dkelly1110

Love this rec. Great wines. Don't be afraid to ask for a taste of anything. Buy some to take to go.

PWMTrav

If my wife didn't prefer a little more variety, I'd have lunch every day at Sergio Gozzi and an evening snack and glass(es) of wine at Pitti Gola.

A lot of what they pour, maybe all of it, isn't something you'll find here in the US. Heck, I've run into many instances where the wines I liked were never to be seen again two weeks later, so buy a bottle if there's something you really enjoy.

Murphy123

We always go to the Pitti Gola when in Florence. Actually it used to be co-owned by our innkeeper of many years. The wines are wonderful.

Fortunately said innkeeper still runs a small hotel in Florence and another in Chianti - and makes certain to stock great wines (he picks mine out for me - red only).

You will find us there in July.

ghiaaa

I think your itinerary looks good but will add one thought about leaving Milan out. As it is your first time in Europe, I think Milan is an excellent place to dip your toes rather than jumping right into Rome which can be daunting to tourists. Given that Expo Milano 2015 begins on May 1, Milan will really be putting its best foot forward. In addition to seeing the Duomo, you will have the opportunity to sample delicious Milanese food in the Brera district.

Having visited 35 cities in 16 countries, I always recommend foreign travel as a stepped approach where you build your travel skills in baby steps to avoid pitfalls and maximize your opportunity for enjoyment; Rome is at least step 2 if not 3. For sure, Rome is awe-inspiring but can be a challenge for even seasoned travelers. I would hate to see such a wonderful trip be anything less than wonderful.

exilencfc

I can see where you're coming from but I don't think Rome is that bad. It's pretty easy to navigate around and most people speak English. Admittedly it has a bad reputation for pickpocketing but that can be avoided by not making yourself an easy target. Otherwise I don't think Rome poses any perils that can't be avoided through a bit of advance research.

That said, I haven't been to Milan and i'm quite prepared to accept that it's easier going than Rome.

PWMTrav

Rome was the first European city I ever visited. You have to weigh my opinion against the fact that I speak Italian. Milan is probably easier, but I'm inclined to agree that Rome isn't too daunting. It's a global city, and anyone visiting it won't be the only foreigner and the only non-Italian-speaker. That said, when I left FCO to get in a cab, my cabbie didn't speak any English whatsoever! It does happen.

I agree with ghiaaa's thoughts around taking incremental steps toward being a seasoned traveler. More generally, I also have the attitude that if my plane arrives in X city, and I've never seen X city, that I'm going to experience X city before moving on.

ghiaaa

I completely agree about language and ease of travel. I am not one to indulge in fear-mongering as I tire of defending my travel choices to family and friends who have media-skewed perceptions of places and cultures. With that being said, Rome has earned its reputation for pick-pocketers and other petty crimes that target tourists. I am 100% in agreement about educating yourself and not making yourself an easy target but I respectfully disagree that that is all it takes in Rome. My sister is a seasoned traveler and her husband lived his first 30 years in Italy. They go every Summer for my niece to spend time with her grandparents. They still have been robbed more than once in Rome. Last year I suggested that she fly into MXP and she very much had a different experience. It is noteworthy that my 10 year old niece loves Rome.

My comments regarding Rome aren't limited to pickpockets. There are other things to ease into; the nuances of queuing and personal space, getting used to being approached and even grabbed. These aren't bad things per se, but can be unsettling simply because they different than what most Americans are used to and easier to get comfortable with in some cities than others. London before Paris, Milan or Florence before Rome or Barcelona, Rome before Istanbul, etc. I reiterate, Rome is amazing but is kind of like doing a black diamond your first time on skis. Milan is (a very lovely) bunny slope. This is the advice I give my friends and family.

I also agree with the previous suggestion to stay at the MXP Sheraton on the final night. It makes for an easy early out of MXP. I would take a late afternoon train there because there is nothing to do nearby.

ghiaaa

If Santa Croce is on your "to do" list in Florence, I recommend Note Di Vino for a lunch/quick bite. It is a SMALL (I mean realllly small) place right before the piazza Santa Croce. The have magnificent offerings of antipasti some nice wines. I can't give specifics about price but I don't remember it being expensive. Research it and see if it's for you.

Also in Florence, I didn't do it because I needed more time in the museums but my foodie friend went on a tour called nudes and foods that she really enjoyed.

PWMTrav

The nude and food tour is run by friends of mine! You go to l'Accademia for a tour that includes David (cutting the lines, of course), and then on a walking tour that basically covers the day to day food culture of Florentines.

I'm glad your friend enjoyed it. I've been on the tour myself and I highly recommend it. That isn't a biased review, either, as my wife and I took the tour before we became friendly with the folks that operate it, but we've kept in touch over the years.

exilencfc

I think it probably depends a bit on where you're coming from. I didn't find Rome at all alarming but then I go to London fairly often and i'd previously been to New York and Budapest, both of which alarmed me more than Rome. I still don't think Rome is that bad though, it's nowhere near as 'foreign' feeling as Budapest and i'd say it's less confusing than London or Prague.

I definitely agree about progressing from easy cities to hard ones, I'm off to Sarajevo later this year which is a definite step up from my previous experience.

dhammer53

Great property. Gigantic rooms. Good staff. Location is in the International Terminal. For Marriott members, there's a new MOXY located at the Domestic Terminal.
Free shuttle bus between international and domestic. The Moxy has a nice vibe. The rooms aren't as big as the Sheraton, but the use of space is incredible. I wrote a review that can be found in the Marriott forum.

dh

ghiaaa

It seems that there are several perceptions of Rome that differ from mine. I don't find it alarming at all (the first time I was there I was 14 so I'm comfortable there), I just think it can be a little overwhelming for a less seasoned traveler; particularly an American as we tend to have different perceptions of queuing and personal space.

Different cities, as you referenced, have different vibes. London is my happy place. It feels like home and I go every chance I have. I didn't think Budapest felt particularly foreign but melancholy. In describing Istanbul, I said it was like Rome and Paris had a child and weaned it solely on sugar and caffeine. My next adventure is Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Muscat. I've never been to Sarajevo but it looks amazing. Happy trails.

ghiaaa

She really loved it; so much so that I am including it in a trip I am planning for friends.

Perche

I have to agree. Going step by step from what some would consider easy cities is a personal choice. I was just speaking to a 25 year old woman going abroad for the first time to hike solo in Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia (I tried to talk her out of it), but she can handle herself, and is very comfortable with it. My daughter graduated from college and moved to Rome two months later, found an apartment, a job teaching english, became a teacher, and ultimately a travel agent there. Some people find foreign sights and sounds intimidating, others find it thrilling and exhilarating.

There are also different ways of visiting. You can go to Rome and be completely coddled with guides and car services and stay in high end hotels on Via Condotti or in Piazza Barberini, or you can do it yourself and experience more typical Roman neighborhoods.

Rome gets well over 6 million visitors, was the 14th most visited city in the world in 2014, and was ranked as the fourth most desirable place to visit, so not too many people seem to be intimidated by it. Milan actually gets slightly more visitors, but those are mostly people traveling there on business, not to enjoy Italy. In Milan, change the signs from Italian to English and in most neighborhoods you would think you were in a city in America. That's not the case in historical places like Rome, artistic gems like Florence, or in drop dead gorgeous cities like Venice.

It is easy to avoid the pickpocket boogeyman in Rome. Rome has one of the lowest crime rates out of any major city, especially compared to places like London or Glasgow, or compared to many USA and South American cities where they will just mug you and take your wallet, rather than pickpocket you. You are more likely to lose your wallet visiting Los Angeles or New Orleans than in Rome. They don't mug you in Italy, and if you don't want to be a pickpocketing victim, it's easy to make sure that doesn't happen.

Wear a money belt and leave everything else in the hotel safe except a copy of your passport or USA drivers license in the money belt, or buy one of those wallet things on a chain that go around your neck and under your shirt so that you will not get robbed unless they first steal your shirt, and they don't do that over there. I don't do either of these things when I'm over there, but I don't have a fat wallet sticking out of my back pocket, and my wife doesn't travel with a large purse that isn't securely fashioned. Only when I leave Italy and come back to the USA do I become aware of the possibility of getting robbed. It's not going to happen in Italy.

The stories of two guys on a Vespa zooming by, with the guy on the back seat carrying a scissors or a knife to cut your purse strap and zoom off with it are stories from the 1970's when Italy was a much different place, with terrorist bombs going off in the main train station in Bologna, the ex-prime minister getting kidnapped by the Red Brigade and found dead in a car trunk in the streets of Rome, and with many drug problems. Those days are long gone.

The last pickpocketing I saw in Rome was last Spring. In a train station an old Italian man started yelling in Italian that he was just pick-pocketed! I was on the escalator and turned around but before I could react the pickpocket ran by me. There were two men in their 40's or 50's on the escalator above me who turned around in time and they tackled him and held him until the police came and took him away in handcuffs. I also passed by an American man in distress on the main street going to Piazza del Popolo, talking into his cell phone lamenting to someone in the USA, "Susan just had her purse stolen. Yeah, she lost her passport." I lingered around to overhear what had happened. Susan had gone shopping in a department store, left her purse in the shopping cart, and went wandering off to look at things in other aisles. The same thing happened to my wife in a Safeway supermarket in New York City. There's nothing unique to what happens when you are careless in Rome.

In Rome almost everyone speaks some English (it's a required part of the school curriculum). The cabs from the airport are fixed price. Rome is in fact, travel 101 for major cities to visit, not just in Italy, but in Europe. It certainly has a lower crime rate than London, Barcelona, or Madrid. It can't get any easier. I personally don't consider Milan to be a major city to visit, and I think there's a general consensus on that, although I acknowledge that the World Expo might change that for six months or so in the reasonable opinion of some.

In Rome, the only problem is that they cater so much to tourists that sometimes you don't even know you left home. You can stay in an American hotel chain, and eat an American pasta dish like fettuccine alfredo.

There is a range of normal when it comes to fear about travel, and I wouldn't judge someone as being fearful for wanting to land in Naples and be taken by private car to a resort on the Amalfi Coast, nor would I consider it reckless to spend a few late nights hanging out around Spaccanapoli in the old part of Naples.

I agree with you, a lot depends on what you are used to, your personality, perhaps your age (I'm old enough to say that), and you have to make your own decision. I personally don't think it is at all necessary to dip your toe into Italy first by stopping in a bland city like Milan and wasting a day in order to ease yourself into a city as easy as Rome.

You want to go where?

Perche, I am glad you put in your reference to the 70s (although you also include an event in the early 80s) in your post as it allowed me to say that you can get mugged in Italy without disagreeing with the point of your thread. I was mugged in Italy in 1981 in the Milan train station. Of course, there was an element of stupidity in my own actions. Rather than staying in the populated area of the station, I took a little-used staircase as a short-cut back to my hotel. Bad idea.

I was also in Bologna in 1981 when the train station was bombed. For all of that, I really never felt unsafe living there at the time, quite the opposite. I felt safer there than I did in major U.S. cities.

Personally, I never found Milan bland, just commercial/industrial and depressing. While I would go there if someone was footing the bill, I can think of many other cities in Italy I would rather spend time in, even ones which would never be anywhere near the top of a tourist's go-to list.