Long Weekend to... Miami...

off we goooo

7 in the morning... this is departure time. Linate Airport, destination Rome Fiumicino... You're not thinking of a nice Roman weekend, are you?... noooo also because at 9:20 another Alitalia flight awaits us... destination MIAMI! Oh yes... for this long weekend dedicated to the Republic Day holiday we treated ourselves to Florida with its most appealing city, Miami. We land at 14:15 local time. The best means we recommend to and from the airport is without a doubt the taxi, which generally have a base fare of $32. The hotel booked on Collins Avenue, that is, the continuation of the more famous Ocean Drive, is only 50 meters from the beach and is called TownHouse. White is the predominant color. Very simple, nice and inexpensive, but the main feature is without a doubt the location; just think that in 5 days we always got around on foot...

fantastic! On the trip from the airport to the hotel the taxi driver had informed us that during the days of our stay in Miami there was the occasion of Memorial Day, the commemoration of those who died for their country. A deeply felt holiday. The streets in fact were invaded day and night, 24 hours a day, by boys and girls in the most extravagant and transgressive clothes, big-engined cars polished to a shine for the occasion, and mainly rap and R'n'B music going full blast. All obviously under the watchful, attentive eyes of police officers stationed on every street corner, on bicycles, on motorbikes, even on rollerblades. Obviously the advice we can give is to frequent only and exclusively the streets with the greatest crowds. We went out every evening and never had any problem. Lincoln Road is by far the most beautiful evening street in Miami...

all open-air restaurants, shops open even late, but what strikes us most is that 70% of the restaurants have Italian origins, names or entirely Italian staff. Many young people in fact move to Florida for work, to learn English and above all for the fun that this city, in particular, manages to offer. We sit down in fact at the restaurant "Sibilla". A delicious fish meal and above all at very modest prices; the waiters, needless to say, were almost all Italian. Another positive side of Lincoln Road is that it is entirely pedestrianized along its roughly 2 km.

out and about.... in Miami

At 8:00 we're already up. The hotel price also includes a huge breakfast buffet... fantastic! The beach in Miami is just as you see it in the movies, stretching for many kilometers but above all very deep. Another very lovely thing is a small, very well-kept road that practically separates the hotels from the beach, a sort of seafront promenade that lets you get all the way to Ocean Drive. That's why around lunchtime we rent two American-style bikes, that is, with pedal brakes, and ride the whole seafront promenade until we reach Ocean Drive. Note the famous Baywatch-style towers you come across on the beach, all brightly colored and customized. One thing that will surely catch your eye is that all these towers have the Stars and Stripes flag on display... now that's patriotism! We have lunch, needless to say, on Lincoln Road, since it's only a healthy 10-minute walk from our hotel.

After lunch, also taking advantage of the dollar still being convenient compared to our euro, we do a bit of shopping, Guess, Apple, etc.... you can get lost with certain bargain prices. We now decide to head to Miami Downtown and take the "S" bus. Miami in fact is divided into two parts... Miami Beach, the most famous and liveliest part, then inland we find Miami city, full of skyscrapers, the working city, so to speak... We get off at BaySide Market, an open-air market located near the port of Miami. Indeed the impression is very different. Here you breathe the air of a typical American city, the coming and going of cars, taxis and buses, skyscrapers, people in jacket and tie going to work, nothing to do with the much cooler atmosphere of Miami Beach. At sunset we return to the hotel and have dinner at the restaurant "Spris", again on Lincoln Road.

After a morning spent entirely on the beach, around lunchtime we take the bus heading for Aventura Mall. A mega shopping center located north of Miami about 1 hour away.... along the route you can see immense, luxurious resorts with spectacular and very well-kept entrances. We head back around dinnertime; unfortunately the only negative note of the transport is definitely the freezing air conditioning, that's why, partly because of the endless traffic jam caused by the young people on the street who every evening poured en masse onto Collins or Ocean Drive, and partly because we were almost there, we get off and walk toward the hotel... the temperature difference from the bus to the outside is striking! A stroll along Lincoln and dinner at the restaurant "Rosinella", also very very good.

The evening includes a drink at the Delano Hotel located on Collins Avenue a few minutes from our hotel. Here you breathe the true air of Miami by night. The hotel is magnificent, you pass through the hotel lobby until you reach the outside where a stunning pool holds court. Around its perimeter are many white daybeds where you can enjoy a drink comfortably lying by the poolside. Truly, truly fantastic, the location is really Hollywood-style. One important thing we recommend... given that the venue is very cool, there is a lot of selection at the entrance, so watch how you're dressed...

on board the Duck Tour

We spend the morning aboard the Duck Tour... nice for visiting Miami Beach and the house across the way. Yes, you've got it right, dry land and sea. In fact it's a boat with wheels that first drives around the streets of Miami showing you the major attractions, then goes into the water "transforming" into a boat and showing you the Miami bay with all the majestic villas belonging to American and world stars who come here when they feel like relaxing, sunbathing and taking a swim. Back on dry land we cross Ocean Drive from end to end and return to base, all over the course of a couple of hours. Today we decide to move over to Ocean Drive, about a 20-minute walk from our hotel. The heat these days has been suffocating, but on this day it's especially so, combined with an extremely high humidity level.

Ocean Drive is a street very busy with people, the hotels are one right next to the other, as are the restaurants and clubs that follow one after another, and it's at one of these, the Clevelander, that we decide to sit down for lunch. We resume our walk and reach the nearby Espanola Way, also very well known in Miami Beach. We're at 5th St in Miami and we head back to our hotel located at 20th St, how? Well, obviously on foot... Once back at the hotel the watchword is shower! For our last evening we "treat ourselves" to dinner at Texas do Brasil. A very famous restaurant located in the Marina area of Miami Beach. We recommend arriving at sunset because the spectacle the sunset offers with the Miami skyline and its skyscrapers in the background is spectacular. After taking numerous photos we enter the restaurant.

We can guarantee that the service and quality are truly worth it; you eat lots of delicious Brazilian meat accompanied by many side dishes, also Brazilian.

So we come to the day of departure. In the morning, after completing the usual check-out procedures, we take a taxi driven by a very kind woman who, before taking us to the airport, takes us for a few minutes to the Viceroy hotel residence (a property available through timeshare, so we were dying to be able to see it inside. A decidedly luxurious property, made up of 6 towers with 46 floors. On the 15th floor of each tower you can find stunning 50-meter pools that seem to fall into the void. In the distance you can glimpse the port of Miami and all the typical waterways... truly spectacular, this hotel, and above all very luxurious, I'd say! Delighted to have seen the hotel, who knows, maybe one day we'll stay in this property, we continue to the airport, a bit sad as one always is after a vacation... we depart on time aboard an Alitalia Boeing 777, destination Milan Linate.

Miami too, like so many other destinations we've fortunately visited over the years, is just a very pleasant memory... See you...