2 Weeks in Italy

When: April/May 2025

Danielle’s Highlight: Private boat tour of the Amalfi Coast

Jason’s Highlight: Pompeii, Colossum, and vespa-ing on the Amalfi coast

Where we stayed: AirBnBs and Hotels

• Florence: Santo Spirito

• Salerno: Vicolo della Neve

• Santa Maria di Castellabate: Il Casino Di Mare

• Rome: Hotel Genova & Rome Airport Hilton Hotel

TLDR: Italy is amazing. We were here 13 days and it was barely enough to scratch the surface. We recommend flying in on one end of the country then flying out from the other to avoid back tracking. The high speed trains are great. Make sure you book reservations for popular sites in advance to avoid long lines (skip the line tickets are worth it).

Itinerary: This is our 2 week itinerary with 4 cities: Florence, Salerno, Santa Maria di Castellabate, and Rome.

Day One: We arrived in Rome at 8 AM and immediately hopped on a train to Florence. Day one is always doozy due to lack of sleep and time changes. I highly recommend studying the airport map ahead of time and have all your booking details handy. There are buses and taxis, but we found that the time it took to walk to the Airbnb was nearly the same as public transportation. Like most Italian cities, most of the roads are cobblestone which makes hauling heavy suitcases hard, so keep that in mind when you're packing! With all of our international travels, we leave day one very unstructured to wander and nap. Jason and I went to a rooftop bar for caprese and wine for lunch. For dinner, we grabbed some pizzas to go and enjoyed people watching at Piazza Santo Spirito (a plaza and fountain). Of course the night ended with gelato!

• Loggia Roof Bar: Gorgeous views and great food. You definitely want to sit outside here! We had caprese and salami with burrata. Regarding wine, you can't go wrong with the house wine. It's all so good.

• Gustapizza: We chose this place because we could get to go/"takeaway" and it was much quicker than trying to get a table. We also were able to get wine to go. This restaurant is only a short walk to Piazza Santo Spirito which is a plaza with benches and a fountain; a great pizza and wine picnic!

• Gelateria Artigianale La Sorbettiera: Rated 4.8 on Google. This is in Piazza Santo Spirito and was amazing!

Day Two: We started out day with a timed entry to the Galleria dell'Accademia to see "David". I had read that if you arrive early to museums you might miss crowds. We showed up at 8:30 and it was already swarming with people. We decided to grab to go sandwiches from the famous All' Antico Vinaio. We then checked out a nearby wine window! Up next was the Uffizi Gallery, another must-see in Florence and home to "Venus". Florence is known for it's steak, so at least one steakhouse needs to be on the itinerary! We went to the steakhouse, Braceria All'11. While the rest of the family turned in for the night, Jason and I went to one more bar where we made friends with a French couple and played games (with the help of Google translate).

• Galleria dell’Accademia: David is the main site here and a must-see in Florence. The museum is surprisingly small and took us about 1 hour to walk around. Also David is huge!

• All' Antico Vinaio: A well known sandwich shop. They have a wide variety of options. I recommend ordered a few and cutting them up to share. At least try one with pistachio!

• Wine Windows: These are little windows around the city that are attached to a restaurant. You ring a bell and can order a glass of wine. It's such a simple but fun thing to do in Florence. There are a lot of online resources about where you can find all the wine windows in the city.

• Uffizi Gallery: The infamous Venus painting is located here. It is an extremely old museum that should be checked off of every art-loving-traveller's list.

• Braceria All'11: This was a highly rated steakhouse near our Airbnb. Once we decided the type of steak we wanted, the waiter brought out the raw slab so we could "inspect" it and approve. The cooked steak came out on a hot cast iron and we could sprinkle salty char over the top, which was amazing!

• The Fiddler's Elbow Irish Pub: Not sure how or why we ended up in an Irish bar, but it was a great time! They have a pool table and there was a French couple playing. We asked to join and spent the rest of the evening playing pool and Bank. Oh and we totally beat them at pool.. (USA, USA, USA!)

Day Three: We started day three with a timed entry to the Dome of the Duomo. It was a decent trek to the top and we were rewarded with great views. After exploring the rest of the Duomo, we wandered around the markets. Lunch was a random pizza place, Ganza, which was so good! We spent the afternoon doing a private food tour and then watched the sunset from the Ponte Santa Trinita bridge and admiring the Ponte Vecchio.

• Duomo: There are a few different ticket options for seeing the Duomo properties. We did the Brunelleschi Pass so the Dome was included. You need to book a timed entry slot for the Dome. We decided to start our tour with this, so we weren't stressed on time later. The line for the Cathedral was soooo long. We skipped it. You could consider doing the Cathedral right when it opens, then do the Dome. The walk up the Dome wasn't bad but it is 463 steps!

• Ganza: This was a randomly found pizza restaurant. There was a huge line for a pizza place next door, so we came here instead and it was great! They were small individual pizzas and great for a light lunch.

• Food tour: We found a private food tour, which was great considering we were traveling with a 2.5 year old. We did the "Florence Exclusive PRIVATE Food Tour with 6 or 10 Tastings" through Viator. Our guide gave some tidbits about the history of Florence and we tried a wide array of foods.

Day Four: Jason and I offered our Aunt/Uncle services to babysit our nephew while the rest of the family did a bike ride through the Tuscan countryside. They said it was a fantastic experience! For the afternoon, we went wine tasting in Tuscany.

• Bike Ride:

• Wine Tasting:

Day Five: We left Florence and headed down south to Salerno via high speed train. I've already said it, but the high speed trains are great. We

• Pompeii:

Day Six: Salerno

• Amalfi Coast Boat Tour: Blue Dream Boat Rentals

Day Seven: Salerno

• Vespas

• Cooking Class:

Day Eight: Salerno to Santa Maria

• Paestum

Day Nine: SMC

• Beach

Day Ten: SMC

• Mozzarella tour

Day Eleven: SMC

• Climbing

Day Twelve: Train to Rome

• Colosseum

Day Thirteen: Rome

• Vatican

• Airport Hotel

Bonus: Venice and the Dolomites

• On a separate trip, we visited the northern parts of Italy and it was equally fantastic. Check out our post here to read about these locations if you want to add them to this itinerary. There are high speed trains that can take you to Venice within a couple hours.

Overall Tips:

• High speed trains

You can't go wrong with any city or plan in Italy. It is incredible, beautiful, and TASTY!

Ciao,

D & J