Day 10. Last morning in Italy

I didn't plan anything serious on purpose on the last day. I wanted to have a quiet breakfast, walk along familiar streets, take another look at Venice, and just sit somewhere with a coffee without checking the departure time every five minutes. After 10 days of constant movement, such a slow ending turned out to be exactly what was really needed.

I walked through the streets and remembered the beginning of the trip when I first arrived in Rome and still did not know how much I would have time to see. During these days, I managed to live in three completely different cities, get lost several times, get tired of my own suitcase, eat a lot more pasta than I had planned, and take so many photos that I had to deal with my phone's memory later.

St. Angel's Bridge

I went home with the feeling that ten days is both a long time and absolutely not enough. A lot, because during this time you can see Rome, Florence and Venice, feel the difference between them and get a real idea of traveling in Italy, and a little – because you only have to look at the map, as it becomes clear how much more is left beyond this route.

What would I change in the route now?

If I were planning a trip to Italy for ten days again, I would keep about the same principle: several cities, a normal amount of time in each and a minimum of pointless travel. It is much more pleasant for me to spend three days in one place, to have time to walk in the morning, afternoon and evening, to see the city not only from the tourist side and leave myself time for random discoveries, than to wake up every day thinking that today I need to go somewhere again.

My itinerary turned out like this: Rome – 3 days, Florence – 3 days, Venice – 3 days and one more day for moving and a quiet end to the trip. Of course, this is far from the whole of Italy, and I understand perfectly well that there are a lot of places outside of this route that I also want to go to now: Tuscany, small towns, the coast, the south of the country and many places that I hadn't even considered before.

And that's probably what I like most about traveling. A good trip doesn't end when you check all the sights, but when you return home and after a couple of days start looking at photos again, remembering random streets, the taste of dinner, and some completely ordinary evening view. After my Italy, I still have exactly this feeling: I didn't "see Italy in ten days", I just got to know her, and the acquaintance turned out to be so pleasant that now I want to continue.