T i f f a n y H s u

Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
The Amalfi Coast is probably one of the first places I fell in love with.

I had planned my wedding for Positano, before opting for a castle wedding in Umbria instead, but part of me still feels a little sad for moving the wedding.  In the end it worked out for the best since the week we were to rent a villa ended up being a week of rain versus just the one day of rain (on my wedding day) in our castle in Umbria, but like I said, it still makes me a little sad.  By the way, as just a quick note for anyone who wants to have a wedding in Positano, it is beyond possible to have a wedding on a budget there without really sacrificing anything.  With what we had planned, a week of activities including the actual wedding, housing for all our guests, and food for the week, it all would have cost less than a one day wedding in California.

But this post isn't about weddings.

Every so often I find myself browsing property listings overseas.  Who doesn't want to own a castle in Italy?  Of course this is a grossly out of my budget kind of dream, but it doesn't make the act of looking at property listings any less enjoyable.

For example, I found one the villas we looked at for our wedding listed.  Not surprising since the cost of maintaining such a large property and the cost of property taxes can weigh heavily on an owner.
Planning my wedding last year introduced me to a lot of really great locations in Italy that most tourist do not see or know about.  One such place that's been on my mind lately is Cilento.  I remember when I accidentally hitchhiked on the Amalfi Coast, the man who went out of his way to proudly show off the region he grew up in told me that I absolutely must visit the area around Salerno.  He told me it was just as beautiful as the Amalfi Coast, but not as well known to foreigners.
I didn't think much of it, until Daniele and I considered renting a villa we saw located in Cilento.  It was a former monastery in seriously the middle of nowhere.  We decided to go with a castle in the middle of nowhere instead, but sometimes I wonder...

I don't have any photos of my own of the area, since I haven't been yet, but a quick Google search should show anyone interested just why I'm aching to go.

Via European Commission Fact Sheet


It'll only be a matter of time before Cilento becomes overrun with foreign tourist.

These tips are from a variety of locations where I've posted my advice.  

1. Know that the majority of gelato places offer free whip cream, but most tourist don't know this and never ask for it.  Be sure to ask for creme or doppio creme (whipped cream on the bottom of the cone and whipped cream on the top of the gelato).  The hubby thinks it's funny that I'm amazed by this. 

2. I mentioned it in the food post, most table wine in Italy is infinity tastier than table wine served in the United States.  For the average tourist the table wine is just fine.  Sometimes you hear that table wine is just all the left over wine poured together, this may or may not be true for some not so reputable restaurants(this is the kind of story you hear in a lot of countries and isn't limited to Italy), but it's not the norm.
My first time in Rome I was not very impressed with food there, especially after hearing about how amazing Italian food is.  It wasn't until I went back and had an Italian (my now husband) show me where to eat that I realized it is very tricky eating out in Rome.  There are so many tourist traps that it's sometimes hard to find a place that serves quality food.

The wedding photos finally arrived!

Here are just a few of the highlights:






Every year there is always someone writing about the overcrowded mess that Venice turns into during the summer, and every time I roll my eyes because it's unfathomable to think that this day in age with the countless resources available online that the people didn't do a little research beforehand to avoid the suffocating crowds.  I've been to Venice twice and I've managed to have the best time while avoiding crowds even in the middle of the high season.  Venice is probably one of my favorite places to visit in Italy and the crowds are more than avoidable.

Here's a few tips I've learned to make for a much more enjoyable trip:

1. Stay for at least one night, I can't stress this enough.  I know it's an expensive city, but if you've dreamed about visiting Venice, do yourself the favor and stay overnight.  Why take the time to go to Venice and only do a day trip, this only ends in heartbreak and yet another pseudo travel expert lamenting about the terrible experience of Venice.
Early Morning



This past three week trip with my family included a lot of surprises.  One of which was how little I remember the sights seen in my earlier travels.  This time around we were more focused on traveling and seeing the major sights in a three week period, but my focus in the past was to reach my must see and then let nature take its course.  That could involve taking on more sights or hanging out with random people as they showed me what it means to live in their respective countries, the latter happened more often than the former.

We had an ambitious itinerary.  First stop, 2 hours in London as part of our 8 hour layover.  I showed my parents' as much as I could, a walk through Green Park to arrive at Buckingham Palace, a visit in St. James' Park on our way to Westminster.  Trafalgar Square was covered in construction so our stop was short before catching a scenic bus ride towards the Tower of London.
On Top In A Double Decker Up Front With My Commentary (Route 15)
We had plenty of time to enjoy the waterfront and walk across the Tower Bridge before we needed to head back to the airport.  The essentials of London in 2 hours, it can be done!  I've been to London now four times and I honestly can't understand the appeal.  Yes, it is a big city, yes I love the British Museum and wish we had more time to make a stop there, love cream tea (though that is more of a Devon thing), but as much as I enjoy England, I feel like London does its best to be everything but English. You can argue the Royal family in London is very British, but how often are you really having afternoon tea with the Queen?  Give me hiking along the northern or southern coast and stopping for a chat with pensioners any day.  Point is, you can get a really good sense of the major sights in London on a layover.  Of course the more time you have the more you can delve into the details.

Italy was lively and welcoming as usual.  I was able to see old haunts through new eyes, and visited places I skipped my first, second, and third time around. Rome was cleaner this time around, a fact that my Roman husband pointed out time and time again (Triton Fountain what have they done to you?)
I Almost Didn't Recognize This Fountain, For Years I Thought It Was Bronze, Who Knew It Was Just Covered In THAT Much Grime
My First View Of The Fountain

 Florence, beautiful but disappointing with all the scaffolding (nothing compared with the renovations being performed at Pompeii and at the Garden of Versailles).  We lived right next to the Ponte Vecchio and across the water from the Uffizi, what lovely nights reflected in black along the Arno.
Screw Santorini, Florence Has The Best Sunsets, Mainly Because There's More Than a Volcano To Stare At

The Day After, My First Chance to Enjoy the Castle, Notice the Lack of Rain
Seriously, Who Would Have Guessed it Poured the Day Before
The wedding is over and somehow everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  We were lucky to catch the one day of heavy rain (wet bride = happy bride for the Italians, wet wedding = riches for the Chinese), half my decorations were stuck in Milan's customs while the other half were forgotten in the scramble to rearrange all the plains to accommodate massive amounts of rain, we ended up with two wedding cakes, we had to scramble for flowers on the day of, our wedding helpers forgot to set out drinks for afternoon tea, we never had time for our photographers, but they persisted and we posed in the rain in front of the castle, my hair reacted badly with the rain and the ever present photographers distracted me from handling my hair and make up as I would have liked, but all in all everyone had a good time.  That's the one good thing about a small wedding, even when everything goes completely wrong it still turns out to be a good time.

Then our photographer got sick before our planned photos in Rome.  *sigh* Is there anything I'm forgetting, but my goal was to get people together for a relaxing stay in a castle filled with really good food.  That was something that went really well, our food for our stay was amazing, if not way too much.  I still remember trying to haul cases of left over wine and proseco into our tiny rented car and circling our rented apartment in Florence because we couldn't drive into the TLZ area were we were staying.  Then having proseco with bread piled high with smoked salmon and truffle spread.  I've never dined so decadently on leftovers before. Man, I am craving some good truffle right about now.

Unseen Is the Layer of Truffle Between the Salmon
At the time I never thought I could fit another bite of richly delicious truffle, smoked salmon, porchetta, lobster, cakes (two types for the wedding, various types for breakfast), pastas, venision, and wild boar, but I'd love to get another bite or two of everything if I could right about now.

I was so happy once the wedding was over.  I'm not the type of person who likes attention and to have a day devoted to just that, it was a relief the next day when things were back to normal, outings were taken to the nearby Assisi and Perugia and leftovers were reheated in the professional kitchen at our disposal while we sat, drank, and laughed our way through my favorite dinner of the three we had.  I wish I took a photo of those left at the castle as we found places to sit in the kitchen and just enjoyed our last night in a castle.
One of the Views From My Tower Bedroom


With everything that went wrong would I say it was worth having a wedding abroad?  Yes, wholeheartedly yes.  In the end we gave an experience to our families and select few friends that they never would have experienced otherwise.  In the words of Daniele's brother's girlfriend, Roberta, "When we are little we visited castles as part of school trips or with our parents, but we never dreamed we would be staying in one," and a mighty historical castle at that!  The stress was high and there were mix ups due to not being in Italy for the planning, some things were lost in translation (hello two wedding cakes!), but the experience was unique and believe it or not with the cost of flights, the stay at the castle, all the deliciously decadent food, unexpected cost, etc...it still all cost much less than the average wedding in the California Bay Area.  My mom and I talked it over and including the rest of the three weeks of travel for 5 of us (hotels/apartments/food/transportation/site entries) it still ended up being slightly less than a wedding in our hometown.  Plus, we lived in a castle, um yeah, that's worth it.
Castello di Magrano



"Are you heading to Amalfi?" I looked up from writing in my notebook to see a man in a Toyota leaning across the passenger seat to shout out of the half rolled down window. 

"I'm waiting for my bus." I replied back to him. He paused for a second to think of the English words to make himself understood. 

"I'm driving to Amalfi, do you want a ride?" He gestured to the empty seat he was leaning across. I took a moment to assess my situation. The night before, feed up with a rocky start in Rome, I decided to take a train to Naples and figure out what to do when I got there. I had the vague idea of going to Pompeii or to take a bus along the Amalfi Coast, but where I ended up with up in the air. After a few more rocky starts, I was on a bus soaring along the Amalfi Coast and enjoying my first stop, Positano. From the moment I stepped out of the bus and took on the sights of those famous coastal buildings growing out of the jagged coast line, I felt like my heart was breaking from beauty. There are some places that I've traveled to that have disappointed, but then there are others, like my first glimpse of the Potala Palace, walking up to Angkor Wat while watching my reflection melt together with the sacred buildings in the reflecting pool, and the first, second, third, and fourth viewing of Emperor Qin's Terra Cotta Warriors, that makes suffering through intense heat, uncomfortable plane rides and nights of feeling alone turn into nothing more than a slight annoyance. Every time my eyes fell on Positano I literally felt like I was living a dream, suddenly every misery that I endured washed away to be less than a faded memory. 
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