I love Italy, BUT...

First of all, I love the IDEA of Italy, fuelled by books like "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes (which I just love, by the way). I think we all have this image in our head of cyprus-lined avenues through golden wheat fields, roadtrips in open cabriolets, meandering through old stone villages eating delicious ice cream and soaking in the ancient culture. 

What our fantasy image fails to picture is that it is all this, but above all that it´s also crowded, stressful, and exhausting. It feels like nobody speaks English, there´s no parking available (not for free at least), there´s 2374 little cultural differences to consider, there are tourist trap restaurants aplenty for all the Asian and American tourists and what they consider winter blankets is just a wimpy thin plaid in comparison to our German down blankets leaving me to fear for my body warmth every night. 

So: lots of things not to like. Maybe I´m getting old and grumpy. Maybe I care too much about fitting in and not making cultural tourist mistakes. Maybe it was my hormonal struggles adapting to the Pill I had just started to take again. But: There´s also much to like of course! You just have to find it, speak some Italian, and try not to drive by car unless you´re a seasoned driver with elefant skin acceptance towards unpredictable driving. 

Living in the South, I found myself having a one-week holiday for carnival season. That´s a first! I used this to haul my boyfriend on my long-envisioned roadtrip through Tuscany. Turns out it´s not a good idea to have a busy holiday when you only have one week off and the rest of your life is busy as well and you could actually need a break with not doing much at all for a while. We tried to adapt and not do too much, also scheduling in some sleeping in and early nights and hours spent just sitting in the sun and enjoying the warmth. 

We flew into Milan, drove to Geneve (Genua), then Cinque Terre, rural Tuscany, Florence, and back to Milan. From Stuttgart it´s actually not far to also drive by car straight away but at first we planned on going by train which we later switched to renting a car for the duration on our stay.

We stayed two nights each place, having booked with Airbnb and having chosen places that had parking on site. It was affordable and a good option if travelling by car.  Still, I do get why Airbnb is morally controversial and why as a responsible traveller it would be better to choose other options not taking living space away from city residents. On the other hand,  it´s just nicer than staying in uniform hotel rooms, even if arranging the check-in is sometimes more inflexible than official hotel/BnB solutions.

Our first stop Geneve (Genua) was okay. It´s mostly interesting for it´s history, it being the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and one of the biggest ports of its time.
I liked it for it´s cheap, oily Focaccias, the views from the mountains easily available by cable-cars and public elevators, the local Trofie pasta with pesto Genovese and the pizza.

Next, we went to a small place near the Cinque Terre towns in the middle of nowhere really, stopping in a few coast towns on the way. But again: none to expensive parking mixed with crazy driving so I didn´t fancy that too much, even if the scenery of the Ligurian coast was absolutely stunning.
Having arrived, we enjoyed our home-made dinner on the balcony with a view over the sea and a smell in the air of fires and trees in early bloom.

The next day we set off to hike Cinque Terre, only to learn that all the lower famous hikes between the towns are closed off (coast tracks along steep cliffs during winter + low Italian maintenance) so we spoke to a very nice, very energetic Swiss family and they gave us advice which alternative trails might be even nicer and we´d still get to see the towns.
So we set off happily along this route, having it all to ourselves and feeling like adventurers.

Having arrived in Monterosso al Mare, the first of the Cinque Terre towns, we took the train to the other towns not being able to see anything really, then took the train back because we only had a 13€-8h parking ticket and then drove back to our little apartment for another early night and a half an hour cuddle with the random cat that walked in.

The next stop was nearby Montecarlo between Pisa and Florence. We hoped to catch some rural Tuscany even if this was more densely populated than I´d hoped for. Still, our hosts were amiable, we found an absolutely gorgeous restaurant serving wild boar, homemade ravioli with local cabbage sauce, and wine from their own vineyard in the bottle. We spent a lovely day in Lucca cycling on rented bikes on the historic city walls and eating more ice cream.

Our fourth stop was in Florence. I liked Florence. It´s not too big, there's a humongous dome viewed best from the Piazza Michelangelo, a hill just outside, by sunset. We got to enter the Uffici gallery for free because it was Leonardo da Vinci week (20€ saved, yay) seeing the Venus painting by Botticelli, the Medusa head by Caravaggio and some more very famous paintings and artwork. Even if we didn´t see Michelangelo´s David statue in orginial we got to admire his beautiful butt on several copies across town.
Also, we had a nice old Airbnb room looking out over a courtyard with turtles living in it, another cat, and a very good restaurant close by again, so that helped.

Our last stop was in Vinzago between Milan and the Malpensa airport. The plan was to visit Milan by train from there but I ended up getting sick from some bug I caught and spending most of the Sunday in bed. I´ve seen Milan´s sights, so I wasn´t too sad.
After arriving back in Germany I stayed home sick for another two days to get better. I wasn´t seriously ill, just not feeling well. Now, nearly one week later, I am nearly fully recovered and spending the weekend with my parents.

That was one journey, huh! Since I already summarized my trip thoroughly in the beginning of the post, there´s nothing left for me here to say: bye by doooieee! See you again next time Italy!
If you´re interested in the costs of a trip like this, see below.
If not, I hope you enjoyed this account of my Italy trip and you´re always welcome to write me if you liked it! Hope you´re all well and enjoying the first signs of spring :)
Baaaajjjjjjjj!

Roadtrip Italy costs

Flights were 76€ p.P. from Stuttgart to Milan with easyjet.

Airbnb was 450 for private rooms 10 nights = 225 per Person. 

Car: 100€ rental (pick-up and drop-off Milan airport) plus Maut (another 60€ for 1000km driving mostly on highways) and fuel (120€)

200€ for food 2 people (restaurants, snacks, supermarket)

All in all: about 500€ p.P. for 10 days

*Disclaimer: I´m aware of the social consensus that "you don´t talk about money".  I´m also not including costs here to say "look how much money I spent" but to give you an idea of the prices and costs to expect if you ever plan on doing something alike. Also, I´m sure this can be done much cheaper or much more expensive. This is just a rough general idea. Plus, I´m interested myself in breaking up the sum to see how much I actually spent on what. If you agree/disagree, you can always let me know in your comments or personal messages!