Rome to the Villa Buonvisi

Roma is an amazing city, full of urgency, vibrant life, the best gelato, some of the best sites in Italy, and a mecca for young adults and students. It can also be grueling. Walk don't drive in the city.

I arrived at the train station, taking the Leonardo Express from the airport, then a taxi cab whose driver ripped me off with the ol' exchange a 20 for a 5-Euro bill routine. I love you dear Rome, but enough with rip-off taxi cab drivers!

I visited all my favorite outdoor Rome sights and a few I'd never seen, but this trip was more laid back. A few years ago I had stayed six nights in Rome and enjoyed all the major sights including the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, all the famous piazzas and fountains, plus Trastevere across the river, and the Jewish Ghetto, etc. This trip I enjoyed the street scenes along the Via Condotti off the Spanish Steps (photo #1); the quiet and quaint Via Margutta off Piazza Popolo (photo #2); and the even quainter Via Guilia which parallels the Tiber River.

For your first visit I suggest an orientation bus tour, either in a Hop-On Hop-Off bus, or the red double-decker bus, or a professional bus tour to get yourself orientated to this huge city. Then again there's always the electric bus No. 116 that goes to all the major sights and costs next to nothing.

Three days and I was off from Rome to Pisa by train with my friends J & B. A comfortable three hours later we were lugging our luggage to the Hertz rental car shuttle bus. Then off toward Lucca, a 20 minute drive that ended up taking three hours because we missed one little sign. URRRRRG! The road signs are terrible! Drivers beware, alert your navigator in the passenger seat.

Finally pulling up to the Villa Buonvisi twelve kilometers north west of Lucca, we turned into a long driveway to see a magnificent villa---then realized we were at the wrong one! Oops! So doing a quick u-turn, we tried another driveway and yes, we recognized it from the photo on the website. Everyone else had already arrived to the Villa Buonvisi, Segnomigno in Monte. All thirteen of us popped our first wine corks around the pool overlooking an olive grove. To be continued...