My wife and I were fortunate enough to recently spend 2 weeks in northern Italy on a vacation trip to celebrate our 50th anniversary. The trip was great!

THE PEOPLE, CULTURE, AND ATTITUDES. We found the people of all ages to be universally friendly and welcoming. They genuinely seem like happy people! The vast majority of people we dealt with in hotels, restaurants, shops, as tour guides, drivers, etc., spoke good-to-excellent English and were pleased that we used the few words and phrases we knew in Italian. Although I don't know it for a fact, I suspect most of these same people also spoke French and possibly other foreign languages. I've found that multi-language skills are very common in western Europe. Again, I can't say enough about how friendly and welcoming they all were.

Italy has an amazing amount of history, both church and non-church related. The architecture from the small homes and shops to the extravagance of the many churches and cathedrals are like nothing I've seen elsewhere. We saw small "common homes and shops" that were frequently 300-600 years old and major government buildings that were well over 1000 years old, all still in use! One Roman-era coliseum still used for concerts and some sporting events was built 6 centuries BC! We also found Italians to be VERY fond of dogs. We saw more leashed dogs on a per capita basis than I have ever seem elsewhere. Dogs on the streets, in shops, in restaurants, and all well behaved. I made friends with a Rottweiler in a small café and my wife and I made friends with a Dachshund on a street in Verona. (Dachshunds were especially popular, by far the most common breed we saw and most were mini wire-haired versions). They simply love dogs!

THE SCENERY. Northern Italy varies from some flat terrain well-suited to farming to some rolling countryside frequently planted with grapes to extremely rugged alps. All of it was beautiful, especially the mountains. We visited Lake Como, an alpine lake that has a very rugged coast line filled with small-to-medium sized towns and villages, each more beautiful and charming that the one before it. Coastal villages such as Portofino and the Cinque Terra are all quite old but still vibrant with ongoing daily life and no-doubt benefitting from global tourist dollars. Larger cities, especially Milano and Verona especially impressed me with how unbelievably clean they are, There was almost zero trash on the streets and alleys. Citizens obviously take pride in keeping the cities very clean.

FOOD. Ah, yes, the food! If you like northern Italian cuisine, you will be in heaven. Fruits, veggies, meats, and seafood were fresh, flavorful, and chefs seem to take great pride in preparing unusual and especially tasty dishes for lunches and dinners. I commented to my wife that I've never seen so many restaurants and cafes in my life. Small villages with only a few thousand inhabitants might have 10-15 or even more eateries, most with sidewalk seating and ultra-friendly service. We also experienced some wonderful white and red wines from small, family-owned and run wineries, that were excellent. Unfortunately, these wineries are so small that they can't afford the cost to export outside of Italy so our wine-tasting experience was a one-time thing. (We had three wine tastings and the owners were heavily involved in the tasting itself and obviously it is a labor-of-love for them).

CARS and DRIVING. Italians generally drive very small cars and/or scooters (scooters by the gazillions). First, diesel costs over $6/gallon and gas typically over $7/gallon. Secondly, streets are very crowded and frequently are very narrow. While I found drivers in Rome to be horrid, in northern Italy drivers were excellent. They are safe, courteous, follow the rules of the road, keep right except to pass, zipper merge, know how to use roundabouts, and do not make a career and lifestyle out of horn blowing. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they drive. Roads are generally in good condition but as I said, can be very narrow and difficult to use especially when buses are present. Only saw one Ferrari and one Lambo in the whole two weeks, and few American vehicles. We did see some SUVs (generally smaller sizes) and only three pickups the entire trip. Most cars are four-seat hatchback compacts or sub-compacts.

OTHER. I asked several guides about damage during WWII and they all said northern Italy was heavily bombed by the allies due to the concentration of industry, some rail, and seaport facilities. However, any grudges still in existence were against Germany and not the allies. I did see one coastal fishing village and small port that still had a German gun emplacement on a promontory overlooking the harbor.

We've been to Italy on vacation trips twice before but never before in northern Italy. This was truly a memorable experience worthy of our anniversary trip.

I highly recommend it!

My family (on both sides) are from Northern Italy and I have been there several times as well.

I agree with e everything you've said!

FULLY AGREE! Been to middle and southern Italy with my wife and children. The food was OUTSTANDING and the hospitality was unbelievable. It seems Italy is well aware that a lot of their income comes from tourism. They seem to genuinely appreciate the fact that you chose to visit them and treat you accordingly. It has become one of the few European countries I will visit again!

Glad you had a great trip!

We currently have an exchange student from the Abruzzo region (central/East coast).

It's definitely made us want to look into taking an Italian vacation.

Fdan, thanks for the great report! Glad you had a great time, too.

My wife and I are looking forward to a similar trip in a few years, and hope to include Venice and Verona on our itinerary. I had a pen-pal from Verona when I was in high school and college, but we lost touch sometime along the way. I was looking through an old book a few years ago and found her address in it. I took a chance and sent a short note saying sorry it had been so long (30+ years?) since my last letter. I was surprised to receive an e-mail from her a short time later; her father still lives there. Our families are going to have dinner together when we visit Verona.

I love Italy, particularly the Tuscany region. In fact, as much as I hate the hassle of travel now, Italy is the only place I'd consider if I have to fly.

Glad you enjoyed your trip!

quote:

Originally posted by Fdan:
My wife and I were fortunate enough to recently spend 2 weeks in northern Italy on a vacation trip to celebrate our 50th anniversary. The trip was great!

TTIWWOP!

I concur. I've been to Italy several time and enjoyed it every time.

flashguy

Hello!

My wife and I are going in 2 weeks to celebrate 30 years together. She has family in northern Italy. We will see Paris too. We’ve got 14 days to blow.

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

Jim

I've been to Italy 3 times in the last 6-years, one for a wedding, the other two on my own. If you can't like Italy...you've got issues or, went with a shitty attitude. The differences between the North and South are pretty striking, food, culture, social morays, general organization, etc...I definitely prefer the North.

My tourist Italian is pretty solid after 3-trips, I'm GTG in a restaurant or, shop. I absolutely love how Italians take such pride in their food and eating. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of crap, Rome is infested with shitty places to eat but, get outside of the big city and there's boundless amount of pride in putting-out solid, unpretentious, solid, tasty food with a emphasis on fresh, in-season ingredients. I'm waxing poetic but, I really do dig it.

I spent three years at Aviano AB. The Italians were great to me.
Example:
My landlord spoke very little English but insisted I dine with his family once a month. I facilitated this hospitality by giving him a bottle of Johnnie Walker along with my rent. His family consisted of ten people, including in-laws and kids. A huge multi course traditional meal was served. During which, everyone talked at once in rapid fire Italian and often directed the conversation to me. I did not understand a thing. They did not care. I had a grand time with them and they must have enjoyed the ignorant foreigner, because I was invited back every month until I left Italy.
I miss Italy to this day, especially the Dolomites and Alps. I hope to go back.

Italy was one of my favorite countries when I visited Europe years ago. They dressed well, ate well, were kind and encouraging. Loved it there- all the culture, the architecture, the people..it was wonderful.

I’m more encouraged now with this thread. I used to live in southern Italy some 30 years ago now and have been reluctant to return as it wouldn’t be as I remembered. Especially now as they have their own migrant/immigrant problem to deal with but I believe I’ll put a trip back on my list when I retire next year.
Great people, food, atmosphere, wine!, couldn’t ask for more.

As I've stated before, my wife has been to one of her company's factories in the Bologna area 33 times since 2010. I've been able to visit twice and found her co-workers to be hard working salt of the earth people. They really have no use at all for southern Italians though, who they consider lazy and criminal who live off of their tax Euros. In fact, once they found out my wife had already done the tourist stuff in Rome, they told her there was no reason at all to ever go south of Siena.

^^^^^ Although it's south of Siena, it's north of Rome: I recommend a visit to the Civita di Bagnoregio

DSC_0410.jpg by David Casteel, on Flickr

More pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157632042604633/.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by stkfox:Especially now as they have their own migrant/immigrant problem to deal with but I believe I’ll put a trip back on my list when I retire next year.

Try not to over-state it, Italy's problem is geography, as they're the landing spot but, not the lingering area for the migrants streaming in. The magnetism of Frau Merkel draws the migrants through the boot and out of the country; Italy doesn't offer those awesome benefits that the Germans are offering and the new Italian government is taking a dim view of them.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Blackmore:
“”They really have no use at all for southern Italians though, who they consider lazy and criminal who live off of their tax Euros.””

Well, maybe today. I couldn’t say. They didn’t have the Euro to deal with back then. But southern Italy was very nice, agraian, blanketed with vineyards, nice people. Everyone who lived off base had nothing but good things to say about
their landlords. Mine was named Nick Colleta, claimed he was kicked out of Jersey by the Mob, for whatever...but he had a NICE looking daughter of about 20! Looked but never touched!

One of my best trips was to Sicily, nothing but the finest people down there, we had a taxi driver the spittin’ image of Anthony Quinn.

But, yes, you could draw a line straight across Italy at Rome. The differences couldn’t be more stark from north and south.

quote:

Originally posted by stkfox:

But, yes, you could draw a line straight across Italy at Rome. The differences couldn’t be more stark from north and south.

It's not going to keep either of us from ever going south of Siena, but she was struck by how consistent the sentiment was - not just from a few isolated people.