Life with Salsa: Two Week Backpacking Italy Itinerary

©Leslie Guzman
Taking a selfie with our backpacks in Venezia

A year ago today Hubby and I were arriving back to Houston after a long sleepless flight from Italy. It was sad to say goodbye to Europe but I was more than ready to see my little munchkin, Mochito. I missed my comfy bed, my makeup and straigtner. I know it sounds vain but when you backpack for vacation you give up a few little things.

It has been a year since our adventurous Italian trip. When we started with the plans for our trip and for me to do a study abroad in Italy, I the research nerd was glued to the computer for days. This was not just a major opportunity for me to study art but for a vacation with my hubby, after the school trip was finished. I mean I would already be there and all we had to do was buy another ticket to get him to me. A-L-O-T of research and TripAdvisor is always your friend. It was just not fair for me to fly across the ocean to a beautiful destination and Mr. Husband stay behind just taking care of my puppy. Yup we decided to make this our second honeymoon, especially since our first one was just OK.

©Leslie Guzman
Reunited after almost a month in Florence, Italy

©Leslie Guzman
Senor Foodie having his first taste of gellato

©Leslie Guzman
With our school hosts David & Nadia from ARTIS

So it has been an entire year since we walked the adorable streets in San Marino, took in the breathtaking views in Venice, ate amazing pizza in Salerno and had mass at the Pantheon in Rome. Time goes by so fast, actually that is how life works so you should do exciting and fun things as much as possible. Just look at our little life at Life with Salsa.

Hubby arrived two days before my study abroad program was over. While I was finishing up he toured Florence on his own. He got the very rushed version unlike me, who had been there almost a month, I was a local already! But we had a mission, to see as much as possible of Italy as we could see. Why do it this way? Well back to the previous paragraph, life is short, you never know what will happen. My mother passed away at the young age of 48, she didn't expect to die that young. So since then I changed my life and deiced to live life as much as I can. I make my entire life an adventure, and in the event that I or hubby don't return to Italy, hey at least we saw plenty. If God gives us life to see it again at least we know what areas we want to return to explore.

Day One

Leave Florence and head to Pisa
Train Station Firenze S.M. Novella to Pisa Centrale
Map from train station to Leaning Tower

©Leslie Guzman
Our first train ride together in Italy
& starting our backpacking adventure, don't mind the hair

©Leslie Guzman
The reason everyone goes to Pisa

Pisa was one of those places that has been engraved in our minds since we first study about the famous leaning tower. So it was a must stop for the Andersons. We knew it would only be a small trip, my true destination that day was Genoa. Well it was a small trip, but not as simple as we thought. It is quite a walk from the train station to the tower. Normally it would be a piece of cake but remember we were being backpackers. This explains why we ate alot of carbs (pizza & pasta) and actually lost close to 10 pounds!

Next Stop

Leave Pisa and head to Genoa
Train Station Pisa Centrale to Genoa Principale or Brigole
Map

©Leslie Guzman
Hubby looking so rugged and enjoying some coffee

©Leslie Guzman
Genoa was so pretty and colorful

Our silly mistake, we took the first train from Pisa to Genoa. It ended up being the furthest from our hotel. But it was a happy accident because we walked through the middle of the city, seeing so much that we may have missed if we would have gotten the other train to the other train station. The other train station was right by our hotel but a distance away from the middle of the city. Genoa to me is one trip I want to go back to and stay in a really nice hotel overlooking the water. Its the Cancer in me. Hubby and I were being typical tourists, one with a map (to understand what we were looking at) and the other (me) with a camera snapping away. There was so much beautiful architecture and history written all over the city.

Spent the Night in Genoa

Day Two

From Genoa to Milan
Train Station Genoa Principale or Brigole to Milan Centrale
Map

©Leslie Guzman
The Milan train station was pretty

Our original plan included a stop in Milan. For me it was to see Da Vinci's last supper and to shop. But the more I read about how the lines were and knowing we wanted to see so much we decided to skip it and make it back on our next stop to Italy. We still had to make a quick stop to catch the next train to Verona, which had more to see. Yet our family back home thought they knew our itinerary, thought we were in Milan when the earthquake happened. We missed it by one day.

On to our Next Stop

From Milan to Verona
Milano Centrale to Verona Porta Nova
Map

©Leslie Guzman
So many canals and water in Italy

©Leslie Guzman
Had to stop by the Rome & Juliet window

©Leslie Guzman
A romantic evening in Verona, Italy

I did my research and Verona was a place both of us wanted to see. We even had plans of staying 2 days there and contemplated on a third because there was so much. It was OK to us not a place to spend an extra day or even two. It is beautiful, lots of history and plenty of touristic things to see and do, just not our cup of tea. They charged ridiculous prices for hotels and they did not match what you were paying for. It was more of a snooty crowd than what we care for and not to mention when you are backpackers you are limited on your stuck up attire. So we decided to head out to Venice early.

Day Three & Four

From Verona to Venice
Verona Porta Nova to Venezia Santa Lucia
Map

©Leslie Guzman
He was so excited, he fell in love with Venice

©Leslie Guzman
Every turn, every canal was picturesque

©Leslie Guzman
Romantic evening at sunset in Venice

I personally loved Venice, I spent 2 days with our study group and couldn't wait to show my hubby this gorgeous place. Santa Lucia train station dumps you off literally in front of the Grand Canal. I wish I would have taken a picture of him when he saw it for the first time. So its safe to tell you that the day we cut off in Verona got used in Venice. We spend 2 1/2 days in Venice and still didn't see everything we wanted to see. We know we will be planning a trip to Venice, maybe for one of our anniversaries, but definitely worth a 2-3 week stay.

I booked a hotel near the train station, remember we were doing the whole heavy backpack thing. There was no way we could go across Venice with so much on our backs. I had stayed in an a small hotel with my school, of course they were completely booked. But I booked an even better hotel on the same street, not to mention that the staff were so friendly they gave us tips and suggested places to go. We will give you all our in detailed Venezia adventure in another post.

Day Five

From Venice to Rimini
Venezia Santa Lucia to Rimini Train Station (Then bus stop to San Marino)
Map

©Leslie Guzman
My sexy husband looking more Italian by the day

©Leslie Guzman
This was picture was my end goal,
it was breathtaking

I know Rimini is supposed to have a pretty beach, but to me San Marino was calling my name. The artist in me was telling me how I could take amazing pictures for my artwork. My inner voice was right, but it didn't tell me that was going to really work for it.

Next Stop

Rimini Train Station to Bologna Train Station
(Final destination Salerno)

This was not planned, I didn't think we would have been at Rimini that late after San Marino. We assumed we could get an overnight train and just sleep our way to Salerno. Being that we were winging some things based on if we liked where we were, being spontaneous with the train didn't work in our favor. We took the train to Bologna. Where we eventually got a train to Salerno. We will discuss our interesting trip in Bologna on another post.

Day 6

From Bologna to Salerno
Bologna Train Station to Rome Train Station to Salerno Train Station
Map

©Leslie Guzman

Salerno was the Hubby's choice and after experiencing it I enjoyed it as well. It reminded me of Genoa. It was by far not touristic, I think that's why we liked it. The typical tourist stays in the main major places in Italy and we like to mix with the locals. I booked a hotel the night before in walking distance from the train station. Remember by now we are exhausted with our backpacks.

We arrived pretty early that we got to really take our time and sight see. If you ask Senor Foodie aka Husband he will tell you that Salerno was the best Pizza he had in all of Italy, he wanted to order another to take with him.Make sure you stop by and taste and let us know, it is called La Madegra. We had gellato in the park with all the locals and saw brides and grooms getting their pictures taken. It was like being in a small town in my country (Guatemala). It was so relaxing compared to some of our other stops. Salerno is another place we would like to return and explore with more time.

Day 7

Salerno to Rome
Map

©Leslie Guzman
So many tourists, none religious because they didn't cared
to stay inside the Pantheon for mass, lucky for us we got
to stay and admire the wonders of this beautiful place

Rome is a place that everyone no matter their religion wants to go to. We were not the exception, but I was willing to give it up to stop somewhere else, but the Hubby really wanted to stop here. I figured he had carried my bag along with his in San Marino that I figured it was the least I can do for him.

Maybe this was a trip we should have done earlier on our trip and maybe we would have had more energy and patience. I booked a hotel again in walking distance of the train station, thank God since Rome is not the easiest city to walk around in. We saw so many things, I'm sure all major things to see its hard to miss when they are everywhere. But at the end of our first day of Rome and we had scheduled 3 days in Rome, one of us had enough, and it was not me. We only did 2 days in Rome and I think that is cutting really short. There was more for us to see but the body was close to exhaustion. So we contacted our friends at the hotel we used for Hubby's stay in Florence and told them we were arriving a day earlier.

Day 9

Rome to Florence
Map

We felt like we arrived HOME when we got to Santa Maria Novella Train station. To me it had been home for almost a month, but I was surprised Mr. Husband felt the same way. One he was completely tired and two Florence people are super friendly to tourists unlike other places on our backpacking adventure.

Day 10

Florence

This was the original day that we were supposed to be arriving to Florence and we didn't have anything planned. We decided to take it supper easy. We went shopping for us and we spent the day being little food bees, tasting here and there. I finally had my gellato on a waffle! I had been eyeing it since day one of my trip. It was not that great, I guess I waited too long and the anticipation killed it.

Day 11
The day we go home, bittersweet good bye to Firenze. I loved this place, I could walk around and actually not be lost. Back home to Mochito!!!

Life with Salsa

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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Two Week Backpacking Italy Itinerary

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