Northern Italy Trip – Quick Photo Report

sailorgirl · Post by **sailorgirl** » Wed May 25, 2011 3:54 pm

Every time I see pictures of Cinque Terre I am more convinced that I must get there!

Maggy · Post by **Maggy** » Wed May 25, 2011 4:27 pm

jmq wrote:Maggy – if you were to concentrate on Tuscany, probably better to fly into Pisa or Florence. We picked up the car in Pisa and drove southeast to stay for 3 nights at a wonderful “Agriturismo” (a farmhouse B&B) just south of Siena, stopping in Voltera and San Gimignano on the way there.

From there, it was close for a daytrip to Siena, and then the countryside and hill towns south of Siena. Driving between the hill towns of Montalcino, Pienza, and Montelpuciano through the Valley d’Orcia was knock your socks off beautiful – prettier than the California wine country.
Then, the drive north between Siena and Florence through Chianti was also quite stunning.

Probably better to fly to Pisa or Florence, but these airports are much smaller and less traficked, so either one of Milano's two airports or Bologna is much easier. You gotta love nonstop flights and I'm also very biased with who I fly with.

We've been three times to Tuscany, but it was over five years ago. I was thinking maybe 3 days in Cinque terre and 3-4 in Tuscany. We'll see what we can put together. I planted the seed at dinner tonight

. We also stayed in those agriturismo and loved it.

Looking forward very much to more pictures and trip report.

jmq · Post by **jmq** » Wed May 25, 2011 5:33 pm

Maggy · Post by **Maggy** » Thu May 26, 2011 7:00 am

That agriturismo looks wonderful. Does it have a name? I want to google it

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jmq · Post by **jmq** » Thu May 26, 2011 8:04 am

Maggy wrote:That agriturismo looks wonderful. Does it have a name? I want to google it .

Technically speaking, I am not sure if an agriturismo and B&B are exactly the same. This is a B&B farmhouse - Il Canto del Sole in Monteroni d'Arbia (near Cuna), just south of Siena.

Maggy · Post by **Maggy** » Thu May 26, 2011 8:19 am

jmq wrote:
Technically speaking, I am not sure if an agriturismo and B&B are exactly the same. This is a B&B farmhouse - Il Canto del Sole in Monteroni d'Arbia (near Cuna), just south of Siena.

I think it's pretty much the same. Maybe an agristurismo doesn't have to serve breakfast. But it might and sometimes they also have a restaurant and serve lunch and/or dinner.

Well, found it. It looks great. I'll bookmark it. Thanx

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bubblybrenda · Post by **bubblybrenda** » Sat May 28, 2011 10:07 pm

Oh my, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I am planning this same trip as my 50th birthday present to myself... 2 more years to save. Planning to go for a 3 week trip including Croatia too.

Really hope that you post more photos. Your evening shots of Cinque Terra are especially captivating.

Would you mind sharing some info on the hotels/b&b's that you stayed in and your general itinerary?

Thank you!

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Sat May 28, 2011 10:35 pm

You brought me back to my favorite places.

I so loved Italy...it's food, it's places and most of all it's people.

jmq · Post by **jmq** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:43 am

bubblybrenda wrote:Oh my, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I am planning this same trip as my 50th birthday present to myself... 2 more years to save. Planning to go for a 3 week trip including Croatia too.

Really hope that you post more photos. Your evening shots of Cinque Terra are especially captivating.

Would you mind sharing some info on the hotels/b&b's that you stayed in and your general itinerary?

Thank you!

OK here are some logisitics. This will also help me outline a trip report with more photos that I have intentions of writing and posting.

Flew nonstop into Malpensa airport (MXP) which is maybe 20+ miles outside Milan. Train to Como. Pleasant lake ferry to Bellagio. Hotel Bellagio – Recommended. Very nice, clean, great views, simple good breakfast included – they will make an excellent cappuccino for you. http://www.hotelbellagio.it/indexeng.htm

Be prepared for climbing steps in Bellagio and especially in Cinque Terre, not to mention humping your luggage in the train stations that usually lack ramps or elevators to reach the platforms. It’s a good workout and an excuse to pack lightweight luggage lightly, and have stuff that is handwashable and/or build in some laundry time if you are going for >10 days. The owner of the B&B near Siena graciously allowed some guests to use their laundry – never hurts to ask.

Then ferry from Bellagio to Varenna, train to Milan, stayed in hotel near train station. Hotel Marconi – Recommended. Good breakfast included. http://www.marconihotel.it/rooms.htm This hotel is located a few subway stops from the Duomo or other areas. Milan subway was easy to maneuver. Oh, and an excellent gelato place is right around the corner from this hotel called Gelateria Paganelli Di Paganelli, and a small market is across the street for bottled water, wine, fruit, cheese, etc.

Note breakfast in the tourist hotels in Italy usually consists of some croissants, pastries, cereals, yogurt, fruit, etc. which is fine because you do get into the rhythm of eating dinner late and you are not really starving in the morning so you just need something to tide you over before grabbing some pizza, pannini or similar for lunch, then maybe appertivos before dinner.

The appertivo thing is big in Milan – several places right up the street from this hotel – it’s the Italian version of happy hour. How it works is that a glass of wine is 1-2 euros more, but they put out plates of great hot and cold appetizer type foods that you can help yourself to.

Then train from Milan to Manarola in the Cinque Terre.

We found the trains in Italy to run pretty reliably on time. An odd but important and notable quirk in looking up schedules online at http://www.trenitalia.com/ In the drop down boxes when entering your To and From destinations to pull up the timetables, the English language version doesn’t work well and/or is missing some of the stops a particular train runs, so you have to use the Italian version for to get accurate timetable information.

That said, the new automated ticket machines they had in the Milan station were pretty impressive. I braved using it because the agent line was really long and moving slow enough that I thought we could miss our train (we didn’t pre-purchase any tickets to allow flexibility). These machines had an easy to follow English language option, very intuitive and logical, which you cannot always say about the frustration of first time use of most transit ticket machines in places like D.C. and elsewhere, let alone a foreign country.

In the Cinque Terree, stayed in a very nice apartment in Manarola high above town - Appartamento Vermentino. Pretty steep hill and many many steps, but the building itself had a lift, one of the few in Cinque Terre, great views, and 25 yards from one of the best restaurants in town http://www.trattoriabilly.com/ Rented through this agency who were very helpful and nice greeters etc - http://www.arbaspaa.com/ Their office was right upstairs from the best gelato in Cinque Terre (notice a pattern here?)

Then train from Manarola to Pisa to pick up a car, drove SE, stopping in the medieval hill towns Volterra and San Gimignano, to stay at the B&B mentioned and pictured in prior replies. The time there, in nearby Siena, and touring around Tuscany was the highlight of the trip.

Then drove up through Chianti to Florence where we stayed at the B&B Residenza Giotto
http://www.residenzagiotto.it/en/ which was a great location with really cool views of the Duomo from our room and the breakfast terrace, but was a little less than stellar when it came to the quality of the breakfast, condition of the bath, and overall cleanliness. Nothing terrible, just slightly less than what we had become accustomed to.

Florence is surprisingly compact, so you really don’t have to stay right in the center of things to walk anywhere you need to go. If I had to do it over, I might look in the neighborhood just south and east of the train station and the Santa Maria Novella.

bubblybrenda · Post by **bubblybrenda** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:20 pm

JMQ ~ thank you for such detailed info! I am bookmarking everything you mentioned. I look forward to reading the full trip report.

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Northern Italy Trip – Quick Photo Report