Italy 2025

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Trip start
December 6, 2025
Italy 2025 Traveler
Italy in December
December 6, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
Wrapping up 2025 with a nice week in Italy! We just landed in Rome via a smooth ride from Atlanta. From the plane, the weather sure looks a lot warmer than Wisconsin!

Stay tuned for large amounts of food and wine pics. 🥂Read more
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Italy 2025 Traveler
First night in Florence
December 6, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C
We've had a great first day in Italy! Amanda and Kevin were waiting for us just outside of customs when we arrived, at which point the four of us grabbed the train to the main Rome train Termini! After enjoying the Italo lounge we grabbed the high speed rail to Florence.

Our hotel is stunning, right in the heart of Florence, Helvetica & Bristol. We settled in and enjoyed a complementary bottle of Veneto sparkling for our anniversary before heading out to drinks and dinner.

On our way we happened across the Christmas parade and watched the tree lighting, a perfect welcome for our first night in Florence. We had some time to kill before our 830pm dinner (Italians eat so late!). Amanda and I opted for the espresso martini to perk up, while the guys went for negroni rifts.

Dinner was at Gune - a favorite Igor and I happened upon in 2021 when we were here last! It's a very welcoming fine dining establishment and offers a cocktail pairing, super fun. We showed great restraint and went with the middle option, with 5 courses, with Amanda and I going the traditional wine pairing, and Igor and Kevin going cocktails. The whole meal was delicious, I super loved the wild boar risotto and wild mackerel courses, Igors fav was the beef cheek.

A great start to the trip!Read more
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Italy 2025 Traveler
Spa & market day
December 7, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
We started our first full day in Florence nice and slow at the Roman baths below our hotel. Complete with steam room, sauna, pools, ice room, and emotional shower (still unsure what this actually is). A great way to decompress after traveling!

The rest of the day was spent exploring and finding food. We went to the main market / food hall and each collected a few meals to share - truffle ravioli, focaccia pizza, cow stomach sandwich - all surprisingly tasty! Tho Kevin found himself buying raw sardines from a fish stand 😂 Not tasty, did not eat.

Fueled up, we visited the Medeci palazzo, looked upon many marble statues, and generally enjoyed the lovely weather and Florence vibes!

The evening we booked a slightly earlier 7pm dinner to do the classic Florentine steak! Starting with beef tartare tho was a bold move and we all felt pretty maxed out on red meat by the end of the meal.

As it got later I think we all felt more awake given 10 pm Italy time is around midday Madison time! So we spent the evening enjoying various cocktails from negroni rifts and a pickled mushroom cocktailRead more
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Italy 2025 Traveler
Umbria
December 9, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C
After two nights in Florence, we headed to wine country!

Our hotel is I Borgi dell'Eremo - a super cute hill side boutique hotel with over 1200 acres of land and a gorgeous 15 rooms/villas. We stayed in one of the two bedroom ones and loved having a shared living space to play games and hangout.

On arrival we started strong with a spa night, enjoying the use of steam room, sauna, emotion shower, pool, and hot tub! We ordered a few negronis and relaxed before dinner.

We mostly had the whole hotel to ourselves, as we had a in the week night stay and it's the off season. Very nice as we had dinner at the hotel both nights and breakfast each morning, each time at our dedicated table in the restraunt ♥️

We took it easy most of our time here but did venture out into town for lunch on our one full day in the area. Pretty easy driving except when I suggested we could "easily take the interior mountain town roads" (with a "uppity uppity" in encouragement) ... Where we found ourselves wedged between the castle walls and trapped on a too tight corner 😅 with much guidance from Kevin and some lackluster help from me and Amanda, Igor did a 1000 point turn to escape our predicament. Only a few people witnessed our struggle so embarrassment stayed to a minimum - another win for off season travel!

Unfortunately most of the spots we were going to check out for lunch were closed but as luck would have it we found ourselves at a cute wine and sandwich shop with a very helpful host! After some delicious sandwiches and a bottle of wine to go we had a much less eventful drive back to the hotel to relax and enjoy another evening playing games and dinner.

Both mornings we woke up to stunning fog across the hills. Like the ridge valley views to the max with beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Amanda and I enjoyed our second morning hiking out to their farm! A very hilly 3 miles, mostly wooded, with a midway stop to visit the goats and cows.Read more
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Italy 2025 Traveler
Exploring Rome
December 10, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
On to our last stop of the trip - Rome!

We're staying next door to The Pantheon in a very central part of the city for the next 3 nights. No plans, just a lot of pasta lunch and dinner ideas.

After getting settled at the hotel we embarked to find cocktails and dinner with a quick stroll by Trevi Fountain. It was pretty busy at the fountain but nowhere near the crowds I expect have been here all summer! Site seeing complete we grabbed cocktails at a cute hotel bar with oysters on the menu. Unfortunately Kevin's martini and oysters + maybe a slight flu, did not sit right and so we were down to three for dinner this evening.

Operating at partial strength we still managed to find a lovely osteria with roman pastas (not all that tricky) and enjoyed a few bottles of delicious wine. I had the truffle carbonara (freshly grated table side truffle!), Igor got the amatricana, and Amanda went for seafood tonnarelli (a thick spaghetti famous in Rome).

We had all intentions of returning to the hotel for sleep until the free lemonchello shots at the restaurant really enlivened the group! Instead of a reasonable sleep time we spent the evening having negronis late into the night overlooking the pantheon - when in Rome!

After a too short sleep, we ventured over to the Vatican to visit st. Peters basilica! Beautiful as always, we took in the many sites and even happened to walk through the Holy Doors (open only once every 25 years on the Jubilee year). Unfortunately the doors did not heal Igor, who parted ways while the other three of us decided to climb to the top of the dome of the basilica. We felt quite winded but it was worth it for the views!Read more
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Trip end
December 13, 2025

Italy in December

First night in Florence

Spa & market day

Umbria

Exploring Rome