In early September I set off on a three-week trip around various parts of southern Europe with my roommate Alyssa. Our adventure began with nine fantastic days touring around Italy. We started in Venice, then hit Rome, travelled to Naples and explored the Amalfi Coats and Capri. From there, we headed north again, this time to Milan, to round off our time in Italy before moving on to the South of France. Italy is a really magical place. The food is delicious, the scenery is breathtaking, and the language and culture is beautiful. I also loved how the different cities had such different feels and their own character. Here I’m diving into what our Italy itinerary looked like and breaking down how you can see some of the best that the country has to offer in a limited time frame.

Day One: Venice

I flew out of Toronto Pearson Airport and actually landed in Munich, Germany. The reason for this was that my travel companion had already been in Europe for a couple weeks prior to my arrival and had begun her trip in Munich and had a scheduled flight to return home that was also departing from the airport in Munich. So, to allow for us to fly home together at the end of the trip, I opted to also fly into Munich. Booking a round-trip flight was simply so much cheaper than breaking up the flights and flying directly into Italy on my way over.

After arriving in Munich, I had a long train ride through Germany and Austria with Venice as my final destination. The train ride hosted some seriously stunning views, which greatly helped to pass the 6 hours of travel and keep my jet lag at bay. Once I reached Alyssa in Venice, I was (understandably) exhausted. We checked into our hostel, had some dinner and pretty much called it a night after that. We had plans to get up early the next morning to make the most of our one day in Venice, which is where our adventure really began.

Where We Stayed:

After arriving in Venice, we made the short walk from Venezia Mestre (the train station) to the Anda Venice Hostel. We were only at this hostel for one night, but it was clean, newly renovated and very close to the train station, which was a huge plus for us. It was a bit cheaper than some of the other hostels as well since it is located on the mainland of Venice rather than the island. Despite this, the heart of Venice is easily reached by a quick train ride from Venezia Mestre to Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia.

What We Did:

As I previously mentioned, we were only in Venice for one day, so we had a whirlwind of an itinerary which started with an early wakeup call and ended with our 6:25pm train to Rome. Being on a student budget, we had to pick and choose which attractions to pay for, but I am very happy with the selections we made. One day in Venice may seem very short, but, to me, it was the perfect amount of time.

Our morning began with a quick train ride from Venezia Mestre to Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia. After arriving on the island, we stored our luggage at the train station as we were not going to be returning to our hostel before our train to Rome that night. Once our bags were safely stored, we set out on our adventure! Here are some of the sights that we saw:

• The Rialto Bridge
• Piazza San Marco is the largest public square in Venice and is the home to Dodge’s Palace, St Mar’s Bascilica, and St Mark’s Campanile.
• St Mark’s Basilica
• The Rialto Market was one of my favourite things that we saw in Venice. It is a large indoor/outdoor market, and we all know how much I love my markets! Since we were travelling to Rome later that day, we did not buy anything at the market. We did spend a decent chunk of time wandering between the stalls and admiring the beautiful food.
• St Mark’s Campanile. Of all of the attractions we saw, this is the only one that we paid for. We paid to take the elevator to the top of the Campanile, which gave us stunning views of the rooftops of Venice and the surrounding water.
• The Bridge of Sorrows
• Doge’s Palace. I know that Dodge’s Palace is supposed to be absolutely spectacular inside, but it was unfortunately not in the budget for us. Instead we appreciated the architecture from the street. Maybe someday if I return to Venice I will make touring the inside of the palace a priority.

We had also planned to visit the island of Burano, one of the small islands off the coast of Venice’s main island, but the ferry fee was 30 euros per person for a one-way trip. We figured we could make that money go a lot further doing something else.

What We Ate:

One thing I will say about Venice is that it is not known for its food. That being said, we had a very pleasant food experience during our single day in Venice. After we had been wandering around the streets for a few hours, we stopped at 1000 Coffee & Bakery for a much needed sandwich and some caffeine.

One goal that Alyssa and I set for our time in Europe was to have at least one gelato a day and let me tell ya, the gelato we had in Venice gave all the other gelatos on our trip are run for their money. We got our cones at Suso and we clearly weren’t the only ones who had read all the great reviews online. The line was long, but the gelato was so worth it. Tragically, only moments after Alyssa had proclaimed that this was the best gelato she had had since arriving in Europe two weeks prior, her scoops fell from their cone after a lick gone amiss. To make matters worse, the throngs of tourists around us on the narrow Venice street proceeded to walk through her fallen gelato. It was a real tragedy.

But the tragedy for Alyssa did not end there. By mid-afternoon we were in need of a break from all the walking and the heat. We stopped in at a cafe, bought the cheapest pop on the menu, grabbed a seat out front and proceeded to sit there for about two hours (yes we are the worst, I know). While we were sitting, a pigeon decided to relieve itself on Alyssa’s shoulder. Yep, it was not great. Especially only mere hours after the gelato tragedy. But, alas, we recovered from it and still had a great time.

We capped off our day in Venice with takeout pasta (what could be more Italian?) from Dal Moro’s, which was apparently the first takeaway-only pasta restaurant in the world. After this delicious dinner, we retrieved our luggage from its storage place and caught our train to Rome, where the next chapter of our Italian adventure began.

Day Two to Four: Rome

Where We Stayed:

Once we arrived in Rome, we made the walk from the Rome Termini train station to our hostel, Ostello Bello Roma Colosseo. This was maybe my favourite hostel that we stayed at on our trip and there are a few reasons for that: great location – literally a two minute walk from the colosseum -, great staff, and great shared spaces – the hostel had a rooftop patio that looked out over the city and a cute courtyard on the main floor where you could eat breakfast and hangout with other guests. Oh! One more thing that also made it great, the communal kitchen had baskets of free food for cooking. Alyssa and I utilized this quite a few times to make some ~free~ pasta dinners to eat on the rooftop patio. Ostello Bello has hostel locations throughout Italy. We actually stayed at another Ostello Bello during our time in Naples.

Most hostels in Europe offer you a free drink, if they have a bar on the property, with your check in. The usual offerings for this free beverage are beer or wine, which is a problem for me because I despise both… Tragically, I can’t even drink them if they’re free. Lucky for me, every hostel we stayed at in Italy that offered free drinks with check in also offered an Aperol Spritz as an option. I had had an Aperol Spritz before and hadn’t liked it very much, but I figured that when in Rome I should give it another go and sure enough I loved it. Aperol Spritz became my drink for pretty well the whole trip.

What We Did:

We had two full days to explore Rome and we certainly made the most of it. We did a mixture of tour-guided and self-guided sight seeing to make the most of our time in this beautiful city. Here is a summary of our adventures:

• Booked a guided tour of the Vatican. Originally, when we were planning this trip we completely forgot to list visiting the Vatican as an activity, but since we were in Rome we figured that we should make the trip. Plus, visiting the Vatican technically counted as us visiting another country since Vatican City is considered to be a separate country from Italy. Instead of tackling the Vatican on our own, we opted to do a guided tour. We booked the tour through GetYourGuide, which we used quite a few times throughout our trip to book different tours. I’ll get into more about that later in this post. We did the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and Basilica Tour which was three and a half hours. Although it was really fantastic to have a guide to cater our experience at the Vatican, we definitely could have chosen a tour with a shorted time frame because standing and listening to someone talk about Catholic Italian history for three and a half hours is a lot. Needless to say we were very tired by the end and in desperate need of a gelato.
• Visited the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. Hot tip: if you want to beat the crowds at these two iconic locations, plan to start your day nice and early so you can arrive before the throngs of other tourists do.
• Explored the Villa Borghese Park. The Villa Borghese is a beautiful park with a historic Villa museum at its center and it is only a short walk from the top of the Spanish Steps. We did not explore the villa itself, but did take a nice stroll through the park and stopped to admire the city views from the Terrazza del Pincio.
• Toured the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. We used GetYourGuide to book our Colosseum tickets as well. We bought the tickets that allowed us access into the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palantine Hill, which was fantastic. There is so much to explore here, you could easily spend an entire day doing this.

What We Ate:

As to be expected, the food in Rome was fantastic. When we weren’t chowing down on our ~free~ hostel spaghetti, we were enjoying delicious gelato, fresh pasta and delicious sandwiches. Here are some of the spots that we enjoyed:

• Mizio’s Street Food has fantastic sandwiches. We stopped here on our first day to grab a sandwich before our big day at the Colosseum.
• Osteria Da Fortunata has fresh pasta that is to die for! This was a recommendation that we received from my boyfriend and his friends who had eaten here a couple weeks before while they were in Rome. We arrived at the restaurant to find a line down the block. We were told by the host that we would not be able to get in, but that there were two more locations in the near vicinity that would likely be less busy and equally as good. I kid you not when I say that this restaurant has three locations within 5 minutes of each other. Apparently that is very common in Rome. When a business is doing well it is easier to buy up more separate real estate nearby than to expand the existing space to meet growing business needs. So anyway, we went to one of the other locations and were able to be seated immediately. We had a delicious meal and walked away very happy.

Day Five: Capri

I absolutely loved Capri. Reflecting back on my trip, I think it was my favourite place that we visited. Capri is a beautiful little island, accessible by ferry, off the coast of the mainland. It hosts stunning views, beautiful beaches, and a mix of beautiful boutiques, high-end restaurants and hotels, and charming tourist shops. One thing I will say about Capri is that it is very expensive. To save a bit of cash during our time in southern Italy, we chose the city of Naples as our home-base, conducting day trips from there. No tea, no shade to Naples, but it is – in my opinion – kind of the armpit of Italy. What it does have going for it are the Napoleon pizzas and the city’s close proximity to many of Italy’s hotspots – Rome, Pompeii, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast to name a few.

When we arrived in Naples from Rome, we checked into our hostel and then went to explore the Old Town and grab a large gelato cone followed by a Napoleon Pizza at Pizzeria Ntretella. After our tummies were sufficiently full of pizza, we headed back to our hostel and got a good night’s sleep to prepare for a beautiful day in Capri.

Where We Stayed:

As I mentioned above, we used Naples as our home-base while we explored southern Italy. We stayed at the Ostello Bello Napoli, which was nice, but had a bit of a different vibe from the Ostello Bello that we stayed at in Rome. We found the crowd to be a bit odd at this location, so we didn’t do too much socializing here. On our second night, a group of school kids checked in with their teachers. They seemed to be on some kind of overnight band trip. I will admit that it was kind of strange having a bunch of 12/13 year old kids milling around the hostel, but overall the stay was good.

What We Did:

We booked our ferry tickets the night before through an app called Omio, which will show you different transportation options when you put in your start and end location, date, etc. We used this a few times for booking trains as well. The ferry ride from the port in Naples to Capri is only 45 minutes, so we arrived in Capri nice and early with plans for a full day of adventure.

When you get off the ferry in Capri your commute isn’t quite over yet. To get to the actual town of Capri you have to either walk up many, many stairs or you can pay to take the funicular, a cable car that will bring you up to the top of the hill in mere minutes where you exit into the Piazza Umberto I, which is the main square in Capri with lovely shops and restaurants. We were silly and made the mistake of taking the stairs on the way up and the funicular on the way down. When I told my boyfriend that that was what we’d done he made fun of me (lol) because he had been in Capri only a few weeks earlier so he knew exactly how bad that walk up the stairs is. So, don’t make the same mistake we did, take the funicular! Unless you desire a very difficult stair workout in the ludicrous Italian summer heat. Then, by all means, take the stairs.

Once we had ascended to the top of the never ending staircase, we started exploring. here is what we did:

• Explored Piazza Umberto I
• Visited Giardini di Augusto. This was one of my favourite parts of the island. Giardini di Augusto is a beautiful garden with spectacular ocean views and it only costs one euro to enter!
• Visted Anacapri. On the other end of the island you will find Anacapri, which is a stunning town with more lovely shops and restaurants. I’d say that is also a bit less busy than Capri since it is a bit of a trek to get there. We bought a bus ticket at the station in Piazza Umberto I to take us to Anacapri. An important note: if you plan to visit Anacapri by bus, be sure to purchase a return ticket in Capri because they do not sell return tickets in Anacapri. The road between Capri and Anacapri is incredibly narrow and literally winds through the mountain on the edge of a cliff and let me tell you, they packed that bus full. We were quite literally packed in like sardines. If that sounds unappealing to you, I would suggest getting a taxi to take you to Anacapri. While more expensive, it will definitely be a more comfortable ride.
• Tried to see the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is one of the main attractions that the island is known for. I’ve heard mixed reviews from different people. Some say that it’s overrated, some say it’s great. I think it really depends on the person. I cannot offer my personal opinion because we didn’t actually see the Grotto ourselves. On the day we were on the island, a big rainstorm passed through. The storm itself only lasted about 30 minutes before blowing over, but that was enough to close the Grotto for the day since it is only accessible by boat. The real bummer is that we did not find this out until we’d taken the bus all the way to this remote part of the island and climbed down to the Grotto access point where the boats usually leave from. At this point we had to wait at the – thankfully – covered bus stop in the pouring rain for about 40 minutes until the next bus came.
• Swam and suntanned at Spiaggia di Marina Piccola. We ended off our day of adventure in Capri with a swim at the beautiful Spiaggia di Marina Piccola. I’m sure that there is a bus that will take you down here, but we opted to walk due to a navigation error. When we originally loaded the map for the beach it seemed to be not very far, hence why we decided to walk. What we later realized was that the map was only taking us to Marina Piccola the neighbourhood, not the beach. Spiaggia di Marina Piccola was another couple of kilometres on foot from where the map took us. In the end it was worth it. We got to relax and swim at a beautiful beach. It was great.

What We Ate:

So the only food that we actually bought in Capri was gelato. We brought some snacks and leftover Napoleon pizza to eat for lunch so we could save some money. I will say though, that the gelato on this island did not disappoint. We got lemon gelato served in an actual hollowed out lemon from a little stand near the entrance to the Giardini di Augusto called Tizzano’s kiosk. As a mid-afternoon treat we got another gelato from Gelateria (Chiosco) in the Piazza Umberto I.

Day Six: Amalfi Coast

Where We Stayed:

As I mentioned above, we used Naples as our home base while we explored the southern parts of Italy. We stayed the Ostello Bello Napoli.

What We Did:

Originally our plan was to explore the Amalfi coast solo by utilizing public transit such as buses and trains. This turned out to be quite a headache to plan and was going to lose us valuable time on the Amalfi Coast which would have limited what we were able to see. We decided to search for alternatives and ended up booking a full-day Amalfi Coast day trip through GetYourGuide. This trip was great because we didn’t have to worry about transportation, lunch was included, and we got to see tons of the Amalfi Coast.

Our morning started bright and early at 8am. We were picked up by our guides right around the corner from our hostel and made a few stops around the city to pick up other travellers before setting off for the coast. Here is a summary of what the tour included:

• Stop in Sorrento for photos
• Stop in Positano for photos
• A boat cruise in Amalfi. Upon arriving in Amalfi, our group was given the option to take a tour of Amalfi from the water. This was an add-on on top of the normal day trip package, but it was worth it in my mind. Seeing Amalfi from the water was spectacular. My favourite pictures from Amalfi were taken during this part of the trip. The tour itself was about 30 minutes and then we were dropped off back at the dock in Amalfi to go explore the town on our own before lunch.
• Time to explore the town of Amalfi and have lunch
• Time to explore the town of Ravello. Ravello is beautiful. While part of the Amalfi Coast, it has a completely different feel because it isn’t on the water. Ravello is way up in the mountains and looks down over the coast. Since Ravello is a bit more challenging to get to – more very narrow, winding roads – it is much less busy. We wandered around for about an hour and got some gelato before heading back to the van to return to Naples.

What We Ate:

As I mentioned, lunch was included as part of the tour that we did, but we did stop for some gelato at Bar Klingsor in Ravello.

Day Seven + Eight: Milano

After a few days in Southern Italy we traded the south for the north and headed to Milan for our final few days in Italy before heading to the South of France. We took the train from the Naples Centrale station to Milan Centrale, arriving in the late afternoon.

Where We Stayed:

Our accommodations in Milan were a bit chaotic to say the least. We had pre-booked all our hostels earlier in the summer before we left and had decided to try to save a bit of money in Milan by staying at a cheaper and honestly a sketchier hostel. Reflecting back, the signs were all there that this was a scam, but we went through with it anyway. Oops! The hostel we had originally booked was called Newtown Hostel. When we arrived to check in there were no lights on, the door was locked and the place looked pretty deserted. We stayed for quite a while ringing the bell to see if anyone would let us in, but we had no luck. At this point it was almost 7pm and we were tired from a long day of travelling. We decided to find a nearby restaurant to grab some dinner and figure out our next steps. To be honest, we surprisingly weren’t stressed at all. Worst case scenario, we knew that we’d be able to book a hotel for the night if we needed to. We found another hostel called QUO Milano that had two beds available for the duration of the time we planned to stay in Milan. Before booking we returned to Newtown Hostel for one final attempt at checking in, but of course had no luck. We’d been scammed. So, we booked QUO Milano online and set off across the city to go check-in.

From this point on it was smooth sailing in terms of accommodations. The moral of the story here is that sometimes booking the much cheaper and sketchier hostel to save a bit of cash is not worth it. QUO Milano was more expensive, but had a better location, an on-site bar, city guides, and a communal kitchen for making food and interacting with other guests. Despite the chaos, we were quite happy with where we ended up and we got a really good laugh out of the whole thing. And don’t fret, this story has a happy financial ending as well. I had paid for Newtown Hostel using my PayPal account and was able to dispute the transaction. It took a couple months of back and forth with PayPal, but in the end I got all of our money back. That was a big victory.

What We Did:

Before we headed to Milan we had a few sites in mind that we wanted to see. The Milan city guide provided by our hostel was also fantastic to help guide our tourist activities. The guide is great because it has different itineraries based on the length of your stay in Milan and your interests. It tells you how far each attraction is from the other as well to help organize your day. Here are the sites that we saw:

• Toured the Milan Duomo. Before we got in line to buy our tickets to tour the Duomo, we enjoyed some people watching in the Piazza del Duomo. There are these men that walk around and sell handfuls of popcorn kernels to tourists to feed the pigeons in the Piazza. I wasn’t planning on doing that, but one of the men walked right up to me, grabbed my hand and filled it with corn. Next thing I knew I had pigeons all over my arm. I didn’t mind because I like birds, but Alyssa was horrified. She was taking pictures of me with all these birds and her face was just priceless. The guy tried to sell some corn to Alyssa too, but she shut that right down. She’s not a bird fan haha. We purchased our access tickets at the gift shop right around the corner from the Duomo, but you can also pre-purchase the tickets online. There is an option to buy either the pass with lift access or the stair access pass. We went for the stair access pass because we were fine to climb the stairs to the roof, but if you’re claustrophobic I would probably suggest paying for the lift.
• Walked around Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Located right next to the Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is an architecturally stunning covered shopping area with a whole host of high-end stores and restaurants. It is also the home to the Lucky Bull, which is a bull that is tiled into the floor of the galleria. The story goes that if you stand with your heal on the bull’s balls (yes you read that right) and spin around three times it will bring you good luck. This part of the floor is completely worn through from many people doing just that.
• Walked by the Teatro Alla Scala. This is a famous theatre located not too far from the Duomo. If you have more time in Milan, you can see a show there or pay for a tour of the inside. We did neither of these things since we only had one full day in Milan, but we did view the theatre from the outside.
• Saw Castello Sforzesco. Again, there is an option to tour the inside of this castle for a fee, but we decided we were fine with just wandering around the outside of it and viewing the courtyard. The castle was Leonardo da Vinci’s workplace, which is pretty cool.
• Walked around Parco Sempione. Castello Sforzesco is surrounded by the Parco Sempione, so once we were done with the castle we took a nice stroll through the park.
• Saw the Arco Della Pace. On the far side of the Parco Sempione you will find the Arco Della Pace, which is considered Milan’s own (much smaller) version of the Arc de Triomphe.

What We Ate:

• Al Dente Milano pasta bar is about 600m away from the Milan Duomo, which is why we decided to grab lunch here after our tour of the Duomo. It’s essentially a fast-food pasta place, but my god is it delicious! Fast-food pasta for the win!
• Vanilla Gelati Italiani is a gelato bar located right around the corner from the Milan Duomo.

Day Nine: Lake Como

For our final day in Italy we decided to take a day trip from Milan to stunning Lake Como. We took the approximately 45 minute train from Milan Centrale to Como S. Giovanni then walked into the old town of Como.

What We Did:

I wish we had had more time in Como. There are so many beautiful towns along the lake that are accessible to one another via ferry. We only had one day to explore so we decided to get the most out of the town of Como. Some other spots on the lake I’d love to see some day are Bellagio and Varenna. I guess I’ll just have to go back!

Here are the things that we did do to fill our time in Como:

• Explored the Old Town. Como has a stunning old town with cobbled streets, charming shops and great restaurants. We wandered in and out of stores for hours and picked up some gifts to bring back home for our friends and families. There are tons of shops just packed to the brim with fresh pastas, sauces, olive oils and other delicious Italian culinary goods. If I didn’t have a carryon bag, I would have bought some olive oil to bring home with me for sure.
• Took the Funicular to Brunate. Similar to Capri, Como has a funicular that will take you up the mountain side to the town of Brunate. Brunate is equally as charming as Como’s old town an has incredible views of the lake and the mountains that surround it. I would definitely recommend making the time to visit Brunate for the views. From the funicular you can walk to a lookout for beautiful scenic views of the lake and even of neighbouring Switzerland.

What We Ate:

No surprise here, but we had some really great food in Como. We had lunch at a restaurant called Karma in the old town. Since it was our last day in Italy, I had to try some real Italian tiramisu. It was so delicious.

Some Final Thoughts

To end this post off I’d like to share some final thoughts for planning a trip to Italy, or really anywhere in Europe.

1. Take the time to map out your transportation to save money and time. Europe has an extensive train system, which makes travelling by train very efficient, cost effective and easy. A lot of people assume that buying a Europass from Eurail is the cheapest way to go, and in some scenarios they’d be right! But, with the nature of my trip, I did the math and found that for us it would actually be cheaper to buy the individual train tickets because the Europass excludes a lot of municipal train services that we planned to use. If you’re not sure what the best option is, you can enter your trip information on Eurail and they will suggest the best pass for you and will tell you the price. I took that price and compared it to the price of buying the tickets individually and found that for us it made more sense not to go with the Eurail pass.
2. Do your due diligence when booking accommodations. This is so, so, so important! If you don’t want to run into a situation like we did in Milan, then I would suggest taking the time to read through the reviews for different accommodation options. If booking a hostel, read the reviews on Hostel World and Google. This is also the best way to ensure that you get the most for your money in terms of services. Different hostels have different services available to visitors such as continentals breakfasts, luggage storage, communal kitchen spaces, city tours, social events, the list goes on.
3. Share your location with the people you’re travelling with. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s nice to know that if you get split up from your travel partners that you’ll be able to see their location.
4. Get a European phone plan for mapping and communication purposes. This kind of goes hand in hand with my previous point. Though completely not necessary, having some kind of a phone plan while we were in Europe made navigation and communication so much less of a headache. The plan that I bought was a regional eSIM for Europe through Airalo. It was the perfect plan because it allowed me to use things like iMessage and maps, it was easy to activate, it covered 39 European countries, and it was relatively inexpensive (especially compared to the coast of Roam Like Home). The cost of the plan depends on how much data you want and how many days you intend to use it, but there are plenty of different options. There is also an Airalo app that you can download to manage you plan.
5. Use Google My Maps to map out your trip. Earlier in the summer Alyssa and I spent a good amount of time sitting in our living room in Waterloo mapping out the different places we wanted to go and the sites that we wanted to see. Google Maps has this great tool called Google My Maps that allows you to create custom maps that you can share with others. I’ve used this tool to plan several trips and it has been so helpful! You can pin different locations and colour code the pins to keep things organized. We organized our trip map by the cities we were going to visit, our accommodations, the transportation ports we would be using (airports, train stations, ferry ports), the attractions we wanted to see, and restaurants we wanted to eat at. This made planning out or days so simple because we could look at the map to determine which sites made the most sense to see on the same day.

And that’s all I’ve got! Thank you so much for reading along. I hope this post is helpful for any future trip planning or vacation inspiration. Feel free to leave any comments for me below 🙂

Happy travels!

xx

Ashley

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