The Holiday Thread

[Coma]

Leave for Germany 1 week from today. Stoked.

[Viva la FCB+]

Plane tickets are booked for Italy. We have a rough itinerary but still debating on a few things before starting to book, probably gonna book the train tickets and the Sicily flights after as well. The order is going to change as I saw Serie A starts on August 20th, going to try and work around to be in Milan on that date now.

Basically the plan is 4 days on the Amalfi Coast, 1 in Pompei, 1 in Naples, 4 days Rome, 1 day Assisi, 3 days Milan, 1 day Venice, 3 days Sicily, 4 days Florence.  

The big debate was spend more time up North and or some time checking out Lake Como and some of the mountain area's or Sicily. Timewise we couldnt do both and we ended up settling on Sicily. The flights are super reasonable - basically can fly there and to whereever we need after for about 150$ cad. 

[Coma]

8 hours ago, Viva la FCB said:

Plane tickets are booked for Italy. We have a rough itinerary but still debating on a few things before starting to book, probably gonna book the train tickets and the Sicily flights after as well. The order is going to change as I saw Serie A starts on August 20th, going to try and work around to be in Milan on that date now.

Basically the plan is 4 days on the Amalfi Coast, 1 in Pompei, 1 in Naples, 4 days Rome, 1 day Assisi, 3 days Milan, 1 day Venice, 3 days Sicily, 4 days Florence.  

The big debate was spend more time up North and or some time checking out Lake Como and some of the mountain area's or Sicily. Timewise we couldnt do both and we ended up settling on Sicily. The flights are super reasonable - basically can fly there and to whereever we need after for about 150$ cad. 

I'll be interested to hear about your trip. I have Spain and Italy on my "to do" list.

[Viva la FCB+]

13 hours ago, Coma said:

I'll be interested to hear about your trip. I have Spain and Italy on my "to do" list.

Likewise! Germany, Croatia and Greece are tops of my list now. Italy's always been the top for me though  

[Stan]

22 hours ago, Viva la FCB said:

Plane tickets are booked for Italy. We have a rough itinerary but still debating on a few things before starting to book, probably gonna book the train tickets and the Sicily flights after as well. The order is going to change as I saw Serie A starts on August 20th, going to try and work around to be in Milan on that date now.

Basically the plan is 4 days on the Amalfi Coast, 1 in Pompei, 1 in Naples, 4 days Rome, 1 day Assisi, 3 days Milan, 1 day Venice, 3 days Sicily, 4 days Florence.  

The big debate was spend more time up North and or some time checking out Lake Como and some of the mountain area's or Sicily. Timewise we couldnt do both and we ended up settling on Sicily. The flights are super reasonable - basically can fly there and to whereever we need after for about 150$ cad. 

Happy to recommend places in Milan if needed - went there last year and loved it.

I'd have heavily recommended Lake Como over Sicily, personal preference! The missus & I went to Lake Como for a day trip as part of that Milan trip; stunning scenery and perfect for 1 day (not even that really, we took our time there!), and when parents have been to Sicily they got bored . Appreciate it's cost-effective though for onward journeys.

 

Amalfi Coast and Pompeii sounds great though. Always wanted to go there. 

[Viva la FCB+]

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

Happy to recommend places in Milan if needed - went there last year and loved it.

I'd have heavily recommended Lake Como over Sicily, personal preference! The missus & I went to Lake Como for a day trip as part of that Milan trip; stunning scenery and perfect for 1 day (not even that really, we took our time there!), and when parents have been to Sicily they got bored . Appreciate it's cost-effective though for onward journeys.

 

Amalfi Coast and Pompeii sounds great though. Always wanted to go there. 

Absolutely! fire away! Did you guys get to anywhere else as well or just a short Milan trip?

Lake Como looked beautiful and I saw it highly recommended basically everywhere. We're sitting down this weekend to start booking things and will narrow down a few day trips. Florence and the Coast we have a few things in mind but like Rome or Milan we haven't looked into anything yet so its very possible maybe we take 1 of the 3 days in Milan and do that but we'll see. The one thing about Lake Como and up north in general is it reminded us of our scenary here. Not saying thats a bad thing but we figured if push comes to shove Sicily would be a little more unique. The better half was pretty set on going to Sicily if it was possible. She wanted to see Mount Etna and Catania and Taormina specifically, I tossed in Palermo for my 2 cents. So 1 day in Palermo, 1 in Catania and I figure we can do Taormina and Mount Etna in a day. Originally we were looking at taking a train from the north to the coast at some point but adding in Sicily will save us from taking one long train ride as well, basically its an hour flight to most of the airports from what I saw. 

 

[Pyfish+]

Rearranged our holiday to Lanzarote. Same hotel as last year with the only difference being we're hiring a car this time. Should give us a bit more freedom to explore!

[Viva la FCB+]

On 11/07/2023 at 08:16, Stan said:

Happy to recommend places in Milan if needed - went there last year and loved it.

I'd have heavily recommended Lake Como over Sicily, personal preference! The missus & I went to Lake Como for a day trip as part of that Milan trip; stunning scenery and perfect for 1 day (not even that really, we took our time there!), and when parents have been to Sicily they got bored . Appreciate it's cost-effective though for onward journeys.

 

Amalfi Coast and Pompeii sounds great though. Always wanted to go there. 

Ok so we've finalized the itinerary as far as main places and dates. With 3 full days in Milan the only plans so far are to see a match in the San Siro and see the Duomo. We haven't really begun looking into what else to see and do in the city but would you say 2 days in enough and is it worth spending the 1 day going to Lake Como?

[Rucksackfranzose]

58 minutes ago, Viva la FCB said:

Ok so we've finalized the itinerary as far as main places and dates. With 3 full days in Milan the only plans so far are to see a match in the San Siro and see the Duomo. We haven't really begun looking into what else to see and do in the city but would you say 2 days in enough and is it worth spending the 1 day going to Lake Como?

Absolutely.

[Viva la FCB+]

35 minutes ago, Rucksackfranzose said:

Absolutely.

Ok will look into it then, cheers 

[Viva la FCB+]

1 hour ago, Rucksackfranzose said:

Absolutely.

One other one for you. We're looking at 4 nights in Florence, I know it's bloody massive but we figure one day venturing outside of the city in the countryside a bit leaves us with three days. Is Cinque Terre worth venturing for another day trip and at the same time again is two days for Florence enough would you figure? Also anything in Florence in general you would recommend!?

[Stan]

7 hours ago, Viva la FCB said:

Ok so we've finalized the itinerary as far as main places and dates. With 3 full days in Milan the only plans so far are to see a match in the San Siro and see the Duomo. We haven't really begun looking into what else to see and do in the city but would you say 2 days in enough and is it worth spending the 1 day going to Lake Como?

100%. Sorry I didn't reply to the other post! 

There's a funicular in Como you can get, takes you up in to the mountains and there's stunning viewpoints. On a (very) clear day you can see Turin from there. But the views of the Lake are something else. 

2 days is fine for the main stuff to be honest. 

There's some restaurants we can recommend. One of them that stands out is La Osteria, not too far from the train station (which is a sight in itself). 

Also try their local delicacy - the panzerotti. There was a place just to the left of Duomo that we tried them from and it was delicious. 

Try and visit Navigli if you can. Nice canals to sit by and eat/drink next to. 

 

The Bosco Verticale is very unique too! 

[Viva la FCB+]

8 hours ago, Stan said:

100%. Sorry I didn't reply to the other post! 

There's a funicular in Como you can get, takes you up in to the mountains and there's stunning viewpoints. On a (very) clear day you can see Turin from there. But the views of the Lake are something else. 

2 days is fine for the main stuff to be honest. 

There's some restaurants we can recommend. One of them that stands out is La Osteria, not too far from the train station (which is a sight in itself). 

Also try their local delicacy - the panzerotti. There was a place just to the left of Duomo that we tried them from and it was delicious. 

Try and visit Navigli if you can. Nice canals to sit by and eat/drink next to. 

 

The Bosco Verticale is very unique too! 

Cheers, appreciate it. That all sounds great tbh. The Italians seem to have a fair amount of Gondala's/railcars and what have you and man I can see why, the views always seem worth it.

[DeadLinesman]

On 11/07/2023 at 16:43, Viva la FCB said:

Absolutely! fire away! Did you guys get to anywhere else as well or just a short Milan trip?

Lake Como looked beautiful and I saw it highly recommended basically everywhere. We're sitting down this weekend to start booking things and will narrow down a few day trips. Florence and the Coast we have a few things in mind but like Rome or Milan we haven't looked into anything yet so its very possible maybe we take 1 of the 3 days in Milan and do that but we'll see. The one thing about Lake Como and up north in general is it reminded us of our scenary here. Not saying thats a bad thing but we figured if push comes to shove Sicily would be a little more unique. The better half was pretty set on going to Sicily if it was possible. She wanted to see Mount Etna and Catania and Taormina specifically, I tossed in Palermo for my 2 cents. So 1 day in Palermo, 1 in Catania and I figure we can do Taormina and Mount Etna in a day. Originally we were looking at taking a train from the north to the coast at some point but adding in Sicily will save us from taking one long train ride as well, basically its an hour flight to most of the airports from what I saw. 

 

Como is pretty boring compared to Lake Garda imho having been to both. The towns/villages on the lake are all so massively different but amazing in their own way, especially Bardalino and Garda itself. Limone and Malcesine also worth a visit!

 

Get the galleries booked for Florence as they sell out on certain days really quickly.

[Viva la FCB+]

25 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

Como is pretty boring compared to Lake Garda imho having been to both. The towns/villages on the lake are all so massively different but amazing in their own way, especially Bardalino and Garda itself. Limone and Malcesine also worth a visit!

 

Get the galleries booked for Florence as they sell out on certain days really quickly.

Ah thats the problem, only have a little over three weeks and theres just so much more to see. Everything we seemingly look at looks amazing in its own right. We ended up condensing Sicily to just the Catania area as we only have 3 nights and thats the main area the better half wanted to go. 

Yeah good advice, on the weekend we plan to book the main stuff like the galleries and whatnot in Florence and Rome and Milan. Unfortunately we're going during high season but its the time we've got. 

 

[Lucas]

Me and my other half went to Milan a few years ago for Football reasons, but we also did the day trip to Como. I would recommend it 100%.

Something we learnt out there which you may or may not know, if you use the train, make sure you validate the ticket before you board. If you don't, you will be fined.

We didn't know this and found out the hard way, luckily the attendant on board only charged us half of what he could have. You may already know this but it's surprising how many don't. There are normally a load of machines where you basically just get the ticket scanned before but in England, it's not something we normally need to do so easy to miss.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Lucas

[Viva la FCB+]

Italy is absolutely beautiful so far. I wish I had made it here sooner tbh. So far we've done Assisi, Salerno/Amalfi coast, Capri and today in Pompeii.

Tomorrow off to Naples for one night before heading to Catania. Just saw that Mount Etna erupted and closed the Catania airport and holy shit on that timing. The pictures are nuts, thankfully theyre set to open the airport tomorrow at 6 am so we should be fine for the day after. Apparently there hasn't been a major eruption since 92 that is some crazy stuff.

Didn't take alot of pics on my phone and apparently I can't upload more then one they too big but here's one from Capri. Took a funicular up part way up the mountain and then a chairlift. Insane views of the entire island.

[Viva la FCB+]

Just finishing up day two in Sicily/Catania. Today we spent the day in Taormina,beautiful place yet again. Tomorrow we are off to Syracusa and then off to Milan for three days.

Tickets seemed to work out I'll know when were there but they look good now that they are delivered. We bought tickets to the opening match Inter vs Monza. I tried dealing with Inter's official site but I couldn't get a verification code without an Italian phone number and we wanted to get the tickets ahead of time. I tried emailing them but the time difference meant the tickets I wanted got taken two or three different times then they stopped responding. Bought through viagogo seemed a little sketchy so I half expected it not to work out but knock on wood so far so good for Saturday.

Here's a shot from the city up top. Took a funicular down to the beach later which is roughly in the bottom right corner of the pic.

 

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

See @Coma, you definitely should go to Italy.

[Coma]

8 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

See @Coma, you definitely should go to Italy.

I'm gonna need more pics.  @Viva la FCB convince me.

[Viva la FCB+]

37 minutes ago, Coma said:

I'm gonna need more pics.  @Viva la FCB convince me.

After I'm back I can go through the thousands of photos I'll have and can compress and post more. It's limited to 2mb per post and most of my phone pics are even bigger then that haha. Were only about 10 days in but so far man everyone needs to go here. Everywhere we go or turn is just beautiful. The food is amazing, my god the tomatoes and fruit just do not taste this good at home. The people are super friendly as well, very laid back. I just love it. I haven't travelled like this for quite a few years now but definitely my favourite trip already. I'll add in my one for today if I can here's Siracusa.

 

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Just now, Viva la FCB said:

After I'm back I can go through the thousands of photos I'll have and can compress and post more. It's limited to 2mb per post and most of my phone pics are even bigger then that haha. Were only about 10 days in but so far man everyone needs to go here. Everywhere we go or turn is just beautiful. The food is amazing, my god the tomatoes and fruit just do not taste this good at home. The people are super friendly as well, very laid back. I just love it. I haven't travelled like this for quite a few years now but definitely my favourite trip already.

Fuckin' told you @Coma, Italy is fucking fantastic.

[Viva la FCB+]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Fuckin' told you @Coma, Italy is fucking fantastic.

The extra thing about the food, I've heard from other people that have visited before as well but I can now confirm it first hand. My fiancee is lactose back home, she can eat aged cheeses but that's basically it. She has gone full out here with absolutely no issue at all. Ice cream, milk, cream, cheeses, all the sauces, you name it no problems. Just has to be the processing of all our shitty stuff back home.

[Coma]

29 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Fuckin' told you @Coma, Italy is fucking fantastic.

 

[Viva la FCB+]

I have basically two negative things to say so far one about Italy in general and one comment about Naples.

The smoking culture does kinda suck. They smoke nearly anywhere and everywhere outside. I'm definitely not used to it as this just hasn't been a thing in NA really for quite some time. Like cooks will come out and have a cigarette on the front steps of the restaurant kind of thing. It's just something to be aware of and takes a little getting used to.

Now Naples. This i was warned about ahead of time and we only spent a day there but it was still shocking to see it. The garbage. First introduced taking a bus and as we go up the ramp onto the highway the sides and just littered with bags of garbage and trash. The shoulders on both sides of the highway just covered in trash.

The city was better but still just garbage everywhere. We went to the main piaza for a half an hour break or so to rest in the shade. Theres a huge beautiful Roman esque era church with columns in like a half moon shape around the piaza centre that's covered with shops and whatnot you can walk in the shade under. We sat on the steps on one end in the shade as allot of people where doing. I saw at least two or three people just chuck empty water bottles and shit on the ground down the stairs. It's just so sad to see how some number of them don't care so it won't ever change.

It's really sad because Naples was very interesting and cool otherwise. We did an underground tour in the evening of an ancient Roman Aqueducts, also had some WW2 stuff going on as well. Wandered the streets with all the Napoli stuff everywhere and visited a couple Maradona murals. Took a funicular up to a viewpoint of the entire city and the volcano in the background. Awesome pizza too... Best so far!