In October 2022, Shruthi's best friend from childhood, Waverly, got married in a castle in Tuscany. We decided to sandwich the wedding weekend with some European travel for two weeks. Overall, the trip was amazing. We ran into next to no travel complications or major hiccups throughout the entire trip to over 10 different cities all around southern Europe.
MUNICH
To start the trip, we wanted a direct flight from Houston to Europe that got us close enough to Tuscany, and we picked Munich. When we booked the trip, we didn't even realize it was Oktoberfest, but as it turns out, we were going to make it in time for the festival's final weekend. We landed in Munich, dropped our bags off at the hotel, and immediately booked it to Oktoberfest, which was only a short walk away. We arrived in the afternoon but it was already too late. In order to be served, you need to be seated, and every tent was completely filled with a line out the door. It was rainy, packed, cramped, and cold. We ended up just leaving and walked to an art museum close by. We planned to come back to Oktoberfest early on our last day in Munich to try again.
FÜSSEN
The next day, we took a train over to Füssen for a day trip. This Bavarian city is famous for its castles and gorgeous scenery. The forecast called for rain all day, which worried us, but we decided to take the chance. We arrived at the city and hiked up to Neuschwanstein Castle.
I asked during one of the castle tours how much of the castle (interior and exterior) was original from the 11th century and how much was renovated. It shocked me when she said almost everything was original. The only substantial renovation was the addition of electricity. How people built these monumental buildings without modern technology to last century after century is amazing. Perhaps equally amazing is my interest in them. As a kid, I never cared much for history. I was a pure math and science kind of guy. However, after all these years (as as my dad once predicted), history is becoming more and more interesting to me. Go figure.
Throughout the hike up, there were so many beautiful views. I love the character in film but one shortcoming of the medium is landscapes (in my opinion). Landscapes never lend themselves quite as well in film vs. digital. I've never been able to get a landscape on film that doesn't look flat and underwhelming. Nevertheless, here are some of the views from the hike.
After exploring the castles, we went into the city to grab dinner before catching the train back to Munich. While it was a bit cold and rainy, the city was a good intro into European architecture and design.
MUNICH
The next day, we woke up bright and early to get in line for Oktoberfest before they opened. We were determined to get a table in a tent. Although a couple liters of beer at 9AM wasn't the most appealing thing in the world, when in Munich... We successfully got a table in tent called Paulaner. This brewery makes one of the primary beers sold in Austria and Germany.
We met a few other solo travelers who heard us speaking English and drank with us. It was great to meet people from all over the world. We decided to bounce before we consumed one too many beers, but left with several great memories and new friends. Being drunk before noon was an odd feeling but we still had more to explore. After leaving Oktoberfest, we walked to Old Town, which was a nearby neighborhood. We hit up another outdoor biergarten in Old Town but just got a few snacks since we were pretty "beer-ed" out by this point.
From here, we picked up our bags from the hotel and caught an overnight train to Florence. It was about a 10 hour train ride and we had a sleeper cabin to rest in while we made the journey. It was my first time on an overnight train and was exactly how I would expect it to be: uncomfortable and cramped. I was able to catch some sleep from being so exhausted from the day despite the tight bunk beds in the cabin.
FLORENCE
We arrived in Florence bright and early. Even though we only had a couple hours in the city, we were sure to explore as much of the history as possible.
The buildings and churches are impressive enough to look at as-is. But, the truly mind-blowing part of it all is knowing that they were built literally around a thousand years ago. Similarly to the castles in Füssen, my mind still can't get around how that is even possible.
After grabbing a coffee and donut at a local bakery, we picked up a rental car to drive to our first vineyard of the trip in the region of Chianti.
CHIANTI
We drove a few hours down to Chianti to a vineyard called Fattoria Casa Sola. It was such a pretty place with really good wine. We ended up buying a bottle of Chianti Classico after the tour and tasting. It was also a very informative tasting. We learned about the different types of wood barrels in which wines age and the process behind blending and selecting grapes within a vintage. We even learned how to test if a wine is full-bodied or not by tilting the glass nearly 90 degrees to move the wine up the side, and setting the glass down upright to see how long it takes for the wine covering the side to drip down. The longer it takes, the more full-bodied the wine has. Very full-body wines are designed to go with meals, while lighter wines can be for sipping or with richer meals.
SATURNIA
After this vineyard, we drove down near the coast to check out some natural hot springs called Terme di Saturnia. I didn't bring my film camera with me to the springs, but we didn't stay very long. It was super pretty and unique. An interesting fact about these natural hot springs is that there are little red worms that live in the hot water. They are perfectly harmless but definitely present.
MONTEPULCIANO
After the springs, we drove to our Airbnb in Montepulciano where we would be for a couple nights. It was on the side of a hill with such a gorgeous view of the city. It was also on an actual operating vineyard (everything in this town has some association with wine).
We walked up a steep hill to get to the heart of the city and witnessed one of the fieriest sunsets I've ever seen.
The next morning we allowed ourselves to have a slow start. We attended a truffle hunting tour, which was followed by a very truffle heavy lunch. I didn't take my film camera to this excursion. The truffle hunting dog was named Tito and he ended up finding 2 white truffles on the reserve. This is very rare!
I then spent the better part of the afternoon doing some work at the Airbnb but didn't mind it since my view was so nice. In the evening, we headed back into town for dinner and some Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino.
Our time in Montepulciano was a much needed slow-down in pace. Germany was a bit go, go, go with all the drinking, catching trains, meeting people, and battling rain. It was so nice to take a breather in wine country. Soaking in the mountain views and drinking amazing wine was a very welcome change.
Next, we drove out to Perugia for Waverly's wedding. We stayed at the same castle the wedding was held in. I didn't take any film pictures here but the wedding was absolutely beautiful. Everything from the weather, the food, the music, and the guests was immaculate. Congrats Waverly & Matt!
SAN MARINO
After dancing our asses off at the wedding, our next stop was San Marino. I didn't know very much about this country before the trip. All I knew was that it was a tiny, land-locked country on the side of a mountain. The drive up to San Marino's Old Town was insanely narrow and windy. Every turn was a hairpin turn around a cliff with barely enough room for your car to stay on the road while having opposing traffic directly next to you in your blind spot. Eventually, we made it up to the top and walked around the city to explore.
My impressions of San Marino are as follows: very beautiful city with tons of history and memorable architecture...ruined by capitalism and tourism. It almost felt surreal to me. Looking at a thousand year old church immediately next to 10 little shops selling magnets and switch blades and backpacks...it was odd.
We only spent a few hours here since it was a fairly small town. We went back to hotel and just chilled in bed for a few hours. We were pretty beat at this point and still recovering from the wedding reception.
After dinner and some drinks, we turned in early. Overall, this was probably my least favorite stop on the trip. Like I mentioned, the city has so much beauty and history but it is just so overrun with tourist shops that it is hard to focus on anything besides the handbags and movie posters every step you take. In the film pics above, I did my best to showcase the beauty of the city but trust me, the shops were there.
DOLOMITES
After leaving San Marino, we headed up north to the Dolomites. This is what I was looking forward to the most on the trip. For those who might not have heard of the Dolomites; they are essentially the Italian equivalent of the Swiss Alps. Since landscapes don't photograph as well on film, I opted for my digital camera for the entirety of the Dolomites. You can check out my photographs in the Dolomites on my "travel" page HERE.
We had a big hiking day, which turned into a bit of a disaster. We had planned to split a hike into two segments: a three hour hike and a two hour hike. The plan was to do the 3 hour hike, refill our water and rest, drive to a different trailhead, and do another two hour hike. Long story short, this didn't happen. The initial hike turned into an almost nine hour hike. We ran out of water about four hours in and were absolutely parched. When we finally finished the main hike up a mountain and back down through a valley, we ended up in town. We had planned to get some water and rest in town before hiking back to the car. To our dismay, none of the cafes in the town were open. We decided to just make the trek back to the car without rest or water. What we didn't realize was that the way back to the car would be literally under a ski-lift that wasn't operational. We had to hike straight up yet another mountain to make it back. I was so spent at this point that I would walk about 20 steps and have to sit down. It took another two hours to make it up this final mountain to the car. Probably the most difficult hike of my life.
The next day we went paragliding. I didn't take my film camera for obvious reasons but it was incredible. I was a bit nervous about taking off but it was surprisingly easy. You just take a few steps forward, the glider opens up behind you, and your feet just lift off the ground. When you're in the air, it's surprisingly peaceful. The Dolomites were an amazing place to try it out.
INNSBRUCK
While in the Dolomites, we squeezed together some hikes, which opened up an entirely free day. We used our free day to take a day trip to Innsbruck. It was about a two hour drive away so we woke up bright and early to make the drive. The city was very picturesque (like most of Europe) with a very quaint vibe right at the base of a mountain.
We just spent the day walking around and exploring. We stopped by Swarovski to buy Shruthi some earrings since it's an Austrian company. It felt fitting to get something there when we were in the country of its origin. As we were walking around, we were missing strong spices in our life so we walked into an Indian / Nepali restaurant for lunch. It felt strange getting South Asian food in Austria, but Shruthi's ancestry called and we answered.
After lunch, we just continued wondering around the city and enjoying the interesting geography of city mixed with mountain views.
After heading back to our hotel in the Dolomites, we packed our bags and headed for our second to last stop in our trip: Lago di Braies. This place is a picturesque lake at the base of a mountain where you can rent kayaks. It's superrrr beautiful. We just stopped by for a quick hour to do some kayaking and grab some photos. I didn't use my film camera here but you can check out the digital photos I took HERE.
Kayaking here was short but the view lived up to our expectations. It all felt so surreal. The weather was still very cold because of how early we got there. After kayaking, we ate a snack, got some coffee, and continued on our way to Venice.
VENICE
I'd describe Venice in a similar way to San Marino, where tourism and capitalism have taken over. However, the tourism and capitalism didn't feel as intrusive as San Marino did. Yes, there are tons of little shops and tourist traps but the beauty of the city is still there and you can still feel the history when you walk around.
I especially loved when we ventured outside the touristy area we were staying in to a more local part of town. It was interesting to get a glimpse into how the locals lived. I heard someone chopping vegetables in the window in the picture below.
Here are a few more images from the slower, local Venice neighborhoods:
We ended the trip with a Prosecco tour. We took a van with six other travelers to two vineyards in Prosecco. The vineyards and bubbly were top notch. Really beautiful views with good wine like all the other vineyards we visited on our trip.
The people we were with on the tour were awesome. We all expected to get along on the tour and then part ways when we went back to Venice, but we vibed so well that we continued to hang out and drink even after the tour. One of the couples even bought a couple bottles for the group to drink on the van ride back.
We continued to drink all day and into dinner. It was at this point that my memory / vision started to get fuzzy. Drinking for twelve hours straight was catching up to me. We had dinner and hit yet another bar where the bartender was kind enough to give us some free drinks...which I definitely didn't need. Our flight home was the next day at 6:30AM so we had to wake at about 3AM to make it to the airport on time. We got a couple hours of drunk sleep and barely made it to the flight. I would not recommend an international flight while still drunk from the previous night because it inevitably turns into a hangover in mid-flight. Although it was rocky last morning of the trip, we made it back home safe and sound. Overall, an amazing trip with no big complications or anything. Very thankful for the the ability to take these trips and enjoy travel and new experiences. Taking these memories on film makes them that much more special in my eyes.
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