Italy in a week?!?!

Italy in a week, that was our plan. It looked so good on paper, easy to pull off…so we thought!
We rented a car, a Mercedes CLA (5 passenger, hatchback) so the four of us tried packing light (remember it is still winter) in order to fit comfortably. We were comfortable, for the most part, at the start of our trip. Our plan was pretty solid. Using Airbnb for our accommodations, we had our next seven days planned out. Our itinerary was to head the 7 hours to Venice to spend a couple of days to include New Year’s Eve on the ‘island’. Next, we headed across the top of Italy to Cinque Terra. After one night there we headed down the coast to Rome. After a couple nights in Rome we headed up to a small town near Verona, where we stayed for one night before heading back to Germany. Sounds awesome, right?! Oh it absolutely was!!! However, there is one major issue we discovered which we will share at the conclusion, along with some travel advice!

Venice, which is actually over 100 islands (not just one) linked by over 400 bridges, does not allow any vehicles. There is parking just across the first bridge and travel is by walking or boats. The boats in Venice work just like transit systems in major cities, but they are way more costly! So, walking is the way. Very interesting with luggage – remember the number of bridges…? Oh, and cobblestone pathways. Anyhow, we survived and made it to our place for the next two nights. Venice is pretty and very different than most of what we see in America. There are very narrow walkways that appear to be a dead end into the canal, sometimes they do, sometimes they make a ninety degree turn to another narrow walkway. We were there on a holiday, but it was also off season. So even though there was a crowd, it still wasn’t enough to overwhelm any of us. Most everyone we saw was a tourist…easily spotted due to them walking and looking down at their phone and looking up in puzzlement. No, the gps wasn’t very accurate in Venice. Interesting things we noticed and didn’t expect (thanks Hollywood) was the color of the water in the canal and the condition of the buildings. The water had a strange greenish tint and most of the buildings were pretty run down. Even though there are guided tours offered, this trip we opted to go it on our own. It was a pretty leisurely couple of days. 
New Year’s Eve in Venice was pretty mellow. Most of the higher end hotels and restaurants had their own events. There was supposed to be a party in St. Mark’s Square with a stage for different entertainers from 9pm until 11:45pm along with a countdown for midnight. We checked the square shortly before nine and then again shortly after nine and never saw any stage, so we opted to secure our spot along the water for the fireworks show that wasn’t going to be super visible from the square. Standing on the barricade fencing for just under 3 hours, visiting with those around us, didn’t seem so long. The boats ended up parking right in front of where we were standing which ended up blocking part of our view, but we still had a great spot! After midnight hugs and kisses we leisurely wandered around enjoying the small crowds and made our way back to our room.
We got up the next morning, drug our bags back over the cobblestone and a hundred bridges, saying goodbye to the interesting sites, wishing we had another day to explore Venice more in depth, as well as the other islands. Next up, Cinque Terra!!