Category Archives: Italy

Thirty-six hours in Milan

December 18, 2024Italy, TravelDaVinci, Duomo, Italia, Italy, Milan., MIlanomidnightmurphy

Despite my near miss when I accidentally boarded the Tirana to Rome, rather than the correct Tirana to Bergamo flight, we landed in Bergamo on time at 10am. My flight back to Ireland was not until 9pm the following evening. My trip had been extended for a specific reason – I wanted to finally visit ‘The Last Supper’ by Leonardo DaVinci in Milan. This is a painting I have wanted to see since childhood. It’s not an easy undertaking, however. Located in a climate and temperature-controlled monastery, visitors are strictly limited in number. Tickets to see it are like gold dust. I had forked out fifty-four euros for a guided tour of the painting – justifying the price with the realisation that unless I was willing to pay this amount then I’d never likely see it.

I took a bus from Caravaggio Airport in Bergamo to the Central Rail station from there I walked to my hotel which took an hour. This was my first time in Italy’s second largest city.

Milan had never been high on my list of places I wished to visit. Italy is such a beautiful country there always seemed to be a more appealing option. This time was different.

After dropping my bags at my hotel, I strolled over to the Duomo di Milano – the ridiculously ornate cathedral of Milan. It’s an architectural marvel on a par with the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. To take the lift to the roof was more expensive than to take the stairs but it was my chosen option. Having walked an average of twenty kilometres per day while in Albania my leggies were exhausted. I must give props to the Catholic Church – they know how to do a glamourous church.

I spent an hour on the roof and inside the church before exiting on the Piazza Del Duomo and made my way to the Grand Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II on the square. This is an opulent nineteenth century shopping mall housing all the unaffordable Italian designer labels – Milan is a world centre of fashion on a par with Paris and New York. You can tell – the locals are impossibly thin, beautiful, and stylish. I didn’t buy anything. The prices were not visible on many items indicating that it would require a mortgage to buy them.

Making my way to La Scala opera house I noticed a queue coming out the door. There was a self-guided tour of the place. I waited in line behind an Italian woman who took about fifteen minutes to purchase her ticket. Why rush I guess. It’s an interesting building with an informative museum included. Not quite on a par with La Fenice in Venice, but in the vicinity.

The fifteenth century Castello Sforzesco is located a fifteen-minute walk away. Relieved to discover that its museum was closed on Monday I whiled away an hour wandering about its grounds, before heading back to my hotel.

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Sicily in summertime

October 1, 2024Italy, Travel, UncategorizedItaly, Ortigia, Palermo, Sicily, Siracusa, taormina, Travelmidnightmurphy

My first trip to Italy as a tourist was in February 2020, just as the world was about to shut down. My first holiday to that country was a revelation. I found Rome to be enchanting. Since then I have averaged two trips a year – never to the same place. Italy is a country where you can pick any spot, and it will be a delight. My favourite place to visit thus far is Venice. But not Venice as most know it. I was lucky enough to visit during the harsh lockdown of 2020 when international travel was strongly discouraged, meaning that my flight to that city was empty and the tourist throngs were conspicuous by their absence.

This year I decided that it was time to visit Sicily. . Or rather the Ryanair sale for a return flight in August decided for me. Frugality is a necessity when it comes to travel, as otherwise I would be bankrupt. My return flight cost 140 euros. I was planning to travel alone but as often happens I had an inquiry from a regular travel companion. I wouldn’t mind at all – I like solo travel but given the choice having a co-conspirator is very much appreciated.

Sicily is much larger than I had imagined and has a population of almost five million people. How would we decide our itinerary. Some research indicated that a few stops would be possible. We decided on three days in the capital Palermo; two days in the second city Catania in the shadow of Mount Etna; and our final two days on the island of Ortigia in the ancient Greek city of Siracusa.

Our flight landed on Saturday evening at 8pm and we reached our enormous apartment. It was one of those high ceilinged, old, Italian houses with a complicated floor plan and random doors leading to nowhere. We had an early night. In the morning we had an early start. We were being collected from our apartment at 8am for a day tour. Two weeks earlier I had booked a full day excursion to the town of Agrigento in the south of the islands to see the Valley of The Temples.

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The Italian Riviera and Genoa

October 24, 2023Italy, TravelCinque Terre, Genova, Italian Rivieramidnightmurphy

My first trip to Italy was in February 2020 – mere weeks before lockdown. It was a revelation. So much culture, history, food, beauty. You can close your eyes and pick anywhere on the map of that country, and you’ll likely find yourself in a beautiful place steeped in splendour. Since that time, I have returned to visit Naples, Florence, Lecce, Pisa, Siena, Bergamo, and – most memorably to Venice.

My journey to Venice was a once in a lifetime experience. October 2020 – the world was locked down. But airplanes were flying from Dublin to Venice and me, along with five other passengers visited the fabled city. A city that in normal times suffocates through tourism, was largely empty. No cruise ship passengers or budget airline city-breakers, no day-trippers. That week, the city was left to Italian tourists and me. To be able to witness Venice in those circumstances was special, and likely never to be repeated.

This year’s trip was taking me to the Cinque Terre and onwards to Genoa. The Cinque Terre (Five Lands) is a coastal stretch in Liguria, in northwest of Italy. It comprises of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The villages lie to the west of the city of La Spezia . Part of the Italian Riviera the Cinque Terre is regarded as one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world.

I landed at 9pm in Pisa Airport and took the train to Central Station where a high speed Frecciabianca would get me to La Spezia by 10.15pm. Not quite. The train was an hour late, so it was close to midnight when I rang the bells to the B&B where the landlord who was reeking of stale wine, showed me to my room.

The following morning, I rose early to have an Italian coffee and pastry before heading back to my room to do a morning’s work. This was inconvenient but unavoidable. Having gone quite overboard when it comes to travel in 2023 my remaining holidays were insufficient to cover my travels. Meaning I was accompanied by my work laptop – which thankfully this time I managed not to leave in airport security at Dublin.

At midday I logged off and went to La Spezia central station where I purchased a forty-eight-hour Cinque Terre ticket which would allow unlimited travel between each of the villages. I was keen to do this on the Friday, calculating that as a workday the crowds would be thinner than the following day. I boarded a jam-packed to the furthest of the villages – Monterosso al Mare. My plan was to visit each one, coming closer to La Spezia with each stop.

The villages are spectacularly beautiful – multi-coloured houses built into the mountainside surrounded by a UNESCO World heritage park with vineyards dotting the landscape. The middle village Corniglia was the most challenging as it required a steep climb to reach it. All are hundreds of years old and have been perfectly preserved. An enchanting place to spend six hours walking.

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Travels in Naples, Sorrento and Capri

October 20, 2022Italy, Pandemic Travels, Travel, UncategorizedCapri, Naples, Sorrentomidnightmurphy

Thousands of years ago (meaning February 2020) before the hated Plague had restricted our lives so drastically, I visited Rome for the first time. While I was there, I took the FrecciaRossa hi-speed train service to Naples so I could travel to the outer edges of that city to see the archaeological site of Pompeii. This had been a dream of mine since the age of nine years old when I was taught about it in school. It fascinated me – the idea that a town was frozen in time after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius two thousand years ago. It exceeded my expectations. However, my regret was that it was a day trip – there was so much to see and do in Rome that I didn’t have time to explore the rest of Italy’s third largest city Naples. When my friend suggested an early autumn jaunt back to Naples, I was all over the idea like eczema. Flights were booked, accommodation sorted and on the 7th of October we travelled from Limerick to Dublin to begin our journey.

I felt very responsible. This being my twenty second foreign trip since the start of the pandemic meant that international travel was quite routine for me. My friend hadn’t travelled abroad since late 2019 (when we visited Ukraine) so was understandably nervous. I tried to place myself in her shoes. We’d work it out.

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Travels in the Heel of Italy – Lecce and Gallipolli

October 18, 2022Italy, Pandemic Travels, Solo travel, Travel, UncategorizedBergamo, Gallipolli, Leccemidnightmurphy

As I sat in Dublin Airport waiting to board my plane to Bergamo, I had a thought. If I’d checked travel dates when booking my foreign trips six months earlier, I wouldn’t have travelled to Naples one weekend, returned home, only to go back to southern Italy the following weekend. I’d have stayed in Italy. Sadly, this was only a thought, so there I was again – sitting in Departures, waiting to board a Ryanair flight.

Upon arrival in Bergamo I realised why my hotel was so cheap – it was out in the countryside – and as my flight landed at 10.30pm I had to take a taxi there – there being no public transport at that hour. The driver was a sleazy grifter. He didn’t look like one, but he changed forty euros for a five-kilometre trip. In these situations, it’s not worth arguing. I paid the money and swore not to take another taxi this holiday. Arising at 7.30 I started planning my return journey to Bergamo Airport for my 11.50am flight. Sipping a strong coffee, an awkward fact presented itself. It would be quicker to walk from my rural B&B than to take a bus. Also 40 euro cheaper than Uber was telling me the 5km journey would cost. It seems like I had misjudged by driver from the night before. This is after all the most expensive part of Italy. The early morning stroll to the airport was scenic and rustic until I reached the motorway. I could see the airport in the distance, but how to safely traverse six lanes of traffic. A kindly Italian farmer pointed me in the direction of an underpass (he saw me looking bewildered from his tractor). Onwards to Lecce.

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