Sunshine Travelers (00:00)
So we're finally home. Over the past couple of months, we've taken you through Bologna, Tuscany, Florence, the Amalfi Coast, Puglia, and Venice. And we've shared in those episodes where we've stayed, what we ate, the people that we met, and some of the experiences that made each destination memorable. But after spending that much time traveling through Italy, there's this one conversation that we haven't had yet.
And if someone sat down with us and said, we're planning our first trip to Italy, where should we go? What would you do differently? What surprised you? What would we tell them? And that's what today is all about. This isn't a recap of the trip and it's not a step by step itinerary. It's simply an honest conversation about what stood out, what we'd do differently, and a few Sunshine Travelers awards that we're going to hand out along the way.
Speaker 2 (00:51)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
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We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
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So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
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So when you think back over the whole trip across Italy, focusing on Italy, what's the first thing that comes to mind for you?
For me it is
all the little things that we did that weren't necessarily the things that we had to plan and book ahead of time.
It was trying all the different foods from all the different regions. I think that would surprise most people is that how different the food in Italy, we think of pasta, going places for pizza, but just how regional the cuisine is. And
I think just how different the cities are from the smaller towns and even from north to south, just the the way of life is different and the towns are different. What about for you?
I think for me, there's a lot of pressure when you're sitting down with someone and you're trying to help them answer that question about, we're planning our first trip to Italy, where should we go? Is that there's no clear answer because of what you said. They're all very different. And there are people who absolutely love the Amalfi coast and or I think they love the idea of the Amalfi coast.
until they get there and it's just full of people shoulder to shoulder, right? Walking through the the small towns. and so I think for me that there are some places that absolutely lived up to their expectations and probably exceeded them. and there's some places that just fell way flat of expectations.
And I think we'll talk a little bit about that today. We've definitely talked about it in our previous episodes. we have one on each of those locations. Bologna, Tuscany, Florence, the Malfi Coast, Puglia, and Venice. the Tuscany one, that's the one where we did the MACS Adventure. so if you're looking through the list, look at that one, MACS Adventure and our walk.
through Tuscany. But I would say though the one that absolutely surprised me the most was Bologna. And if you go back and listen to that episode, you'll hear how much we were just absolutely blown away by it.
Go to the places that you've heard of, right? That you really want to see. And then but not try to do all of them in one trip. Yes. And then pick a place nearby that is smaller and lesser known. And then create your trip so that you aren't trying to do too much and move too much.
Because I think if we only focused on the big places and the big things, we would have missed Bologna. Because for us, Bologna actually came out of how can we get from Morocco to Italy to get to Tuscany? And it was really a flight thing, but it turned out to be one of our very favorite parts of Italy.
Well, maybe that makes us a good place then to hand out our first award. And that does go to Bologna. It was the biggest surprise. so we'll award it the biggest surprise for us our trip across Italy.
I think that's a great recommendation is to then say, all right, what's something that maybe is around that? that's a little bit smaller, maybe a little bit less known that then we could go and explore. it's just a completely different way of life in some of these places.
Now, don't get me wrong, Bologna is still a a larger city, but not anywhere near the size of, Rome and Florence. definitely has a culture and a food culture that's all of its own. And I wanna go back. The other reason I think that it's a big surprise is I had told you this and you were just like, it's gonna like it's gonna be fine. I
I I don't know if it was because we were going to Bologna, but I saw a couple of people had posted that they had had some safety issues in Bologna, purse snatching and and things like that. And it and it just made me a little bit nervous. I guess we had been to Italy the year before, but I I don't know, you hear about these things in different cities. And I'm not discounting the fact that they do happen. But Bologna ended up being, I mean, it was fine. We could walk.
the area that we were staying, which was about 10 or 15 minute walk from like the main piazza where the the central market was.
We even went and did a walk where the porticos was and ride the bus back at night. and and it ended up being perfectly fine. And the other, I think the biggest surprise for us too was that, when we were walking, there were so many neat, not only what I would call maybe upscale bespoke, like little grocery store, little market things.
But they also had like people in there preparing food, right? So you could get your meat and your cheese, but then also prepare dishes. And obviously these were, not for tourist. they were for locals. I mean, yes, of course, if you had a kitchen and you could, take it back and prepare things. But I mean, it was where the local people were shopping.
And little boutiques. And of course they had the bigger stores and and things like that. But I think that's what surprised me the most is just not knowing what to expect. And I mean, it's a beautiful city. There's so many churches. And in the episode we talked about the clock tower and and just finding all these neat things to do when really in Bologna we didn't really have an agenda. It was a place for us to rest from Morocco, get ready for the walk. so
Yeah, it ended up keeping us a lot busier than I think we thought we would be. because we didn't have very many scheduled downtimes on this trip. And I had thought that Bologna might be one of those just because we didn't have anything really planned. But once we got there, we just wanted to see more and more and more. we talk about the being able to turn down a street and all of a sudden you're opening up to a
whole new set of, shops and restaurants and bars and just different surprises along the way.
So Scott, who would you recommend Bologna for? And I guess maybe where what would you pair it with?
So you could definitely pair Bologna and Pisa together and we did that. go visit Pisa, see the tower. You need a day, two days there, max I think. but then pair that with Bologna. And I would definitely say if you're a foodie, you're really into the food, go to Bologna. lots of culinary options there,
it was homemade food, right? options. We went to the one Tratoria where we said it felt like you were
I don't know, in somebody's kitchen or something, with the red and white checkered tablecloth on the on the tables and the food was just it was simple. but yet so delicious, so packed with flavor and so I think as a foodie, this would be a place that you should go and spend some time. There's other places in Italy that we would say
is not a food scene. like I think last week we talked about in Venice where, we had had sardines all over Italy and usually they're lightly battered, crispy fried, But then I ordered them in Venice and they came out and they were they had been fried at some point, but then they were soaked in vinegar or something like that and they were
cold and so they were it was almost mushy. And the guy said, Well, this is the Venetian way. And it's like, well, then I don't care anything about Venetian food then at that point. And the good thing, Bologna is so easy to get to, on the train. because we flew into Bologna, but when we left on the train, I think that particular train had come from Venice.
had started in Venice and had take took us to Florence for then we got another train and went to Pisa. So it's very easy to get, to Bologna and and pair it with something else. And we say it's a surprise because you just don't see a lot about Bologna now.
your Instagram feed, if you start looking, will fill up about Bologna. But it was really just a a great surprise. Let's talk about the second award that we want to give out, which was our favorite city. And so I'm going to be interested to see if we have the same city in mind for this award.
So I think it's really between two, but I think I would have to say Sienna. Does that count as a city? Interesting. It counts as a city, right? Yeah, in Tuscany. So Sienna is a small medieval town in the hills of Tuscany. What did you really love about Siena so much?
So Sienna is another place where yes, people come as tourists, but it definitely felt like when you were there that it was so many locals just going about their business and going about their day and their evening.
but I think what I loved about it is that it wasn't a place where you had to like pre-plan and pre-book things to do or you would be disappointed because you didn't get to do them. it has tourism, so there there are tourists there, but it's not one of these places that's overcrowded. So the Duomo there.
is absolutely stunning. and so we talked a lot about this in the episode, but at the time it was a rival for Florence. the Medici's had a huge presence in that whole area. And so they were trying to compete with Florence. And if it hadn't been for the Black Plague, but the the church that is there is
Stunning has this very similar look to the Duomo in Florence, but the inside of it is also stunning.
they have a couple of places that you can climb, one up into the dome, and around the side. It's a little bit different from the one in Florence. But then also there's another facade that was gonna be a part of the church that they were building. So there's actually two places where you get to climb. They have a fabulous museum. The crypt was amazing, the baptistry was amazing. It was just I
Honestly, it was more stunning than the one in Florence. So that was fantastic. And then you there was just so many little things. We learned about the neighborhoods there. And you might be familiar with Siena from the horse race that takes place in the Piazza del Campo. It has like the campanile there. And they turn the whole piazza into a place where the horse race,
it was just a very, charming city, easily walkable. there was another church that we went to. There's a university there. So you just feel like you're not in a place that's only touristy.
I think for me, my favorite city, and there's two that come to mind, but I'm gonna say Venice.
it might fall even could have fallen into that same category of biggest surprise. We said we had heard our whole lives it was dirty, it was touristy, it was, all these different things, and it turned out to be none of those. It was just spectacular. so I really love Venice and I think that would become my favorite city in Italy so far. And there's some amazing places, right?
all of Tuscany is just gorgeous. but I think I'll have to go with Venice. The other one I would say is maybe Bari. Really enjoyed Bari. Yeah, and it's funny that you say that because I honestly feel like biggest surprise then we could have given it to so many different places because like you said about Venice, but Bari was the same.
It was the place in Puglia that I don't know why I was just like not looking forward to it as much as the other places. Maybe because it was a city. so I think that's interesting that you say that because I think Bari would be like my second And I'll tell you why. The the one reason is because you have to park outside the city for me.
Now Venice has its own challenge. Well yeah, and we didn't have a car. Yeah. We didn't have a car in Bologna. And we stayed also in the in the old town. So anyway, there was lot there was lots of things too about Bari that being on the water, having some views and actually having really good food.
Well, while you're talking about food, if someone only cared about food, where should they go?
So this is tough because I think that more than where should they go is that you need to heavily research.
where you should go in each place. But I the other thing is having food at a restaurant and having food in a food experience is two different things. so if you only cared about food, I think, but but let's say even if you don't like to cook.
But you'd be okay with doing a food experience so that you could learn about it. I it would be more for me about booking some kind of food experience in the places that you go so that you can learn about the ingredients and and have an interaction with a local. for me, with food, that would be more important than just eating at a restaurant because you miss out on a lot of restaurant.
The other place I would go is to like the local food market, if they have like stalls in there where it's not just, you're buying things to go home and prepare. Because I think that was another really fun experience for us for food is going to that St. Ambrosio market in Florence.
And just going up to the counter and trying a few things like the locals were doing. so what's what would you say about food? Well, we've definitely already said that Bologna is a place for foodies to go. So they definitely should go to Bologna. But it's also gonna be that same discussion again about what kind of food are you looking for?
'Cause Puglia has a very different type of food than what you might find in Bologna.
so I think the cooking class in Florence and like you said
having dinner in a a local's home and having that conversation of over fresh made pasta that we had a chance to help make and that was fabulous. The other thing that I wanted to say about that is and we have a whole episode, a few episodes back, about these food experiences. it was episode 173.
And it was about our experiences. We had two experiences in Italy that are on there. One was a the cheese making class in Puglia. and one was the cooking class in Florence, the other was in Spain. The other thing that I wanted to share is within the last 24 hours, I have had WhatsApp conversations or messages with two of those three hosts, right? One to get the recipes, tiramisu and the pasta.
from Christina from Florence and one from Marina in Spain. And so it's just interesting because then having those experiences, you still have those connections with those people. not that everybody does that, but I just that was on my mind about that. So I think it's really more about researching the places.
the other thing that I think about when I think about food is some of these experiences in Puglia. Go into that cheese making class and my gosh, if we'd had more time, like we had so like I needed to like be able to take that back to a place with a kitchen and like have a meal of that cheese for like days. They gave us so much cheese. Yes. I mean, it was so fantastic.
to and making that mozzarella. But the other thing I was going to say is the little restaurant they went we went to in Chegliana, Mesopica. I was just thinking about that one. And it was the food, but it was also the proprietor. And it was the fact that it was on a chalkboard. And here were the few things that were available. Now we had actually
heard about this restaurant from some blogger and YouTube friends of ours, Never Too Full, and it was in their guide. And what was so funny about this little town is we had gone during the day and it was like a ghost town. It was deserted. Yeah. I was like, please let's get out of here. But for some reason I talked to you to go, let's go see what it is at night. Let's there'll be somewhere to eat. And because I had two or three places. And thank goodness we picked this because it was so cute though, because we went and it was like, is this the place?
So in this area, they have their doors and they put like beaded things on or, pull down shades, but it's like beaded things. And we were like, Okay, is this even the place? And he comes out and he says something like, do you not speak Italian or something? He said, Do you speak Italian? you do speak Italian. Okay. And he said something about I don't speak English. But he was saying all the same things. And he was just a jokester was the thing,
you have another waiter, but he comes around to check on you. And then it was his wife. they her recipes. It was her her recipes and she was there and they would be checking you out. And I loved it because at the end, because we tried a bunch of different things. We were just we tried a bunch of different things. We didn't try the donkey meat. That was one of the things on the menu, but we did have like their full appetizer spread. Like we tried several things and so we were like, Okay, bring the check. It was literally a piece of paper with the total on it. It was just adorable.
Like I just loved it. but it's not a f it's not a fine dining restaurant. I mean, the food was fantastic and we could tell it was very, very fresh. And it was very we got lucky that we got in. It got very, very full. So I think it's about seeking out places like that. I so I think that's the clue to Italy is that it's not about these big restaurants, these big name restaurants.
It's finding these local restaurants that are preparing local dishes in a local traditional way. And that's the food experience for Italy.
So having said all of that about the food, where are we gonna award the best food destination?
Mm-hmm.
I think that overall, I think I would have to say Puglia Of the places that we went, I think I would have to say Puglia because from town to town, the food is different. And if you're on the coast, it's gonna be seafood.
you would drive 30 minutes to another town and it was like, it's a different kind of pastry. The pastry's different, the cream is different, it's a different preparation. We were so excited to try the pasta assassina when we got to Puglia, not realizing that it's like literally only a bari. We never saw it anywhere else. And maybe they have it a few other places.
So I would say as a region and you really enjoy food and different types of food, do that.
What we've kind of saying is hyper regional food from town to town is gonna be different. I think that's true because while we loved the food in Bologna and we said if you're a foodie, you gotta go to Bologna. because of the variety from town to town that you're talking about, I would give Puglia the award. And that shocks me because you love Mortadella. I do. I love Mortadella. Which is the
basically the baloney bologna food.
So well let's change just a little bit and let's talk about what would we do differently. So if we could rewind the trip, how would you change this trip that we took?
That's always so hard because, sometimes when I say to you, we should have done this, we should have done that, we should say, Well, but then you wouldn't have had the experience that you had. But that's it's a good question. So I would say like more nights everywhere. It's true. I I think in general, people move around too much in Italy. And even though we
didn't love Florence. I think if we'd have had a whole week in Florence, we would have I don't know, maybe gone back to the sandwich place that we enjoyed. We would have had more time to maybe try to find some of the more neighborhoods. I would have even gone back to that market. We might have been there during a time that wasn't so busy and so crowded.
there's a little tram that we saw that passed the train station. But then it's almost like it goes in a direction like away from the city. It almost would have been interesting to have time to like jump on that tram and see where it goes and get off and to explore some of the neighborhoods.
So I definitely think more nights. I mean, I did not want to leave more nights. Yeah, more nights. I didn't want to leave Atrani. I was like, I could stay here like a lot more nights. And that's what I was gonna say is I think for me, in Pulia, even though we spent like well over a week in that region of Italy and we stayed multiple nights in those places, I feel like we needed far more time there.
And I feel like
I would have liked to have a kitchen in somewhere like that. in that masseria fragnite, they had a like a farm shop where where locals could like go in there and buy the cheese and and things like that. And then also,
I've had a couple of people message me. Did you go to Brindisi? I saw another castle that was like close to there. And so yeah, I I think that that region is probably somewhere that like if you did a week in each place, would would be great.
So that's one thing. More more nights. I think we did too much. I think we went to too many places. we were there for a little over a month. we did Bologna, we did Pisa, we did several cities or towns in Tuscany. we went to the Amalfi coast. we went to Puglia, and there were
three main regions in Pulia that we moved through and stayed in different places. We went to Venice. We we just did too much. and I don't think I would recommend that to anybody if you really want to truly experience Italy in its best. It's not just a drop in and pop out type situation. And I'll go back to what I said at the beginning.
Is that yes, you wanna see in Rome, you wanna see the Colosseum, you wanna see the Vatican, you wanna see the Roman Forum.
But if I think back and we didn't do Rome on this trip, but just if I think back to Rome, what was our favorite thing about Rome that we still talk about? Is walking on the Appian Way and getting lost behind this gate and having to figure out the cause. And so if you if you don't have time for those things,
And all you're like, what did you do? We did this and this and this. And then we moved to Venice and we did a gondola ride and we went to St. Mark's Cathedral and we went to we did the tower and then we went to Florence and we did and it's like a checklist of things. I think that those things are you wanna see You want to go see David at Academia. But there were so many people, like I the experience, I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy.
Going up into the dome and like feeling like you were so out of breath and you get up there and like, okay, time to go down and you just couldn't enjoy it. but the things that I enjoyed the most were not anything that we bought a ticket for.
Well, that's a good question then. Are there things that you would spend more money on? And then are there other things that you'd spend less money on?
Honestly, I would do a cooking class in every city. That's fair. Because we just had such great experiences in like Cesarina has cooking classes all over Italy. And what I love about Cesarina is they're in people's homes, right? So you are, this is grandmother's recipe and
this is how it's prepared. so I I would do I think more cooking classes. What about you? I think that where I struggle is where we'd spend less money on because I think we did really good traveling on a budget in Italy. I probably would like slightly better accommodations than some of the places that we stayed in.
like Florence, for example.
Yeah, and I think sometimes though the thing about staying in places like that is you do feel more integrated into a neighborhood.
I do want to mention the timing. I do think our timing was really, really good. the the hardest part was that the first weekend in May, I think because it was a holiday in most of Europe. And so it didn't matter where we would have been. But other than that,
the weather as far as temperature was great. Whereas if you go in the summertime, you would potentially have really hot weather. Yeah. Make sure you're gonna be on the coast to where you can enjoy the ocean during the summer.
I would say to you, try to pack as light as possible. So we keep saying for us for this trip, it was really a challenge. We don't like to bring this much stuff. I think maybe I would have brought less and then just bought it and then said, Okay, I'm gonna wear it for what I need it for and donate it.
Everything else was really good. I mean, overall, if if you compare what we had for a three month trip to what some people brought for one and two weeks, I think we did really well. but it is so much more than what we like to travel with. I love photography and I love having my camera equipment, but having toted it all around
Europe. I almost would have rather shipped it to Kenya and just had it waiting there for me for the safari.
so let's let's talk a little about most authentic experience and we wanna give an award here for what we believe was the most authentic experience that we had during this trip.
So I think for me it's any of the ones, we've talked about a few of them, we haven't mentioned them all, but I think it's anything where we had the most interaction with a local person. so yes, this can be a tour. I don't know that tours always lend themselves to that.
Especially if it's like a group tour, because we've done tours in Rome before. And I wouldn't say that the connection was the same as some of these. let me give you examples that we haven't talked about. we did a tuk-tuk tour in a stuni, super last minute. We parked the car, we were gonna go to a stuni, we saw they were doing that, we were like, hey, that would be fun. It did seem like it was gonna be a little bit of a walk.
But the tour guide, he was just so good. He was so personal. He was a college student. He's actually gonna be a doctor. he's from Astoony and just the way he talked he felt like an old soul to me because he felt he he really appreciated their history. He appreciated that they're like keeping some of their culture alive as far as like
How the grandfathers teach still teach people how to limewash the buildings, which was done, which is what saved the town of Estuni during the Black Plague. And he was very honest about things, like, it's sad that we can't have this church open. It has the largest rose window in Europe because people just come in and don't like respect the church. And he made some suggestions. My friend owns this restaurant, just different things like
So that's one of them. but the cooking class outside of Florence, like that was just I mean, they were fantastic. The the view was fantastic. And then we of course got to eat things learning that the way that most of the world prepares Tiramisu to be heavy and very coffee and is not how it's really done.
They appreciate what the view that they have and the little lemon house and and sharing that with people, which is why they do what they do. So San Donato is for me, if I'm giving
The award for most authentic experience. Federica at San Donato, hands down, there's no competition there. And I just loved what she said is she appreciated the way that we were experiencing Tuscany, because most people don't do that. They just drive from town to town or winery to winery, and they don't experience the the beauty and the nature of that area. And so
I think for me, it would have to go to San Donato winery for most authentic experience. And she didn't know who we were. No. That's the other thing is it was truly an authentic experience because without even knowing that we were Scott and Melissa from the Sunshine Travelers podcast,
She said, go have a seat in the garden, I'll bring you some wine and you can taste it. And that was we hadn't even signed up for a tasting and they weren't technically doing tastings at that time of day. Yeah. But it was just her culture. And then, she was like, Have you eaten? And she was ready to feed us. And matter of fact, she did feed us. She fixed us a sandwich to take on our walk with us. Even though she was so busy.
Yeah. That was the thing is she had so many things to do and she was just adorable, she took the time to stop and, record a little bit with us. She had a large group coming in for lunch and with a bunch of food allergies and she had to make sure that all that was but what was so fun about that is she literally
Brought the bottles of wine, told us a few things, and she was just like, have as much as you want. Yeah. And it wasn't gonna be, yeah, it's just like tasties. And it wasn't like, okay, it's gonna be this much money and this is how much a wine tasting is. Just nothing very formal, And here they're running a bed and breakfast and people are finishing breakfast. And but she lives part time, they live part time in Florence. And so she got out this map and she's like, go here and go, go there. And some of the experiences that we had that we loved, like the St. Ambrosio.
and and go into that lily garden were because of her recommendations. So I have to agree with you because if if it hadn't been for her, I think we would have missed I think would have just absolutely left Florence absolutely hating it. But that's my award for authentic experience.
We need to get back on track here from a timing perspective, but let's do a quick lightning round. which destination to you had the best views?
Okay, so this is gonna seem really strange.
But the hotel that we stayed at in Siena had the best views. It did. It had really good views. I think for me, Poliano Amari just spectacular views. Best accommodations. Okay. So that hotel in Siena was that was really nice as well.
it was an upgrade on our MACS Adventure. It wasn't part of their typical hotels, but you can upgrade to that. it was a nice treat.
What about the place we would recommend to my parents?
So where would you recommend? I think I would recommend Bari. in that Puglia region. There's a lot there's a lot in Puglia that would be easy enough for them to do. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.
Tuscany's all I think also one of those places where could always do. Yeah, because I the other thing about Tuscany is if you're traveling around, you also really need to have your own car. now we didn't because we were doing the walk, but if you are just going from place to place and we met a a family that we actually saw them at two different restaurants, but that they were doing that. They were staying at like a villa and then they would take the car every day to go to some different
places. because then you could navigate the little towns pretty well. The place we would recommend to adventurous travelers
So I think that a walking trip in Italy is a great way. So we've done two in Italy, one in Umbria, one in Tuscany. if you are a little bit more adventurous, it definitely is a great way to see Italy. And they have them in Puglia. they have them in Tuquatere, they them in the Maficos, they have very different ones.
Well, if if adventurous also means like you want to get out and do some heavy exercising, then definitely that trek up to Ravello from Minori. Which is a great point because there's even
hikes, a lot more hikes there that we didn't even do. We had looked at maybe doing the Path of the Gods, but it just was like, this feels like a little bit much. We wanted to kind of relax and it was like, okay, you have to hike here and take a bus and do this and that. And we were like, okay, we want something a little more easier. But you're right, because we actually came down from Ravello and it was getting quite dark. What about the best value?
honestly, I think because you did such a great job of like picking places, I think Italy can be done a lot more affordably than a lot of people realize. I mean, yes, you can go super expensive. let's just say that cities are more expensive.
Yeah. So when you go to the cities expect to pay more. Yeah.
because even if you get a good value somewhere on the Mafi coast, your transportation is gonna be n no matter how you cut it between Tom and ferries are not cheap and so that one is a little I don't probably probably Puglia. I agree. What about the city we'd skip if someone only had a week? And this is a tough question because we always say never tell people to skip something.
Because they may have a totally different experience. Okay. So here, if you only have a week, here is what I would skip. So I won't say a certain city, but I would skip saying I'm gonna go to Italy for a week and I'm gonna do Venice, then Florence, then Rome, and then I'm gonna leave. It's too much. you're gonna spend a lot of time.
Go in between and it can be done, but you're gonna spend a lot of time going between the places. And then you're not gonna have time to really experience them. Yeah. I won't I wouldn't ever tell anybody like one place in particular, but I would skip a just doing cities and go back to my other tip, which is pick one city and then pick something smaller nearby.
Or
All right, so one last award that we want to give out. If someone handed you two plane tickets tonight and said you're leaving for Italy tomorrow morning, where are you going?
So here's what I'll do is I'll pick one of those places. But the reason I wanted to preface that by saying is that you guys, this was our
Fourth or fifth trip to Italy? even though now we've been to Florence and Venice and Puglia and back to the Almafi coast because we wanted to do it better than we did the time before.
There's so many places that are still on my list. And so that's why I said if I was going back, where would I go? Sicily, Sardinia.
the lakes area, which we've sort of touched on that. The dolomites, the right time of the year. We really wanted to do that, but it we it was not the right time of the year.
So let's say if I was going back, I would go back to Puglia. Puglia it is. Puglia's the winner of the award.
Well, one thing this trip reinforced for me is that there really isn't just one Italy. Every region had its own personality. The food changed, the architecture changed. Even the pace of everyday life felt different depending on where we were. And that's one of the reasons we enjoyed spending so much time there instead of trying to squeeze everything into just a week or two. Hopefully today's conversation, as scattered as it may have been at times, gives you a better starting point.
If you're planning your own trip, maybe it confirmed a destination that you've been considering. Maybe it introduced you to one that wasn't even on your radar, like Bologna was for us. And if you've been to Italy, we'd love to hear from you. Which city surprised you the most? Where would you go back to tomorrow? What meal are you still thinking about that just stays in your head? We'd love to compare our notes with yours.
Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next week for another episode of the Sunshine Travelers podcast.
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Well that's it for today's episode. Wherever you're listening from, we hope we've added a little spark to your travel dreams today.
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