I guess so. Osteria Francescana was voted as the top restaurant in Italy (at least it was a few years ago). Bring your wallet. Serious bucks to eat there. After a nice dinner maybe you can swing by the Ferrari factory and pick up a new set of wheels. 😊
OT: Italy Recommendations
- Thread starter vikings1980
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Ah. Well played by Thurgood.
I was a bit suspicious based on the misspelling of his “friend”’s name.
True but Piazza Navona is beautiful with the 3 Bernini fountains, and those same tourist cafes are great places to have a cocktail or glass of wine, take in the sights and sounds, and watch people. Same thing with the piazza on front of the Pantheon. Just awesome.
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We spent 4 days around Florence with a day trip to Siena (loved it). Great food everywhere, including their steaks....about 2 lbs. !!
We stayed right in centro Florence, and went across the street to a tiny bar restaurant for nightcaps. I asked what scotch they had.....NONE. Laughed with the help....and 2 days later the bartender walked in to say hello and poured me a nice single malt. Lovely people.
That's what I was going to recommend - the gelato is unbelievable! And wear a cross body bag or something to conceal your wallet - the pick pocketers over there are on another level. Especially in Rome.
Probably. But there is a lot more of Italy outside of the main tourist centers. In fact, there are hundreds of towns.
You find that in popular places around the globe. The main square in many wonderful cities is surrounded by tourist trap restaurants with bad food. Bruges might be the worst.True but Piazza Navona is beautiful with the 3 Bernini fountains, and those same tourist cafes are great places to have a cocktail or glass of wine, take in the sights and sounds, and watch people. Same thing with the piazza on front of the Pantheon. Just awesome.
We stayed near the Pantheon, avoided those tourist traps, and were somewhat aimlessly wandering around looking for a place to have dinner when we spotted an old woman in a cafe window making pasta by hand. Everyone sitting outside in the cafe was speaking Italian and we also noticed quite a few of the people eating saying hello to locals passing by on the street. We got the only empty table and had the best meal we had in Rome. We always try to look for places popular with locals.
While for the most part I have been able to get by with my elementary Italian, some Italians do not appreciate us butchering their beautiful language with poor pronunciation. One Roman taxi driver turned to me when we were stopped for a red light and said “Signore, please speak English to me. Your Italian hurts my ears!”
Had lunch in Greve, and can concur. If you are driving in Tuscany this is a wonderful place to stop.
there is a rooftop cafe/bar above a department store right next to the Duomo in central Florence—you can have a cocktail while staring at the Duomo so close it looks like you can touch it. Spectacular views and world class photo ops. Strongly recommend. I had to look up the name, it’s been years since I was there:
Caffe La Terrazza - La Rinascente
Caffe La Terrazza - La Rinascente
You should probably try the Italian restaurants but in Italy, they just call them regular restaurants.
Ummmm.....Times Square. I think I pointed this out in another thread. Here are some of the restaurants around Times Square.
Bubba Gump Shrimp
Olive Garden
Starbucks
Raising Canes
McDonalds
Popeyes.
Haven't been in a long while but there used to be a TGI Fridays in a prime corner of Times Square and it was always busting at the seams with "visitors" to NYC, most of whom had a distinctly "Peopple of Walmart" look to them.
The Bubba Gump Shrimp located in downtown Lahaina, Maui was always packed with that same type of crowd as well--but at least that had a prime waterfront location.
Just astonishing to me that anyone would travel to destinations like those and eat at the same generic $hithole chain joints they could go to within a 5 minute drive from their own homes.
Moe I posted the below bolded/italicized paragraph in response to someone else above but I want to make sure you in particular see it since you're going to be there soon--you'll thank your Lair buddy and uninvited travel consultant Badby when you get back--this was one of the best local tips my wife and I were given when we we in Firenze, and it yielded some of the best travel photos of us we have in our 25 years of marriage. Other great stops if you're looking to bring something nice home are the Mercato Centrale/San Lorenzo Leather Market and the Scuola del Cuoio (Leather School) in the Santa Croce monastery. Anyway, don't miss this:
there is a rooftop cafe/bar above a department store right next to the Duomo in central Florence—you can have a cocktail while staring at the Duomo so close it looks like you can touch it. Spectacular views and world class photo ops. Strongly recommend. I had to look up the name, it’s been years since I was there: Caffe La Terrazza - La Rinascente
Badby - it's been duly noted. I will try my best to get to the Caffe La Terrazza when I am in Florence. Thanks, bud
If you get there Moe, post a pic for us. This thread has me wondering why the hell I haven't been back in Italy since 2006.
We did Positano in late March 2023. It wasn't crowded or hot yet at all. It's beautiful, but I don't know if it's worth the hassle of getting to. We hired a private driver from Naples which was like 40 miles but a 2 hour drive because it's all one way roads. The food there wasn't anything special.
Hard to single out that area as just Positano. You have the entire Amalfi coast from Sorrento to Naples with quaint little towns like Positano, Amalfi and others in between, the island of Capri, Pompeii and many other highlights.
I’ve been to Italy many many times for both work and vacation, the Amalfi coast may be one of my favorite areas along with Florence and Tuscany. I liken the Amalfi coast to a larger Cinque Terra.
I was in Greve last October. Didn't see that wine tasting room, but the best bet for wine is to tour a winery. There are several just outside the town. We did Montecalvi, which is very small, not exported, but a great opportunity to see how they do it.
Don't open that can of worms!I've heard great things about Chef Boyardee's place ..
Anyone traveling to Italy/anywhere else in Europe this summer finding good deals on flights?
Prices suck and we definitely got fleeced on a regular economy RT flight to Barcelona for our honeymoon last summer through United, but we planned it so last minute and had enough to worry about with the wedding so didn’t care as much. Since after that trip I’ve gotten more into the credit card reward game and was able to find a good deal for a modest amount of miles for a business class flight to Amsterdam in August. Haven’t really traveled a ton and we don’t do any work travel so looking forward to flying business for the first time.
Prices suck and we definitely got fleeced on a regular economy RT flight to Barcelona for our honeymoon last summer through United, but we planned it so last minute and had enough to worry about with the wedding so didn’t care as much. Since after that trip I’ve gotten more into the credit card reward game and was able to find a good deal for a modest amount of miles for a business class flight to Amsterdam in August. Haven’t really traveled a ton and we don’t do any work travel so looking forward to flying business for the first time.
You lost me when you said ‘modest amount of miles for a business class flight’. Your upper limit for ‘modest’ must be unusually high.
Edit: an additional note, we just booked rdtrp flights to Barcelona for this September a few weeks ago at about $1250 each on United. Actually Air Canada flights but booked thru United.
Not really, 50k miles for each which is like $500 valued at one cent per point. Granted it’s one way (since we’ll be flying back from another city - doing economy for that one) and also an extra $225 in fees each, but still pretty solid value for business. Direct flight too from IAD/DC area near where we live. There are deals to be had but you have to be flexible, plan far enough in advance and it can take some effort searching different award programs.
Your deal for Barcelona seems decent, better than ours at least (I think it ended up being somewhere between $1,500-$1,700 each for us RT last June/July).
Sorry OP for the sidebar, never been to Italy but would definitely love to go one day and it’s interesting to see the recommendations.
We did 4 days in Rome and 4 in Florence....not enough in crowded Rome, which is hot & dirty, but so much to see.
Love the Alfa!! Never owned one.True but Piazza Navona is beautiful with the 3 Bernini fountains, and those same tourist cafes are great places to have a cocktail or glass of wine, take in the sights and sounds, and watch people. Same thing with the piazza on front of the Pantheon. Just awesome.
Have you seem the movie, The Talented Mr Ripley? Great flick, stunning scenery from all over Italy.
It’s great. Dark, cringy, psychodrama, spectacular Italian scenery. Great performances by Damon, Jude Law, Paltrow, Hoffman, Winslet. That’s where I pulled that image from with PS Hoffman in the Alpha in Piazza Navona.
