The Diva Chronicles : An Italian Sampler (Part I)

By MzTravelDiva ⋅ February 7, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

The day after Thanksgiving, we crossed the Atlantic for a 7 day/ 6 night vacay to Italy. We booked our trip through Gate 1 Travel, which Ebonee found through Hotwire Ticker. The Rome-Venice package we put together included airfare, lodging, complimentary breakfast, and a day trip to Naples and Pompeii.

Our 8 hour flight on Air Alitalia (a partner of Delta), was a breeze. Because we were traveling the day after Thanksgiving, the airports were not quite as busy, and our flight was not full at all. We each had a row to ourselves…talk about leg-room!

The first leg of our trip was Roma for 3 days. We discovered in our pre-planning that our hotel was only a few blocks from the main train station in Rome, Termini. So instead of a catching a taxi, took the Express train from the Fiumicino Airport to Termini station. After a 30 minute ride, we were off and on the streets of Rome headed to Hotel Mariano. The hotel was quaint, and our triple room was a surprisingly comfortable for European standards.

After getting settled in our hotel room, we were jetlagged and hungry! It was 4pm and it was time for find food. We we discovered the hard way that Italians generally eat dinner around 7pm. Every restaurant we passed was preparing for dinner…but no one was serving it quite yet. Our growing hunger was saved but a small cafe that was serving light meals. Of course, our first Italian meal wouldn’t be complete without gelato from Ornelli Gelateria.








Our next day began early (6am in Italy, 12am EST). We boarded a chartered tour bus for our day trip to Naples and Pompeii, which was about 3 hours south of Rome. Our visit to Naples was relatively brief. We were led on our walking tour of a portion of this fast-paced city. During our tour, we somehow got in the midst of a massive bread distribution. We still never figured out why free bread was being distributed, but I sure wish we could get free bread here at home! Our tour concluded in front of Castel Dell’Ovo, which translates Castle of the Egg. Interesting, huh?

The remainder of our day was spent in Pompeii, exploring the excavated ruins of this city destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (which, by the way, is still considered active). A word of advice, Pompeii is not a place for cute shoes. If you want to get through the excavation site with an ounce of feeling left in your feet, make sure you wear extremely comfortable shoes! If you have the chance to visit Pompeii, definitely do so. It is truly amazing to view a city that has been literally preserved for thousands of years.






Although our day trip left us weary, ‘when in Rome do as the Romans do’….so it was time to find dinner and then a party! The party/club guru, Ebonee, found Caruso Cafe de Oriente, which turned out to be a salsa club. Now, me being a lover of salsa dancing was in heaven. What were the chances that we’d end up salsa dancing the night away in Italy??

Up Next…more Rome and Venice.