18 days in Northern Italy. Amazing!

Italy | Jun 28 - Jul 16, 2024

We truly had such an incredible trip. Thank you to our specialist, Lorenza, for packaging up such an amazing trip!

We started our trip in Milano. We only had a day and a half there, but we were able to see the duomo and shop/eat in the Galleria. The hotel? It was okay and nicely located but the owner of the hotel is not nice.

Our next stop was Siena, as we really wanted to see the Palio. Lorenza arranged a rental car so we could drive to Siena. Siena is such a beautiful, medieval town and the place was hopping since the Palio was happening. We were going to go to the actual race on July 2nd but we didn't get back into town in time. And luckily we didn't. (You have to stand in the sun for 4 to 5 hours the day of the race). After 3 false starts, it started to rain and the race was called off! It didn't happen for another 2 days. We had a nice tour of the town with our guide, Barbara. And we toured a cheese farm outside of Pienza where we had a cheese and wine tasting. It was gorgeous there and the experience was incredible. We stayed at the Hotel Athena within the walls of the town. It was a very nice hotel with very accommodating staff. It was on the edge of town so it wasn't so crazy around the town....and luckily they had parking!

Next stop was Firenze (Florence). We stayed at a very cool (and a little creepy) hotel called Garibaldi Blu. It was in a great location where we could base out of for 4 nights. We had a guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery with our guide, Lucia, who also happened to be our guide for our food tour the next evening. Everything about Florence was stunning. I'm glad we dropped off our rental car in Florence before checking in to the hotel. Florence is NOT a city you want to be driving in!

From Florence we were supposed to take a train to Manarola in the Chinque Terre region. On the day we were scheduled to leave Florence, there was a scheduled train strike in Italy. Lorenza was on top of it and hired us a private transport to Chinque Terre. (Thank you, Lorenza!!). Manarola is a very cute town in the Chinque Terre region and we stayed at this cool little boutique hotel call Marina Piccola (small marina). When we opened our window we were looking at the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful! We explored 4 of the 5 towns, including a challenging 6 mile hike from Corniglia to Monterroso al Mare. When we arrived in Monterroso we headed straight for the beach. We rented chairs and an umbrella, bought a bottle of white wine from the region, and ended up meeting some really fun people from the US. Lorenza arranged a 2-hour kayak trip that was really fun. When we got back we ended up eating lunch at a little restaurant right on the beach. Mixed salad, bruschetta, and an amazing pesto dish!

We took a train out of Manarola to Genova (Genoa) and stayed at yet another super cool hotel, Hotel Melia. We had a really fun (and fiilling) food tour in Genova with our guide, Valentina. The tour was over 3 hours long and we ate, drank, and learned a lot about Genova. The hotel had a room that had an indoor pool, Turkish bath, tropical shower, and regular shower. You had to make reservations in advance as the capacity was limted to 4 people. It was SO cool!

We traveled by train from Genova back to Milan where we met our driver, who took us to Bellagio on Lake Como. What a way to end the trip. We had a top floor, corner room at the Florence Hotel. Floor to ceiling doors opened up on to small balconies overlooking the lake. We had a private tour with a guide, Robbie, where we took a boat over to Villa Carlotta (beautiful gardens), then over to Varenna, where we had a nice lunch. We visited the gardens at Villa Melzi, and on our last night we went back to Villa Melzi and watched a men's chorale group perform outdoors on their 60th anniversary.

Unfortunately it was back to Milan for 1 night before we flew home. Such a beautiful trip so such a beautiful country. I can't believe I am half Italian and this was my first time there. We will definitely be back. Thank you to Lorenza for such an incredible itinerary with incredible accommodations. Couldn't have done it without her!