“Italy is dream… That keeps returning for the rest of your life.”– Anna Akhmatova
Magical. Beyond romantic. More than majestic.
Oh-my-God-jaw-dropping-landscapes! That basically sums up what we think of Italy. Nobody can have enough of Italy. A very beautiful and delicious country!
Together as family, we spent seven days exploring five of its famous cities – Rome, Florence, Pisa, Torino and Venice! One country, different cities all of which left different tastes of varying dreams to our subconscious!
We don’t think we will have enough of Italy. The country opened up different layers of our inner passions, provoking different reactions for our senses.
Italy is delicious. Uhhmm, pizza, pasta, gelato! No wonder Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat Pray and Love, ate and ate in this country! The kids enjoyed gelato in basically all the streets we went to! Aldente pasta? Yes please! Two orders of pizza for one each?! Yes please! If we didn’t attempt to walk the entire city of Rome and get lost from one bus to another, we wouldn’t have gained so much weight that the plane back home would refuse to take us!
Italy is wet and warm. It was raining every single day during one month of March when Turknoy family was there. Yet the people are accommodating and welcoming.
We were in the overnight train from France to Rome , newbie traveler with three kids in tow, we shared the cabin with an Italian drunk woman! She speak no English and commending our kids for being all so well-behaved. Honestly, it was scary for all of us , her stinky shoes, drunk breath and Italian murmurs for 4-hour train ride is what we will remember about Italy as family! Yet when the drunk Italian woman bid her goodbye at the train station with so much warmth and hospitality, it was more enough for us to fondly remember her and forget about the terror we felt inside the cabin train.
In Murano Island, Venice, where expensive Murano glass shops abound, we had to seek refuge in one of the shop, where we were politely and warmly shoo-ed away because kids might break the glasses and we obviously, can’t afford such exquisite, elegant and authentic home glass decor. How could anyone be so beautiful, posh, polite and rude at the same time?
We believe, only Italians can!
And of course, riding around Venice in a gondola with chatty handsome Italian gondolier cum historian cum actor (albeit, extra character as gondolier!) Best one-hour ride for the family ever!
Italy smells anciently magnificent. Well, the landscape, the history, the architecture, the art. It is everywhere, you can really smell the magnificence in all periods of time. From The Colosseum, to Accademia Gallery where David is to the contemporary museums of Florence everywhere top with the City of Venice! We were always left speechless any point in time during our stay in Italy, we can only smell our environment.
Italy is music to the ears. Every restaurant we went to, there were loud Italians passing orders, streets filled with music, again mixed with all the Italian accents. Can’t say anything more. We can stay in cafe and just listen to their loud conversations we can’t comprehend.
Add in the pigeons flipping their winds in
Piazza De Marco mixed in the waves of Adriatic Sea with the tapping of the rain while busy tourists talking and sipping their warm drinks.
Italy is bliss. Our senses said so.
Turknoy Travels 100! 