Italy

Italy 2023 Trip Summary

Switzerland & Italy 2014 Trip Summary

Dolomites (Cortina d’Ampezzo & Santa Cristina)

Our 2023 trip to Italy began at the Venice airport, where we met up with 5 other friends/family to begin our first recent (since Costa Rica in 2012) large group travel vacation! Our travel companions had all spent either 1 or 2 nights in Venice, and had no trouble finding their way back to the Rental Car Center to meet up with us upon arrival. Despite some challenges with their website in advance of the trip, our Minivan from Europcar was ready for us upon arrival, and we were quickly able to fill out the necessary forms, and begin our 2hr drive North from Venice to Cortina d’Ampezzo. We made sure to have our US Drivers Licenses, as well as our International Driving Permits (from AAA) with us, though fortunately we were never pulled over.

Along the way, we used Google Maps to help us find a darling little restaurant for lunch with a shady courtyard beneath a charming church tower whose bell chimed to welcome us to the county! The restaurant name was La Loggia, in the town of Vittorio Veneto.

The Dolomites are a mountain range in Northern Italy, and are popular for skiing in the winter, and cycling, hiking and mountain climbing in the summer. The Dolomites contained the front line between the Italian and the Austro-Hungarian armies in WWI, and remaining structures like trenches, gun battery locations, and vie ferrate (aka via ferrata) which were created during the war can still be explored for free in many locations. As you can imagine, the drive into the mountains was stunning, and we were thrilled when we arrived at our first hotel - Dolomiti Lodge Alvera - in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The Dolomiti Lodge impressed us in every way, and we’d highly recommend it to friends. We couldn’t get over the attention to detail throughout, the friendliness of staff, the quality of the food (breakfasts which were included and 1 dinner which we loved), the spa-like pool setting, the enormous rooms and comfortable beds, and the VIEWS! We’d note that this hotel really isn’t walking distance to the center of Cortina, and the bus system, though feasible, didn’t run late into the evening to make a return from dinner possible. So it probably is best to have your own transportation if you select this accommodation. We follow Moon & Honey Travel and would recommend checking out their recommendations for all things (including accommodations) Dolomites!

On our first full day in Cortina, we visited Cinque Torri (5 towers), which was about a 30 minute drive. We appreciated this blog post from Earth Trekkers about this area, and we followed their recommendation to park at Baita Bai de Dones, and take the chairlift to Refugio Scoiattoli. Cinque Torri offered something for everyone - incredible views, multiple Refugios with food and drink options, both easy and strenuous hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, and WWI structures and placards chalk full of history. It was easy to locate via google maps and had a large free car park. The area right around the 5 towers is full of gravel paths and WWI remnants, and was generally not strenuous.

4 of us continued on past the Cinque Torri towers to explore up a steep, wide gravel path, to the Refugio Averau and then a MUCH steeper, rocky section to the top - Refugio Nuvolau, where we enjoyed a beer and a snack, as well as the incredible views.

The next day, the two of us adventured off on our own for a more strenuous, 6-ish mile hike around the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Three Peaks of Lavaredo). It was about a 40 minute drive from Cortina, and there is a toll station before you get to get to the trailhead at Refugio Auronzo. While there are numerous large parking lots, it does fill up fast, and the gate house at the bottom shows the number of remaining parking spots, so if you arrive later in the afternoon, you may have to wait for a car to leave, before another is allowed to enter. We utilized this post from Moon & Honey Travel for tips on completing this hike, and we were pleased to have followed their recommendation to hike it clockwise! The trail was VERY well marked and easy to follow, and we loved stopping at Refugio Locatelli for a beer and a pretzel.

Our excursion was with Sam from Guide Alpine - a group of local guides who actually created some of the newer pathways, and also check and repair pathways annually. We completed Via Ferrata Ra Pegna and Ra Bujela, which are beginner routes but plenty exciting for our group! As a fun fact, the two routes we did happen to be on either side of the Women’s FIS Alpine World Cup course.

A beautiful 90 minute drive from Cortina d’Ampezzo took us over to the Val Gardena Valley, which consists of Ortisei, Santa Cristina, and Selva Val Gardena. Each of these little towns is mere minutes by car from each-other, and public busses run regularly in-between them, so it’s easy to explore all of them in a visit to this area. We picked a hotel in Santa Cristina, but I really don’t think you can go wrong with any of these towns! Dorfhotel Beludei would be our home for the next 3 nights in Santa Cristina…below are photos of our room, and the view from our balcony.

The Dorf Hotel Beludei was another great recommendation by Moon & Honey, and included a wonderful buffet breakfast along with a few made-to-order hot options (crepes, eggs, etc.), afternoon snack, and a beautifully prepared multi-course dinner. Of course, if you want to go out and try some of the local restaurants for dinner, this might not be the option for you, but we thoroughly enjoyed each meal!

In the Val Gardena valley, we had 2 absolutely wonderful hikes/experiences, and one hike that ended up getting rained out - although we made some great memories from it anyway!

The first experience was visiting the famous Seceda Ridgeline. To get there, we took the Ortisei-Furnes-Seceda Cableways from Ortisei. This is really a combo ride first in a Gondola, then in a Tram. During our visit, this was 39 Euros per adult for a round-trip ticket. From the top of the Gondola at the Seceda Mountain Station, it was only about a 10 minute climb up a wide gravel path to the main viewing area for the Ridgeline. There is a restaurant at the top of the Cableway and another Refugio you can see slightly downhill maybe 15 minutes walk, with lounge chairs available as well! So, there are plenty of options for those who don’t want to do much hiking, but would like to see the view and have a bite or a drink!

We also enjoyed a wonderful 5 mile (round-trip) hike starting at Passo Sella (about a 25 minute drive from Santa Cristina), and ending at Sandro Pertini Refugio. In AllTrails, it’s titled: “Sasso Levante - Sandro Pertini Refuge”. There was paid parking on both sides of the road at this pass, and this is a rather easy hike, so the whole family can enjoy it! At the start (near the parking at Passo Sella), are amazing 2-person “coffin gondolas”, which we’d never seen before! Along the 2.5-ish miles out to Sandro Pertini Refugio, you’ll pass 2 other refugios, just in case anyone needs to stop for food or drink. We loved our lunch at Sandro Pertini Refugio, and this day/hike ended up being a trip favorite among several in our group!

The 3rd hike we tried to do while in Santa Cristina was an easy one that begins at the Mont Sëuc gondola in Ortisei, and ends in Santa Cristina. Along the way, you cross the Alpe di Suisi plateau, pass through a small village named Saltria, and make your way back to Santa Cristina. Click here for the link to the hike on Moon & Honey’s website. The views would have been incredible…if we hadn’t been chased off the mountain in a lightning & rain storm! In the end, we had some great laughs over our experience, and over the makeshift “poncho” we created for our friend.

Later in the day, the weather ended up clearing, so we wandered over across the valley to the waterfall we could see from the hotel and had spectacular views looking back at Santa Cristina.

The end of our time in the Dolomites was bittersweet. We were excited to move on to our next stop (Tuscany), but sad to be leaving this magical part of the world. At the end of our entire Italy trip, several members of our group felt that the Dolomites had provided certain activity highlights for us, and that it would be the region we would return to before others. One way or another, we will be back someday!

Tuscany (Siena, Radda in Chianti, San Gimignano)

Next stop on our little tour of Italy…Tuscany! FIRST though - a quick stop (to break up the 5.5 hr drive) in Maranello at the Ferrari Museum. The timing was perfect to grab a quick lunch and do a quick spin through the museum before continuing on to Siena.

While our time in the Dolomites was focused around hiking, our time in Tuscany was planned with the idea of biking between small towns - stopping along the way for cappuccinos, lunches, and wine tasting. Two of our group members preferred not to ride, so they volunteered to drive our “support vehicle” aka minivan, and bring all of our luggage between towns for us! Knowing that we wanted to start and end in Siena, we researched towns less than 30 miles from each-other, without extreme elevation gains, and with interesting/tasty stops along the way. Our plan was as follows:

Day 1 - arrive in Siena & check in Day 2 - pick up rental bikes, then free day for everyone in Siena Day 3 - ride from Siena to the town of Radda in Chianti Day 4 - ride from Radda in Chianti to San Gimignano Day 5 - free day in San Gimignano Day 6 - ride from San Gimignano to Siena & return bikes, free afternoon Day 7 - drive to Florence and fly to Sicily

Unfortunately, mother nature sent a heat wave through all of Italy during this time, and daytime temperatures in Tuscany were nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This changed our biking plans a bit, as we were inclined to get up and bike to the next town as early as possible, to avoid the intense heat. Unfortunately this meant missing a few of the fun lunch and winery stops along the way, BUT, we still enjoyed the beautiful Tuscan hillsides along our (early morning) rides.

So, starting with Siena…

We found Siena to be a charming mid-sized town with a bustling (and touristy) old town city center AND new town city center, but still relatively quiet outer streets. A mix of modern shops like Max Mara, Footlocker and other luxury Italian retail occupied space in buildings erected in the 12th and 13th centuries. The famous Palio horse race wasn’t taking place during our visit, but its importance and significance to the people of the city is palpable. From the flags currently flying in the neighborhood of the most recent winning horse, to the shops selling home goods and linens with the various neighborhood symbols, and to the impressive Piazza del Campo where the race is held, it’s clearly a fun tradition deeply embraced by the locals.

Here are some photos from our free time in Siena:

There was no shortage of good food in Siena. We hate to name restaurants since, by the time you’re reading this, the ones we call out could already be gone, BUT…just in case it some of these are still around, they’re worth a quick google search to see if they peak your interests!

Bar San Paolo (Yes, our group may have visited multiple times during our short stay in Siena!):

Oro di Siena - a little outside the city center in a non-descript building, but provided an exceptional high-end meal with custom wine selections by our Server. Afterwards we got to meet the Chef…our server’s mother!

Bruscello Bistro - a lovely fresh indoor & outdoor atmosphere, and wonderful casual meal.

For lodging in Siena, we stayed at the Hotel Athena. It is within the city walls (towards the outer edge), BUT, importantly, outside the city’s ZTL Zone. ZTL Zones (also in Florence) are areas where vehicles must have special permits to drive in. Traffic is monitored via camera, and expensive tickets are mailed months later. It’s best to avoid these areas if driving your own car, or be sure to do the research in advance on how to get a special permit. The hotel was large, had parking, and a bike locker where we could store our rental bikes overnight. Though dated (as most lodging we researched is), the hotel worked great for our needs!

On our first day of riding, we grabbed an early breakfast at Hotel Athena (which had a decent breakfast buffet!), and headed out. Fortunately we were leaving on a Sunday, so the roads getting out of the city were pretty quiet, and we quickly got onto some smaller country roads (both pavement and gravel) and started passing typical Tuscan countryside.

As we got closer to Radda in Chianti, we stopped at a beautiful winery called Le Miccine, and were treated to a wonderful tasting on their outdoor patio. We learned all about Chianti and prepared ourselves for the final bit of riding afterwards.

From Le Miccine, we had probably our hardest section of riding into Radda in Chianti, so we were thrilled to drop our bags at our lodging (Relais Vignale), and hop in the pool. Dinner was reserved and just a few hundred yards from our hotel doorstep.

From Radda in Chianti the next morning, we set off on a mostly-downhill ride to San Gimignano. The intense heat motivated us to be up early and finish the ride as quickly as possible. As soon as we got to Hotel Le Colline, we jumped in the pool to cool off! The hotel was a little more than a mile to the San Gimignano entrance, and right on a local bus stop. Unfortunately the road up to SG was VERY busy, day and night, and the bus only ran sporadically, so our only option for transportation to and from the town center was our own car, which required negotiating paid parking lots each trip. We’d probably recommend looking for a different hotel, though not on the Poggibonsi side of town. Consider something on the quaint main road just Northwest of SG, unless you want to be right in the heart of the VERY tourist downtown.

San Gimignano - famous for its still-standing towers (about a dozen of them), is a beautiful hillside town in the middle of classic Tuscan rolling hillsides. Its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its proximity to both Florence and Siena make it a popular day-tour destination. Its narrow streets, shops, restaurants and bars appeared to be packed during the day, but much more calm in the evening after the day-trippers left.

While in San Gimignano, we visited 2 wineries, both of which we thoroughly enjoyed. The first was called Fattoria la Torre, which offered a lovely flight of wines with a charcuterie board.

After our time in San Gimignano, we rode to Colle di Val d'Elsa for a coffee and patries, and through Monteriggioni, on the way back to Siena. From there, we’d drop our bikes, stay one more night, and then head on to the 3rd and final portion of our trip - Sicily!

Sicily (Taormina)

If anybody has watched Season 2 of White Lotus, you’ll be familiar with the town we chose in Sicily. Taormina is a beautiful coastal town on the cliffs of the North Eastern shores of Sicily. After a week of hiking in the Dolomites, and almost a week of biking in Tuscany, we were looking forward to some relaxing days in/near the water in Sicily.

We arrived at the Catania Airport after what was quite possibly the hottest pre-flight experience we’ve ever had. It started with 20 minutes of standing in a shuttle bus on the Florence Tarmac, in 100 degree temperatures with the doors open. The shuttle bus then moved us about 75 yards to the awaiting plane, where we sat for another hour with the doors open on the same tarmac. As it turns out, we were lucky our flight departed at all, since more than half the flights into Catania were being cancelled or re-routed due to a fire in one of their 2 terminals.

The same fire had shut down traffic into/out of the airport, so we followed groups of other travelers until we found our driver - coordinated for us by our hotel Eurostars Monte Tauro. We were pleased that we chose NOT to rent a car in Sicily - the roadways were poorly labeled, drivers came within inches of each-others cars casually, and parking would have been a hassle.

Though dated, the Eurostars Monte Tauro is conveniently located in the heart of Taormina, with exceptional views of the coastline, and with a wonderful pool. As one of the larger hotels in town, we were thrilled that they had room for us to stay 2 extra nights when our flights home were cancelled, and they maintained power & water (mostly) when other local hotels did not. There is a STEEP driveway - maybe 25 meters long - to get from the hotel into the heart of town - but truthfully the whole town is set on a hillside, so anywhere we walked was either up or down.

A quick note about the rooms in this hotel: Views from rooms on one side of the elevator shaft are seriously obstructed. We would recommend requesting a room with the ending numbers of 11 & lower…for example 411, 509, 610, etc. Anything like 515, 419, 612 will be obstructed by the elevator shaft and foliage. Here are some examples of obstructed views.

Fortunately we were able to move rooms to ones with lower ending numbers, and enjoyed lovely views for our stay!