📍Sirmione, Venice, & Rome, Italy 🇮🇹

After an action packed few weeks we needed a little more of a relaxed stay. Per the last blog, we made our way to a small coastal town in Italy called Sirmione. It was VERY off season so the town was pretty empty.

Days 1-6: After a train, bus, and rainy walk, we made it to our beachy lakefront apartment Desenzano Del Garda-Sirmione. The apartment had a kitchen and laundry so we planned on using this time to cook, wash our clothes, and catch up on our blog, you’re welcome (to our few fans).

Luckily the town was really small, so the 20 minute walk to the grocery store was a nice, personal walking tour. J had not been feeling great, so I walked to the store and got food for the next few days and began to cook. Good news, I did in fact remember how to operate a stove and did not burn the place down. Hibernation mode activated.

The next few days consisted of a LOT of TV, some home cooking, very little moving, and a lot of sleep. MUCH NEEDED! We had originally booked for three nights but ended up extending our stay twice and stayed for six nights, including Christmas Eve and Christmas. Important to note: J had not seen Elf so watched it to fix this flaw of his.

On our final day, J was feeling slightly better so we went for a walk together outside and then had a nice dinner at Ristorante Casa Dei Pescatori.

We checked out after night six and walked to the bus stop which was downtown. We knew there was a castle there so we went a little early to explore. We didn’t fully think this plan through—walking through a castle with backpacks the size of us seemed a little difficult—so I stayed outside with the bags while J ran up to the top to explore and take some pictures.

We quickly explored the town. Who knew this cute little town was next to our hibernation hut this whole time? I assume it’s an amazing place to be during the warm months and completely reminded me of the Bethany Beach of Italy, IYKYK. Ok, maybe Bethany if Bethany had a castle.

We got on the right bus (impressive feat because just about no one spoke English) and we were on our way to the train for a quick stay in Venice.

Day 7: After a bus, two trains, and a ferry, we made it to our Venice hotel, Ca’Bragadin e Carabba. By the time we checked in it was already dinner time. We found a little restaurant close to us, Puppa Bar Venezia, that was known for their risotto—worked out very well for us because we happened to be huge risotto fans. Thank God for elastic waste bands, otherwise my pants would no longer fit. We ate, walked around a bit, and went to bed. J was still fighting this cold/sickness thing and, well, I love sleep so I had no problem with an early night.

Day 8: J tried to get some sleep to recover so I went out to explore the city. I learned some things quickly: first, it is very easy to get lost and second, while it is very beautiful, all the bridges look very similar which does not help with the getting lost part. I am pretty much Christopher Columbus now because I nailed reading the map and navigating through the small streets (for the most part…Mr. CC had some errors too, I assume). I had a full day roaming, starting the day with a fat slice of pizza in hand, of course, and went to the Piazza San Marco, Doge palace, and saw the Bridge of Sighs. I should probably mention it took me a bit to make my way around because I must have stopped at EVERY single bridge to take a picture…I get it from my mama.

Next stop was to see the views from Ponte Dell Accedemia, which is the famous bridge in Venice. After taking a selfie from every angle, I made my way to the Basilica Do Santa Maria Della Salute, which was pretty, but happened to be under construction. The city is small, but I managed to get in 15,000 steps before 3 pm. (Some pictures from the bridge Ponte Dell Accedemia, others from roaming around the city.)

J had mustered the strength to join me and it was only right we took a gondola ride…you know, when in Venice. I hadn’t eaten since my one large, but slim piece of pizza at 10 am, so I was starving. What makes any boat ride better? Snacks. I found a little sandwich and J picked up a few snacks from the local café for our ride. We found a gondola and hopped in. We looped around the canals for 30 minutes had our food, saw pretty scenery, and then paid the very expensive bill. Another day of seeing beautiful things and thinking money grows on trees.

J wanted to see some of the sites I saw, so we made a quick pit stop at a few of the sights and then we went to a famous bookstore, Liberia Acqua Alta. This is a bookstore that had flooded not once, but twice and they use the damaged books as some of their décor. They even made a staircase out of the books.

While on our adventures, we saw a long line at Suso as we passed by. We then found out it was a gelato place. There was no way we were going to pass up on an opportunity for some good gelato, so after our sightseeing we found ourselves in that long line. Reviews: 8/10—pretty good, but I’m still an ice cream girl over gelato.

We then went to dinner at Osteria Da Alex to wrap up the day of exploring (for me) and the day of resting and eating (for J).

Day 9: When we arrived in Venice, I was looking up things to do. A small town called Burarno popped up and I had to go. We took the ferry (and by took the ferry I mean sprinted to the ferry to not miss it) for about 45 minutes and arrived in this little town.

We hadn’t eaten anything and I had already read about this “cone food” called grotto mista from a place called Fritto Inn. It is actually just a cone with calamari and fried shrimp and we just so happened to stumble upon this when we arrived in Burano.

We ate our snack, walked around for a while, and then we came across a very crowded looking restaurant. We went to see if we could get a table but the wait was an hour. Luckily, they let us put our names down for 3 pm and I think we were the last table to be seated. The restaurant was called Trattoria Al Gatto Nero Da Ruggero and it was amazing. It seemed like it was a local spot because the servers seemed to know everyone there.

After eating, we walked around a bit more, but this place was very small so we had just about seen it all. We hopped back on the ferry and rode back just as the sun was setting.

J had found out that in the whole town of bridges (Venice) there was only two bridges left with no railing. We of course had to find one and walk over it. Mission accomplished. For the record, I will stick to bridges with railings.

After a long day, we found a poke place and ordered take out. Fail. It was bad, but that’s ok…we should’ve known to stick with what the Italians know best. And just like that, our short time in Venice had come to an end and it was on to the big city, Rome.

Day 10: We took the train to Rome, which took about four hours. Our hotel, Korean Sonata, was near the train station Roma Termini (horrible idea, I’ll get back to this shortly) so we walked over to our hotel and checked in. One of my friends from back home had been staying in Rome with his cousins for a while, so we met up with him for some drinks and food. We had an aperol spritz and some Italian charcuterie (don’t kill me, I forgot the name) while looking over the Spanish steps in the middle of the city.

We walked around, saw the Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum at night, and then ended up in an Irish bar (clearly didn’t leaned from our poke incident) for one more drink. It was the night before New Year’s Eve, so we were instructed to rest up for our “big night out.”

Day 11: We took our “rest up” very seriously. We didn’t move much this day, other to find some fuel for our evening. We found the most amazing Korean spot and had ourselves a FEAST. Turns out, my Trevi Fountain wish did come true: that bulgogi beef was perfect. Do you not wish for good food? Oh…yeah me neither…I swear we also ate plenty of pizza and pasta during our time in Italy.

We got ready to meet everyone at the Coliseum to watch the fireworks. Not a bad way to end 2022. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I should mention we walked from our hotel to take the subway at Roma Termini, which again, wasn’t far, but I felt unsafe the entire way (this is important for later). I also want to mention that nowhere in the reviews for this hotel did anyone say the area was sketchy.

We took it upon ourselves to have a heavy portion of Patron while watching the fireworks, which I must admit was very helpful in keeping us awake for the late hours these people start their nights. We didn’t even get to the club until around 2 am (remember, we love risotto, gelato, and sleep so this was late for me). We danced, we drank, we made new friends, and closed our 2022 with a bang. (TBH, I ended 2022 with a fat plate of fried chicken to satisfy my drunken needs.)

Day 12: OUCH. 2023 started with a fierce hangover for me. When I say I may have moved 200 steps the whole day, that may be generous. J slept all day and I sat in bed pondering my life choices. Happy New Year…

Day 13: Jan 2nd went much better than Jan 1st. Other than having to wake up at 5:45 am, the day was lovely. This is when I regret wishing for good food at the fountain and perhaps could have focused on health. I think I was still hungover, but it was time to make some moves and power through. (Don’t worry, I didn’t really wish for good food.)

Anyway, we went to St. Peters Basilica and stood in line for a very long time, but it was very worth it. Pope Benedict XVI had unfortunately passed a few days prior, so his body was in the Church. Kinda crazy to just walk by a dead body on a casual Monday afternoon, but we witnessed some history.

From there, we went to grab a little snack (a nice juicy slice of pizza) and coffee to keep us going for exploring The Vatican.

The full museum took us three hours and, if you know me, my attention span is about three minutes so it is impressive I made it. New year, new me? Probably not, let’s be honest.

We made a very quick walk by to see the Pantheon and kept it movin’.

After a very busy day, we went back to the hotel to rest up for a very important evening event. My friend and his cousins told us about an amazing all you can eat sushi spot in Rome, Domo Sushi. It was my time to shine. It was everything I had hoped for and we left very happy and full. I was so excited, I forgot to take any pictures of the actual food. I did, however, get this quality shot…

I had said I felt unsafe walking around Roma Termini on NYE above, yeah? Well, while we were having a nice sushi meal, my friend told me that on NYE a 24 year old girl was stabbed at the same train station we were at while she was buying tickets. And just like that I was ready to leave Rome. We had one more day, but I made sure to stay away from that train station until the last possible minute. Update: They did catch the guy and it happened to be a guy from Poland, who is now residing in jail.

Day 14: Back to happier blogging. Our final day in Italy. We spent the last day touring the Coliseum and the surrounding area.

This took up most of our day, but I could not leave Italy with out trying a cannoli. I don’t even like cannolis to be honest, but I just had to have one. J found a place that was a short metro ride away, so we got on the metro and were on the hunt for cannolis. We were very successful and I can say I do in fact like cannolis. (And now, I can’t focus on anything other than the amount of time I used the word “cannoli” in one paragraph.)

We had an overnight train to catch, so we went back to our hotel, chilled for a bit (again, I was not going to the train station until I HAD to), and eventually made our way to our train. We had the cabin to ourselves with beds to sleep in for our 10 hour overnight journey.

Outtakes: