Melissa Isakh: Our Honeymoon-Road-Trip in Italy

As I posted in March, I went to Italy for my second honeymoon trip. It was our first time to Europe, as for me, it was my first time outside AustraliAsia region. So exciting! In this post I will summarize my trip that maybe could help you guys planning the trip.

Our flight was with Lufthansa, and I can say I pretty satisfied with their service. I only have an hour to transit in Frankfurt, both from Singapore and Milan. The food was good, the in-flight entertainment were good (they had the academy award winners nominees program that month), so basically everything went very well.

The journey begins in Rome and ended in Milan. So, the routes are
- Rome (3 nights) including Vatican
- Florence (3 nights) including the small cities, Chianti, Siena and Montevarchi
- Verona (2 nights) including Venice and Lake Garda
- Milan (2 Nights) including Bergamo

People asked why we chose Italy and not going to other countries in west Europe near Italy. Our answer was simply because we want to have a quality time in every city, and we are so grateful we decided to do that. We don't want to just hop in here and there, take a picture and say goodbye. We wanted that every city could 'touch' us in their most personal way and to be able to feel like a local. To stay at the residence area, to eat where the locals eat, to ride the public transportation that they regularly use, and to visit the small cities between the big cities, because those are the real gems, the hidden treasure.

We decided to book hotels while we were in Rome and Milan (as those two are the big cities) and book BnB while we were in Florence and Verona. Thank God our hotel in Rome were a small hotel that runs by a brother and sister who could make us feel like home. The BnB(s) were so great, yet the hotel in Milan was actually a real hotel that didn't give us personal touch and make it less memorable.

Our Italy trip was actually a road trip. Even though the locals are very discipline, yet they drive their cars so fast (especially in toll road) which made me think that I wouldn't dare to drive a car in Italy. But, I really recommend you to take a road trip in Europe. The view was AMAZING and BREATHTAKING! We stopped and parked our car here and there to enjoy the view. Something that you will miss if you ride a plane or train. When we were in big cities, we parked our car and explore the city by walking or using public transportation. Don't use your car inside the city, unless you have the Italian or Parisian skill of searching the spot and parking the car.

It was couple days before Spring season actually came. Luckily our trip was started from Rome, which a little bit South and it was quite warm. Because it was still a transition, the weather was unpredictable. Checking Yahoo Weather every morning is a must! The items that I found were very important are small umbrella and fashionable yet warm hat & gloves. I prefer to always bring the hat than umbrella, because the rain was different that I have in Indonesia, which I think it is still okay to walk around when it's raining outside. You wouldn't get totally wet.

And oh, the food. This is something that will determine you had a great trip or not. Well, at least for me it is. You don't have to worry about the food when you're in Italy, we didn't have any bad experience about the food, even when we were lost in Modena, the city we accidentally visited to have a dinner on our way to Verona. Yes, in our trip, we lost couple of times. But hey, the laugh we shared when we realized that we were lost was priceless. (no, this post isn't presented to you by mastercard)