Part-time Traveller, Full-Time Brummie

Amo l’Italia: How Italy Captured My Heart

I close my eyes. Take a deep breath. Clear my mind of all rambling thoughts. And think about places I love. And the one place that always comes to mind over all others is Italy. A country that captured my heart.

How Italy Captured My Heart: The First Time

I’ve visited Italy three times. The first was as an angst-ridden Year 10 teenager taking one of the coveted spots on a school ski trip primarily filled with Year 11 teenagers. Mainly Year 11 boys I could develop ridiculous crushes on. We weren’t allowed out to explore our resort town of Andalo. Our poor teachers chaperoned us from hotel to slopes and back again, when they just wanted us all to get to bed so that they could sample the local vino. But we were finally given some freedom on our last night. We were allowed to visit the local pizzeria, where we got pretend drunk on Coca-Cola and the heady scent of mozzarella. As for the skiiing, well, I spent most of the time a bit like this.


Me on skis. Thank you Giphy

Italy: the romantic Neapolitan Riviera getaway

It would be another twenty years before I returned to Italy. I had recently been made redundant, and was studying for my Open University Psychology Degree. I needed a getaway, and Mr Fletche found an all-inclusive hotel nestled up in the hills above Sorrento. These were the days when we still largely relied on travel companies and package holidays. The Atlantic Palace hotel was a little old-fashioned, but the staff were wonderful. There were rooftop views over Naples Bay to the looming Mount Vesuvius, the perfect place to finish off the bottle of vino rosso they force you to drink at dinnertime. Poolside was the perfect place to get a bit of uni reading in whilst soaking up some late spring sunshine.

(The Atlantic Palace has had a makeover since we were there in 2013 and it looks all kind of swish now!)

But it was Sorrento itself we fell in love with. It was a wonderful walk down from the hotel to the town. Even if we did have to press ourselves against stone walls to avoid the local motorists squashing us on the hairpin bends so beloved of the Sorrentine Peninsula. Thankfully the hotel had a semi-regular shuttle bus down to, and most importantly, up from, the town.

We spent lazy afternoons eating gelato down by the harbour. People-watching on a café terrace over a litre of vino bianco. Strolling around the tiny cobbled side streets, enthusing over the huge lemons strung up like bunting outside tiny shops. We watched the cyclists conquering Giro D’Italia. Mastered the local trains, taking a trip down to the ruins of Herculaneum. And we even had the opportunity to practice the local lingo when I lost my return train ticket and had to purchase another from a real person instead of a machine.


Sorrento from the harbourside by CPF Photography

Gazing down to the Bay of Naples, by CPF Photography

Italy: The Train Trip

I sat my final uni exam in June 2015. A week later, Mr Fletche and I embarked on a two week tour of Northern Italy. No travel companies or package holidays this time around. This was a DIY tour, with hotels, guesthouses and train journeys meticulously planned. We flew into Milan, a city that deserved so much longer than our one night stay, where we clambered to the roof of the magnificent Duomo and drank ridiculously expensive cocktails at a rooftop bar in a department store. We took the train to Verona, where we accidentally took a bus ride without paying, climbed another tower, and discovered the beauty of an Aperol Spritz.


Arena di Verona by CPF Photography: How I lost my heart to Italy

A Milan Street Scene by CPF Photography: How I lost my heart to Italy

From Verona, it was on to Venice, where we spent two full days getting lost, listening to the duelling orchestras on San Marco Piazza with an overpriced prosecco in hand, and taking full advantage of the vaporetto to travel over to the colourful islands of Murano and Burano. A first class train journey to Florence. We gawped at Michelangelo’s David, and Boticelli’s Birth of Venus, and the crazily beautiful Duomo, crammed into the centre of the city. And finally, to the seaside, to the beautiful town of Monterosso-al-Mare, one of the five towns that make up the stunning Cinque Terre overlooking the Ligurian Sea. A local train takes us between the towns, except we visit on the day of a train strike, forcing us to do the relatively short but exhausting hike to our neighbouring town Vernazza.


Good Morning Venice by CPF Photography: How I lost my heart to Italy

Vintage Venice by CPF Photography: How I lost my heart to Italy

I’ve been lucky to visit some stunning places, both near and far, home and abroad, but it is Italy that truly captured my heart.

** All photos with permission of CPF Photography**


Amo l'Italia: Why Italy is always in my heart and my head

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19 responses to “Amo l’Italia: How Italy Captured My Heart”

  1. Tanja says:

    yes, Italy’s great:)

  2. Yes, Italy is beautiful and worth more than one visit. Hey Em, at least you got up on the skis unlike me!!! In the good old days, the Squire was rather good, being such a tall big guy he had numerous learners banging into him, a bit like having a wall on the ski field 🙂 Amazing photos of Italy!!

  3. April Munday says:

    My first holiday in Italy was a week in Florence and I loved it. The second holiday was a week in the Tuscan hills. You’ve made me think that it might be time to start planning my next visit.

  4. Wow so many Italian memories! I would love to see more of Italy.

  5. I love the romance, the food, the language, La Dolce Vita of Italy – I could easily see myself retiring in a villa in Portofino; spending my days painting landscapes and still lives; and evenings making pasta by hand. There’s something so timeless and classic about Italy. x

  6. Really enjoyed reading this. I have been to Italy 8 times now but my most favourite place is Florence. Totally in love!

  7. I adore Italy! I went on my first solo holiday to Ischia and fell in love with everything Italian. Since then I’ve visited Rome, Pisa, Florence, Verona, Naples (Pompeii is amazing!) and Lake Garda. Beautiful country.

  8. thebeasley says:

    Oh Em this just looks so ridiculously stunning. I am forever jealous of your posts, but this one may have made me the most jealous. No wonder Italy is always in your head & heart.

  9. Italy is my favourite place – my son and his partner have just booked to go to Sorrento and Naples and I am so jealous! We loved the Amalfi coast – but another fav was definitely Florence. Fab post

  10. Mrs Me says:

    I LOVE Italy! I’ve been to the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Sicily and Sardinia and there are so many more places I want to visit. Venice and Cinque Terre are both high up on the list, just now reading your descriptions has prompted it even more! I always say I feel like I left a little bit of my heart in Positano (on the Amalfi Coast) when we went there on our honeymoon a few years ago. I’m yearning to go back! Loved reading this post, it got me all lost in Italian dreams ❤️ xx

  11. […] A Brummie Home and Abroad: Our Emmalene is definitely the kind of girl you’d want to sink a cocktail or two with. Her travel posts will leave you insanely jealous, the photography in her blog is stunning plus she is an exceptionally good writer, but don’t tell her I said any of this. Check out this dreamy post on her love for Italy HERE […]

  12. […] Amo l’Italia: Italy and why it’s always in my head and heart: This #TravelLinkUp prompt gave me the opportunity to gush all about my love of Italy […]

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