During our spring break this year a friend and I, a pair full of wanderlust, decided to go for an adventure around Italy. Needless to say, we weren’t the only ones who had this idea – Italy is popular with the backpackers and tourists, and it’s hard to imagine how much more jam-packed it can get in the summer heat when the holiday season actually starts. Nevertheless, we didn’t let this bother us and ended up absolutely loving Italy, the pizza and pasta that will never quite taste the same anywhere else, the beautiful surroundings, and the friendly Italians and fellow travellers we met along the way. The Fashion Capital
Milan was our first stop. We stayed just outside the stunning Milano Centrale station, a little out of the city centre. Milan is known to be the European city of fashion, and naturally it’s great for nightlife and shopping sprees if you have the money to spend. However, it’s also a city full of beautiful buildings, such as the Sforza Castle, a fortress adorned with art by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, and Duomo di Milano, a gorgeous cathedral. To me, Milan seemed to be a hybrid between extremely modern and extremely historical.
On our first night, we walked around the corner from our hostel to a pizza shop called Spontini for a 4.5 euro massive, amazing-tasting pizza slices – a perfect start to the trip. The next day, Easter Sunday, we had what seemed like a never-ending Easter buffet of food and wine at our hostel, basking in the sun on the roof terrace and chatting with an international group of people. We ended up skipping sightseeing that day and just enjoying the awesome hostel. For me, that was just another example of the fact that sometimes when you’re travelling, the best and most memorable things are not the places you see, but the people who you see them with. Staying at the Ostello Bello Grande hostel was easily one of the highlights of our whole trip.
Where Pizza Was Born & Amalfi Coast
From Milan we took a six-hour train ride to Rome that ended up becoming seven hours because the train was delayed. (A word of advice: Italian trains are not exactly to be trusted. Later on during the trip, we also experienced a train strike which was apparently the third that happened in two months.) Finally in Rome, we spent the night there and left for Naples, a culture-filled city with churches, castles and museums, in the morning. From Naples, we also made a trip to see the ruins of Pompeii, the ancient city destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius. You’ll spend the whole day walking around this impressive and fascinating sight which I thoroughly recommend.
Naples is told to be the birthplace of pizza, and in that department it didn’t let us down. We ended up going to the same pizza restaurant called Sorbillo over and over again. The pizzeria had lines of people outside every night, which is not surprising thanks to their delicious 4-5 euro pizzas, and probably also the fact that they have a photo on their wall of the Pope eating there. If you fancy something other than pizza (but really, you have to try it because you’ll love it), the Neapolitan street food offers a tasty and similarly inexpensive alternative.
I’ll be honest: besides the food, Naples didn’t really live up to expectations for us. The streets were dirty, and as female tourists we didn’t have a good experience being stared at and catcalled a lot by the local men. Sadly, we felt a bit out of place. Having left Naples for the towns of Positano and Praiano on the Amalfi Coast, we entered a completely different place. Amalfi was our “beach holiday” part of the trip. It’s an area with lots of nice restaurants, cosy cafés and small shops for handmade art and craft, really helpful and hospitable people, and gorgeous seaside views.
When in Rome
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Rome as I’d heard mixed reviews of the city, but both my travel buddy and I ended up loving it. It is definitely The City for the history and architecture geeks, but there are a number of walking and bus tours you can take which require little existing knowledge of the history of the city and even teach you more. In fact, even if you just enjoy looking at beautiful aesthetics whilst walking down the streets, Rome is the place to be.
Some of the places we visited were the Trevi fountain (a classic but absolutely filled with endless groups of tourists), the Pantheon (a beautiful and architecturally impressive building) and Castel Sant’Angelo (a castle by the river). We also got a chance to see Vatican City with its stunning pieces of art and architecture in the Sistine Chapel and the St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican is scammers’ and pickpockets’ paradise, though – just keep a close eye on your belongings and you’ll be fine.
Staying at a hostel is the most student budget-friendly option, although even Roman hostels are expensive compared to other major European cities. Our hostel in Rome did not quite compare to the one in Milan (it’s hard to top, to be fair), but the griminess of the bathroom was forgotten by the time we met some other travellers at the Free Pasta Party in the kitchen – apparently the done thing in many Italian hostels. Sitting outside having a pint next to the Colosseum with my new friends from across the world made my last night in Italy pretty unforgettable.
All photos by Saara Viitanen.
