Rediscovering Italy
backpacking around Italy, I spent most of the north. Whenever I tryied get further south, I always found an excuse to stay somewhere longer, and I have never gone on it as Rome before earlier plans drawn me back north towards Austria.
As the years passed, I often thought about returning. The wine, the food, the unexplored places. Italy called me. This year I finally decided enough had thought and had to do more. This return of the summer in Europe would Italy.
More importantly, this trip would have Southern Italy, the place I could never seem to get the very last time. But this time, it turned out, I could not quite there again.
My plan was to come to the south on Greece and my way north to Rome. But that changed when G Adventures offered me a tour of northern Italy. Starting in Venice, the journey through the Cinque Terre, Florence and finally Rome would. Eager to do the tour, I changed my plans and went to Venice.
During the tour for local transport, local hotels and had a mix of personal time and group activities, and the journey went quickly for me. I like to see more time in places than the few days we spend in each destination had. But the tour was not for me. It was for others who booked the trip. I was just an add-on. The other had on the trip a limited time in Italy, so for them, the trip was perfect.
While the trip was not the south, it gave me back a chance to rediscover all the cities I visited, years. In Venice, I met with travel writer Lara Dunston up (I interviewed years ago). She took me to some local markets and led me to a restaurateur who gave a lesson on Venice Seafood and picking fish on the market. I have to marvel at the building and explore areas without tourists menus where prices fall in half and crowds do not get in the way. My first visit to Venice left me with a warm impression, but it again a second let me see to realize how beautiful the city really is.
In Florence, a Twitter follower of mine gave me a market tour. I learned all about the local meat, wine, cheese and spices. I even bought himself an old bottle of wine one day in the distant future to celebrate. I went to bars free of tourists explored final-ly the Uffizi (overestimated) and wandered streets from the center. I revisited my favorite gelato place so many times, they knew my name before I went.
Add to Cinque Terre, I hiked I missed the first time the hard routes. I researched the places I loved before, ate at some Restau-rants, and played guide to some of my tour group members. The Cinque Terre is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and if I could live somewhere in Italy, it might just be there.
In Rome I have the Sixtina saw underground went, finally found some sushi, and visited my favorite place, Trastevere. Instead of site to site of races, I relaxed and hung out. I walked around and relaxed. I have fond memories of my first time in Rome. I was with good friends and sometimes you remember places so good because of who you are with. I was not with them this time, and Rome drew me into it.
Coming back to Italy allowed me under the surface to explore only the first time I scratched. And that is to return the beauty of places that you were before. It gives you a chance to get a deeper sense of place and culture. We often go to new destinations, think of places that we can not have been without considering the places we already have. Coming back to Northern Italy was not part of the plan, but sometimes it is, if you skip the plan to make things work.
and southern Italy? Well, I did it to Naples and Pompeii, but that's another story ...
For more information, visit my page on backpacking Europe or my guide to Italy.
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