For Christmas and Hanukkah this year, I traded snow, sugar cookies, and fuzzy mittens for pizza, pasta, limoncello, and ancient monuments. Traveling to Italy with Contiki during the holiday season proved to be a highly enjoyable endeavor. Below I recount the many memories that I’m cherishing from each day of my Italian escape. This action-packed tour took my group of 14 travelers to Rome, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast.
Day 1
I don’t sleep on overnight flights, but that never stops me from diving into a full day of sightseeing upon reaching my destination! After all, that’s what coffee is for. My fiancé and I started our trip with a trip to a coffee-shop for some much-needed energy replenishment. A man working behind the counter noticed us struggling to read the Italian menu and, with an expression of mirth, explained to us how to order. I got a “café,” only to find that this was a tiny shot of espresso in a teacup. How different coffee terminology is between countries! We also noticed that it is customary in Italy to drink one’s coffee at the counter, standing up.
After our coffee break, we walked about a mile to the Piazza del Popolo. It was during this time that we became acquainted with the insanity of the drivers in Rome. They will stop for pedestrians (albeit at the last minute), but if they sense any weakness or hesitation, they will surge right along.
We visited the Leonardo da Vinci museum, admiring this Renaissance Man’s various anatomical drawings and ingenious contraptions, before settling down at a café and sampling our first Italian pasta of the trip. Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci was not only a painter and engineer, but also a skilled horseman and vocalist? I strongly believe that there should be a limit on the number of talents allotted to one individual, but he was an impressive individual, indeed. His inventions also reflected the various needs and ambitions of the wealthy men who gave him patronage, so he designed contraptions designed for battle and the theater. Not even da Vinci was spared from the need to curry favor with the powerful people of the day.
After a nap back at the hotel, we proceeded to a rooftop restaurant for a scrumptious six-course meal. Meat, fish, pasta, and prosecco (four major ‘food groups’) were covered. Thus began our Italian adventure!
Day 2
This morning, my fiancé and I walked to the Gardens of the Villa Borghese in Rome and spent a pleasant morning wandering through bushes, shrubs, trees and a contemporary art museum. Exhibits we saw included striking photos of the famous Autostrada A1 highway, which connects Italy’s major cities. We also posed for photos in an interactive exhibit, shown below.
In the afternoon, we met up with our travel group, which included adventurous folks from Australia, England, Canada, and South Africa! We enjoyed a Christmas dinner of two pasta types and complimentary champagne, followed by welcome drinks at a local bar. I chatted with Mahbub, a Londoner, about the differences in extraversion between the UK and US.
Day 3
My group received a delicious Christmas treat when we went to breakfast — Italian pandoro, or sweet bread that you shake in a bag with powdered sugar to produce a beautiful sugarcoated pastry. We then ventured to Naples, where our trip manager, Marco, showed us around some of the flourishing main streets. Even though it was a holiday and many shops were closed, we were still able to grab delicious margarita pizzas and Bamba pastries. We also walked by a shop to find a group of women singing and dancing with joy. The people of Naples (Napoli) are highly superstitious, and we saw many statues of the city’s 53 patron saints, as well as murals of the beloved Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona, who played for the Naples football team.
That afternoon, Terance and I settled down with two of our South African groupmates for a quick Aperol Spritz and watched a squabble between a group of Italian ladies outside with great intrigue.
Our evening concluded with a pizza-making class (turns out I can’t spin pizza dough properly!) and a nighttime walk around additional sites in Naples, including the stately Galleria Umberto I. On our way home, Marco insisted that we stop for a unique Napoli beverage: lemon juice, sparkling water, and baking soda!
Day 4
My group began our day with a trip back in time, to the disastrous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (Vesuvio) that destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii. Walking amongst the ruins of this once-flourishing place, one feels a combination of sorrow and awe. We found temples with their grand columns still intact, homes with frescoes adorning the walls, and even a loaf of bread that was in the oven when the volcano erupted, now encased in ash. Vesuvio rose imposingly in the background, its two craters visible. While it remains an active volcano, millions of people reside within the “red zones” at its base today.
After our Pompeii visit, we stopped at a mozzarella farm to learn how this delectable cheese is made. A woman named Maria gave us a full demonstration while two farm dogs paced among the group, demanding attention. For lunch, we were served a heavenly banquet: charcuterie; pasta with vodka sauce and ricotta; and limoncello cake.
After lunch, it was time to depart Naples and head to Italy’s breathtaking Amalfi Coast. We stopped in Sorrento, taking in a few shops, and took pictures at a couple of scenic overlooks as well. Did you know that shopkeepers in Italy frequently offer limoncello and meloncello samples to visitors? This brilliant tactic would have worked on me, had I not picked up some homemade limoncello at the mozzarella farm! Dinner in the city of Salerno consisted of pasta and white wine — with each day presenting new opportunities to sample incredible Italian staples, I’m afraid I will be quite disappointed upon returning home to my regular grocery store!
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