Florence Trip Report - Part 1

Hotel

We stayed at Bed & Bed Peterson for six nights, at 59E/night. We found this great little hotel through recommendation on Fodors.com travel talk. They don't normally offer breakfast, but I believe due to the length of time that we stayed at their hotel, they gave us a small continental breakfast during our stay, which we gladly welcomed! There is an espresso machine and a small refrigerator in the common area which all of the guests can use (there are four other rooms in addition to ours), so we only had to purchase some fruits and yogurt for additional breakfast. There's a small grocery store that sells fruits and basic breakfast food within 5 minutes walking distance from this hotel.

The room was roomy, bright with big windows, and clean. The location though is a little bit out of the way. It's about 5-10 minutes walk from the main Santa Maria train station. We decided to take a bus sometimes from in front of our hotel to our destination, and walk back to the hotel because the weather was warmer than what we had expected for June (in the high 90's).

The owners were kind and very accommodating. I had requested to borrow a hair dryer upon booking, and while I was there, they realized that they had to purchase a brand new one because all of the supplies they had were checked out. I thought that was unnecessary, and was grateful that they went out of their way to do this!

Activities

1) Chianti Wine Tour with Tuscan Trail

I found this tour through internet search and was extremely happy that we booked with them. At 75 Euro/person, this was the most economical tour that I was able to find.



Todd Bolton, a California native who has called Florence his home for the past 7-yrs, took us through 2 wineries, about 30 minutes outside of Florence, where we tasted probably 8-10 wines and a couple of olive oil.

We also stopped for a lunch at a nice restaurant between the first and second winery .

This was a very nice and convenient all-inclusive package, which also includes the cost of transportation from Florence and back. I took the Robert Mondavi Tour while Red and I visited Napa last year and I can say that we got a lot more out of Todd's session! I highly recommend his service and would book him again in a heart beat if we return.

2) Bologna Cooking Class with Illaria De Fidio

I also found Illaria through many web searches. I was originally booked with Cook in Italy, but then she accidentally booked her vacation days on the day that I was going to be in Florence. Lucky for us, we found Illaria. Illaria runs a charming Bed and Breakfast in the heart of Bologna, and teaches cooking classes to some of her guests who are interested.

She started our day by taking us through the market. We arrived sharply around 10AM, and we walked to the nearby markets.

She walked us through all of the different shops that she usually frequents and gave us overview of the all variety of pastas, meat, cheese, and vegetables.

We even got to sample some of the cheeses and the fancier cousin of (American) cold cut meats!

Then we started making our homemade pasta, ragu sauce, and veal ala Bolognese. It really started with a very simple ingredient: flour, eggs, and water.

Depending on the weather (humidity and temperature), Illaria can sense how much flour and water ratio! Now, that's quiete a skill!

While it sounded very simple, this was the most difficult part! You make the dough first.

Then... ROLL it with the palms of your hand... for what felt like an eternity!

The pasta must be thin enough that you can see through it, of course, ours was uneven, and not thin enough!

We ran late because we couldn't get the pasta to be thin enough as Illaria would like it to be! So we went ahead and started cutting it.

The key here is that you should put just enough flour while handling the pasta that once you cut it, it will nicely seperate itself when being gathered into a bundle like this picture.

After this was done, boil the noodle in a big pot of boiling water with salt. No oil, just salt.

On the same time, we also made the ragu sauce and the veal cutlet with prosciutto & parmesan cheese.

The ragu and the veal parts were pretty simple!

Needless to say, the technique is very similar to what I would do here.

Get very thin slices of meat, dip them in eggs and roll them onto bread crumbs-- and pan fry them! Now, the parmiggiano and the prosciutto made them a little fancier!

After slaving away in the kitchen for about 4 hours, we finally got to enjoy our fruit of labor with Illaria!

Next installment: Restaurant in Florence...

Italy 2009 Trip Report

Destinations
Rome (3.5 days), Florence (6 days, including two day trips: Chianti Wine Tour & a cooking class in Bologna), Venice (3 days), and Milan (1 day). We flew open jaw, arrival into Rome, and flying out from Milan.



Background
My husband and I have always wanted to go to Italy (since neither of us have been there, except my husband who was there very briefly for work). We thought about going there for our honeymoon last August. However, I didn't have enough time to plan for the trip last year, while juggling a wedding planning, a new job, relocation, selling a house, buying a house, etc. So we decided on a "mini-moon" to Napa for 4 days instead so we could go right after the wedding. Luckily, a few months later we found great deals on tickets using our frequent flier miles to Italy, so we booked those tickets for June -- and my planning began.

Travel Style
I'm definitely in between the "fast & furious" and "slow travel" modes. My husband loves museums, arts and you can find him taking pictures of everything with his Nikon, while I prefer to just sit in cafe and people-watch, while taking in the view. Overtime, I have also grown to really enjoy the smaller towns more, with less crowds & it tends to offer a more authentic experience. I think that when I leave the "manicured tourist world", I get to really enjoy the locals and culture.



Planning
I get asked about this quiet frequently by my friends who are interested to plan their own trip, so I am going to talk a little bit how I usually plan my trips. I have never used a travel agent to plan any of my trips. I don't mind researching for the destinations reading guide books and the internet.

Tour groups are convenient for travellers who don't mind to be on a structured schedule during their vacation. I took a Contiki tour once, because I decided, a month before the scheduled departure date, that I wanted to go to Europe. So I booked one of their Superior tours, which at that time, they only took care of the hotels, transportation, some of the meals, offered some optional day tours and provided guides at destinations. They didn't really take us through all of the major attractions, so it was partially flexible to your own discretion.

For this trip, we did not purchase any new guidebooks. We got literally a pile of old books from friends who had been there before and we just estimated their prices printed to be about ~10% higher since they were from 2006.



Fodors.com
I rely heavily on Fodors.com travel board for recommendations, tips, and answers to my questions. I have found the folks on Fodors to be kind, informative, and helpful during my six-years patronage on the board.

Rick Steve's
I use Rick Steve's guidebooks for tips & tricks on getting into major attractions, making reservations with them, hotels and some of the "budget-minded" ideas (i.e.: Where can I find a grocery store? Where can I find a laundromat?). I don't personally care with his restaurants' recommendations.

Frommer's
All of the guidebooks that I have purchased have been Frommer's. I like their writing style, with a little bit of history in each destination & some commentary on the attractions. I also found their restaurant recommendations to be more to my liking, although they tend to cost more than Rick Steve's.





Here's a list of some of the things that I try to plan for:
-Accommodation (as soon as I have the dates and a general idea of where I'd like to go, I book the hotels. The better-valued hotels tend to sell out months in advance, especially in Europe, during the high-season).
-Major attractions (that can be reserved ahead of time, so that I don't spend my vacation time standing in the line for hours at a time. Some places even must be reserved, or you will not be able to get in at all, like the Last Supper in Milan)
-Other special activities (for this trip, our Chianti Wine Tour with Tuscan Trails & cooking class with Casa Illara)
-Transportation to one destination to the next (train stations location, timetable, where to buy tickets, seat reservation, etc)
-Transportation within the city (I research to understand what my options are: walking vs. bus vs. metro, etc)
-Transportation to and from the airports at arrival & departure. This is one of the areas that I splurge by reserving taxis ahead of time.
-I also try to have an idea of the areas surrounding the hotel, and where everything is in respect to my hotel.


Packing
For this trip, my husband and I each took a 21-inch roller bag: mine was a Delsey Helium (light at 7-lbs when empty) & his was a Swiss Victorinox-brand. I also carried a leather cross body-purse which I can throw around my shoulder, while my husband had a small backpack which carried his camera, our guide book, and bottled water. We did a load of laundry halfway through our trip.



Others
-I used my ATM card the entire trip. Not only that it has a better conversion rate, most places in Europe prefer cash (if not, they only accept cash), and they tend to have penalty for credit card purchases.
-I called my bank before I left and gave them the schedule of where I would be during my trip. I ask them to flag me when there is a suspicious purchase made outside the destinations that I had scheduled. You can also ask your bank to decline any transactions above a certain amount, just in case the card is stolen/lost.
-My husband and I felt safe the entire time during our trip. We were alert, just like we would when traveling to new places, but we did not cling to our belongings like a paranoid tourist. We did not have a money belt, or fanny pack.


Next: Individual Cities' Trip report, starting with Rome.