Saturday, April 28; more about planning...

I think that in a previous post I had mentioned my wife's Italian relatives...there she is (the redhead) with three of her cousins in Towsen MD. She has some truly wonderful relatives...these three are but a few of the many. We once started talking about a reunion for her side of the family and stopped counting at 33 cousins!

This visit was just before we departed for our visit to Italy in October 2004. We took the train back to NYC on Monday morning, October 4th and caught our Iberia flight at 9:30 that evening. We arrived in Madrid early Tuesday morning the 5th (my wife's birthday) and were in Rome by noon, as I recall.

What a rush! that first day in Italy...in Rome...

The following morning we left for Venice (again by train) and spent the next five hours on a very pleasant journey north through Lazio, Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and the Venato to arrive at the train station in Venice mid afternoon?

When one steps off the train and exits the station this is the first picture of Venice. To the left is the corner of the Vaparetto stop (at the right middle edge of the photo) and the experience of Venice must begin with this water taxi ride. For us, we were headed for the Rialto Bridge. Our lodging was the Pensione Guerrato about three (Venice) blocks from Rialto and right around the corner from the fish market (no it was not smelly at all).

I may have already mentioned in a previous post our dinner that night...wish I could remember the name of the place we dined, but suffice it to say...not too bad...not too bad at all! This is us in front of Pensione Guerrato.
(Do you really care about this photo)? We think it important to share the best experiences and this little albergo was one of those Rick Steve's recommendations that as with most of his...proved to be simply excellent!

But...I was starting to talk about planning so next post I will bring my focus back to "The Plan" the history of this experience and how it evolved is pretty cool!

Gotta go for now...stay tuned...

So we take the train to Venice...

The train to Venice can take as little as slightly under five hours. We left Rome in the late morning and arrived Venice mid afternoon. We had been to Venice in 1984 on a tour but this time we were on our own but quite comfortable that we had planned well and with the assistance of the Rick Steve's travel books, we made all of our Venice accommodations online and with ease. We stayed at the Pensione Gueratto, just a few short steps from the Rialto Bridge. We walked out of the train station and just like it said in the book, walked over to the ticket kiosk for the Vaporetto, bought our 24 hour ticket and and took the fast taxi to Rialto. As suggested by Rick's book, we traveled light with carry on sized luggage, one each, and a small backpack each and it is a good thing because getting across the bridges in Venice would be a hassle with large bags or with more than one bag to wrestle. We certainly saw many folks who did not travel light and what a show,watching them drag two or three bags over the bridges in Venice.

Anyway, that first evening was great! We ate at a little restaurant next to a canal that had been recommended by my wife's cousin and had a great dinner then a stroll to St. Marks where we enjoyed the orchestras and to bed, eagerly anticipating the next day, a tour of Venice on our own....just to wander...see this marvelous city and perhaps the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and what ever else we could squeeze in between seven in the morning and midnight. And one cannot get lost in Venice. There are signs everywhere directing lost tourists back to the Rialto or to San Marco or to any number of other well known places in Venice. All you have to know is which landmark your hotel is near!

...so...where was I?

Oh yes...the 2004 trip planning.

We were hoping to travel to Rome and back and spend about three weeks in Italy for $5,000. We decided to use air miles to get to the east coast from Seattle and reserved two round trip tickets from Seattle to New York on American Airlines. Cost us only 40,000 miles because we made these reservations very early...April or May...for an October trip. Coordinating a flight from NYC was pretty easy. We had decided to visit my wife's relatives in Baltimore for a few days on the way. With that challenge out of the way we booked on Iberia for the sum of $1,146 round trip, the two of us! We would arrive in NYC on Thursday, September 30th, spend Friday in the city, take the train mid afternoon, Friday, to Baltimore and spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday night in Towsen, MD.

We would finally leave for Rome Monday evening and arrive early Tuesday after a plane change in Madrid. (My wife's birthday was the day we arrived in Rome, October 5th). I will write about Towsen another day because the visit was certainly a big part of this first trip to Italy in 20 years. Sort of a warm up with my wife's Italian American family, Romans, all.

We arrived back in Manhattan by train late Monday afternoon, transferred to JFK and checked in for our 9:50 PM flight that was to arrive in Madrid about 6 in the morning, as I recall.

Jeannie was not a good flight passenger and had carefully planned that she would enjoy "assisted sleep" the entire Trans-Atlantic flight. In Madrid the next morning we passed through EU immigration and customs and took the merry bus ride around the Madrid airport to our flight bound for "Roma". Oh, I forgot to mention, on the Trans-Atlantic flight, I watched a movie...not being a regular world traveler I watched the entire movie in Spanish not knowing that by simply changing the channel I could have watched it in English...oh well...lesson learned...

We had planned one night in Rome and then a train ride to Venice. The train tickets were booked in advance (both the Amtrak to and from Baltimore and the TrenItalia from Rome to Venice)an easy, no sweat online transaction. In fact, both now issue e-tickets much like the airlines, with a confirmation number that one can print out at the moment of purchase.

Upon arrival in Rome we were a bit challenged by the train ticket kiosks so I think that we were able to buy our transfer (by train) from the Fiumicino Airport to Roma Termini (the main train station in Rome) at a tobacco stand in the airline terminal. I note that last year (2006) the yellow ticket kiosks seemed much more user friendly with many languages available to explain the ticket purchase. Maybe they were like that in 2004 but I simply do not recall.

The hotel we had booked for that first (Tuesday) night in Rome was a mere 300 meters from the train station so upon arrival at Termini we set out on foot and negotiated the three blocks without incident (in fact, our entire trip was without negative incident, much thanks to Rick Steves guide books, DVDs and advice). Our hotel was the Dolimiti, again, booked in advance, online through the Venere.com web site. I have read numerous reviews of hotels online and the Venere sites reviews by persons who have stayed in the hotels listed, seem accurate at least as to the hotels we have booked from that site. I highly reccommend this web site as a supplement to any respected guide book and perhaps the prices might even be better than the guide books promise?

After check-in we asked the hotel to send us to a local neighborhood restaurant and were delighted by the experience. I only wish I could remember the name of the place but I can tell you that it was located on the south side of Via S.Martino della Battaglia about 100 meters east of the Dolomiti, upstairs just a few steps to the main dining room. The place is run by brothers and the clientele is definitely local!

After sa fine dinner we enjoyed the evening strolling around Rome, to Trevi Fouintain, and along the Via del Corso to the Piazza Republica and back to our hotel by midnight. Oh! Did I mention...dinner in Rome is easily taken after nine PM and the city does not seem to quiet down until well after midnight. We have found Rome to be a safe environment in all of the areas we have wandered inside the old city walls. We are by no means Rome experts but I believe that if one stays on the main streets, is alert to what is going on around them and is diligent about not over imbibing in drink, no harm will befall them.

Starting the quest...

I am thinking about my two recent trips to Italy and planning the next one, but in the meantime, where will we live when we retire? At first glance, I thought that perhaps Umbria near or around Foligno. Our friends from Assisi thought that there might be some RE bargains there and in fact, actually found a couple of homes for us to view during our October 2006 trip. Well, not only did we not get to Foligno, but we didn't even get to Assisi for more than a half day and we completely missed our friends family (who were expecting us for dinner on Sunday the 21st or Monday the 22nd for lunch). We really felt like idiots because we could not find the restaurant.
But I digress...I actually was hoping to get started telling you all about our last two trips to Italy...

It all started in early 2004 while we were assisting with an adult confirmation class at out parish in Seattle. One of the participants in the class was a young Italian who was married to a Seattle girl and who wanted to marry in the church in Assisi later that year. Well, we started talking about how we would love to get back to Italy (we had been there in 1984, so it had been 20 years) and the newly weds invited us to their wedding scheduled for October 14 of that year...in Italy! We thought, what the heck...a darned good reason to take a dream vacation...so...the planning began...how to spend three wonderful weeks in Italy for less than $5,000!

...just wanted to add...the pictures in the first post are Assisi and Venice (who could guess) and here are a few more...

2004 Trip to Italy; The Planning

It is too late today to get this thing going but feel free to link and come back later this week to see what has been added...I am going to write only about Italy and things Italian and I am not going to bore anyone with my prejudices or preferences. I hope to tell a story that will stir your interests and entertain with our experiences. Stay tuned...