Italy: Travel home days and trip summary

Today was the day that we say goodbye to our Italian vacation and headed back to the US. We awoke to unbelievable rains, and, hoping that they would pass before our drive back to FCO airport, we stopped in again at Bar Principe 2 for some breakfast. In full disclosure, it’s basically because I couldn’t resist the Nutella and white chocolate tart one more time before leaving Italy. Unfortunately, though, the rain didn’t let up at all and it made the drive back to the airport a bit more stressful than anticipated. That being said, we arrived safely, dropped off the car, and made the flights back to the US.

It should be mentioned here that our experience with Hertz car rental was absolutely awful! They charged me multiple times, and I had to contest the duplicates with my credit card company. They also tried to sneak in random service fees and charges even though the rental was prepaid before we even left the United States.

Overall, this was not my favourite trip, and I found it to be one of the most frustrating vacations that I’ve had. However, there were some really great points, and I wouldn’t trade the experiences that we had for anything. Here’s a quick recap of some of those points, with links to the posts about the respective days:

• Best food
  • Pane e Olio in Bracciano
  • That’s Amore in Rome
  • La Cucina del Garga in Florence
• Best wine
  • 2012 Casale del Giglio Madreselva
• Most rewarding experiences
  • Capraia Isola – sitting on the bench overlooking the sea after trail walking
  • Vineyard tours in both Montalcino and San Gimignano

I know that it may seem crazy that my favourite wine ended up being the 2012 Casale del Giglio Madreselva even after experiencing several 1997 Brunellos during our stay at Casa Bolsinina. I need to clarify that it was my favourite because it was just completely unexpected! I didn’t think that Lazio would produce such a stellar wine, especially considering the very reasonable price!

Cheers,
Zach