My last trip
outside of North America was to pick up Jada some 18 years ago. So perhaps it
was fitting that when I finally got some stamps on my passport, it was by
taking Jada to Italy for her high school graduation gift. We had an amazing
time and couldn’t help but daydream about future travel. We split time between
Rome and Palermo, and our daily sightseeing is well documented on my multiple
daily Instagram posts. Here I want to share a few random thoughts that didn’t
quite make it into my social media feed:
1.
As noted it had been almost 20 years since my
last truly international travel. Hoping it won’t be long until my schedule
permits more. There’s something perspective-enhancing about traveling the globe.
A reminder that it’s a big world, and for us Americans a lesson that the world
doesn’t revolve around us.
2.
I can’t say Italy holds any special place in my
heart or that it was at the top of my travel bucket list. Obviously it is a
popular destination and more than worthy of my first international trip in a
while. But chosen because Rome seemed the funnest place we could get to in a
direct flight, given that I only had a week and therefore couldn’t afford the nearly
48 hours of travel needed to get to say Asia and back.
3.
The Palermo part was due to learning the train
ride from Italy’s mainland to Sicily was one of the world’s most scenic, and
involved the train actually boarding a ferry and sailing across the Strait of
Messina. Sign me up! Having been on boat rides in Baltimore, Boston, Cape May,
Miami, New York, and San Francisco just in the past year, I have to say the
Mediterranean views were hard to beat. As were the train views themselves,
given that the tracks hugged Sicily’s northern coast and Italy’s western coast
for much of the 12-hour ride.
4.
Rome had many more must-see sights than Palermo,
but Palermo was equal to the task in terms of traveling pleasure. It had its
share of amazing destinations, is physically beautiful (water, mountains), and
was a delight to walk around in the evening.
5.
Rome, at least the parts we circulated, was much
more touristy. Places like Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and St. Peter’s Square
were just swarming with tourists. I heard a lot of French, Russian, Mandarin,
and English (American and British) walking around.
6.
Hotel nights can get expensive, especially if
you want to be pampered. We saved a few bucks by flying a redeye over the
Atlantic, plus another night was in a sleeper train (but, due to the
aforementioned views, I made sure one of the train legs was during the day).
The two nights in Palermo and the three nights in Rome were not lavish but they
were reasonably comfortable, and at any rate we were out sightseeing most of the
day anyway.
7.
It was hot hot hot in both places. Apparently
even hotter, like record-setting hot, just a week prior. But very hot and very
humid for our entire trip. Like my dad when my sister and I were kids, I made
Jada walk almost everywhere, save a few bus or subway rides, and she was a
trooper throughout. Unlike my dad, who would only pack water and maybe some
granola bars, I “splurged” for creature comforts throughout the day like
smoothies, slushies, and refrigerated bottled water just to stay hydrated, even
when having to procure them from places that were in a position to rip us off
(e.g. in touristy areas where a single small bottle of water could run 3
euros).
8.
Aside from the fairly expensive airfare and 5
hotel nights, the trip was reasonably affordable. Walking everywhere negated a
rental car, and being willing to decipher public transit meant replacing cab
rides of 20 euros or more with bus and subway rides that cost less than 2 euros
each. The one exception was when a private driver gouged us for 150 euros to
take us to Mount Pellegrino and then Mondello Beach, for which two of the three
legs (city center to Mount Pelligrino, Mount Pelligrino to Mondello Beach) had
decidedly complicated transit options. I guess another exception was when I got
my times confused and we missed our train from Palermo back to Rome, and I had
to buy two new tickets for the next train out.
9.
As for food and entertainment, we didn’t go to
any high-end restaurants and in some cases were too hot to eat meals, choosing
liquid sustenance instead. And we were fairly judicious in buying tickets to
attractions, choosing some (Vatican Museums, Castel Sant’Angelo, Royal Palace)
and opting to take pictures from the outside rather than pay to go in for
others (Colosseum, St. Peter’s Basilica, Roman Forum).
10.
I’m not a big gelati fan at home, because gelati
in America is expensive and not good. In Italy, though, there was hardly a
night we didn’t splurge. Maybe it was being hot all the time and maybe it was
being in Italy, but we found it supremely satisfying to treat ourselves almost
daily to a fruity gelati and a pleasant evening walk.
11.
It was astonishing to view sites that were 2000+
years old. Living in Philly, a city defined by its history, it can be difficult
to grasp that something very old in America (say, dating back to the early
1800s) is a tenth as old as parts of Rome.
12.
Equally astonishing was how ornate so many of
the churches we visited were. Just jaw-dropping sculptures, frescoes, and
architectural details over and over again. Much of our sight-seeing consisted
of walking to and visiting inside these churches, and it never got old to see
places I’d researched online beforehand and marvel at seeing these visually
vivid places in the flesh.
13.
The most absurdly jaw-dropping experience by far
was the Vatican Museums, which is really like 20+ museums in one. For less than
25 euros per person, you get access to all of the museums including the Sistine
Chapel (more on this below), as well as an audio tour guide. Each of these
museums was resplendent, both in what it was showing and how it was showing it.
There were times during this trip, and it happened the most by far at Vatican
Museums, where even a photograph didn’t do justice to the visual spectacle, so
I had to take video to capture the whole scene.
14.
Alas, no photos or videos allowed in Sistine
Chapel. This restriction forced me to simply take in the scene rather than
document it. As I listened to audio snippet after audio snippet, I found myself
overwhelmed at the spectacle of it all. It is truly one of the great sites in
all of mankind, and a testament to the artistic talent of Michelangelo. Amazing
to think frescoes was way down his list of preferred mediums, and cool to learn
more about the spiritual and cultural nuances he baked into these visuals.
15.
Since just about every day of our trip consisted
of visiting at least one place of worship, I instructed Jada that we were to
not pack shorts and wear no branded clothing, partly to not stick out like a
typical American and partly in deference to these holy sites. Not sure how
strictly this was enforced, but in at least one location I recall attendants
asking people to cover their bare legs and shoulders before entering, so
despite having to withstand the hot temps in long pants I’m glad we decided to
go this route.
16.
Time did not fully permit a minute-by-minute
prep of our trip ahead of time, but I did try to map out a general itinerary
and buy tickets in advance. I’m pretty pleased with how things turned out. I
missed a bunch of things, some of which we chanced upon anyway and others of
which we will have to hit next time. And better planning would’ve prevented us
from getting to churches at times in which they were closed for services. But
by and large we saw what we wanted to see, saved time thanks to advance ticket
purchase, and left room to freestyle when the opportunity presented itself.
17.
Time also did not allow me to attempt to pick up
even a few rudimentary Italian phrases, which I regret. English more than
sufficed throughout our journeys, but I always tried to pronounce things in
Italian and was mindful that while speaking my first language others were
extending me a significant courtesy by responding in not their first language.
18.
Jada broke her wrist the last time I took her
bicycling, so renting bikes was a hard no, and I don’t regret that given my
unfamiliarity with the places we went and the unforgiving cycling experience
(e.g. aggressive drivers, streets packed with tourists, cobblestone surfaces,
steep hills). I did get to explore freely during my morning runs, in which I
would map out a general direction and invariably get hopelessly lost. The
combination of the exhilaration of anticipating what might be around the corner
and the panic of being lost in an unfamiliar country is one that seems to work
for me when on vacation. Biking would’ve increased my radius significantly but
I’m not sure if, even if it was just me, I would’ve gone for it.
19.
I want to say this as respectfully as possible.
Young Italian people are absolutely gorgeous. I saw multiple women who could’ve
passed as models and men who I could see as movie stars. It reminded me of when
you watch TV and the star is playing some ordinary role like train conductor or
cashier, and they’re just so good-looking that no matter how good their acting
is it’s hard to believe them. Everywhere I turned there were people who were
strikingly beautiful being completely normal, like I expected them to be famous
and therefore mobbed but they were simply talking on the bus or waving me
through security.
20. Being in Italy underscored how much of an influence Italy has had on America and the world at large. There are too many fashion designers to list. Some of the most famous operas and singers are Italian. Fiat is a global brand. And of course there is Italian food, like pizza, pasta, wine, and cheese.
I’ve been off
and on (mostly off) growing my travel bucket list in anticipation of having
more time in the future to be able to travel. It has ballooned into a long list
of complex multi-city (and in some cases multi-country) trips in order to
accommodate all of the sights I want to see in my lifetime. These large
European countries are so varied in climate and culture that “I would like to
see Italy,” for example, has turned into multiple trips to different parts of
this vast and beautiful country. Now that I have actually touched down in
Italy, it seems the travel bucket list will need to mushroom into something
even longer. I mean, Sicily alone has so many big cities and small towns worth
seeing. Here’s to working harder in order to have enough money and retirement
time to seeing it all!
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