Destination "Italy - Capri, Rome, Chianti & More" with Jenn & Geoff Clark
Fifth Street
Fifth Street
e started off in Capri for a few days, before renting a car and looping throughout central Italy for a week, finishing in Rome.
We never need an excuse to go to Italy! The $450 round trip flights to Rome inspired us to head back over. Traveling to Italy has become an annual ritual for us, but this trip was extra special since we were traveling to areas Jenn had visited when she was an art history student at the University of Urbino.
We hiked around the perimeter of Capri…very beautiful, but steep and challenging as well.
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The standout was the Hotel Caesar Augustus on Capri. Jenn had stayed there while studying in Italy 30 years ago, and we were welcomed like old friends. It was the very end of tourist season, and they were not fully booked up, so they upgraded us to an exquisite suite!
Capri is definitely a place where having a car is a nuisance, so the first leg of our trip was on trains and ferries. It’s impressive how easy and fast it is to travel on the high-speed Trenitalia trains. We completed our entire trip without a missed connection or delay!
The entire city of Rome is a museum! But one place we really enjoyed was Orvieto. We took a tour of the catacombs below the city that were built by the Etruscans 3,000 years ago. It’s an incredibly fascinating place to explore!
The wines, of course, are amazing. We enjoyed a few Calabrian wines, which were delicious. And part of our trip took us back to our favorite villages in Chianti. Le Miccine was a standout of the winemakers in that region.
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In the midst of dozens of tourist-oriented restaurants near the Pantheon, we dined at Ristorante Antonio at the suggestion of a friend who lived in the neighborhood for a few years. Fantastic meal in an elegant setting, great local wine, and perfect service.
This was our first time spending any time in Rome together, and we really enjoyed exploring the city. We found a wonderful Air BnB in the Esquivel neighborhood just north of the Colosseum.
We love using our runs as opportunities to explore. We did two long runs around Rome that encompassed dozens of historic sites. We especially loved running along the Tiber River on ancient trails below enormous sycamore trees - it was a lovely quiet place in the midst of a bustling, noisy city.
An unexpected surprise was the Protestant Cemetery, probably the most beautiful place in all of Rome.
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No biking on bicycles this time. Imagine that! Lol. Vespa instead!
Italy’s COVID-19 protocols are strict, but they were doing a great job of getting life back to normal. The EU Greenpass smartphone app makes tracking vaccination records and test results as simple as scanning a QR code. We had to show that when boarding trains and ferries and entering restaurants. By October Italy had rebounded from COVID much more than we had here in the US. It was much easier to negotiate all the safety precautions than we expected.
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Go "Italy - Capri, Rome, Chianti & Much More"
Issue XV
Issue XV
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