June 01, 2009

Preliminary To-Do List

Now that my trip to Italia is booked, I've begun doing my research. My first discovery?

I don't know squat about this country!

I thought Capri was on the east coast near Greece and that Florence and Venice were a 2-hour ride from each other. I speak zero Italian and to be completely straight, I don't even know about most of the sights in each city I'm visiting. So I have plenty of reading to do.

But in the little bit I have done so far, and with a little help from Contikipedia, I've made a list to begin a working itinerary. Sounds like I'll need a few recovery days when I get home.

The Italy That Will Happen:
  • breaking my neck looking at the Sistine Chapel
  • eating gelato with every meal
  • swimming in Capri's Green Grotto
  • tripping over a stiletto in the cobblestones
  • eating a lemon right off the tree in Sorrento
  • taking a cab ride through Rome
  • buying designer sunnies in Milan
  • drinking on a gondola ride in Venice

The Italy That Might Happen:
  • Florence discoteque!
  • a chance meeting with a local boy
  • hiking to the top of Capri
  • getting lost
  • lemoncello coma
  • breaking a sandal hiking in Cinque Terre
  • a reasonable leather Florentine purse
  • getting mauled by pigeons
  • getting mauled by gypsies

The Italy That Will Never Happen:
  • bad food

7 comments:

jenniferMichelle said...

Hayley,

One word: jealous :) Italy has always been a dream of mine, hopefully I will make it there someday. In the meantime, I shall settle for wishing you a wonderful time. When do you leave?

Mille tendresse,
jenniferMichelle

http://scrapbook-of-memories.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Well if you're anything like me, getting lost should be on your "will happen" list. I have a leather purse from Florence and absolutely love it! The only problem is that it is so beautiful that I never want to use it because I couldn't stand to damage it.

This post brings back so many wonderful memories.

I definitely recommend the Uffizi museum if you get to Florence. Amazing. Also in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River where lovers write their initials on a lock and lock it to the bridge. Maybe you can do that with your local boy :)

Siegfried said...

Hi, we are waiting for you here in Italy. Your to-do list sound interesting and varied, but it seems you forgot a trip to the beautiful mountains in the North, with the highest peaks in Europe (Liguria [not only sea!], Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, Lombardia, Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto, ecc.).
Of course, this's just a hint, perhaps you have no point in visiting Alpine countryside...
Anyway, have a nice time!

Blacksnow said...

Hi!
Capri is on the west coast, near Naples =)
what you are visiting?
Ifyou you I can help you, I'm italian! =)

Blacksnow said...

(if you want) sorry =)

Dew said...

The getting lost, limoncello coma, mauling by pigeons and gypsies will all happen in Venice. The reasonable leather purse in Firenze is best accomplished by going to the outdoor market 1/4 mi. from the train station (go out of the train station, turn left, find a place to cross the street, and just peer down the side streets 'til you see it -- I'm pretty sure it's open 7 days a week and runs from the main drag (whose name I have naturally forgotten) almost all the way to piazza del Duomo....

Boom pow said...

Dew - thanks for the tip. I have heard such a mixed bag of stories about Venice, I am ready to bare my teeth (with camera poised, of course).

Siegfried - as much as I'd love to see more of the Alps (I believe Lake Como is one of our pit stops), there's just no time. Maybe on my next trip!

Cape House - I love that locks tradition on the Ponte Vecchio! Now I MUST find a local man, at least in Florence.

Thanks for the comments, all,
Hayley