How Would You Spend Your First Epic Adventure In Italy? Here's How We Did Ours -

You are probably curious as to how you are going to plan your First Epic Adventure In Italy. When we did ours back in June 2017, it was our first ever trip outside of a resort! So, as you can imagine, it was very exciting, and a little nerve rocking as well. This was a 16-day trip which included a two-night stay in Paris, France. We booked our flight to Paris and return to Toronto from Venice for $1,370.32

We like to do side trips when planning to travel anywhere! We just think that it'll be worth our while to see more than what we intended. So, in this Italian get-away, since it was the same time as the French Open, we decided to go to Paris to watch the Championship of the Women's tennis. It was an incredible experience, and one Grand Slam checked off our list. Even though the Airbnb (paid $141.52) we stayed in was not perfect, our overall time in Paris was amazing! (Enough about Paris for now, and let's move on to our trip to Italy! Just check out our Paris trip blog soon!)

Just a tip when driving in Italy, you have got to be confident enough to be aggressive. Because hey, if you can't beat them, join them! I also noticed during our trip, that the more southern part you drive in Italy, the more aggressive the drivers are!

So, we flew from Paris (Charles De Gaulle Airport) to Milan (Malpensa Airport) with Air France for $167.72 CAD one way for two + $72 CAD (Checked Luggage) on June 11, 2017. Then we took a cab to our hotel for €15. We stayed in Hotel Brasil for $54.26 CAD. It was not the best hotel, but OK for one night stay. We then picked up our rental car the next day with Hertz. It was a 5-day car rental for €138.15 + $89.94 CAD for Collision Damage.

We drove from Milan to this Farm House in Lezzeno, which is 30 minutes drive away to Lake Como, and 15 minutes drive away to Bellagio. We stayed here for 2 nights and paid $199 CAD.

We left Lake Como on June 14, 2017 and drove to Verona before heading to Florence to get a glimpse of Giuliette House, of course. We loved Verona with its little Piazzas, and just the feel of the City. It's so mesmerizing. It must be because of the story of "Romeo & Juliet".

Then, we headed to Florence, and stayed in this Airbnb for 2 nights for $160.46 CAD. We parked our car just across the street of the apartment building. It was a challenge driving in Florence with its tiny, narrow one way streets, as well as sharp left turns. But we did it. Just a tip when driving in Italy tho, you have got to be confident enough to be aggressive. Because hey, if you can't beat them, join them, right? I also noticed during our trip, that the more southern part you drive in Italy, the more aggressive the drivers are!

June 15, 2017 - we woke up very early to drive to Pisa which was about 1.5 hours drive from Florence. Obviously, we only want to see the Leaning Tower, then we went back to Florence to do more sight seeing. We ended our day to watch the sunset in Piazzale MichelAngelo. (Watch out for our "Must-Do" blogs - coming soon!)

The next day, we head to the Tuscan Country side. This was one of our favorite part of the trip. We took the less travelled route to see the rolling hills of Tuscany. If you follow route SR2 from Florence, you will pass by Siena to San Quirio d'Orcia, then take SP146 to Pienza, and Montepulciano.

Route SR2 - SP146

Below images were taken on our way to Montepulciano, between San Quirico d'Orcia to Pienza. Make sure you take route SP146 to see the same road we took.

After almost a full day in the Tuscan Countryside. We head down straight to Rome, and stayed in this Airbnb for $114.42 CAD for 2 nights from June 16-18. We did a lot in Rome for a very short time. We just had one full day to explore the City, and check out the #Ruins of course! We did #CitySightSeeing tour in Rome, because it's just the most convenient way to get around.

We will definitely go back in #Rome. There is still a lot to see and explore.

We left Rome on June 18, 2017 to Naples by ItaliaRail for $73 CAD for two. You have to buy this ticket in advance, as the seats are assigned to you. We bought our tickets in April! Our Airbnb host picked us up at the train station for €15. They also offered to drop us off at the Airport for the same price. It wasn't bad at all. We stayed in Naples from June 18-22.

On our first day in Naples, we just hanged out by the beach on the coast. It was so surreal, because just a few months ago before our trip, we were looking at the images of this place on google, and then now, here we are soaking up the sun in the Naples Coastline.

It was one of those moments where you want to pinch yourself to see if you are only dreaming.

The following day, June 20th, we went to Sorrento, and took a boat to Capri. We loved this little Island of Limoncello! (More on our day trips in our next blog! Watch out for it)

Following our day in Capri, we also went to Positano. We took the Metro from Naples to Sorrento, then took a bus to Positano. We could have rented a car here, but I got a little scared of the way people are driving in Naples. But, we could have totally enjoyed the drive in Positano to Amalfi. Anyway, it was a fun-filled day in Positano regardless. We love this place, and we will definitely go back in the near future!

On June 22, 2017, we flew to Venice via EasyJet for €132.29 for two people with checked luggage. We booked this flight the night before, and we believe that this is such a great deal. The reason why we booked this flight the night before was because it totally slipped off our minds that we still don't have a plane or train ticket to Venice! We stayed in Hotel Ariel Silva for $264 CAD for two nights.

While in Venice, we also went to Burano and Lido. We rode a bike in Lido to go to different beaches on this little island. Burano, on the other hand is such a quaint, colorful island. We enjoyed our day trips here, and it's definitely a very memorable one.

This trip was our first ever trip outside of a resort, and totally loved it! That's why we did another take! Check out our Europe Trip 2018.

We've said it before, and we are going to say it again, you don't have to be rich to travel to one of the most beautiful places, you just have to want it bad enough!

#HappyTravels, Friends.