As stated in Epilogue I, we are going to give an update on our car rental situation with Avis. To put it mildly, it has been one of the most frustrating experiences we have ever had from our travels. We had used our CapitalOne credit card for the rental and so we tried to dispute the additional charges with them once we got home. We were finally able to download…
NOTE: We have changed the Post Order to Normal Chronological Order instead of the reverse order, where the newest post is always on top, which is typical for blog postings that are still active. We always make this change after the trip is over, it makes more sense once the trip is completed. The Epilogues always stay at the top since they have information and thoughts about the trip that…
We are finally planning another land based trip to Europe after having succumbed to the easy travel of too many cruises. We have not done a completely land based trip to Europe since our France, Germany and Switzerland Trip in 2012….
Below is the Itinerary for our Trip to Italy. We took considerable time to plan out where we wanted to visit, and for how long, trying to work around museum closings on Mondays, which is typical in Europe. Also, we tried hard to avoid having to travel on a Sunday, due to the more limited train schedules on Sundays, but were not entirely able to accomplish that in moving…
We have included a basic map outlining the overall route for this trip. The route is based on Google Maps car driving routes for clarity and to show the main cities we are visiting . However, the actual route we will take will be based mostly on train routes, which can’t be used in Google Maps to show an overall route map between multiple cities. We will only be driving…
We have provided a table showing all of the accommodations we will be staying in during this trip, listed in chronological order. This table also includes a link to the property website that provides information and pictures of the accommodations. The dates shown are the nights we will be staying at each property.
Today’s post will be a discussion on the differences between a couple of navigation methodologies, specifically Garmin GPS and Google Maps. We have owned a couple of different Garmin GPS units that have both North American and Europe Maps loaded on them from the factory. Currently, we use a Garmin Nuvi 2559. In addition, there is a navigation tool for the computer from Garmin called BaseCamp. We utilized BaseCamp on…
We will be spending a total of three nights in the more rural area of Tuscany after leaving Florence on Saturday, September 28. Of course, Florence itself is considered part of the Tuscany region, but we have separated it for the purpose of planning the remainder of our time in the more rural areas of Tuscany. We have reservations at the Agriturismo Montaperti for those three nights, which is located…
We have spent the last couple of weeks finalizing our travel plans, specifically trying to determine train schedules for traveling between various destinations. Several of the routes are on Regional Trains, and therefore, we do not need to purchase tickets in advance. They do make it possible to purchase them online through the Trenitalia website, but there are four hour time restrictions on those online purchased tickets that may make…
We have been busy since the last update in July. We depart for Italy in exactly three weeks from today, and are starting to get really excited. The trip is mostly planned except for a few minor details. We spent the last several weeks finalizing our travel plans between stops on our itinerary. We have purchased several train tickets in advance on high speed Trenitalia trains we will take. These…
We are finally on our way to Italy after what seemed like a long week of making final arrangements and packing. We successfully got everything packed in our suitcases and they weighed in at about 45 pounds each, under the airline limit if 50 pounds. We had set a goal of 40 pounds but that was just not achievable. We tend to carry too much electronics and probably some other…
This is a continuation of the last post, “On Our Way to Italy” Once we were successfully through immigration, we headed to the baggage claim area, and as we expected, our bags were already out and circling the carousel because of the delays at Immigration. We were pretty certain our bags had arrived with us on the flight, Delta has a baggage tracking system on their phone app, so we…
This morning we got up at about 7:00 AM. The weather was still a little cloudy this morning after having some rain showers and lightning last night. We both slept pretty well, we were really tired when we finally went to sleep at around 11:00 PM last night. We always try to stay up as late as we can to adjust to the time change. We had no issues getting…
The wake up alarm for 5:30 AM was quite early, but not as bad as it could have been since we were still adjusting to the time difference, which actually makes it easier to get up early. But 5:30 AM is still early nonetheless. We showered and got ready for our day in Como and the ferry ride back to Varenna, via the town of Bellagio. I purchased our train…
We were able to sleep in a little bit today, we did not wake up until 7:30 AM. After getting ready, and packing up our suitcases as much as we could in case we need to leave today to avoid the train strike, we walked to the train station. The travel agency that is coordinating the alternative bus transportation to Milan tomorrow during the train strike is located in an…
We actually got a really good night’s sleep last night. We had set the alarm for 7:00 AM, but I was awake at about 6:45 AM, and we did not need it. I checked out the college football scores since the Clemson game had not even started before we went to bed, and the UofSC game was only at halftime……
Today we slept in a little longer than any of the past few mornings, I got up about 7:30 AM and worked on yesterday’s blog post while Stephanie slept in until about 9:00 AM. We both needed a little respite from the early wake-up times and rigors of travel over the past few days. The plan for today was to try and figure out if we could get Stephanie’s phone…
We slept well last night after our strenuous hike yesterday. Thank goodness for Tylenol and Ibuprofen, they really made a difference helping to diminish how sore we were when we went to sleep. Unfortunately, we were both very stiff this morning when we got up. I got ready first allowing Stephanie to sleep in a little longer. Once she was up, we had a little breakfast in the room consisting…
The weather forecast when we went to bed last night was calling for rain most of the day today, starting in the early morning. I woke up at around 8:00 AM, we had chosen to sleep in a little longer because of the weather forecast from last night. It was actually partly cloudy when I looked outside. There was a line of clouds on the horizon out over the Mediterranean…
We had gotten used to sleeping in a bit for the last few days, so the alarm going off at 6:45 AM this morning was a little harsh, but we needed to get ready and finish packing for our train trip to Florence today. I got up first, and showered, and packed a little more in my suitcase. Once I was finished with my toiletry bag, the last item to…
The alarm was set for 7:00 AM this morning, we needed to leave the room by 8:45 AM for the walk to the Uffizi Gallery. We showered, which was not as pleasant as showering in any of the rooms we have stayed in so far, the water pressure was the lowest we have had, and it just makes showering harder and longer. The shower has both an overhead rain shower…
We started today off early with a 6:30 AM alarm. We needed to be at the Avis Car Rental at 8:30 AM, and it was about a 20 minute walk with our suitcases in tow. We showered and got dressed, and ate breakfast in the room. We had some strawberry yogurt and a banana, and Stephanie also had her Coke Light. We only had to do minimal packing this morning,…
We set an alarm for 6:45 AM this morning, so much for a relaxing vacation sleeping in. It was early, but we had a good night’s sleep, and we would rather get up early and get out than deal with larger crowds later in the day. Our plan for today was to leave between 8:15 AM and 8:30 AM, so our alarm time gave us plenty of time to get…
For the third day in a row the alarm interrupted our sleep at 6:45 AM. I got up first, see a pattern here, to shower and get dressed. Then I woke up Stephanie so she could follow suite. As usual, we ate breakfast in the apartment before heading out, and once more it was a banana, and this time, Vanilla yogurt. It is a good and quick breakfast, and we…
Once again, and I know it is getting old for us too, the alarm went off early at 6:15 AM. Today we are leaving our nice relaxing accommodations at Agriturismo Montaperti and travelling by car to the town of Assisi. We knew that our time in Tuscany would be full of early mornings since we had to drive to the various towns, and getting there early beats the crowds and…
We set our earliest alarm of the trip so far for this morning, 6:00 AM. We need to be on the road by 7:30 AM, and needed to complete our suitcase packing and transition to train mode, where everything needs to be inside our luggage for our train ride from Rome to Naples later this morning. This was going to be our longest and most complex travel day for the…
Today was set aside to rest some, we knew the weather forecast was calling for rain for most of the morning. We both slept in, but I got up around 8:00 AM to have coffee from the machine that was provided with the accommodations, and to work on the blog post from yesterday, as well as some pictures. It was not raining at first, but that did not last long,…
I was up before the 7:00 AM alarm this morning, I had been thinking about our car rental return in Rome, and worried about not having received any email confirmation that the car had actually been turned in. It was my belief that because we still had almost two days left on the rental term when we turned the car in, that the car was being used by someone else…
The weather was as forecast for this morning, it was very cloudy at 7:00 AM when I woke up and looked out our kitchen window. We had no real plan for today other than not getting up too early because of the weather forecast, it called for a 90% chance of rain for the morning hours, with some clearing expected for the afternoon. Stephanie slept in a while longer, and…
When I woke up at around 7:00 AM, it was partly cloudy. Today was another rest break day from having to get up really early. We had decided to do a hike called the Path of the Gods, if the weather was good. The forecast called for partly cloudy skies, but it was really more like mostly cloudy first thing in the morning. The Path of the Gods hike usually…
This morning we were awakened by the sound of thunder, it was actually before the alarm, which was set for 6:45 AM We knew from the weather forecast last night that there was some severe weather moving though early in the morning. Since I was awake, I got up and headed to the shower. It was nice to know that we did not have to wait on the hot water…
We elected to get up early this morning so that we could get to St. Peter’s Basilica before the crowds roll in with the tour groups after about 9:30 AM. We set the alarm for 6:00 AM, planning to leave the room by 7:30 AM. It generally takes us about 1.5 hours to get ready, eat some breakfast and get our backpacks ready for the day. Showering here is slower…
The 5:00 AM alarm came early this morning, it was the earliest we had gotten up the entire trip. But as they say, “the early pilgrim gets the good Papal audience seats.” We showered and got dressed for our adventure today. There is a dress code to attend the Papal audience, no shorts for men or women, and covered shoulders. Dresses need to be at least knee length. We were…
Today is our last full day in Rome, and the last day of our trip except for our travel day home tomorrow. We slept in this morning, we needed some rest after three straight early mornings. I lasted until 7:00 AM before I got up and had a small coffee from our Nespresso machine, it makes single, small, but powerful cups of concentrated coffee. I guess that is what the…
We awoke this morning when our alarm went off at 7:00 AM. Our wonderful vacation in Italy was coming to an end, and we just hoped for a good and safe travel day home. The plan for this morning was to leave the room at about 9:15 AM for the walk to the Rome Termini Train Station to catch the train to the airport. We wanted to have enough time…