Our week in Italy flew past like a dream! Plenty travel videos showed crowded places but even in the crowds, the charm of Italy is not lost. Alberobello and Matera offered unique characters in the quieter corners of Puglia region along the Adriatic Sea. A short day-trip from Rome to Pompeii and Amalfi Coast was worth visiting as a teaser for another trip. Rome and Vatican with its history needed more than 2 days we were able to spend.
Wandering the ancient maze of Matera
From the Bari Airport, the drive to Matera started with a drenching rain in some areas along the way. Just the week before, we read about Matera getting flooded by torrential rains. So, we kept our fingers crossed about our sojourn at Matera and didn’t have much hopes. As we drove closer to Matera the glistening rays of sun peeking from the clouds gave us some hope! The Fra I Sassi Residence hotel is in a ‘ZTL (Zona a Traffico Limitato)’ zone where only cars with certain permits can enter. It is to protect the historic Matera, a UNESCO world heritage site from traffic jams. Luckily we found a spot for free parking in via San Stefano, not far from where the ZTL begins. The walk down the cobble-stone roads was a bit tiring, but this faded away once the beautiful view of Matera unfolded in front of us. Overcast skies with soft sunlight filtering through clouds upped Matera’s beauty.
After checking into the hotel, we relaxed with a cup of coffee on our balcony with a view before heading into the winding streets.
We started with Google Maps but soon figured that its best just to wander. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities had something at every turn and provided some interesting perspective. Towards the evening we reached the Tibetan bridge and were tempted to cross into the Murgia plateau to devour the panoramic view of Matera. But the warnings about wild boars in the area deterred us to save it for the drive-up viewpoint next day
Dinner at Myricae was an experience we enjoyed. Chef Domenico passionately explained the menu, ingredients, how they are sourced locally and curated into a modern eye-pleasing plate. Items were unique with a hint of fusion – we had a risotto made with burnt rice and tomato and a pesto pasta made with soba noodles. By the time we finished the dinner, Matera was beaming with lights under the dark sky. The sultry beige colors of Matera buildings brightened with lights made the night quite charming and the stroll back to hotel relaxing.
A wholesome breakfast in the morning fueled us. Left our luggage at the office and headed to Palombaro Lungo. Along the way, we stopped at a souvenir shop where they were making the Cuccu – a colorful ceramic/terracotta whistle handmade with Matera’s clay. Then we headed to Palombaro Lungo, an enormous cistern that could hold up to 5 mil liters of water to satisfy the needs of the locals in the past. Very impressive structure that had utility till 1920s, got abandoned and was only re-discovered in 1990s. This site has some interesting background about this place.
Then we headed back to our hotel, collected our luggage and took the commuter bus to via San Stefano to collect our car. On our way out of Matera, we took a detour to the Belvedere Murgia viewpoint but it was a bit disappointing as the access road was closed. We took a stroll along the road to get a panoramic view of Matera, but the rain showers shortened our visit. Not taking the Tibetan bridge was definitely a missed opportunity!
Fairy tale village of Alberobello
The drive from Matera to Alberobello – a UNESCO Heritage site with unique buildings called Trulli – was pleasant in 2-lane countryside roads without much traffic. As the town/village is in a ZTL zone, we parked in a public parking lot. The host of the hotel kindly met us there, helped with the parking meter and guided us to the hotel which is within a short walk. He gave an explanation about the area, which was basically 3 cute little zones –
1) Aia Piccolo – a quiet non-commercial, residential area with people living in Trulli
2) Rione Monti – Commercial area filled with shops, eateries and souvenir shops
3) Modern buildings in a Church Street.
We took a stroll in almost all neighborhoods within a few hours. Evening lights in the Rione Monti area appeared like a page straight out of a storybook.
Dinner at La Lira Focacceria, recommended by the hotel host, is a no-frill simple take-out place that offered delicious vegetarian food with warm hospitality. We called it a day after this!
Polignano a Mare and Ostuni
Polignano a Mare is a picturesque coastal town set on cliffs overlooking the Adriatic Sea. We visited Ponte dei Lapilli, a popular beach nestled between cliffs, where the blue water, sunlit blue skies, and cliffside buildings created a perfect setting for photos. Walking through the town, we found charming narrow streets, historic buildings, and scenic viewpoints at the cliff edges—each corner offering a new perspective of the sea.
Next, we drove to Ostuni, a hilltop town known for its whitewashed buildings behind fortified walls. The drive was lined with Olive trees, some of them a few hundred years old. Strolling into the town with narrow streets winding up and down the hill filled with houses/buildings was a cool experience. One of the so-called “Instagram-famous” colorful doors didn’t quite live up to the hype, but the Duomo di Santa Maria and nearby gelato stop made up for it. On the way out of the city, we ventured into the newer part of the town on top of the nearby hill that provided a panoramic view of iconic fortified city of Ostuni.
Next day, we checked out and drove to Bari airport to drop the rental car, stopping along the way to pick up Olive oil right from a local producer.
It was cutting too close to catch our train to Rome. Thankfully, our taxi driver from the airport to Bari Centrale went above and beyond—he called ahead to find out our train platform since the app hadn’t updated yet. Without his help, we might’ve missed it.
After reaching the Roma Termini, we took a bus that took us close to the Campo de Fiori Prestige Rooms. Little did we know how close it was to the historic site of Largo di Torre Argentina where Julius Ceasar was assassinated.
Rome and Vatican: Journey through history
After checking in around late afternoon/evening, we set out to grab dinner. A short walk took us past the Largo di Torre Argentina site and to the Bibliothe Restaurant. The Indian food came in a hearty platter that was aptly filling and delicious. We took a stroll along the Tiber River bank from where we got the first glimpse of the St. Peter’s Basilica lit under the night sky. As we had an early start to the Vatican Museum next morning, we called it a day.
The Vatican Museum was about 30min walk from our hotel. Our pre-booked tour at 8:15AM was such a good idea, especially when we saw queues lined up winding down the street. The enormous collection of artworks – sculptures and paintings – was overwhelming. Michelangelo and Raffaelo dominated the styles of most art pieces there. Rick Steves YouTube videos would be more apt than the novice explanations that I can give here. Amidst the enormous crowd, the guided tour with earpiece helped us navigate efficiently within a few hours. Otherwise, even a few days may not be sufficient to explore the museum. The guided tour ended at the entrance of the Sistine Chapel where silence is requested and photography is forbidden. With the amount of crowd there, it was hardly silent, but at least people respected the ‘No Photography’ rule.
St. Peter’s Basilica and The Dome
Then we headed to St Peter’s Basilica. It was disheartening to see people begging right outside the walls of pompous Vatican. After spending about an hour in the line outside, we got into the Basilica. The opulence of the Basilica can only be matched by its size. After spending some time around, we learned that tickets to Dome were sold only outside. We got ourselves some postcards at the Vatican post office outside and stood again in the line to get inside the Basilica along way finding the ticket office to Dome.
Visiting the tallest Dome in the world was a wonderful experience that was memorable and a definite highlight. We opted to take an elevator till the base of the Dome. Color mosaic art along the inner walls was conveying a story at every step. Passage to the next level of dome was a narrow spiral staircase that can be dizzying sometimes, especially for claustrophobes.
Dome’s design is an amalgamation of many artists’ designs with a major contribution from Michelangelo and it is an engineering marvel for its days. A breathtaking experience was waiting there with its 360° viewing platform that gives a panoramic view of Rome. After this wonderful experience, we relaxed a bit in front of the St. Peter square before grabbing some lunch.
Historical sites of Rome..
Then, we crossed Ponte Sant’Angelo bridge over River Tiber near the Castel Sant’Angelo for a majestic view of the Basilica and headed towards Piazza Navona where stands the 17th century fountain in front of the Church Sant'Agnese in Agone. Our next stop was at Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, where the entire ceiling and the dome were filled with impressive frescoes.
Next, we got to Pantheon, an ancient Pagan temple turned to Church. Pantheon’s rotunda has influenced many subsequent Domes of the Roman empire and The Vatican’s St Peter’s Basilica itself. The dome is built with concrete made of dense stones at the base and progressively light-weight porous volcanic rocks towards the canopy to reduce the weight to be held by the structure below – an engineering and architectural marvel for its time.
After a brief stop at the Trevi fountain, swarmed by huge crowds of people, we headed to Spanish steps. The fountain in the front was covered up for renovation. We climbed up the stairs and headed to Colosseum in a bus in time for the sunset view. All the buses are equipped with tap-n-go machines that made it very easy if you have a credit card with that capability enabled.
Though the Colosseum was closed for the day, there was a sparse crowd enjoying the majestic view from the nearby viewing platform. The atmosphere got more vibrant with some street music and performance – apt for a relaxing dusk. The majestic view of the Colosseum got even more mesmerizing with the lights that came on at dusk. Gladiator movie had made this structure a hugely popular tourist attraction before which it wasn’t used to be this crowded apparently. We stuck around for a while listening to the music and enjoying the Colosseum view before we decided to walk back to hotel along the via di Fori Imperiali. Until Piazza Venezia, ruins of ancient structures were illuminated under the dark sky. We grabbed some pasta in a fast-food place along the way and called it a night.
Colosseum Guided Tour
Next morning, we took a bus from Argentina and met up with the tour group assembled in front of Oppio Café where we picked up some sandwiches and cappuccino for our breakfast. The guided tour began at the Roman Forum and then on to Palatine Hill, where Julius Ceasar’s reputed residence was. By the time we reached the Colosseum, school students from different regions of Italy were swarming to apparently beat the summer tourist crowds expected in Rome. Guided tour with earpieces helped us navigate more efficiently. Guide was a local resident and she mentioned that during her high school days, Colosseum entrance didn’t need any tickets and was open to visit for anyone, back in early 2000s! The structure we can see today is remnants of earthquake damage and ravages left by looters after the decline of Roman empire. The overall experience of being in a ~2000-year-old structure that was standing tall and holding hundreds of people left an indelible mark.
Leisurely afternoon and Piazza Venezia
After the tour, we grabbed a pizza at a sit-in-restaurant and a gelato at a nearby gelateria. Then, we just took a relaxing stroll around Imperial Forum before stopping at Piazza Venezia. At its center is Trajan’s column, a 30-m column fully inscribed with more than 2000 figures and several scenes from the wars won by Trajan. Piazza Venezia, a white structure, is a relatively modern structure compared to all the historic structures and remains around the area. Although Mussolini had given several speeches from here, there was no information of that in the two museums we visited inside. There is an elevator by the side of the café at the intermediate level to get to the panoramic view point. Rome in its entirety can be seen from here.
Day Trip: Amalfi Coast and Pompeii
Another early start and the tour group had to assemble at Piazza del Popolo, home to "twin" churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto (left, built 1662–75) and Santa Maria dei Miracoli (right, built 1675–79). An Egyptian Obelisk stands tall in the center of the square. A witty and insightful guide, Barbara, led us to the bus stop on Viale Giorgio Washington from where we headed out.
Our first stop was at Pompeii. We ordered a pizza lunch before going on the guided tour. The tour lasted for about 2-2.5hrs. It was a great sunny day with the full view of the Mount Vesuvius in the background which made this Pompeii a historic location for centuries to come by its eruption in 1st century AD. The ash from the eruption had preserved the city so well that taught the future archeologists a lot about the ancient Roman life and architecture. Pompeii is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Romans had an amphitheater here as well, indicating a possibility of considerable population at Pompeii in its hay days.
After the tour, we grabbed our Pizzas to go and had it on the way to Amalfi coast. As the distance need to be covered on a single day was lot, there wasn’t much time for a sit-in lunch. As we approached Amalfi Coast on the hillside, the roads got quite winding and challenging to navigate even for a small car. So, we got transferred to 3 different smaller vehicles. The curvy road clinging to hillside toward the town of Positano was quite scenic on that sunny day taking in the views of Tyrrhenian Sea hugging the cliff-side town. All along the way, lemon trees lined on both sides of the road, some wild and some cultivated. We were dropped off at what looked like an entrance to the town and then we were given couple of hours to stroll around. The entire town was filled with either souvenir shops or garment shops or restaurants. We tried lemon tiramisu, took a stroll down to the beach and back up the hilly slopes of that little town devouring the beauty along the sea coast.
Back to Rome and departing to Milan –
Finally, it was a home stretch getting back to Rome in the bus. After reaching Piazza del Poppolo, we decided to walk back to the hotel but took a detour to see if we could get a view of Trevi fountain in the night with lesser crowd. We were in for a surprise by the amount of crowd there even that late. We then passed through Pantheon, glistening under the night sky with lively crowd around area. Walking Rome in the night light was also a pleasant experience before we reached our hotel.
We checked out next morning, left to Milano Centrale from Roma Termini, deposited our luggage at the ki Storage and took a local train to Duomo stop. The plaza in front of Gothic Cathedral was filled with a huge crowd. There wasn’t much we had planned in Milan except meeting up with some friends at the Cathedral and spending some time.
As we had some time to kill, we took some local trains to Lugano just across the border in Switzerland. From the train station, we took a Funicular to the lake shore. A stroll along the lake shore for that sunny day was very fitting and relaxing!
After getting back to Milan, had a dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the Naviglio Pavese area. This area was full of restaurants along a canal and its adjacent streets. The entire environment was so vibrant and lively. The food was so amazing as well with a different twist to Chinese cuisine that we never had in US!
Our journey through Italy—steeped in history, art, and breathtaking landscapes—was nothing short of unforgettable. From Rome’s ancient ruins and the spiritual grandeur of the Vatican to the haunting silence of Pompeii and the coastal charm of Positano, every stop offered a new story, a new perspective. More to discover in another trip(s)!
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