Three weeks in Italy — here is what I actually think

Three weeks is long enough to get past the tourist surface in Italy. The first week I was in Rome and the big sites like Colosseum. The second and third I went further and slower. The food evolution was interesting — gelato everywhere but prepared so differently by region.

world-famous cuisine only revealed itself in the second half of the trip, when I'd slowed down enough to notice. The negative: tourist trap restaurants near monuments, which is real and worth factoring in. But three weeks felt right. Long enough to form a genuine opinion. My genuine opinion: exceptional destination.