We booked train tickets to Venice and use the hop on hop off bus to get to the Central Train Station on the 22 December. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there and another hour to work out how to get to our hotel. The Palazzo Contarini Della Porta di Ferro was my favorite hotel of the whole trip! Decent breakfast, close to the Basilica and tourist sites, good wifi and a comfortable bed were pretty hard to beat. We spent most of our time walking around venice. Our travel buddy, Lise, had picked up a bad head cold so Tony and I were on our own most of the time. We managed to get to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at the church just around the corner from our hotel - beautiful experience.
We had pre-booked a rental car, which Tony picked up from the airport and left at the carpark overnight. The water transport in Venice is reasonably priced and frequent so getting back to the carpark on Christmas Day wasn't a problem. The trip over to Genoa was pretty uneventful til we got to the city itself. The carpark was quite some distance from the apartment I had booked, airbnb again, but the owner guided us through safely. The waterfront was the major attraction for us but we enjoyed wandering around the old part of town as well. The apartment we stayed in was above a piazza with 4 bars in it, a bit noisy but I had earplugs.
The drive through to Florence was a little cold to say the least. The temperature outside the car dropped to 1 degree at one stage and we drove through a flurry of snow too. Luckily there was no snow in Florence. The rain followed us throughout the trip and spoiled the stop off in Pisa. The umbrella didn't manage to keep me dry and I even managed to slip on the wet marble paving. We dropped the car at the airport, bit of a mission trying to find the rental car depot, then caught a cab to Hotel Medici. To say this hotel was disappointing is an understatement. They directed us to their apartment building (which was 3 streets away), after we had booked a double and a single room. The "apartment" was what you would expect from a backbackers, nothing like the website photos. We had no wifi and breakfast, back at the hotel with the wifi, was bread rolls and coffee. Disappointed - yeah right!
Apart from the hotel Florence itself was okay. The Galleria Dellaccademia was a real highlight, with David as the centrepoint. The Duomo was splendid and the Ponte Vecchio is worth a mention for gold and silver. As usual the food and wine were wonderful!
Last stop was Rome. We caught another train from Florence to Rome, having been warned about the drivers there being just as crazy as Egyptian drivers.
The Vatican Suites were wonderful! The hotel wasn't far from St Peter's Square, the Basilica, Vatican Museum, some great restaurants, the Hop On Hop Off bus and the river. The weather was still cold and the ride on the bus was freezing but we toughed it out and made the most of the sunny weather. Even though the local food was delicious we were able to try some Chinese and we finished the trip off with an Indian restaurant.
Loved Italy! Would visit again but next time maybe when it's a little warmer :-)
