Planning our 2019 Italian getaway.

Jennifer and I usually take a couple trips a year, one to explore the world and one to get away and relax (usually Hawaii). In the last half of 2018 we had decided to have our son Jack join us on our globe trotting adventures. Now we just had to decide where to go. There are hundreds of places that we want to visit, and we will eventually get to all of them, but for the first half of 2019 we just need to select one place. The decision was difficult since there were just so many options. Since Jack was going to come with us we turned to him and asked “Where would you like to go?” Without hesitation he responded “Italy! More precisely, Rome, Florence and Venice.” Even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer I asked any way “Why Italy? Why those cities?” His response “They’re in Assassin’s Creed”. Fair enough. It was settled we are going to Italy.

Venice, Italy

After determining where it is that we want to visit the next step is decide when and for how long. We prefer the shoulder months for most locations, when hotel and airfare are at a reduced price and the number of tourist tend to be minimized. We also try and avoid poor weather. For most places this tends to be around March-April and October-November.

Usually a quick internet search can confirm this or offer a better suggestion. In this case however April sounded perfect for our Italian trip. The tourists will not arrive in force for another month or so and the temperatures are in the mid 60’s during the day and high 40’s at night.

Prices for hotel and airfare also seemed to be at a reduced price. As for how long? I personally feel that a minimum of 10 days is required to really explore and get the feel of a place, any less and I feel short changed. In the case of this trip we are going for 13 days with 11 of them actually spent on the ground

AF A380

After doing some research on various travel sites I decided to start the trip in Venice, then visit Florence, then head to Rome returning to Venice to catch a flight back stateside. For my purposes I like using Expedia. The website is fairly easy to use, benefits for members, particularly holders of their credit card, are generous and their pricing is very competitive especially when bundled with a flight.

Speaking of which, when flying I almost always reserve premium economy seats. The extra leg room, services, and amenities make a huge difference when traveling long distances, particularly internationally. Often times international premium economy exceeds the comfort of domestic first class. Paying a little extra goes a long way for making an enjoyable trip. I also always get trip insurance to protect my investment. This helps cover losses that may occur if there are delays, cancellations, accidents or if for some reason we had to cancel or change our reservations. When it was all said and done the airfare, lodging , and insurance came out to roughly $6k or $2000 per person. Not too bad.

In addition to the basic trip I’ve reserved a car in Florence for a day so we can explore the Tuscan country side. This should be an adventure unto itself as I have never driven in a foreign country (other than one time in Mexico). The cars tend to be smaller; the Fiat 500X is considered a midsized SUV, and come standard with a manual transmission, which I prefer.

To move between cities we will use the Le Frecce, Italy’s high speed rail system. With all of this said I hope to soon be positing pictures of our trip and sharing some of our experiences with you.

(The pictures in this post are not mine and belong to public domain I found them at www.goodfreephotos.com and Creative Commons Zero)