Northern Italy with the Famiglia!

Northern Italy is more than Venice, although Venice is sure to be a highlight of your trip. Venice itself is a beautiful city, deserving of all its visitors. It's expensive, sure, but you can save money by seeing the old city as an outdoor museum, rather than spending money on getting into the museums.

The university city of Padova offers a glimpse at the renaissance, where science and medicine were born in Europe. It's a young university town, and bustling with business. Padova, also known as Padua, is extremely stylish.

Verona was a beautiful city of grand proportions, wonderful to walk around, with lots of old Roman ruins. The Roman Teatro and the Arena will bring you back to the times of the empire, while the upscale Via Strada will remind you of modern Italian fashion. Meanwhile, Romeo and Juliet's city is full of romance and renaissance references.

Wineries abound in this region, less famous than the Chianti region to the south. All these cities are close to each other and connected by train.

If you can make it to the Marostica chess game played every two years, my parents said it was the best time of the trip.

Although Italy abounds in famous and historical sites, it is not the sites that draw so many people to return to Italy again and again. Consistently, as I and other vacationers checked sites off our list, I was underwhelmed. What Italy does best is the Italian lifestyle, the warmth of its people, the fresh vitality of its food and wine, the relaxed air of life here. It's the way that locals and tourists mix in streetside cafés for morning cappuccinos, and the fact that every Italian city is an outdoor museum, no admission required to admire its beauty. So, when you go, relax and try the Italian way of life. You'll never want to leave.

Quick Tips:

For the best food, go local! Find out where the locals eat, and order local specialties. Some of the best food comes from Italy, and each region has its own specialties. A local prosciutto, parmesano, mozzarella, or bread tastes so much better than it does separated from its environment and shipped across the ocean to your grocery store. Often, the best restaurants do not have an English menu and are not located in the busiest part of a tourist mecca.

Learn Italian! It's a very easy language, especially if you know another romance language or Latin. I used a book called "Learn Italian in 7 Days," and truly, I was having whole conversations. Italians receive this very well - they love it when you try to speak their language, even if you butcher it!

Coffee! The guidebooks lay it all out for you. Cappuccinos and lattes are for the morning, espressos as often as you like after lunch and onwards. Order at the bar and you'll pay less and get your coffee in a go-cup. Sit down and you'll pay more, but get to enjoy the scenery. Usually you order and receive your cup from a different person than you pay. Get a brioche with a cappuccino and you have a classic Italian breakfast!

If you're visiting Venice, pack light! We had rolling suitcases, but they do not help when you are lifting your suitcase in and out of boats and up staircases and bridges. There are no cars here and most hotels require at least some walking.

Best Way To Get Around:

Travel by train! It's so easy these days to travel Europe by train. All the train stations have electronic ticketing, where you can purchase a ticket shortly before departure. You can use a credit card, and select your seats, all in any of a number of languages.

We did not plan our train trips in advance, although I verified on the TrenItalia website that the routes were available. Frequent trains left Venice for Padua and Verona, finally stopping in Milan.

Casa Alla Fenice is truly one of Venice's best small hotels. We felt so lucky to stay there, with its perfect location near San Marco, on a quiet street that translates to "Street of the Assassins." Guests receive their own key to the apartment on the backstreets of San Marco, and climb a set of stairs to reach the small lobby where one of the two proprietresses greets guests. One of the two women staffs the desk all day, and goes down to the dock to meet guests and guide them back to the hotel, no need to get lost in Venice when you have all your bags.

The rooms are themed after famous Venetians. We took the Casanova room, all done in red velvet with paintings of cherubs. My parents stayed in a blue velvet room with a cloud-like theme in the wall paintings. Each room also had a second bed in addition to a double bed. The bathrooms were a bit small for my stepdad, but we found them sufficient - and sparkling clean.

Each morning, we were brought breakfast in bed, bought at local coffee shops & bakery. The one morning that we left too early to get breakfast, we got inexpensive cappuccinos down the street at a café. The location was so close to San Marco, yet it was quiet and did not get a lot of foot traffic. We were very close to the opera house, also named The Fenice. An well-heeled crowd was always hanging out in the square near the hotel, and my parents enjoyed a fun night out at the nightclub in the square.

This was truly a special experience. It was not nearly as expensive as some of the upscale hotels in Venice, yet it had a more intimate and luxurious feeling, like the sort of secret hideout Brangelina would hole up in if they were in Venice.

You can find out more information about reservations at their website - www.casaallafenice.com, or by emailing them at info@casaallafenice.com. They also have wonderful pictures of all of their rooms. I couldn't do them justice with my own camera.

I actually chose this hotel based on an IgoUgo review and booked it on the easy-to-use venere.com. It is a big grand hotel in the middle of the action in Verona. When we arrived, they upgraded us all to suites! My parents got the best room, a light-filled suite on the upper floors. We ended up in a darker set of rooms, but it was still very comfortable. The bathrooms were huge, and the hotel had all the amenities that Americans expect, including cable television. Overall, the roominess and level of service makes this an excellent choice for American visitors.

In fact, we met many Americans there, especially when we got pre-dinner cocktails at the American Bar. We also met another family from Boston - Boston, England!

I have no complaints about Hotel Accademia, although were I visiting Verona again, I would probably choose a smaller hotel since that's more to my liking. For a visit with my parents, they were thrilled, saying it was their favorite hotel of the whole trip. My stepdad loved the fact that he could actually fit into the shower.

Location-wise, I couldn't believe how convenient it was! If we walked one way, we could go to the old Roman arena. The other way led to another big famous piazza, all along a big shopping street.

This boutique hotel epitomizes my ideal hotel, although I think my parents may have found it a bit odd. It's an upscale hotel that caters to business travellers, and it's also a design hotel with beautiful aesthetics.

It was located on Riviera Paleoscapa. Padova is quite small, so although we were far from the busy center, it only took thirty minutes to walk there. There was a lovely river across from the hotel, and the street had some lovely restaurants and boutiques too. You do need a cab though if you came via train. The location was one of my favorite things about it, since downtown Padua has a lot of traffic and can feel quite hectic.

Each floor is themed after a different element: fire, water, earth, air. We stayed on Fuoco/Fire. As the brochure reads, "A whole of light effects to create a place rich in deep warmth: the ideal scenery to a great passion." Indeed, the room was painted in warm colors and was very stylish. It reminded me of a NYC hotel.

Their restaurant doesn't really serve dinner, just snacks and salads. It was a nice place to hang out but it would have been nice if they had a real restaurant.

The service is good, if a bit cool. The staff are a little hands-off, but very helpful if you ask for their assistance.

What a deal! We stayed here for less than $100 a night, right near the train station. It was very easy to roll our heavy suitcases off the train and into this hotel. It's on a quiet street right next to the train station, filled with inexpensive budget hotels.

We weren't expecting much for the price. We did get a clean room and bathroom, though it was small and had no view. It was very simple, with a rustic charm. Overall, it is what it is - a budget hotel, a good clean place to sleep with en-suite bathrooms. To do Venice on a budget, I would rather stay here than out on the mainland!

The staff were super-friendly.

One of the most divine meals we had in Italy was not far from where we stayed on Riviera Paleoscapa in Padua. The hotel recommended Enoteca Angelorasi, just down the street. We were led through the restaurant to the beautiful garden patio, overlooking the river.

The restaurant was recommended by Slow Food enthusiasts, I found out to my delight. I knew we were in for a wonderful Northern Italian meal, using local and mostly organic produce, meats, cheeses, and wines. Although our waitress did not speak much English, we were able to communicate in a combination of Italian (me) and French (my stepdad). In fact, getting the tasting menu made the decision easy - we didn't have to understand the words to know that the food was amazing.

Unfortunately I did not write down what we had. I know we had some wonderful wines from the region, paired with some amazing dishes. At one point, the food was so beautiful, I simply had to jump up and take a picture of the spread.

A lot of restaurants in Italy that tourists end up in are geared towards tourists, with lasagna, spaghetti, pizza - even though that is Southern Italian cuisine. To find a local favorite like this was a real treat!

This hugely expensive meal was a huge disappointment to my wife and I, both foodies. My parents, however, loved it. It is so highly recommended in guidebooks, but shortly before leaving, I had read some poor reviews by other foodies. I can only expect that it's so loved because it has an English menu and the staff speak very good English. The whole restaurant was filled with Americans, no Italians at all.

Now, the food isn't terrible. It's okay. However, for the price that we paid for our meal, I expected something very special. I could have gotten this meal anywhere in Venice, for less.

Supposedly, they specialize in fish, but I was very disappointed by my fish entrée. I was so disappointed that I didn't finish my meal. Overall, we had been looking forward to coming here since our first trip to Venice, and it was a big letdown.

On our second trip to Venezia, we made our reservations in advance for La Zucca, aka the Pumpkin. This restaurant is famous for its creative Italian cuisine and intimate atmosphere. It lived up to its reputation!

The food was divine. I had some eponymous pumpkin-stuffed raviolis. My stepdad seemed a bit surprised that the menu was in Italian, but we explained - hey, it's Italy! They speak Italian here. To me though, that was a sign that we had finally found gourmet food - there was no tourist menu.

It is a small intimate dining room, with only a few tables. Our seats were next to a window that overlooked the canal, and we could see the gondoliers as they passed by.

One of the reasons we went was because it was recommended as a lesbian-friendly atmosphere. I didn't see any obvious sign of this but we did feel comfortable there (as throughout Italy).

We stumbled upon this enoteca, or wine store, near our hotel. The proprietor was friendly and invited us to share one of her favorite wines and some biscuits. We were on our way to dinner, but ended up stopping for over an hour to talk with the lovely young woman who owned the store. She also loved to travel and showed us pictures from her trip to Jordan.

The store had a great variety of local wines and gourmet foods to match, including some really good balsamic vinegar.

I recommend coming here if you're staying at the nearby Methis. It was a lovely and genuine experience.

The Basilica San Zeno is not really a museum or gallery, except for the fact that most great churches of Italy contain great works of art. Unlike a museum or gallery, entrance was free.

It was a long, long walk to the basilica from the center of Verona. It was a hot day and we wished we had taken the bus, but it's difficult to get here through public transportation, coordinating the bus times.

The Basilica is famous for being the best example of Romanesque architecture. It is a very old church, with a simple elegance conveyed in its stone walls in alternating colored stone. It was built in the 6th century, one of the oldest churches I've visited.

San Zeno, the namesake saint, was an African saint, and he has a broad warm smile. His image really conveys his joyful spirit.

The crypt is very atmospheric. We took a few pictures down there. It is very cool in this church, and very hot outside. If I were a pagan in the 6th century, I would have converted just to cool off in this building. Heh.

We visited this private garden after seeing the nearby Roman Teatro. It is large for a private garden, though smaller than many public gardens. The lower section was not in bloom, but had orderly flower beds. Then, there was a more natural section that climbed up a hill. There was this wall built into the hillside, with tower staircases that take the visitor up to a patio where you can see the entire garden. Only my mother and I had the leg stamina to get up the hill, and from there we waved down at our mates.

There was also a labyrinth. Now, it wasn't what I imagined at all. The labyrinth came up to my waist. It was still difficult though, I couldn't get through it! I was imagining, however, a full-sized labyrinth.

I could just imagine a fancy garden party here, with little tete-a-tetes occurring in the little bowers, hidden from the main sections of the gardens.

It does pale in comparison to the Boboli Gardens in Florence. The grotto here is just that, a damp cave. It didn't contain the artwork that I had come to expect from grottos based on Boboli Gardens.

We happened to be in Venice during the Historical Regatta. This event has ended up being a family joke. We got up early and made sure to get lunch near the Rialto. The race was to begin at noon. We tried to get seats at the canalside cafes, but they wanted huge amounts of money for their meals during this time. My parents found one restaurant to eat in but we didn't like the food so we moved on, to meet up with them later. We walked up the side of the canal and staked out a spot at the side of the canal, on the ground. Any time now, the regatta should start. People everywhere were starting to gather round the canal, some eyeing our spot jealously. We could see some gondolas heading up the river, not racing, but as if they were going to the beginning of the starting line. No one was in the costumes that we had heard about for the historical regatta. It was clearly just the prep phase. Two hours later, we were still only seeing a few boats go by. Finally, we gave up and went home for a jetlag-fueled nap.

When we found my parents, we asked them - had they seen the regatta? They hadn't seen anything either, despite standing on the Rialto for the same two hours. We were in Venice all day and saw no signs of the regatta, other than lots of people waiting on the side of the canal. We figured between the four of us, we had seen most of the canal during the day, and yet, no race.

Lesson learned - don't plan your vacation to coincide with a regatta that might not happen!

On the Tours-Italy.com site, I selected a wine tour, my first, in the Colli-Friuli region of Northeastern Italy, near Croatia. Little did I know how very wonderful it would be!

Our guide and her assistant were two wonderful Italian women who loved wine and food as much as we did. Avventure Bellissime means beautiful adventures, and it applies to our guides, the countryside, the wine and the foods we tried! For six of us, we paid 640 euros, but it was beyond doubt the best time we had on the trip. We were picked up in Tronchetto, outside Venice, to get in a van and drive to some wineries.

The first winery was visited was Castello Di Specci. This was an old castle where Casanova once visited, so there was a robust red wine named after him. They showed us their old cavern where the wine is stored, as well as the machinery that now presses the grapes.

We then visited a small town that was once a Lombard town, with a statue of Julius Caesar and lots of old early medieval buildings.

We stopped at a roadside eatery, very rustic, where we ate outdoors in the beautiful countryside. The food was some of the best we had in Italy, and of course, our guide ordered some great wines to go with it.

Then we came to the last winery, in an old Abbey and monastery. The buildings were still intact and there was a historical feeling. The winery representative was a very animated Italian fellow, and our guide translated everything he was excitedly telling us about the wines and the process of making them.

The wines were wonderful, from light and fruity whites to strong reds. One of the best wines was a dessert wine that can only be made in this region, as it develops when a fungus grows on the grapes and destroys the majority of the grapes, leaving only a few very sweet grapes with which to make a delicious and expensive wine. All the wines were paired with biscotti, slices of pork, olives, or cheese. We were stuffed AND drunk by the end of the day, and fell asleep in the car ride home.

Some wine tours visit many more wineries in a day, but I liked that we got to see some history as well as learn more about Italian life from our guides. There was a slow, relaxed pace to our day.

The Roman Arena, quarried from pink stone, is an impressive site, dominating Piazza Bra. The square surrounding the Arena has become a central location in Verona, with many piazza-side cafés and restaurants, a small park, and grand buildings surrounding the piazza on all sides.

The Arena itself is the site for opera shows, and I imagine it would be quite romantic to see an opera there under the stars.

Otherwise, there isn't much to see. After gaining admission, you can walk around the underside, which looks like the underside of any old, grotty public arena, like the baseball stadiums of my country. Above, you can walk up to the top of the stands and get a great view. I'm not sure though whether it's worth the price of admissions, as there isn't much to see.

All around the Arena, people dress up like Xena, Hercules, and gladiators, and will pose for a picture in exchange for a euro or two.

Juliet's house is really a medieval-era inn, but despite its lack of authenticity, there is a romantic feeling to the small courtyard with its statue of Juliet, especially at night. Lovers for centuries have written their names on the wall here, and thousands of couples go to stand on the balcony, that may have inspired Shakespeare's words.

The main reason to pay admission is to go upstairs and pose on the balcony where Juliet supposedly once stood looking down at her Romeo. There is a small museum in the house.

This site is always crowded with tourists. At times, it feels as if every tourist from Piazza San Marco has been squeezed into this tiny courtyard, especially if you shoved into a corner after a bus tour has arrived.

The Scrovegni Chapel is hyped as a must-see in Padova. For a fan of renaissance art, it must be quite an experience. The brightly colored and detailed paintings cover every inch of the chapel.

It is not easy to see the chapel. You must reserve in advance for a time slot. Only a certain number of people can see it at a time, and only for fifteen minutes. Bookings must be made at least 24 hours in advance. Absolutely no cameras are allowed within the chapel. Prior to entering, visitors sit in a decontamination chamber, watching a video about the chapel.

The cost is 11 euros, or you can purchase an entrance with a Padova Card. Some of the money goes towards the continuing restoration of the chapel.

More information is available at their website, where you can also make your online booking.
www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it

For me, it was hard to understand why it was so important, or why we had undertaken such an effort to see it. I would expect so much for a work of Michelangelo, but I had never heard of this artist. However, it seemed like the thing to do, so we went. I think my whole family was wondering why we were there. I suppose it was an important cultural experience, but it definitely wasn't as cool as seeing the original David in Florence.

The old Roman Theater (Teatro) is located across the river from the Piazza Bra, but it is possible to walk there without too much effort. The theater is still used as a theater, and the only disappointment is that modern seats have been added over the old stone steps.

However, there is much to see here, much more than the famous Arena. There are old Roman ruins, not just of the theater, but of temples. You can also see the remains of early Christian churches. Explore for long enough, and you will either climb up the cliff side or find the secret elevator to the archaeological museum above.

Some say that the museum is best used for the panoramic views over Verona. However, it has many interesting artifacts, located as it is in an old monastery. The beautiful mosaics in the reconstructed chapel transported me back to the early days of Christianity, or at least to my college studies of medieval art.