Itineraries/Reviews
We couldn't have planned this trip half as well without the numerous on-line resources and message boards out there, so thank you all. This part of the website was meant to be a little "thank you"/"pay it forward" in case someone stumbles upon this site and I hope that you find it worthwhile. The biggest problem is that the rest of the updates take so long that I quickly realized that I just couldn't keep up with the reviews, so really this is only about Italy. The good news is that we don't get paid for any of our reviews, so you known it's honest feedback. Of course if someone DOES want to pay us, we'd be happy to take their money and write more of these, as long as they are willing to pay us for honest feedback.
​
​​
Venice
Restaurants
Alla Vedova - 3912 - 4
A hole-in-the wall place that had the best fried meatballs - a type of cicchetti that was excellent, maybe the best thing I ate in Venice. That’s the only thing we ate there, so I couldn’t give it a 5, but the food at the tables looked good. It was a real restaurant where you could order real food (many cicchetti places are small places with only a few tables where you stand and eat).
​
Farini - 4.5
A pizza place that is a chain, so there are a few of them. But the pizza is really fluffy and the crust is quite good. We ate there a couple of times. One time we took it back to our place and found that if you put nutella onto the crust, it was excellent.
​
Vernazza
​
Restaurants
Ristorante Belforte - 4.5
Megan loved her squid ink pasta and Keria loved the spring rolls. I thought that the spaghetti with meat sauce was fine. But the view is great (up a lot of steps on a castle like thing down at the main square on the water).
https://www.ristorantebelforte.it/
Gianni Franzi - 3.0
Megan hated her squid ink pasta after loving it at Belforte, but the rest of us thought that that the restaurant was fine. In a good location, right on the square by the water.
https://www.giannifranzi.it/english/
Da Piva - 3.5
Overall, a fine restaurant, but nothing special. Down a alley, so cool in that way, but not a great view and not good for people watching.
Manarola
Nessun Dorma - 4
This was the restaurant we stopped at on our walk through the towns. It is right underneath a playground and you could get food and drinks for takeaway. There was a cooking class here, so we didn’t eat real food, but we did eat some bruschetta (which was fine) and had drinks (which were quite good). Try the strawberry, sugar cane and vodka drink.
https://www.nessundormacinqueterre.com/
​
​
Rome
​
Restaurants
​
Ponte & Parione - 4.5
The pasta dishes we all had were very good. The pizza was the thin pizza that is the Roman style and I liked it. Outdoor seating. And they gave us a little treat at the end of the meal.
Via S. Maria Dell Anima, 62
​
Osteria Da Franceso - 3.5
Megan and I weren’t that impressed with our pasta dishes, but the kids liked their pizzas. We also had to wait 45 minutes to be seated even though we had a reservation.
https://www.dafrancesco.it/en/
Gelato
La Gelateria Frigidarium - 4
Good gelato and they give you the option of putting a topping on it like magic shell.
​​​
​
​
​
Pompei
​
Hortus Porta Marina - 4
Doesn’t look like much from the outside but the food was actually pretty good. Good pasta and good pizza.
​
​​
Naples
​
Mammina - 4.5
This is where we did the the pizza cooking class. It was a lot of fun and the pizza actually tasted really good. I highly recommend.
​
Pizzeria Augusteo - 3.5
The food was solid but nothing was really spectacular. Outdoor seating.
​
Gelato
​
Casa Infante - 4
Good gelato and I had a puff pastry that they were selling right in front that was quite tasty.
​
Cefalu
Restaurants
​​
Lilies Club - 4
The whole family agreed that the food was good - good pasta dishes and the pizza was good as well. Probably the best meal so far in Italy (although some kept going back and forth about whether Lilies or Tivitti was better). The location is good too, basically a restaurant that is split in two by the main road, with outdoor seating that allows for great people watching. Unfortunately, Liam got sick the night we went there, and although we don’t think it was the food (Keira ate the same food as him and was fine), he has stricken it off of the list of places we can go to again. The score would be a little higher if not Liam’s review.
​
Botega Tivitti - 4
Overall a very good dinner. Outdoor seating, right on the main street has great people watching. Pizza was quite good, pasta was good and even the steak was good. Definitely a place you can bring your kids.
​
Tatiana Melfa Bakery - 4
https://tatianamelfabakery.com
In general, the family really liked this, a small place, no real ambiance (although it was raining and we had to sit inside, so outdoor might have been better - pictures look nice). I think that the pasta and the pizza were both solid, but the dessert was very good. Lily is going to be dreaming about the Nutella gelato for a while, while my Nutella cheese cake was quite good and everyone enjoyed what they ordered.
Le Terme - 3.5
Address: Via Bagni Cicerone, 19 Bis, 90015 Cefalù PA, Italy
Phone: +39 0921 998627
We went here for our 21st anniversary and in general we were happy with this choice. The atmosphere was fantastic - outdoor seating, right on the water with a great view of the old seawall. Service also was good. So overall, the perfect setting for a date/night. The problem is that the food wasn’t great. I think that every time I”m in Italy, the bar is raised a little. Here the problem was that we went to a fancy restaurant. My palate is certainly unrefined, but even Megan was unimpressed. The place tried a little too hard to be fancy. Overall, the food was a 2.5/3, resulting in 3.5 rating. Definitely not a place you can bring your kids. You have to call to get a reservation.
Lievita - 3
Via Giuseppe Vazzana, 2, 90015 Cefalù PA, Italy
Phone: +39 0921 442010
My family agreed that the pizza was above average, but I was the lone dissent - crust was good but the cheese and sauce were meh. The two pasta dishes and the risotto were too bland - and given that bland is one of our family’s favorite flavors, that is saying something. I’d give it a 2.5, maybe a 3.5 if you are just getting pizza.
Gelato
The bar for Gelato is high (because, hey its gelato) so a 3.5 is pretty good score and you should feel happy going there. But we have had some pretty good gelato in our day, so it has to be something special to crack a 4.
Cannoli - 3.5
Via Bagno di Cicerone 17Bis, 90015, Cefalu, Sicily Italy
Everyone was happy with their gelato and I was extremely happy with my waffle, with stracciatelli and nutella.
Duomo Gelatieri dal 1952 - 3.5
https://www.duomo1952.com
​
Gelato was good and the location near the Duomo certainly adds something.
Squagghio Gelateria - 3.5
https://www.facebook.com/squagghio/
Good gelato, but nothing remarkable. At the end of the old area of town, so its good reason to get your steps in.
Lilies Sweet 2 - 3
The gelateria right across from Lilies Club. Unfortunately, the food here wasn't quite as good as the restaurant. More limited menu of flavors that other places, and I didn't even bother getting any.​
​
Amorelli - 4
This is a Granita place that our kids really liked. I never tried, but since they went back 3 times, it must have been good. In part this was because it was near the arancini place, but in part it was because they really liked it.
​
Activities
Playgrounds
​
Citta di Cefalu - 2.5
There is a little playground right on the main street with a view of the beach. It has a bar right next to it, which might be the best thing about it. Very small, 1 little slide, a rocking seat and swing. But it entertained my 4 year old for 15 minutes, and I guess it could have entertained us longer if we stopped at the bar.
​
Other
​
Acquaverde Waterpark - 4
https://www.acquaverdecefalu.it/en/
Its a pretty small waterpark, so you just have to go in with that view. Two main splash areas/small water slides for little kids that our 4 year old loved. There were 3 large tube waterslides that my teenagers all liked (one of which was too scary for everyone but my oldest and me to do) and one medium slide that we eventually were able to get our 4 year old to. There was also a large wave pool. So definitely on the small side and my older kids were ready to leave after a couple of hours, but it only cost 16 euros per person, and was appropriately priced. The random thing was that they made us all where swimming caps when we went in the pool.
The biggest problem was getting home. Uber in town was quick, but no one was willing to pick us up and bring us back. We tried Uber for an hour to no avail, and asked the person at the park to call us a taxi, but they didn’t answer. We then tried to get on the bus that the park advertised would bring us back to town. We were there with another couple looking to get to town and the bus drove right by us and didn’t even slow down. So eventually, the water park people got through to the taxi people and got us a car. 2.5 hours after we tried to leave, we got home.
ARGRIGENTO
Valley of the Temples
Great experience, very cool ruins. Much bigger than you might think. We signed up for a tour that we missed that was supposed to be 2 hours, and I can see how it would take that long.
​
Restaurant
Casa Barbadoro - 4
Food overall was pretty good, even though it was a limited menu. As we were there, I overheard a guy saying that the wine he had there was the best he had had in Italy. But the view is great - the sign said this place was a “Shopping and food experience” and it was an experience with a beautify panoramic view of the valley all the way to the ocean (the temples are behind you, so not a view of that, but still beautiful). We didn’t try any of the shopping, so can’t vouch for that. But in general, we were a little skepitcal of places to eat that are actually in the tourist trap area, and this clearly exceeded expectations. Plus, one of the paths back to the temples takes you along the outside of the city wall which is a cool view of things we would have missed otherwise.
​
TAORMINA
Greek Theater
Its an amazing sight. The theater is over 2,000 years old and when I’m 2,000 years old, I won’t look anywhere near as good. Beyond the site itself, the location is amazing with a view of the ocean from almost 270 degrees. I 100% recommend seeing it.
​
Restaurant
Il Baccanale Grill Trattoria - 2.5
We just randomly chose this place because it was on the way to the Greek Theater of Taormina, and apparently should have done more searching. Everything was ok at best, and they didn’t have pizza as an option.
​
Gelato
Don Peppinu - 5
Its hard to get a 5 on anything, and the bar on gelato is quite high, but this place somehow managed it. Megan said that the Nutella Crunch Gelato was the best thing that she had ever tasted. Keira said that she really enjoyed seeing the Greek Theater, but if she could only do one thing in Taormina, it would be eating here. Wow.
MOUNT ETNA
I can’t say that we did this one well. The day we picked was cloudy and the 4x4s to the top of the mountain weren’t working so we were only able to go up the gondola. The Gondola itself was fun, but we were quickly in the clouds, which meant that the view was nonexistent. Meanwhile, we weren’t dressed appropriately - the tour said to bring a wind breaker, but a heavier jacket would have been better and we were so cold that we didn’t really want to spend much time walking around and quickly came back. I would give it an incomplete, since we weren’t able to experience the full activity, but just know that if you go, dress warmly, and try to pick a day that it isn’t cloudy.
​
MANAROLA
Playground - navigate to Nessun Dorma
This playground was a great place to stop if you are walking along the Via Del Amore or between towns. Its up high with a great view, but its also on top of Nessun Dorma, a restaurant where you can get takeaway food and (more importantly) drinks.
​