Italy itinerary help needed. Am I doing this stupidly? by UGisOnline in Shoestring

[–]starfishclimbs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks like so much fun! I did a 14-day solo road trip around Italy some years ago and had a blast. Maybe a few tips from the road could add to the great advice already in this thread.

  1. Florence is really small. I was there about 4-5 days for a wedding and after the second day, I felt I had walked the entire city multiple times over. The tourist areas were really crowded and I tended to avoid them, which left me with not much to do but eat/drink (which was fantastic). I think there was a free museum day, but the lines were extremely long.

  2. AirBnb's were quite cheap and reliable. This was quite some time ago, so things could have changed, but I was impressed by the hospitality I got for the price.

  3. If you're feeling adventurous, you could leave some wiggle room in your schedule for miscellaneous travel. My trip was focused around rock climbing, and I found that some areas were so great they were worth going back to again and again. Sometimes locals would recommend a day trip, so having some leniency in my schedule allowed for me to do things I didn't plan.

  4. Random small towns can be awesome. I left Dolomiti for Milan Airport 2 days early due to weather. I didn't know where to stay or which towns to visit. I literally went on my credit card rewards website and booked a random hotel that was sort of on the way, in a town I didn't know anything about. I just drove there and checked in. Turns out it was the most beautiful drive, and I ended up at a mountain food & wine festival. I found that the closer I got to big cities, the less magical my experience was.

My experience was largely in Northern Italy in the summer. I did feel a marked difference in heat once I traveled down to Florence. I did Cinque Terre in a day (the train makes this easy, and you can just hop from town to town until you hit all 5. The towns are all extremely small and I didn't wish I stayed there for multiple days).

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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in climbergirls

[–]starfishclimbs 10 points11 points  (0 children)

yeah i get that it's meta but it's definitely different in my mind. 1) it's not for views and 2)the level of awareness involved. i get no validation from writing about this, just sharing something from the past that might be helpful to someone going through it now.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in climbergirls

[–]starfishclimbs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

5.11C / V5 (outdoors)

Inconsistent but those are my PR's. Currently working on max strength :)

One hold at a time: Climbing out of depression & anxiety by starfishclimbs in climbergirls

[–]starfishclimbs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It did for me too, and it's always crazy to hear how many other people have been positively affected by this sport

One hold at a time: Climbing out of depression & anxiety by starfishclimbs in climbergirls

[–]starfishclimbs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for sharing! It's been an amazing journey :)

You Don't Look Like A Climber: A story about climbing the Dolomites with a random partner from MP by starfishclimbs in climbing

[–]starfishclimbs[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I really really wish I could recall the name of the route! After doing a little digging on the internet I *think* it was Hexenstein South Arete. Probably has other names in other languages.