Rome: 
Day One
Wednesday, September 23, 2015 

We took a taxi to our apartment from the Flumicino Airport for a flat rate of 60 Euro. Watch for unscrupulous drivers trying to charge more. Other options include taking the train, but with all the luggage and our level of fatigue, a taxi seemed simpler.

As our cab pulled up to the apartment, we were met at the door by Giogio, a friend of the owner's (who was in Brussels.) Impeccable timing, as I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do if no one had been there. He gave us the keys, some brief directions to orientate us, and said we could contact him with any questions.

The apartment at #92 Via Tasso was lovely, the pictures online were very accurate. Beautiful high ceilings, comfortable beds, and hot showers, couldn't ask for more. Well, maybe a dryer. During our search for accommodations, we discovered that all the apartments had washers, but none had dryers. A drying rack is included in most places. Our apartment had a clothesline strung against the side of the wall, just outside the kitchen window, six stories up. Wouldn't do to drop your unmentionables while hanging them to dry. It would be a long hike down to retrieve them.

The washers are slow, up to one and a half hours for one load. I can't imagine being a busy young  mother with two or more children, working and trying to keep up with the copious amount of dirty laundry all children seem to produce.

I recommend packing light, quick to dry items, otherwise you may have moved on to your next location before your jeans are dry.

The only down side to our location on the sixth floor, (the view was outstanding) was the very tiny, ancient, and bizarre elevator. Only three people, or one person and two suitcases, could be stuffed in at one time.

In a word, terrifying. I hate elevators. The 6th floor doesn't seem too far, but after walking for 8 hours I may succumb and climb in.

We spent most of our first day trying unsuccessfully to stay awake until at least 8:00 pm. I made it until 7:00 pm, everyone else crashed at 4:00. When I woke I was alone, Pat, Peter and Tim had headed out in search of food.

Ubiquitous coffee shops and pizzerias abound. We stumbled on one fantastic little spot only a block from our apartment. Absolutely fantastic pasta, so simple but perfectly cooked, freshly baked pizza,   pollo, insalata mista, e patata. Five euro for each, the best deal we found. It pays to check out more than one ristorante  before you decide. If you're on a budget, that is.

Back to bed by 10:30pm. Left the windows wide open, heavy rains and an excellent, cool breeze made sleeping wonderful, and the air-conditioning unnecessary. So far so good. didn't use the fan once today.

The Adventure Begins: 
Day 0:
Tuesday September 22rd, 2015

The plane ride:
We flew with Lufthansa from Vancouver to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Rome.
It was our first experience with this airline and for the most part, it was excellent. The staff were very helpful and attentive, the food palatable and despite the website assuring us that there would be alcoholic beverages for purchase, the wine was free. And after the scramble to get everything finished at work and home, making sure the dog and both daughters and my mother would be fine for the month of our absence, I needed that wine.

The seats appeared extra roomy at first glance.  I could actually cross my legs, unlike our flight on Air Transit to London last summer, due to the cut away bottom portion of the seat. However, be warned.

Do not cross your legs.

The person in front of me decided to push their seat back an hour into the flight. No warning, so slow move backwards, the seat crashed into my knees and almost crushed me. Gasping, I detangled my now bruised legs and slid further back into my seat.

Apparently I have a rather steep learning curve because I promptly forgot the pain of the moment and proceeded to cross my legs and have them crushed on three more occasions.

So much for roomy seats.

We were about thirty minutes late leaving, waiting for our last passenger who finally ran on board, panic oozing from every pore.

'Silly person,' I thought, 'who would take a chance like that.'

Never be smug.

We arrived in Frankfurt on schedule. Do pilots speed? We had 1 hour and 45 minutes to make our connection. Lots of time, right?

Wrong.

The line up at customs, the line up at the passport check, the line up to get out, the 20 minute frantic run through the airport to, of course, the very last gate took one hour and thirty five plus minutes. We were the last people on the plane.

That is an experience I do not wish to repeat. Ever.

Sorry panicked man on our morning flight. I did not understand.

At this point I had no idea what time of day it was, morning I think. Probably not a good idea to have a glass of wine for breakfast, so I refrained. But let it be recorded here, I wanted that wine.

Our flight to Rome was 1 hour and 45 minutes. Our luggage took 1 hour and 10 minutes to arrive at the baggage terminal. I was beginning to think it had flown on a separate flight.

Thank goodness all finally bags arrived and we were met by Pat and Peter who had arrived an hour earlier from Halifax.

Next Post: 
Rome: Day One or Two, or something

Third Step: 

Packing

September in Italy can consist of warm days with warm nights, warm days with cold nights, cold days with cold nights, hot days with warm nights, or hot days with cold nights. So what to pack?

Layers. Always layers. Short sleeve tops, light sweaters, warm sweaters, and of course, rain coats for the surprise downpours that come from nowhere and pound down in intense sheets of water for a few minutes before disappearing in a burst of colorful glory. Or an umbrella, but I always lose those, so I tend to go with a raincoat. Found a great one that folds up into a tiny pouch.

A water bottle.

Fresh, cool, potable water flows from numerous sources throughout the city of Rome. Bring your own bottle and fill up as many times as needed. A welcome discovery for those of us looking for a nice cold drink to cool those overheated internal furnaces.

A fan. 

Not an electric fan, although those are great. I brought one to London last summer and fried it within the first minute of turning it on, even with a convertor. So ditch those and bring a person fan or a medieval-damsel, lady-from-the-deep-south manually operated fan. When you are trapped inside an overheated, muggy, or stuffy anything, and are desperate for a puff of air, any air, these can be a God-send.

Comfortable walking shoes.

Uneven cobblestones, extra-high curbs, and ancient Roman roads paved with irregular basalt stones can be a hazard for anyone with balance issues, ankle, knee, or hip problems. A sturdy pair of shoes with a nice shock-absorbing sole is invaluable and highly recommended.

Rick Steves Audio Europe.
Download this app on your phone, Ipod, Ipad, or whatever electronic device you can get it on. Then select the tours that you would like to listen to and download those as well. All free. And how many times to you find something for free? Well, except for all the wonderful cold drinking water in Rome, oh and all those samples from Costco.
But you get the idea.

A set of earphones.
Great for the plane ride, but also for listening to Rick Steves, or any guided tour where they give you those horrible don't-fit-into-anyone's-ears earphones. Then you can listen in the comfort of your own clean, and perfectly fitting earphones.

Maps:
You can purchase a version of Offline Maps for your electronice device and download the cities you need, (we did this) or you can stop at a gas station when you get to Italy and buy a hard copy. Invaluable for planning your day's excursions.

G.P.S.
Essential if you are driving anywhere. Not that I would recommend driving in the larger cities, especially Rome. Those drivers could give the ones in Paris a run for their money. However if you are driving in the country-side, having that annoying robotic voice tell you which way to turn will be a blessing. Bring yours from home and download the software for Italy. If you choose to get the GPS from the car rental places, it will cost a fortune.

International Driver's Licence.
According to our wonderful travel agent, Kellie Neuenfeldt, you can be fined if you don't have one with you. They are inexpensive and easy to get, so why take a chance?

Next post:
The Adventure Begins:

Italy 2015

The Plan

They say planning your trip can be as rewarding as the trip itself. Well, maybe.

No, let's be serious. It's not even close, but it can help build the anticipation and that in itself is a good thing.

Our planning started last fall, when my sister-in-law, Pat, and brother-in-law, Peter,
joined us in Hawaii for a short vacation. Peter had only recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's. His doctor told he and his wife, "If you want to travel, do it now."

One evening, while sipping our Mai Tai's, we decided mutually that our next adventure would be Italy. We knew that Peter could not tolerate the rigorous demands of a tour group, so decided to plan our own trip, one with a more leisurely schedule. We would spend three weeks travelling to our must see places, a few days in Rome, Florence, Venice, and a little longer in Tuscany.

Tim and I would add a one week cruise leaving from Venice, after Pat and Peter returned home. Our itinerary would include two other places on my bucket list, Turkey and Croatia.

Upon reaching a decision on our destination, and the time of year we would travel, (late September, early October) I immediately began to plan for my personal survival, i.e. how to cope with hot flashes in a warm environment not likely to have air conditioning.

I have spent the past ten months on this endeavour. I volunteered to look for places to stay. (I had an ulterior motive, I wanted to be sure any place we stayed would at least have a fan, or even better, air-conditioning.)

First step: Accommodations: We decided to go with VRBO - Vacation Rentals By Owner, to keep our costs down. Turns out there are literally thousands of places to stay. The trick was to narrow our search to places with two bedrooms, an elevator or at least no stairs, a central location and of course, air-conditioning. So many choices, and a bit nerve racking when your decision is based on whatever pictures you can find posted online and as many reviews as are available to read.

We settled on:
In Rome: a two bedroom apartment, newly renovated with a lovely updated kitchen, two beautiful bathrooms, living room, small veranda, five minutes from the Metro, ten minutes from the Central Train  Station, and fifteen minutes from the Colosseum, and most importantly, air-conditioning.

In Tuscany, or Montaione to be exact (a small rural community one hour from Florence, Pisa, and Sienna, and thirty minutes from the coast,) a 17th century mansion, later turned into a post office and later still into twenty one separate apartments. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, multi layer decks, two pools, overlooking an organic vineyard. The pictures look stunning.

No air-conditioning, which I was initially worried about, but upon corresponding with our host I discovered the building has two foot stone walls which are great insulators, and is on a hill top where the breezes are lovely and cool. Also, he will provide me with a fan. (I took my own to London last summer but even with a convertor, I fried it within two minutes of plugging it in.) So I am hopeful I will survive.

In Venice, I found a beautiful two bedroom apartment on the Grand Canal, directly across from the Frari church, (a must see for any art lovers, according to the esteemed Rick Steves, travel correspondent extraordinaire,) With air-conditioning and an extra fan, just in case.

Second step: What to see?
We are spending 18 days in Italy. Seems like a long time, but really, there are so many amazing things to see, do, eat, and drink, you must limit yourself. Otherwise you will be so busy travelling place to place you will be too exhausted and overwhelmed to embrace this wonderful country with the verve it deserves.
Pick and choose, and come back.

We chose:

Rome: Four days: The Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, The Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, with free time to just wander and enjoy the city.
And eat pasta, drink wine, and probably eat some more pasta.

Montaione: We will spend ten days here, in our hopefully wonderful apartment. We will rent a car in Florence so that we can make day trips to the surrounding areas.

Florence: We will make two separate day trips as this is an easy 50 km commute from Montaione. Our visit will include the Accademia Museum, because of course we need to see David, the Ponte Vecchio, and whatever museums/ churches we wander into.

Cinque Terre:
On my bucket list for sure. We will take the train from out place in Montaione and stay overnight, spending one day each visiting two or three towns.
It is always a good idea to check which trails are open as flooding and slides often close many. We discovered that several trails will be closed when we are there but there are other options for getting to each of the five towns: by boat, or train.

Of note, apparently 4:30 pm is the 'bug witching hour' where swarms of some sort of insects attack unwary travellers. Bring bug repellent of some form.

This is true for most of Tuscany, at least in the fall, in both cities and towns.

Pisa: because we have to take that silly picture holding up the tower, right?

San Gimignano a small walled medieval hill town known for its many intact tower houses and also for its white wine Vernaccia di San Gimignano, made from the ancient variety of Vernaccia grapes.
Of course we will be sampling, I'm sure it's obligatory.

Siena: The historic centre of Siena has been declared a World Heritage Site and is one of Italy's most visited tourist attractions. I see more pasta and wine consumption heading our way.

Venice: We will spend three days here, wandering the streets and getting lost, part of the Venetian experience I'm told. Our visit will include a gondola trip, because it's Venice and we HAVE to, a visit to the series of islands known as Murano, known for its stunning hand made glass, a visit to Burano, known for it's lovely coloured houses and lace making, and hopefully a Vivaldi concert in a church somewhere.

Next post: Third Step, packing.