It is amazing how much planning and research it takes to embark on a 6 week trip to Italy. Are we doing something wrong? I suspect there are those adventurous people out there that buy a plane ticket, fly to their destination and then figure out the trip as it goes. My experiences with kids on the PCT in 2014 showed me that side of life. It is cool, and I hope we get back on a trip like that again soon. Our bike ride down the Rhine in 2015 was more of that ilk. We rode our bikes each day as far as we desired, stopped along the way as shiny objects along our path caught our attention, and generally just lived for each day, discovering new landscapes as they rolled beneath our wheels. But, this is a different trip than that.
We are off in search of history and art. I have read half a dozen books about Italian history and art, taken notes while viewing a 36 part lecture on Italian Renaissance Art and taken Italian language classes in preparation for this trip. We have specific things we are going to Italy to see and experience, nearly all of them on the tourist trail. Five days in Rome, 4 on the island of Elba, 5 in Florence, 3 in Cinque Terre, 2 in Siena, 4 at Lake Como, 3 in the Dolomites, 4 in Venice, 8 in the Tuscany region, 2 in Sorrento, and then home. Every location is a major tourist attraction, but, that is where the art and history lie.
You might notice that our trip oscillates between city and countryside. This is purposeful, for we have learned from past trips that are lengthy, that a vacation from the vacation is needed. After 5 days in Rome looking at art and ruins, the brain needs a break. For us, it is off to Elba camping on the beach for 4 days to clear our minds and prepare for the onslaught that is Florence. Five days of Florence, then off to Cinque Terra for 3 days of hiking and mind clearing, then to Siena. And so on. City and museums, country and mind clearing. Vacations from the vacations.
Because we are traveling the tourist trail, we heeded the advise of Rick Steves and booked all our accommodations ahead of time, another thing we loath. But, with the Internet, all the cheap rooms book up months in advance of the trip, leaving only the high priced places for those that book later. I suspect we will find there are less expensive places that will open up while we are there and with a little sleuthing we could find inexpensive accommodations on the fly, but we are hoping to focus our energies around the things we are going to see rather than the adventure of existing day to day.
Up until a week ago, our average nightly rate for rooms was about $44.00. But, the last few places we booked were more expensive due to the lack of lead time, bumping our average price per night to about $59 a night. Still not bad, but we were hoping to average below $50 a night.
After reading about the Pope's, Michelangelo, the Medici Family, Venice and general Italian history, I am excited to see the places I have been studying these past 8 months. When we first went to Europe in 2009, I did nearly no studying before we went. As I walked slack jawed through Versailles, I was dumbfounded at the oppulance and extent of the wealth of the monarchy, yet when I got home and read a book about Louis the 14th, the making of Versailles and the history up to Napolean, I realized how much I had missed by visiting it without any background knowledge; nothing to inform me where to look and what to look for. This trip, I am infinitely better prepared, especially when it comes to Florence. Can't wait to get there.
We are not packing much for the trip. Lessons learned on the PCT and biking have reduced our loads to minimums. Besides the clothes on my body, I am taking one shirt, one pair of underwear, a light jacket, a swim suit and a pair of socks. I washed my shirt and underwear every night on the bike trip and only wore sandals and no socks. Minimal weight. No trying to decide what to wear! Of course, my electronic gear will weigh more than my clothing, what with charging cords and adapters for the iphone and Ipad and a portable keyboard (what a luxury). Add a towel, toilet kit, sleeping bag, passport, credit card and money and I am ready to go. All the guidebooks are on the phone or iPad, as are the maps, translation dictionaries, GPS and blogging software. Light and comfortable. And this time, no stoves, no tent, no bicycle repair gear, no spare tires. Can't wait.
We have planned our days for Rome and Florence to maximize the museum passes and our time seeing the sites, avoiding places closed on Monday's and scheduling our visits to avoid the maximum crush of crowds. It takes a lot of research to pick which day and hour to go where, but hopefully it will pay back in short lines, low cost and many sites seen.
Still with me? Whew. You are persistent! Enough for now. This entry was just a test of the keyboard bluetoothing to my iPhone and a little introduction to our plans. We are still 12 days from departure, but never to soon to fine tune the operation.
Thanks for reading.
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