Italy & Paris recs

taccoten · July 2010

To all the worldly ladies on TK:

Looking for food/drink/must-see/must-do recs in:

Rome, Venice, Positano area, Paris

We are open to anything! Thank you!

LaFemmeRousse · July 2010

Interesting Rome recommendations- get the Rick Steves guidebook. He has detailed walking tours that you can use for every major museum and historical site so you don't have to pay for the expensive guided ones. If you do want a guided tour, skip the giant group behemoths and go with something like Context Rome- they only do small groups of about six people, and the tour leaders are all local art and history professors. Amazing! The Excavations Tour at the Vatican is also different and cool. I remember loving Old Bridge Gelateria near Piazza Risorgimento by the Vatican, but really- all gelato is delicious

Of course all the famous touristy sites are worth a trip- Trevi Fountain at night if possible, walk by the old forum but you don't need to tour it, Colosseum, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Spanish steps- and right by the Spanish steps is an awesome glove store called Sermoneta that I loved.

Some of my random favorites: Villa Borghese (only open certain days, check the schedule ahead of time), a great art museum with a lovely surrounding park, the Capitoline Museum, and San Luigi dei Francesi (the French church in Rome, gorgeous art). We took a half day trip to the Tivoli Gardens at Villa d'Este, and this is an absolute must-see in my opinion. So beautiful!

Paris:

My favorite museums are the Musee D'Orsay and the Rodin Museum. See a concert at L'Opera Garnier. Walk up the steps to Le Sacre Coeur in Montmartre and wander around the twisty streets to see all the public art. Take a day trip to Versailles or Giverny (Monet's gardens). Picnic in the Luxembourg gardens. Eat all the street crepes you can. Take a nighttime boat ride down the Seine. Brave the Champs-Elysees if only to stop in to Laduree for the most beautifully wrapped and delicious pastries and treats.

For crazy opulent cocktails or food, all the palace hotels have bars and restaurants. Hemingway Bar at the Ritz is pretty darn cool but pricy, of course. Le Fumoir is good for relaxing cocktails. Harry's New York Bar is an expat classic. I think the Latin Quarter has the most fun nightlife of any Paris neighborhood, generally speaking.

chelley599 · July 2010

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AmoroAgain · July 2010

*sigh*. I know I'm the only person who thinks this, but why split the trip like that? They're each amazing on their own, and should be given due consideration. *pout*

Anyway, best restaurant, hands down, in Rome, was the Girrarosto Fiorentino. I'm a huge food snob after living there for a few years, and this place was freaking to die for. Walk all of the cities at night-- they're so different and beautiful that way.

misscarolb · August 2010

I can't for the life of me remember any restaurants we went to in Italy BUT if you like going out at night you must do Piazza Navona in Rome. It's surrounded by restaurants and all the little side streets are filled with bars - La Botticella being my favorite! Last time I was there one of the waitresses was this sweet girl who is actually American but grew up in Italy and, I think, France. She spoke perfect English and showed us around a little. Though, she's probably not there anymore.

Also, as cheesy as it sounds, take at least one of those double decker bus tours. They're like $20 bucks (and if you take one you get a coupon off another that you can use in a different city since they're everywhere). You learn a little and see A LOT, I usually hate things like this but it's a good way to get a feel for a city and spot places you'll want to spend more time at later. Have a blast!

Oooo, Also...While in Venice - definitely take a boat out to Murano (the glass island) it's great to get a peak at how all the beautiful glass is made but be careful, they will totally take advantage of you so I don't suggest buying anything!

Patineuse1124 · August 2010

In Paris, try to time your visit to the Eiffel Tower to be at sunset. In the summer there will likely be a line so get there an 30-60 min before sunset. Then you will be on the middle area of the tower at sunset, and likely by the time you get to the top, it will be dark. The city looks amazing at night. Also the tower only sparkles for like 10 minutes every hour, so try to time it to see that as it's really cool. When we were there we had a picnic by the tower as well by picking up a baguette (it's not cliche, you see everybody carrying them home around dinner time), cheese, and some fruit at a grocery store nearby (bonus, many of the fancy imported cheeses in the US are local/nearby there so are cheaper... I

Gouda!).

Be careful to check which days things are open as the museums close for a day or two during the week. You don't want to save the Louvre for your last day in Paris and then realize it's closed that day.

taccoten · August 2010

Amoro -

We don't have money and time to fly back and forth to Europe to visit each city individually. In everyone's ideal world, we would all have unlimited time to travel the world and stay in foreign cities for weeks on end, but in reality, people try and visit a few places at once and do as much as they can while they are there for a short time. We both have full-time jobs and limited time to travel before we have children, so splitting trips up is not an option for us - and probably for 99.9% of the population. How do you not see this?

To everyone else -

Thank you so much for your recs! I will write all of these down and be sure to see and do what we can while we are there!!

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