Just got back from 10 day vacation to Italy and .....

candi

candi

Cathlete
I ate pizza, gelato (ice cream) every day, and pasta. Weighed myself and lost two pounds. But, we walked and walked and climbed and hiked so that must be it!

BTW, I saw maybe one or two heavy people on our trip from the east coast of Italy to the west coast and I swear they were the Americans. Talking to a few people over there and we have THE reputation for being overweight and out of shape!
 
Oh Candi!!! Welcome back! we missed you! That's great that you didn't gain any weight! Was it fabulous? i want to hear details!!! did you go sight seeing? where did you stay?


jes:D
 
Welcome back Candi! Hey, I thought pizza was american food! :p

Sounds like you had a blast. I am slightly jealous. :)
 
Candi-
I'm going to Poland in 3 weeks for my brother's wedding. He has been there a lot and he has said the same thing. Very rarely did he see an over weight person. And, everyone walks over there. And, the portion size of food is much, much smaller than here. Glad you had a great trip.

Joanne
 
The details of my trip are so extensive but the highlights are:
(2) days in Venice
(4) days in Florence and Tuscany (absolutely gorgeous)
(2) days in Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre region otherwise known as the Italian Riviera. Actually, its a couple of hundred miles south of Nice, France. This is where we did most of the hiking and climbing as the Cinque Terre is made up of (5) tiny towns in the mountains jutting out of the mainland. These 5 towns are very steep and hilly. You could hike from town to town in 4 hours. We did the hike from Vernazza to Maranola (2 of the towns) which was very rugged. It took approximately 2 hours and it was up and down very steep steps. I gotta tell you I hurt the next day :)

I booked everything through the Internet by pictures and I have to say my only disappointment was the place we booked in Venice.

We rented a car in Florence. I was so proud of DH because he navigated us to our next accomdation and this place totally made up for our Venice disappointment. We were high in the Tuscan hills in a 5 room farmhouse apartment.

We also stopped in Pisa to visit the leaning tower. It's smaller than I envisioned but very cool!

I could go on and on. As soon as I get our pictures on Picturetrail, I will share them with you :).
 
Cinque Terre -

Candi this is on my "top 10" list of places I'd like to visit. Did they have awesome seafood? From pics I've seen it looks beautiful.

Doesn't it feel great to go on vacation, eat WAY outside your normal menu and lose weight?

Can't wait to see the pics!

Joni
 
Joni,

In Riomaggiore, DH had Whitefish that was extremely fresh. He said it was delicous. I had spinach pasta with pesto sauce which was also very tasty (and very rich).

Not many Americans are informed about the Cinque Terre region. I found out about it by watching Rick Steves special on the Travel Channel about five years ago. I told DH, "I gotta go there!" It was absolutely gorgeous and at the same time a very casual environment. We noticed many Germans and the Americans we noticed were college age kids.

Yes, it was great to eat all those carbs. There were too many home made gelato places. I just couldn't pass them all by, LOL! My favorite flavor was Tiramisu (of course) :)

BTW, they are pushing "Dive the Cinque Terre". There are no reefs but plenty of rocks and boulders. Evidentely, sperm wales migrate there but I'm not sure what time of year. We saw some film and the water looked pretty murky.
 
RE: Just got back from 10 day vacation to Italy and ......

Candi,

It sounds like you had a great vacation in Italy! It is good to have you back.

Beverly
 
RE: Just got back from 10 day vacation to Italy and ......

Welcome back:D I am happy to hear you had such a good time!!

Take care,
~Nicole
 
RE: Just got back from 10 day vacation to Italy and ......

Wow! Sounds like a wonderful trip. Italy is on my top 10 list to visit someday too. Did you have any language problems, or do you or DH speak Italian?
 
Oh, there you are Candi! I missed you. Sounds like you had a fabulous vacation! What cities were you in? Did you keep moving or did you stay in one place?

Oops, sorry bout that. Just read down to your details.

-Nancy
 
Candi... DD went to Switzerland and Italy a couple of years ago with a group from college. She loved Italy so much. She majored in secondary education/social science and picked up a second major in European history. Her focus area is early modern Europe. She was in heaven there seeing everything in person that she was studying. She wants to go back so bad and wants me to go with her. I will probably have to be given a shot before I get on the plane though, I've never flown but for some reason I have a phobia about flying (I think it has to do with the possible crash scenario:+ )

If we ever get this together, I'll check with you for some pointers.
 
It's nice to be missed (writing as I blush)! I thought about you guys alot. Especially while I was negotiating those steps on our hike :).

I would be happy to pass on any wisdom I gained during our trip to others that may be traveling to Italy. If anyone is thinking of Tuscany, I would highly recommend where we stayed!

Neither DH or I speak Italian. I grew up in an Italian household in New Jersey. My grandmother and grandfather came to Ellis Island in the very late 1800's from southern Italy but they were hesitant to speak too much Italian because of social stigma. We used bongiorno, ciao and grazie alot. Otherwise, there was alot of pointing and shaking heads going on. We went to Rome in 2000 and it seemed there were more English speaking people there. We got by okay, though! I did notice the people in Northern Italy were more aloof than the south. In Rome and Naples they were outgoing and gregarious.
 
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