\u2019t coming with me. But you can\u2019t take someone to Italy for the first time and skip Rome! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image of The Colosseum from ArtTrav<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The AirBnB we have booked is a metro ride from the train station, and we can\u2019t check in until the afternoon, so we\u2019ll probably leave our luggage at one of the many luggage storage places in or near the station. We are traveling light; I\u2019m just taking a carry on and a backpack, but we will want to leave things somewhere before seeing the sights. I\u2019m 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\u2019s, Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, but apparently there are papal addresses on Wednesdays which disrupt the times that St Peter\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eliza has Villa d\u2019Este in Tivoli on her list, which is about an hour\u2019s train ride outside of Rome, and I\u2019ve never been there, so we\u2019ll 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…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image of Villa d’Este from Italia.it<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019ve spent some of the first part of my sabbatical planning this trip, and I\u2019ll be blogging while I\u2019m on it, but I thought it … Continue reading “PLANNING AN EPIC TRIP in 2024: Italy part one”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sabbatical-travels","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7xyY9-3R","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drcarolyncoulson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}