Dave's Travel Blog

Too much time has passed since our recent trip to Italy and that makes it difficult to write as clearly as I would like—but I’ll use some of the photos in this blog to help with my memory.

It has been close to six years since our last trip over—probably the longest break I’ve taken from Italy.  I wasn’t very excited for the trip at first, but my attitude improved once we arrived.     

Although it was meant to be our honeymoon, we hardly planned anything for the trip, except for the Airbnbs.  We rented a car to explore small towns for the first time, and it was such a success that we plan to do it again.   

The towns we visited were the usual Italian favorites—Rome, Florence and Siena, but we were able to drive into some of the smaller towns that we always wanted to visit—Montepulciano, Montalcino, and San Gimignano.

It was also a Vatican Jubilee year—something that happens every 25 years or so.  So, I thought I would reconnect with my Catholic roots and partake in some of the important Catholic activities—more in the Rome section below.

The trip started with our plane being delayed in Atlanta, so our two-hour cushion to catch the train from Rome to Florence was reduced to about 15 minutes.  Everything had to go perfectly once we reached Rome, and much to our surprise, it did.  Our luggage was the first off the plane and the train to Rome’s Termini station was ready to go as we raced to catch it—me buying tickets on my iPad as we were running toward it.  We arrived in Termini ten minutes before the train to Florence departed.  My recollections of the trip for each city/region:

Florence

We stayed farther away from central Florence this time around—in the area a little northeast of Santa Croce.  The Airbnb was ideal and was located near a very good brewpub (Birreria Art. 17).  Though we were a bit older than the typical local crowd, the vibe was still fun and the beer was very good.  We were also near an excellent morning coffee shop (Cibreo Caffe) which is a necessity in Italy. 

The weather was mostly good with a little rain, but mostly high 60s to low 70s in the day.  We visited several restaurants, and I ended up having more Florentine steak than usual. It was enjoyable, though not exceptional.   We also tried affogatos for the first time, which is a shot of espresso over whatever gelato flavor you desire.  I consider it a must do and I would recommend the Vivoli Affogato bar near the Piazza Santa Croce (before or after a visit to the Santa Croce church, of course).   I’m not quite sure, but Florence may also be the place where we started our run on Negronis—a drink that I don’t think I ever considered but is now something I have in the home bar—Campari, gin and vermouth—equal parts.   We returned to several familiar spots, including the Uffizi Museum. From there, we strolled through the Vasari Corridor, crossed the Ponte Vecchio, and arrived at the Boboli Gardens.   Our first visit to the Boboli Gardens involved more walking, stairs, and hills than expected, particularly in the rain.    A highlight of the trip was a visit to the Strozzi Palace for the opening day of the Fra Angelico exhibition.  The exhibition showcased the remarkable talent of an early Renaissance artist who often remains overshadowed by more prominent figures in art history.   The NYT has a great article on the exhibition and it’s well worth reading and learning a little more about this artist:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/arts/design/fra-angelico-florence-palazzo-strozzi.html

We stayed three days in Florence and then rented a car to drive to Siena.  My first experience driving in Italy and getting out of Florence was a bit rocky, but once we got outside of the town limits, into the Tuscan countryside, it was fantastic.  But first, some pics from Florence:

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Siena

We drove from Florence to Siena via the quiet SR222, enjoying a relaxing trip through picturesque Tuscan wine country.   We tried to go to a wine tasting on our way, but the place was booked.  We enjoyed wonderful weather and made several stops during our journey to take in the stunning scenery, much of which featured wineries.   One notable stop was at a food truck called Antica Macelleria Cecchini where we had an otherworldly pastrami and cheese sandwich and a one euro cup of wine.  I could have had this sandwich every day for the rest of the trip and I would have been happy. 

The major challenge of driving into Siena was finding the parking area, which turned out to be a long street outside of one of Siena’s main gates.  We were lucky enough to find the last space on the street.  Paid parking from 8AM to 8PM made things a bit tricky, but luckily, they had an app to make managing it easier.  It was about a mile walk from the car to the Airbnb, which turned out to be a great place.  It was on the top floor with a wonderful balcony overlooking the hills around Siena and a large estate where they seemed to have parties every night (one of them to celebrate the neighborhood’s recent victory in the Palio horse race).  We went grocery shopping the first night and cooked pasta with pesto and ate it on the balcony—a great first night in Siena. 

Siena is a very nice town, but I wouldn’t recommend three nights there like we did.  Fortunately, we had our rental car and got to experience Italy on a completely different level.  We could stop anywhere we wanted and be much more flexible with our plans.  We visited some of my top wish list destinations, including San Gimignano, Montalcino, and Montepulciano—the heart of Tuscan wine country.   San Gimignano was a very lively tourist town and was our favorite.  Stunning Tuscan scenery with many shopping and dining options.   We had a great lunch there at Forno Boboli.   Montepulciano and Montalcino are famous Tuscan wine towns—not nearly as crowded as San Gimignano, but worth visiting especially if you are an oenophile.  Montepulciano has a unique wine tasting experience provided by Enoliteca Consorzio Vino Nobile.  You are issued a computer chip card you can use in automated vending machines for wine pours from dozens of vineyards.  You pay after you are done, but be forewarned, it can add up quickly. 

We had a very nice lunch and wine tasting at a small winery called Cantina Chiara Vinciarelli which was located in a fairly remote and scenic area about 10 miles outside of Montepulciano.  Cantina Chiara is also an agritourismo with rooms, lunch, dinner, and a very nice swimming pool.  I think our next trip will be staying at places like this all over Tuscany. 

We spent most of our time walking in Siena, with the Siena Cathedral as the main highlight.   We had one memorable al fresco dinner but not so memorable that I can remember the name of the restaurant or what we had…but other than that, I remember it being a very good experience…lol. 

Leaving Siena was another bit of an adventure.  Trying to find the rental car drop off was more difficult than it should have been, followed by a mile-long walk, with luggage, to the train station where we caught a bus to Rome.  We rarely take long-distance buses in Italy due to its excellent train network.   It turned out that the ride was a very pleasant three-hour direct ride to Rome’s Tiburtina train station.  Here are a few photos from our trip to Siena and Tuscany:

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Rome

We took an Uber to our Airbnb which was in a great location directly across the bridge from Castel San’t Angelo. 

Rome is very much a walking city where one of the joys is getting lost in the maze of streets.  I’ve been there enough to know how to navigate the city fairly well, but it is inevitable that I will still get turned around.  Using Piazza Navona as a navigation point is my trick to navigating to other sections of the city.  Rome has grown on me over the years as a city I just enjoy walking through, grabbing something quick to eat, and finding a resting spot to plop down to people watch. 

We enjoyed two notable restaurant experiences: Ristorante Ad Hoc, where we previously dined with former high school classmates a decade ago, and Mastrociccia – Osteria Pizzeria, which is distinguished by its extensive menu selection.   We enjoyed excellent pasta and a light, airy Roman pinsa (pizza).   We could have survived only on pinsas our entire time in Rome—highly recommended.

The rest of the trip to Rome, I was on a mission to get back to my Catholic roots.  Being a Vatican Jubilee year meant that Catholics could visit the four main churches in Rome and walk through the four Holy Doors as part of a quest to receive a plenary indulgence. A plenary indulgence is the remission of all of the temporal punishment that a person deserves for his sins.  After many years away from the church, I thought I needed as much help as I could get.  There are other things that you need to do to gain a plenary indulgence, like confession, communion, and praying for the Pope.  This seemed like a reasonable deal to get all of my sins forgiven, but the confession requirement had me more than a bit nervous.  But I was determined. 

I decided that I would go to confession as soon as I encountered an English speaking confessional.  This happened at the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore where Pope Francis was recently entombed.  Why not have confession at one of the most important Catholic churchs?   The more important the church, the more powerful the indulgence—right?  It seemed like a good idea until it wasn’t.

The line for the confessional was about seven people long, giving me plenty of time to back down if I wanted.  However, my strong desire for the plenary indulgence kept me motivated.   The line moved very slowly which made me even more nervous.   I was hoping the priest had a sense of humor as he would probably need it with me.  The young foreign girl in front of me was also a little nervous as she turned and asked me if she was in the correct English speaking line.  She finally made it to the confessional, and it seemed like she was talking to the priest for over 30 minutes.  I was nervous, but I couldn’t leave—I was up next.   Just as she was getting up, and I was getting more confident and ready for my turn, the girl walked to the front of the confessional and the priest burst through the little front wooden window and put his hands on the girl’s head and started chanting.  I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea confessionals had a secret door.  I didn’t think Catholics did this kind of thing—the type of thing I would see on those early morning evangelical TV shows as a kid.  It was at that point, I knew I was doomed and all of the confidence drained from my body.  This was an old-school priest.  This was not going to be fun.

It’s amazing what you can remember from childhood, and I remembered the confession routine fairly well.  Google helped me fill in the gaps.  I tried not to be specific when I told the priest that it has been a long time since my last confession, but he wasn’t having any of it.  He guilted me into admitting it was over 40 years and that opened up the floodgates for the rest of my time with him, which seemed like days.  I was given the Cliff Notes version of the Catholic Catechism, told how and when to go to church, asked if I knew how to say the rosary and quickly learned you shouldn’t try to lie to a priest when you are in the middle of confession.  Lastly, I was told my penance was to have only bread and water the next day.  The whole experience transported me back decades to my teenage years.  Now I know why I haven’t been to confession in over forty years.  At least they had a printout of the Act of Contrition taped to the side of the confessional so I didn’t have to read it from my phone (I Googled it, of course, before I went in).

The next day, I violated my penance before noon.  However, I did go to communion in the best way possible.  It was in a small church in Rome where an American priest was being ordained.  His entire family was there, and it felt great knowing I was one of his first communion experiences.  We also got to see Pope Leo at his Wednesday audience.  I’m not sure if all of this adds up to a plenary indulgence–particularly for violating my penance.  However, it was a good feeling reconnecting with my Catholic roots.

Well, I started this blog entry saying I wasn’t sure I would remember much, but it turned into my longest blog post ever.  I guess that is a good thing.  I’ll end with some pics of Rome:

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