In 2020 I finished my A-Levels and planned to do what many students do in that long summer before uni – get some friends together and have the time of our lives travelling about in Europe. We bought Interrail passes, booked hostels, and mapped out an itinerary to tick off the countries we really wanted to visit. We were so excited… and then the pandemic hit, and everything was cancelled.
Two years later the world had finally opened up, and it was time to have that European summer trip I always wanted!
A change in circumstances meant that a few things were different – I would be travelling with just my boyfriend Sam, and we decided to swap the original Interrailing plan for a combination of chilling-on-the-beach and actively-exploring-cool-places.
After many hours spent scouring flights, ferries and accommodation, I managed to pull together a two-week itinerary taking in Italy, Malta and the Greek Cyclades for around £450 each (note that this does not include the daily budget for food and activities etc but does include everything else).
And it proved to be two of the best weeks of my life so far!
Today I’m sharing stories from our first stop – Pescara, the capital of Italy’s Abruzzo region.
Day 1: Manchester, UK → Pescara, Italy
To be completely honest, I knew almost nothing about Pescara before visiting and the main reason I included it in the itinerary was because it had both a cheap flight from Manchester (£7.99 each!) and a cheap onward connection to Malta two days later (£11.99 each) which is where we really wanted to go. It’s not much of an international tourist destination but I was quite happy about that as it meant we could explore somewhere off the beaten tourist trail.
As expected with all Manchester’s problems in the summer, our flight was significantly delayed and the airport at Pescara turned out to be very small, so all the public transport connecting the airport to the town had stopped running before we arrived. The only safe option was to take a taxi, and thankfully a kind employee at the information desk in the airport was able to book one for us.
We did then end up sitting and waiting for it for around an hour… but it was only a minor inconvenience and we arrived at our hotel not too long after midnight – very ready for bed after a long travel day, but excited to see what the next day would bring!
Day 2: Pescara & Chieti, Italy
The first “proper” day of our adventure began with a classic trip to Lidl for cheap breakfast pastries. On the way we were also able to finally see the city in the daylight – first impressions were that it was very much a local’s city, but we like that!
I had a rough plan to head to Chieti, formed the day before from randomly clicking on interesting-looking destinations on Google Maps that happened to be relatively close to Pescara. After a quick bit of research we discovered that it’s actually one of the most ancient Italian cities, with a charming old town set on a hilltop. This sounded right up our street so we happily bought train tickets and spent 15 minutes watching the Italian countryside whizz by before being dropped off at Chieti new town station.
We did briefly contemplate walking up the hill to the old town, but quickly abandoned that idea due to the heat. Instead we jumped on a local bus and wound our way through a series of switchbacks to our final destination.
It’s safe to say that the journey was worth it!
We were greeted by brightly-painted buildings, a maze of narrow streets and some incredible views – miles and miles of rolling Italian hills on one side, and the long flat stretch out to the coastline on the other.
The plan was to spend the day wandering around and exploring without any real goal in mind. This is my usual approach to new places and allows me to soak in the atmosphere and get to know the city more organically. I also tend to come across interesting things that I might not have found otherwise 🙂 so we spent a very pleasant afternoon getting lost in the tiny alleyways, admiring the views, and taking some photos.
An absolute highlight of our time here was discovering a pond full of terrapins! There must have been about 50 or 60 individuals of all different sizes and even slightly different colours. We spent a very enjoyable 45 minutes watching them swim about and climb up on the rocks.
As the afternoon headed towards evening, we decided to head back to Pescara to see its most famous attraction – the Ponte del Mare bridge – at sunset. Although Chieti was an awesome day out, we felt that we’d be doing Pescara a disservice if we didn’t spend some time there too.
And as bridges go, this one was pretty aesthetic:
The day finished with a wander along the seafront to grab a meal in one of the restaurants. Most of them seemed to be closed despite it being the end of May – being a smaller city, we assume that the tourist season is short here and confined to high summer.
After a bit of walking we managed to find a good local option with a fun twist on pizza – instead of ordering a normal pizza, you pick 2-3 mini pizzas. I went with a classic margherita and a seafood option, and we got an Italian Weissbier (wheat beer) to share. Oh, and we did attempt to order in Italian!
Quick food review: this margherita was hands-down the best takeaway margherita I’ve ever had. It was all in the base – crunchy but still slightly soft, and sturdy enough to stay that way even with melted cheese on top. The seafood was a little salty for my taste (I’ve decided I’m not a fan of anchovies) but still good!
Afterwards we just went for a twilight stroll along the beach and then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the following travel day.
Our time in Italy may have only been short, but it was certainly not short of great experiences. We’ll definitely be back!
