Welcome to Channel – A Journey to Explore the World!
This YouTube channel shares a unique lifestyle through global travel, exploring local cultures via street food, traditional dishes, and authentic travel experiences you won’t want to miss.
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00:00This 10-day itinerary covers six cities in the northern half of Italy, Venice, Florence, Modena, Pisa, Cinque Terre, and Rome.
00:09These cities offer a variety of experiences from architecture, art, and history, to nature, and of course a ton of great food.
00:16So even though we never left Italy, each destination felt truly new and exciting.
00:21In this video, we'll cover how we picked these cities and the route we took through Italy,
00:25including how we navigated the train system, where we stayed, and our favorite activities in each city.
00:30At the end of this video, we'll tell you some cities we considered visiting but didn't include in our itinerary, so be sure to hang around for that.
00:37Okay, let's start with some logistics.
00:39We wanted our route to be efficient, with as little time backtracking as possible, so we selected different arrival and departure airports.
00:47We flew into the Venice Marco Polo Airport and then worked our way southwest via Italy's extensive train system to Rome,
00:54where we caught our non-stop flight back to DFW.
00:57From the Venice airport, we grabbed an ATVO bus to the bus station in Venice, which happened to be right across the street from our hotel.
01:04Best station? Hotel. Best station? Hotel.
01:10And the train station is just right behind the bus station, so overall, very good for logistics.
01:15We stayed at this AC Marriott for our two nights in Venice.
01:18Our hotel was located at the entrance of Venice and was in walking distance to all of the major attractions Venice has to offer,
01:25including St. Mark's Square, St. Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace, and the Rialto Bridge.
01:31However, the thing I enjoyed most about Venice was just wandering through the streets, stopping in local cafes,
01:37trying their local cuisine, and just observing how the locals live and eat in this wonderful city.
01:42Here's a list of coffee shops that we recommend in Venice, as well as a list of places to eat.
01:47We will spare you the pronunciation.
01:49A must-see in Venice is the Aqua Alta Bookstore.
01:52It is a unique bookstore in Venice with some of the best photo opportunities for free in the city.
01:58Unfortunately, we didn't get the opportunity to take a gondola ride, but it looked like so much fun,
02:02and if you get the chance, we highly recommend that.
02:05On day three, we traveled from the Venice train station via the Trent Italia high-speed train to the Florence-Santa Maria Novella station.
02:12That's us!
02:13We got a red train. It's gonna go fast.
02:16Booking train tickets in advance is really easy through Trent Italia's website.
02:19You just put in your starting location and your ending location, and it'll bring up all of the available options.
02:25Having tickets in advance is helpful for planning, but we also booked the rest of our tickets while we were on this first train.
02:31We then walked to the Milu Hotel where we checked in for a four-night stay.
02:37The Milu Hotel is located a convenient 10-minute walk from the train station and is just around the corner from the Duomo.
02:43We were excited to be able to walk to all of the places we wanted to visit, including the Academia Gallery and the Uffizi Gallery.
02:50While the Statue of David was definitely at the top of our list, we loved visiting the Mercato Centrale or the Central Market of Florence to get a taste of all the local cuisine.
02:59By now, you've probably realized that we like to eat.
03:02Speaking of food, here's a list of places we recommend visiting in Florence.
03:06We do have a full travel guide where we share our top seven tips for visiting Florence, so if you're interested in that, we'll leave a link in the description.
03:14After a full day of admiring Florence, we booked a day trip through the Amiga Romana region of Italy where we got picked up by a driver and taken to various foodie stops around Modena.
03:24While everything was super delicious, I have to say that our favorite stops were probably the Parmigiano-Reggiano factory and the balsamic vinegar tasting.
03:32Both of these products are local to the region and we really enjoyed learning how they're made.
03:36In fact, we loved it so much that we bought a whole bunch of stuff to take with us.
03:40Balsamic vinegar aged eight years.
03:43We did also get some olive oil and had to carry it around for the rest of our trip.
03:46We have too much stuff.
03:48We were off to Cinque Terre, but we had an important stop along the way to check out the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
03:54We took the train from Florence of Santa Maria Novella Station to Pisa Central and checked all of our bags and the goodies that we got in Modena into a luggage locker so we could enjoy lunch in Pisa.
04:04Bag free.
04:05Everyone's got to get their perfect photo pretending to hold the Tower of Pisa.
04:11Once we left Pisa Central, we transferred trains at the Laspisius Station and rode into the beautiful Rio Maggiore.
04:19To ride the train system within Cinque Terre, a one-way train ticket between two Cinque Terre villages costs about five euros.
04:26However, if you're going to be riding the train system frequently, we recommend that you purchase the Cinque Terre card.
04:31The Cinque Terre card provides a 24-hour pass and it costs about 18 euro and 20 cents and gives you unlimited access to the train system between the five villages and also includes access to the hiking trails.
04:44You can purchase the Cinque Terre pass online ahead of your trip or at the nearest train station when you arrive.
04:50We will leave a link in the description to book the pass ahead of time.
04:53Upon arrival, our Airbnb host met us outside the train station and walked us to our accommodation for the next two nights.
05:01Our Airbnb had a beautiful view and we enjoyed being able to lounge and cook in the evenings.
05:07Lauren and I both love the outdoors so coming to Cinque Terre to hike with breathtaking views was on our bucket list and that is what drew us in.
05:15It's the climb.
05:18However, Cinque Terre is composed of five villages with many unique things to offer.
05:23If you're into food, there is plenty of fresh, local-caught seafood.
05:27We highly recommend Fuderia in Manarola for seafood sandwiches or Y Pescato Cucinata for seafood cones in Rio Maggiore.
05:36Just be aware of the seagulls.
05:38Hope you enjoy that, buddy.
05:40And if seafood cones aren't your thing...
05:42I don't like my food.
05:44It blips at me.
05:45Here's a couple of other places we recommend.
05:48For sightseers and photographers, Rio Maggiore is one of the best places to watch the sunset and to snap a few photos that you will never forget.
05:57The water was extremely rough when we visited, so unfortunately we were unable to book a boat tour.
06:03But if you are looking for a different vantage point of the five villages, we highly recommend booking a tour.
06:08After two days in Cinque Terre, we headed to the train station to make our way to Rome.
06:13This was the longest train ride of the trip since it was on the Inner City Line, which goes down Italy's west coast.
06:20We made the most of our train ride by making a snack board with all the leftover goodies in our bag and enjoyed the view on this four-hour ride to Rome.
06:28While in Rome, we stayed at the Pantheon iconic Rome Hotel, which is right around the corner from the Pantheon and walking distance from all of the major attractions.
06:37Rome was the birthplace of modern civilization and has many attractions such as the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and many, many more.
06:46One thing we try to do in every country we visit is book a cooking class.
06:50This is a great date night in a foreign city and enables us to meet new people and attempt to make the local cuisine.
06:56Some of our best food was in Rome.
06:58Our top picks were Bonci Pizzeria for on-the-go snacks, Di Triambo, and E Pizzi Cotoli.
07:05Cheers!
07:06Cheers!
07:06Cheers!
07:06Cheers!
07:07Ultimately, our route through Italy was chosen to maximize the amount of sightseeing while reducing the amount of travel time.
07:14Other areas in Italy we considered visiting were the Dolomites, Milan, Lake Como, the Amalfi Coast, and Sicily.
07:21We went in April, so it wasn't warm enough to go swimming, so that ruled out Lake Como and the Amalfi Coast.
07:28And since we weren't visiting Lake Como, we decided to skip Milan.
07:31Our timing also ruled out the Dolomites, since the ice doesn't typically melt until late summer.
07:37And Sicily was just a little too far away to make it work.
07:39The good news is this will give us an excuse to visit this beautiful country again in the future.
07:45Lauren and I are actively planning our 2023 travel schedule.
07:48Let us know down in the comments what country we should visit in the new year.
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