Thanksgiving Week in Central Italy

How did we decide on celebrating 2023’s Thanksgiving in Italy? We had a flight secured going into Malta, and coming out of Paris. Due to events on Oct 7^th, our original plan to go to Tunisia took a backseat when we heard about some attacks there, and seeing as how Evan hadn’t yet been to Italy, we decided that this low season/not too cold time may be the right time. So from Malta, off we went to Rome, Tuscany and Florence. And of course, made a few stops in between. We stopped in Ladispoli (where my parents lived for a year between immigrating from Russia to the U.S. and where I lived out the first year of my life!), Saturnia (hot springs), San Marino (Evan has a goal to cross off as many microcountries as possible), and Maranello (one of the best Ferrari fan’s dream towns).

Day 1: Rome: Basilica of St Eustace / Piazza Navona / Sant Ignazio / Column of Marco Aurelio
Day 2: Roman Forum / Palatine Hill / Colosseum / Trastevere
Day 3: Rome: The Vatican Museum / St. Peter’s Basilica / The Pantheon / Spanish Steps
Day 4: Rome – Ladispoli – Saturnia
Day 5: Saturnia Hot Springs – Quirico d’Orcio Road (Tuscany) – Pienza – Montepulciano
Day 6: Montepulciano town – San Marino: Three Towers – Immola Racetrack – Maranello
Day 7: Maranello: Ferrari Museum – Florence: Il Duomo
Day 8: Florence: Tour of Florence / Uffizi Gallery / Ponte Vecchio / Boboli Gardens / Piazzale Michelangelo
Day 9: Bonus Day Layover in Paris, France: A Parisian Day at the Christmas Market & Le Pharmacie!

Rome (black markers on the map)

This was my second time to Rome. The pizza, pasta, and gelato were much better than I remembered since my first visit (when I studied abroad in London and couldn’t afford the same delicacies). The city is so old that it almost felt unkempt. It isn’t. It simply doesn’t have the clean modern lines of other cities. Its old buildings and streets feel even older than you may expect. If you’re a history buff and/or a foodie, Rome will be heavenly for you. But after a handful of days, I craved more variety, or perhaps a different feeling. Activities were still plentiful including:

• Trevi Fountain – luckily on both my visits it was still open to the public without tickets – and after throwing a coin in (again), I hope that means that I do get to come back another time
• Tour of the Roman Forum / Palatine Hill / Colosseum – the tour we took was a bit too dense (and that’s saying something for us) but it is literally and figuratively a lot of ground to cover. The remains of the Forum and Palantine Hill were incredible, and the renovations made to the Colosseum since I was there in my 20’s were impressive as well.
• Doing the Vatican again, with a proper tour guide this time. The paintings are truly endless – the detailed story behind the Sistine Chapel was of course great and seeing incredible old maps around the world, but the thousands of other paintings we saw (the Vatican Museum houses 70,000 works of art) did all blend together for me. Our tour or the Vatican also included going to St. Peter’s Basilica (the burial place of the first pope). The basilica is an architectural marvel, and had to go to the top of the dome; walking up the narrow steps up was fun (though not for those who are claustrophobic, out of shape, or probably those with vertigo) – but the views at the top were worth it.
• Sant Eustachio + Piazza Navona + Sant Ignazio + Column of Marco Aurelio: between the cathedrals, piazzas and historical monuments, you’d be hard pressed to forget where you are.
• The Pantheon – a two thousand year old dome that’s stood the test of time and looks new, plus the central oculus in its roof
• Spanish Steps – not as beautiful as the steps up to the Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre Paris, but still the home of many filming scenes
• Water City Museum – the remains of a Roman house and aqueduct. If you Google the images, you’ve been there; quite frankly, I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s tiny and only worth stopping by if you’re in the neighborhood.

Ladispoli (dark blue marker on the map)

When my parents were immigrating from Russia to the U.S. they stopped over in Ladispoli, Italy for almost a year while waiting for refugee status and visas from the U.S. Here’s an article detailing an extremely similar experience to my family’s. I spent the first six months of my life in this city, and we decided to drive to where my family lived. It was a special moment for me to pull up to the building where my mom told me she would spend all her mornings wheeling me around the wrap-around balcony. This is also where my brother learned [some] Italian and started picking up cleaning windows of cars just to help my parents get by! I didn’t go inside the apartment, as it was quite late and we didn’t want to disturb anyone, but we still FaceTimed my family, whose jaws dropped at the history.

We also stopped by the central city fountain where others awaiting visas would gather around every night to announce who received their approved status. It was a place of celebration, joy, and also sadness and goodbyes for the friendships created during these difficult times. From there we may on our journey to Saturnia, but I definitely hope to come back and spend a day in this little Italian town.

Saturnia Hot Springs (light blue marker on the map)

I’m a sucker for hot springs. There are so many one can stop at on a drive from Rome to Florence that our only concern was making the right choice. Saturnia is the most popular and this was our hesitation – that it would be overly crowded, that it was perhaps overhyped, and we had read one blog that mentioned some bugs inside the waters (I mean it is nature, but I’m not a fan of creepy crawlies while swimming). We also figured we would spend at most 20-30 minutes, assuming the waters would be frigid at the end of November. I almost told Evan to scratch this off the list, but I’m extremely glad he encouraged us to make the stop. We arrived around 8am to find only one family there. Hours passed quickly and we had an itinerary to get through, but we could have easily spent more. While the water wasn’t bubbling hot, it was warm enough and the sun was out- so we managed to savor many moments here.

Tuscany – Pienza & Montepulciano (green markers on the map)

Tuscany has been on my list for decades, and my expectations of the rolling green hills was always high. Knowing that we were going at the end of November, I thought I set myself up for disappointment and feared the hills would be brown. Alas, they were still green, stunning, and only made us want to revisit again in warmer months. The drive on the road called Quirico d’Orcio (as recommended by many blogs), was the most scenic drive in Tuscany, and then we made our way to Pienza. Pienza has a particular landscape at the Terrapille Farmhouse known for the filming of the final Gladiator scene. We were one of three couples there and I saw each of the men walk up to where they assumed Russell Crowe descended through the hay. Each of the men stuck their hands out as they walked and they geeked out – it was a lovely role reversal to witness. Evan wanted to do the same and it made me smile. But the movie aside, watching sunset from here was fantastic. On a return trip, I would certainly consider staying a night in Pienza with the fantastic view to wake up to.

We then drove to Montepulciano, which was my favorite stay of the entire trip. I sense this town is spectacular no matter what season or what week of the year. Small winding streets with plenty of little shops, restaurants, and wineries – each one calling your name as you walk by. If you walk to the edge of any part of this town within the gate, you’ll find views of the rolling green hills of Tuscany over all the walls. What’s amazing is that as always – our cheapest Airbnb on the entire trip was in this town, and as always, turned out to be our favorite (it’s the best feeling when your expectations are exceeded).   

San Marino [microcountry] – orange markers on the map

From Montepulciano, we were within 2-3 hours driving distance from the microcountry of San Marino. And if only to say we went there, we of course made the drive. The country is atop a mountain, though I’m not going to tell you that it felt so different from the rest of central Italy. The walled medieval town and capital city of San Marino was worth visiting to see the three towers (all 3 towers are doable in a few hours time). We also walked around the town itself and Evan got more than a little bit hangry at this time. He was justified for feeling so though because we had walked around for an entire hour, only to be rejected by every restaurant at 7pm because they were all closed. We found one place open within the walled city and it turned out to be a great quick stop (or were we delusional at that point?), but if you want my recommendation – bring snacks if you’ll be here late in the winter.  

Immola & Maranello for the F1 / Ferrari fans
(red markers on the map)

From San Marino we drove to the F1 Immola racetrack to try to get a glimpse of it and visit Sena’s memorial. We climbed the fence a little in an attempt to see the racetrack, but it certainly wasn’t the same view as the Cota Tower in Austin. Either way it was a fun pit stop (pun intended) on our way to Maranello. We stayed in Maranello (at a Ferrari themed Hotel) for the night to visit the Ferrari museum. Love is not a strong enough word to describe how fun it was to read about the Ferrari team’s history and get a look at all the cars’ chassis, trophies and medals. I was disappointed not to have enough time to also visit the Enzo Ferrari museum – but there’s always next time. Maybe Adam Driver’s take on Enzo is all I needed to know? Probably not 😊

Florence (purple markers on the map)

When I was 20, I visited Rome, Florence and Venice on a trip with my roommate. I remember being surprised at that time that Florence was my favorite. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same this time around. The Duomo was just as beautiful and even more impressive. However, what made Florence my least favorite this time were the crowds and the transportation issues. Navigating the streets during the day (I simply mean walking) actually involved light bumping/pushing to get past people, and even as a New Yorker, that’s not my jam. Getting from the airport (where we dropped off our car rental) to our Airbnb also wasn’t easy. All the buses were 20 minutes behind schedule and we couldn’t get a taxi (uber also doesn’t work there) – so we walked with our suitcases. And then had to walk back again at 5am on our last day to the city center to catch the bus to the airport. I will certainly admit we stuck to the center of the city, and didn’t explore any hidden gems and didn’t visit too many parks given the weather, which I’m sure we’d love another season. There were of course still several highlights:

• Walking the Ponte Vecchio bridge at night and during the day were two very different experiences, and fun to see the change of scenery.
• Boboli Gardens – I can imagine these gardens are stunning in the spring when everything is sprouting, but were still a welcome surprise even in the cold weather and really felt like we were out of the city for some time – we visited these gardens on the walk to Piazzale Michelangelo (the plaza from which you get a great viewpoint of Florence). There are also several other smaller gardens/park you can walk through on the way up to the plaza
• Il Duomo – we didn’t pay the price or spend the time to go inside, but the facade of this structure hit me just as hard 15 years later as it did the first time. Visually my favorite cathedral (at least its exterior).
• The Uffizi Gallery / The Florence Marathon coincided with our visit to the gallery. The Uffizi gallery was huge, but after our visit to the Vatican, all the ancient sculptures and paintings were probably unappreciated by our non-artsy eyes. Though we did enjoy the layout of the museum and watching the marathon from the gallery (fun views!). I’ve only ever witnessed the NYC Marathon, so seeing this one was far more low key but fun to embrace and cheer on the locals.
• The city Christmas market held at Piazza Santa Croce – amazing mulled wines, warm people and a beautiful setup. Ironically not overly crowded.
• David – while I went glasses shopping (frames are so much cheaper in Europe!), Evan went to see Michelangelo’s David, which he would describe as huge! And has a great ass. The rest of the gallery was impressive as well, filled with a large collection of roman sculptures and reliefs.
• Il Mercato Centrale San Lorenzo – a historic market hall with a variety of options (on the 2nd floor). Got our last aperol spritz of the trip here 🙁 the first floor has vendors selling their goods (such as spices, olive oils, etc) which we wish we had time to go to, and will surely return.
• Alibi Craft Beer and Kitchen – Evan grabbed a worthy beer here while waiting for me to finish shopping. Craft Italian beer bar. When in…. Florence?

Restaurant mentions:

• Rome: Pizza at Mariuccia – we told the hotel receptionist we were starving and he said to grab a quick pizza at Mariuccia. This was the best pizza on our trip. I dream about it, all the time.
• Rome: The vibe in Trastevere neighborhood –
  • Tonnarello for lunch/dinner (4.7 review with over 78,000 reviews in 2024 and we didn’t wait more than 10 mins in line, we got extremely lucky),
• Rome: Barnum, a great breakfast spot before visiting the Colosseum
• Rome: Mimi e Coco – not a restaurant we had greatly researched, but the meatballs and salad were both a welcome surprise
• Montemarano: Vecchia Osteria Cacio e Vino: our most authentic meal, well outside any cities on our way to Saturnia
• Montepulciano: our dinner for Thanksgiving at La Vineria di Montepulciano – truly an epic spread.
• Florence: the crepes at La Milkeria

One Parisian Day at the Christmas Market & Le Pharmacie!

• On this trip I went to the three floors of the most famous French pharmacy and bought many hundreds of dollars worth of products – I will continue to revisit France even if it’s just for their skincare products. You walk in, and some of the pharmacy store reps will do a quick scan of your face and recommend everything you need. Now, whether or not they’re bullshitting you to some degree or really know their stuff, I wouldn’t know – but I do love [most] of the products I was recommended. If you’re a Caudalie, Skinceuticals, LPR, or Avene fan, you can score great deals, and don’t forget to bring your passport for tax refunds (Le Pharmacie does it right in the store, you don’t even have to do it in the airport).
• Christmas Market – I mean .. my god. The market was in the Tulleries Garden and even in the rain it took my breath away. It felt 20x larger than the Union Square Market – with less retail (though still plenty of course), and a much bigger emphasis on food and drinks – and – activities! The 5 euro Crazy House was by far our favorite activity.
• If you want more tips on visiting Paris, click here to access my post!

This entry was posted in Europe, Italy