Summary
Fantastic 10 day trip to Italy.
Travel Notes (All prices below are USD unless otherwise noted)
Travel
- Flew into MXP and then took trains to Venice and Rome. Took Leonardo Express from Rome to FCO, and flew home from there.
- Highly advise purchasing city to city trains in advance through https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html or it's respective app.
Accommodations
- Hyatt Centric Milan
- We had Hyatt Globalist status for the stay.
- We spent 1 Free Night Certificate and 45,000 (15,000 points per night) points for 2 nights in 2 rooms (one of which was upgraded to a suite).
- Point redemption value was about 4.8 cpp.
- There was a 30 Euro tourist fee (2 night fee for 2 adults and 2 children).
- Hotel Aquarius Venice
- We had Choice Platinum status for the stay.
- We spent 140,000 points for 2 rooms for 3 nights.
- Point redemption value was about 1.95
- Interestingly, the hotel did not charge a tourist fee.
- DoubleTree Hilton Rome Monti
- We had Hilton Diamond Status for the stay.
- We spent 480,000 points for 2 rooms for 5 nights for the stay.
- Point redemption value was about 1.3
Entertainment
- Duomo
- We purchased Terraces + Lift through https://ticket.duomomilano.it/en/categoria/biglietti/.
- There are quite a few steps to get to where the lift drops you off. If you are not up for a long staircase climb, I'd recommend the lift tickets. You will still have to descend the stairs on exit regardless of which tickets you purchase.
- Last Supper
- Purchased through https://cenacolovinciano.vivaticket.it/en/event/cenacolo-vinciano/151991?idt=2547.
- Colosseum + Forum
- We purchased arena floor tickets through https://www.coopculture.it/en/tickets (the direct link no longer works).
- The underground tickets were always sold out, but they can be purchased here: https://ecm.coopculture.it/index.php?option=com_snapp&view=event&id=D7E12B2E-46C4-074B-5FC5-016ED579426D&catalogid=DDDA3AB3-47BC-0A49-7752-0174490F632A&lang=en.
Mobile/Internet
- Airalo
- We had the best experience with Airalo, it gave us local providers and we could track usage through the app. Here's our referral if interested for $3 off: https://ref.airalo.com/Z2ez
Laundry
- We used Lavanderia Self-Service in Venice. It was clean, safe, and easy to use. It is located at https://maps.app.goo.gl/NMxpXPGwfeXYg3XZ8.
Food
- The gelato was incredible almost everywhere we went. We went to Venchi at first but found that other shops were just as good and gave much bigger portions.
- We got margarita pizzas almost everywhere we went. This was really economical as they averaged around 7-8 Euro.
Things that went well
- Almost every place we went took Apple Pay. This was super convenient. The only things we had to spend cash on were the gondola and laundry.
- While we kept our precautions up around pick pocketing, it was not an issue for our entire visit. We made sure to keep valuables within inside pockets and watched each other's backs when we were in crowded areas.
Lessons for next time
- While the family car was extremely cheap (45 Euro for family of four), the entire trip from Milan to Venice consisted of screaming kids on a field trip that the chaperones did not keep in check at all. The Venice to Rome trip was much quieter and enjoyable. I don't know if I'd try a FrecciaFAMILY fare again.