I can’t remember when the last time I talked about Italy was, so if I am repeating myself then I apologize.

We’ve booked the trip!

I think I mentioned all the drama going back and forth with work, or maybe I didn’t mention the most recent drama, but it made me really upset, so it’s probably good I don’t go back and talk about it. But, that is old news because everything was worked out and I ended up getting the dates I originally wanted back when we first discussed it. A small saving grace.

We officially booked the trip back in January, but I’ve been so busy with everything else that I haven’t had a moment to think about it, or talk about it, or research it.

We leave September 16th and arrive back in Vancouver October 16th. One month exactly! My parents will be joining us for the full month as well, with Chads parents only doing 3 weeks. I can not express my excitement in words.

Our plan for Italy was to fly into Venice, do some touring up north, then make our way south to Rome, do touring there and end the trip with a tour of Southern Italy. We planned to do everything ourselves, since we know the top half of the country pretty well, but were going to take a guided tour of Southern Italy, since everyone was clueless about that. So we looked up some tours, found the perfect one, based all our dates and everything around this trip, only to realized that all the prices had been given to us were in the wrong currency, meaning the trip was double what we were budgeting for. Well, out the window that went. We looked for another tour to replace it, but none of them were as extensive as this one and they were all pretty expensive. So after much discussion, we decided, we would take all the stops on our ‘Perfect Tour of Southern Italy’ and just drive it ourselves. We would book bed and breakfasts along the way and would have the freedom to stay longer, or cut short, different sites on the tour.

So, our trip to Italy now looks like this…

• Arrive in Rome
• Spend 3-4 days checking things out
• Spend about 7 days driving south, stopping in at all the cities on our list
• Once we are done Southern Italy we drive back up to Rome
• Drop Mom and Dad off at the train station where they take a direct train to Venice so they can spend extra time with family, while Chad, his parents, and I take our time touring up to Florence, Pisa, and Tuscany.
• Meet in Venice and spend a week touring Northern Italy
• Chads parents fly home
• Spend the last week doing mini trips around the city. Go to the beach, maybe a trip to Milan, tour the East Coast, or whatever we want
• Fly back home!

I think the layout of the trip works much better then when we originally planned it. It gives us more time up north with our family, and it will be much easier for us to travel with the north being our home base.

The parentals have been doing most of the reseach for the trip so far, but I finally had some time this past weekend to start looking at stuff. I love researching trips and printing out maps and organizing everything. I’m totally obsessed right now. I want to spend every waking moment organizing this trip!

Looking at all the place we will be seeing and staying make me want to leave RIGHT NOW! Only 6 short months left!

I can’t wait to show Chad Italy. He is going to freak out.