Italy (Day 2) - Amalfi Coast/Pompeii

Our second day in Rome, we were up quite early to get ready for our next Walks of Italy tour: "Pompeii Tour and Amalfi Coast". As far as we were concerned, visiting Pompeii was a must-do, and we were not going to let jet-lag stop us!

View from the meeting point in Rome

We met up nice and early with our small group before boarding a bus that would take us to Pompeii. The ride to Pompeii was almost 2 1/2 hours on the tour bus. We did make a pit-stop along the way to recharge our batteries and use the bathrooms. Otherwise, the guide who was assigned to us for the day kept us entertained while the other time was spent snoozing off and on while checking out the views. Fortunately, the ride was comfortable, otherwise it could have been an unpleasant start to the day.

Once we arrived at Pompeii, we met up with a PhD who was currently working on excavating parts of Pompeii. She would be our guide throughout our 2-hour tour. Was 2-hours enough time? Probably not even remotely close if you want to see every nook and cranny you can. But then, I'm not sure even 2-weeks would be enough time to spend in Pompeii as there is so much to uncover and learn.

Our tour guide, from Walks of Italy, in Pompeii

Our guide provided a phenomenal wealth of information as we saw the main highlights, including a stellar view of Mt Vesuvius...

Mt. Vesuvius

... the Theatre of Pompeii ...

The Theatre of Pompeii

... and the unusual yet depressing plaster death casts.

Death casts in Pompeii

Seeing this magnificent, ancient city was worth every minute we spent on that bus. After our 2-hour tour was complete, we headed back to the bus for a drive along the Amalfi Coast. Our driver took his time, letting us out and certain vantage points along the way so that we could take in the breathtaking beauty that surrounded us. 

The Amalfi Coast

As we continued along, our driver deposited us and one of the guides in Positano, a resort city resting in the side of the cliffs. The bus could not take us all the way in to Positano as the road turns into a walkway, surrounded by merchants. All the way at the base of Positano, we were on the beach, looking out at the amazing waters in front of us.

Positano

We decided to have a lunch overlooking the water at Chez Black. The service was friendly, and the food was reasonably priced and pretty decent for what seemed like a tourist-trap. 

We spent about an hour or two in Positano before heading back up the steep road (and, it is steep!) to board the bus. Everyone was pleasantly exhausted on the way back to Rome, with the drive being another 2 1/2 hours before we returned to the Hotel Lunetta. 

Any questions about our day in Pompeii and Positano? Leave them in the comments section below. Cheers!

Cape May Valentine's Weekend Getaway

There are so many wonderful places to travel to across the globe, but one place we love to return to time and time again is Cape May, NJ. In recent years, we've visited so frequently that it's become our home away from home. So when it came time to plan a Valentine's weekend getaway this year, we decided to head back to this beautiful shore point for three nights of fabulous food, beautiful houses, and dazzling beaches. Yes, it's cold as all get-out down here, but it has detracted from the experience one bit. 

One of the things we love about Cape May is its great selection of restaurants. From BYO's to well-crafted bars - and even cozy coffee shops - you will not be lost for good eats. I intend to write about our Top Five Cape May restaurants soon, for those planning a Summer escape.  

For now, I want to give a shout-out to those establishments that made this weekend special... 

The Mad Batter on Jackson Street

The Mad Batter. You can't do Cape May without hitting The Batter for breakfast on Jackson Street. Spicy Bloody Mary's, to-die for waffles, and the best country breakfast in the area. This place is consistent in its quality, and the service is warm and accomdating. 

Magic Brain Cybercafe.   This coffee and pastry shop located in the Carpenter Street Mall on Perry Street across from Congress Hall was our savior over this cold weekend providing us with a warm respite and a great cup of coffee. The owner is very pleasant and super-friendly. Delicious cookies and pastries, and a great selection of coffee makes this a great place to drop by regardless of the season.

Valentine's Dinner at The Ebbitt Room

Cape May Peanut Butter Company.  Five words: Peanut Butter Cup Hot Chocolate. Located on Carpenters Lane, this is the place to go if your looking for great tasting peanut butter, hot beverages, a variety of cookies and pastries, and a tasting of every kind of peanut butter imaginable. And, yes: the owner here is very sweet as well!

The Ebbitt Room. Our special occasion - and, frankly, any occasion restaurant - is located in The Virgina Hotel on Jackson Street. We booked reservations for Valentine's Day dinner months in advance. Farm-to-table (from their own farm!) fare includes Beach Plum Farm Deviled Eggs and a delicious Pork Chop, in addition to their unbelievably tender flash-fried calamari and local Oysters, is just some of the well-made food that made it into our bellies this weekend.

We will be bringing more of our perspective on Cape May, NJ over the coming months as we countdown to the Summer months at the seashore. Happy Travels...

Italy (Day 1) - Rome

The Hotel Lunetta

It's been almost a year since we went to Italy, and over the past 10 months, there's not a week that goes by when I don't think about that trip! Traveling to Italy was an amazing experience, and the fulfillment of a life-long dream. It's very rare that one can say they took the trip of a lifetime, but this certainly was one of them.

We built our trip to Italy using three "home-bases": Rome, Florence, and Venice. If there is one criticism that I have about the structure of the trip is that I would have started us in Venice and ended in Rome, as once you land in Italy, you want to hit the ground running. With so much to see and do in Rome (and, frankly, it's impossible to fit in everything you could possibly want to do), I feel like it would have been better to have landed in Venice and had a more leisurely start to our trip.

For the Rome portion of our journey, we stayed five nights at the Hotel Lunetta, a boutique hotel in the neighborhood of Campo di Fiori. We cannot recommend this hotel enough! Enthusiastic and professional staff, a nice sized room in a central location, daily breakfast, a spa, and a rooftop bar. We never availed ourselves of the spa, but we can say that the daily breakfast and rooftop bar were certainly a pleasant way to spend some time.

Lobby of the Hotel Lunetta

We truly did hit the ground running after landing in Rome around 10:00am and headed straight for the hotel. Our room wasn't ready, but the staff took our luggage and placed in our room when it was ready. We decided to grab some lunch around the corner from the hotel and orient ourselves as best as possible. 

After having breakfast, we spent some time at the open-air market of Campo De Fiori. What an experience! So much fresh food, vegetables, and fruits. Bottles of olive oil. Very enthusiastic merchants. While we did not purchase anything at any of the stalls, it is definitely something you should see. 

Open-air market in Campo De Fiori

We walked to and across the Tiber River before heading back to the hotel, and getting ready for our first tour with Walks of Italy. I had found Walks of Italy through Amanda Ruggeri's superlative website, Revealed Rome (in fact, I had a Google Hangout consultation with her a couple months prior to our trip to review our itinerary with her, but more on that another time).

Heading across the Tiber River on one of the bridges

I truly cannot say enough nice things about Walks of Italy. As soon as you head to their website, you'll know what I'm talking about. Everything they do speaks to their professionalism and enthusiasm in giving their clients the very best in small-group tours in Italy. Yes, small-group: as in less than 10 people. Although, since they never have a minimum for their tours, we actually did a couple of small-group tours where the "group" was either myself and my wife or with another couple. 

Heading up the Spanish Steps

We had booked the "Welcome to Rome: Twilight City Tour with Gelato" as a way for us to orient ourselves to the city, and see some sites before we tucked ourselves away in bed. Most travel experts, like Rick Steves, will recommend to do some kind of orientation to the new city on the first day: whether it is a guided tour or using a guidebook, there's no better way to introduce yourselves to a new city and get some immediate sight-seeing in.

The orientation tour we did with Walks of Italy was fabulous. We saw so many sites that evening, including the Spanish Steps...

Looking down at the Spanish Steps from above.

... the famous Trevi Fountain (well, everything over in Rome is practically famous, so I guess that was a redundant adjective) ...

Selfie at the Trevi Fountain... like you do.

... and the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. 

The Pantheon

As I said, this small-group tour actually consisted of my wife and I and a father/daughter. We were able to leisurely orient ourselves to the city of Rome and take in some pretty major sites along the way. We ended the evening going to a restaurant that the locals go to (we asked our tour guide, which is usually a great way to get a lead on a restaurant that may not be a tourist trap), had a fantastic supper, and headed straight for bed.

End of the day, with a glass of wine

We needed to rest up, because day 2 of our journey was a day-trip to the Amalfi Coast and .... Pompeii!


Planning Eastern Europe…

We're planning a trip to Eastern Europe this coming Spring 2015! While most of the planning is relatively straightforward since we will be traveling on a Uniworld River Cruise on the Danube, there is still much to think about as we have both a pre- and post-cruise extension as well as little details to work out about which of the tours we will be doing at our different stops along the cruise. 

Uniworld River Ambassador Itinerary - Photo by Uniworld

Prior to embarkation in Vienna, we are heading to Budapest for two nights at a boutique hotel on the Pest side. We know that we want to check out the thermal baths and Parliament, and have already made plans for a folklore show and dinner for one night. 

From Budapest, we're going to take the train to Vienna and get on board the River Ambassador, for 7-nights upon what looks to be a fabulous trip. Disembarkation is in Nuremberg at which time we will be transferred to a hotel in Prague for three nights/four days. Prague looks to be a great city with so much to see and do, from the Astronomical Clock to seeing a show at a Black Light Theater.

Certainly, our "travel buddies" at Gross Travel Chronicles have provided us with some insightful planning tips, but we're always on the look-out for more! If you've done this river cruise, or have any "must-see" stops we should do during our time in Budapest or Prague, please let us know in the comments below! We'd love to hear from you...


Eating Italy Tour 2014

One of the highlights of our trip to Rome in April 2014 was the Twilight Trastevere Food Tour we did with Eating Italy (part of the Eating Europe Tours). Our tour guide Val could not have been friendlier or more knowledgable, and even had a surprise stop for us along the way. 

The tour began at a meeting point in Trastevere where at Val introduced himself and allowed us time to introduce ourselves to each other in the small group that would partake in this culinary adventure. We were each given a map, highlighting the places we would go and the food we would be trying along the way. In all, we would visit 10 different places for either wine or food tastings, culminating in a stop at a fantastic gelateria serving up some of the best-tasting gourmet gelato we had during our entire trip to Italy!

Gourmet gelato at Fatamorgana in Trastevere

Over the four hour tour, we were able to meet with many of the owners of these fine establishments, whose stories were worth the price of admission alone. After stopping at the iconic trattoria Da Enzo al 29 where we were treated to a glass of wine and a fried artichoke, we were whisked away over the cobblestone streets to Spirito di Vino — a wine cellar owned and operated by a former Nobel Prize winning team member — which had its own story to tell as it was 150 years older than the Colosseum itself. I will not spoil what was found in the cellar long ago, but it put a smile on my wife's face whose love of art meant she knew exactly what treasure had laid dormant in the cellar. 

After these first two stops, we leisurely walked on to 8 more establishments, each with either a food or wine tasting that brought a flavor and taste to our time in Rome that we may not have had otherwise. 

From a stop at one of the finest meat and cheese delicatessen... 

... to a visit to a cookie factory with one of the sweetest people you will ever meet ...

... to one of Italy's most well-known bakeries, in which we were given a behind-the-scenes tour of their ovens, and tasted the bread that they serve at many a fine restaurant across Rome or the pizza by the inch that they serve their customers daily. 

Along the way, we got to know the people in our group, share our stories about our time in Rome, and take in the culture of the neighborhood of Trastevere while eating, drinking, and being merry. 

Cheers!