Trip Report Viva Italia!! My Adventure by Disney!

So yours truly just arrived home from a wonderful trip to Italy courtesy of Adventures by Disney and let me tell you, it was AWESOME!! The tour that I went on was called Viva Italia which took us from Rome to Tuscany to Florence and then our final stop in Venice, which was truly a dream come true for me! Venice has been on my bucket list for some time now and it did not disappoint. So, let me tell you about my Adventures!

Day1: My daughter and I took a late afternoon flight out of Newark that got us into sunny Rome the next morning. The flight was a little over 8 ½ hours, but who’s counting, we’re going to ITALY!!

When we arrived we were met by our Adventures by Disney greeter who helped us to grab our luggage and after a quick potty break we headed towards the exit where we met one of our Adventure Guides Marco. He was staying at the airport to help co-ordinate the other Adventurers that would be arriving that day and said he would see us at the hotel later for the reception. Our bags were loaded into the waiting van and we were off on our Adventure in Rome! I do have to say that the drivers in Rome definitely give the NYC drives some heavy competition. And those people on the scooters!!! Wow, they do take their lives into their own hands over there. They make their own lanes… LOL

It took us approx 30 mins to arrive at the beautiful Gran Melia Rome hotel.
melia.JPG
 

Kingdom Konsultant

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We had a deluxe room which was clean and very modern looking. The thing that took me by surprise was the shower/tub area. It was enclosed in clear glass… but no worries they did have a privacy shade that you could pull down as well as a privacy curtain to draw across the doorway. The toilet was separate with an additional sink. The picture below will give you an idea of the room.
 

Kingdom Konsultant

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The hotel offers a YHI Spa facility as well as a nice pool, gorgeous grounds and let’s not forget the views of St. Peters Basilica and that it’s within walking distance of the Vatican. My daughter and I decided to talk a walk into town to check out the shops and to grab some lunch. We ate at a little place where my daughter ordered the chicken Parmesan which is her favorite. She was a bit surprised when it came served as a plain chicken breast with prosciutto and mozzarella on it with no breading or sauce. LOL

At the cocktail reception we met our Adventure Guides Marco and Landon as well as the other families that would be joining us. We had a total of 39 people on our tour. Dinner was Rigatoni, pancetta and peas in a red sauce with fresh Parmesan
Pam rome.JPG
for me, while my daughter had the filet and the glasses of Prosecco kept flowing!
 

Kingdom Konsultant

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While we did try to stay up as late as possible, we were both exhausted from being up for over 24 hours so we called it a night by 8:30. 2:30 am and I am WIDE AWAKE…ugh. My daughter had been up since 2 so I had her text my husband and he gave us a quick call since he was 6 hours behind us so we could let him know all was well in the world, with the exception of sleeping that is. I think we both fell back to sleep around 4:30 to be up by 7 to get ready and have breakfast so we could start our busy day.
 

smk

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I love Italy! Can't wait for the rest of the report. If I could twitch my nose and transport myself anywhere in the whole world it would be Florence. I love it! We stayed close to the Vatican when we were in Rome, loved walking to the peaceful St. Peter's Square each evening, so calm compared to the rest of the city. The Americanization of Italian food had us wondering where was all the garlic bread and frankly even garlic in our food, every dish we make here is so different from from there, imho. We loved the pizza, not a deep dish in site!
 

Kingdom Konsultant

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I love Italy! Can't wait for the rest of the report. If I could twitch my nose and transport myself anywhere in the whole world it would be Florence. I love it! We stayed close to the Vatican when we were in Rome, loved walking to the peaceful St. Peter's Square each evening, so calm compared to the rest of the city. The Americanization of Italian food had us wondering where was all the garlic bread and frankly even garlic in our food, every dish we make here is so different from from there, imho. We loved the pizza, not a deep dish in site!

The hotel that we stayed at was within walking distance from the Vatican. It was phenomenal!!!

Pam
 

Kingdom Konsultant

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Day 2:

Breakfast was buffet style with items such as scrambled eggs, fat little breakfast sausages and bacon, prosciutto, cheeses, various dry cereals and milks, banana nut loaf and another marbled loaf, pear tarts, bowls of cut up fruit such as kiwi, strawberries, melon, pineapple, baby pears, plums, a table of salad makings from lettuces to corn to cheese, 6 assorted fresh fruit juices from pineapple to blood orange and plenty of prosecco, pastries, assorted breads, jellies, and let’s not forget the Nutello!

After breakfast we grabbed our rain ponchos since they expected rain and we jumped on our tour bus and headed for the Trevi Fountain which was just magnificent!
 

Kingdom Konsultant

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I never had a shower stall in all of Italy, there for three glorious weeks, four cities and not one dry bathroom after my showers. I could never get the hang of the shower wand!

They had both the shower head and wand in our shower there. It had a tub in the enclosure also.

Pam
 

Kingdom Konsultant

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After photos in the rain we took a gelato break and headed off on our walking tour. Next stop was the Spanish Steps and Pantheon with our local guide Stephano.
 

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