Planning

A bit about us.  My husband and I are both retired.  We like slow and easy travel best due to our age and physical shape.  My husband will be 81 and I will be 78 at the time of our trip.  We have some mobility issues.  Bad knees primarily.  But we love to travel and experience new cultures, adventures, etc.  Italy has long been on my personal list of countries I want to visit.  I'm lucky in that my husband goes along with my plans!  We had planned to spend 5 weeks in Italy back in 2015.  At that time I was having some back problems-my doctor advised against a long trip that would involve lots of walking-and my mom and aunt/godmother were both in their 90s back then and not in good health.  I didn't want to be too far away from them just in case........

So Italy was put on the back burner.  Now that travel outside the US seems to be getting easier after covid I decided to revisit the idea of Italy.  However because we were now 8 years each older my planned 5 week trip was trimmed down to 4.  I researched requirements for travel to Italy.  No need for a visa.  Nice. We have both been fully vaccinated with booster shots for covid.  We had traveled outside the US back in 2022 to revisit St. Maarten/St. Martin.  It was easy and we had a great time so on to returning to Europe.

Luckily I still had my research notebook for Italy that I had done for the canceled trip of 2015.  I just needed to update prices and confirm/update open & close times of things we wanted to see.

  

Small Italy notebook with all my research

Florence

Venice

Rome

Venice

Amalfi coast

Next was to try to establish an itinerary.  I decided to do what I wanted to do back in 2015.  Same order. Venice, Florence, Amalfi coast, Rome.  But I had to trim down the amount of time from 5 weeks to 4.  So 6 nights each in Venice, Florence, Amalfi coast instead of 7.  Then 10 nights in Rome instead of 14.  May have to prioritize what we want to see and do. 

Now it's on to finding airfare.  I wanted to fly into Venice and at the end fly out of Rome to head back home.  This was so much harder than I thought.  Prices were through the roof!  I think it's because more are now traveling after being stuck at home during covid.  Not that covid is completely over but it does appear to be safer to travel now than it was in the summer of 2020.  I finally bit the bullet and booked our flights on 2/24/2023.  I was looking for few connections and good times as well as reasonable pricing.  I think I got what I wanted except for the pricing.  No matter how hard I searched I was unable to find a cheap round trip open jaw flight to and from Italy.  Flights are with American Airlines.  We will leave Buffalo on 8/28/2023 and return home on 9/26/2023.  

Flights:  American Airlines.  Depart on 8/28 Buffalo to Philadelphia to Venice.  We will arrive in Venice morning of 8/29.  Depart on 9/26 Rome to Charlotte to Buffalo.  Had to pay extra for duo seats on the long haul flights of Philadelphia to Venice and Rome to Charlotte.  There is also a checked bag fee.  $75 for first bag pp.  Total price for 2 round trip tickets without baggage fees added is $2425.30!  Usually we each have 1 checked bag so expect to pay another $150 when we check in.

Because we would arrive home around midnight 9/26-9/27 we decided not to have family pick us up or drop us off even though our flight from Buffalo was leaving at a good time in the afternoon of 8/28.  So we will park our car at a close to the airport park and fly lot.  Did this through WAY.  Buffalo International Airport is where we will leave our car and their shuttle will take us to the airport and pick us up on our return home.  Cost $161.25.

Next is trip insurance.  Because we're older I find this to be a must.  We have been fortunate that in so many years past we've never had to use it.  Some might say it's money that could be spent elsewhere.  But back in 2018-our last big trip before covid-while in Spain my husband became very sick.  Think it was food poisoning but can't be sure.  OTC meds didn't help.  Ended up at hospital in Toledo where doctor advised us to return to US right away.  Due to tests it appeared that my husband's kidneys were failing.  He was very dehydrated and unable to even keep water down.  So we used our trip insurance to get us home before our scheduled flight which was around a week away as we hadn't gotten to spend time in Madrid yet.  Long story short, that one way ticket for us to fly home was astronomical.  The insurance covered that, all but $50 deductible for hospital, and full cost prescribed medicine.  Even the new train ticket from Toledo to Madrid!  It only takes one bad thing to happen.  Fortunately my husband responded to the medication and new tests revealed his kidneys were fine.    travelinsurance.com    Cost $556.00.  It covers us for 30 days while in Italy and includes medical, dental, evacuation, and so much more.  Purchased this policy on 3/2/2023.

For hotels I find that I prefer to use booking.com  I also use the cancel free option even though the cost is a bit more.  My husband loves having a pool so I tried to find hotels with a pool.  Well, except for Venice!  My requirements for choosing our hotel is fairly simple.  Location, good reviews, amenities, reasonable price.  I posted some questions on Trip Advisor asking for recommendations when I was stuck between choosing one hotel over another.  TA was helpful in my selection of hotels in Venice, Florence, and the Amalfi coast.  For the Amalfi coast due to our mobility issues the TA forum even helped narrow down our choice of town to stay.  I knew Positano was out of the question but I think Amalfi will be a good choice.  I picked our Rome hotel with just my own research.  

Itinerary.  This I was able to pretty much do on my own.  Per previous research I knew what was most important to me and my husband to see and do.  I broke down the sightseeing into what I believe is a doable pace for us.  Of course I will make adjustments if necessary when we arrive.  I again received advice from the TA community.  I developed an itinerary guideline and printed out blank calendar pages for August and September.  Ok.  I know what you're thinking.  Bit much, right!  But I'm a retired teacher with a bit of OCD and I do best with planning.  But I can also go with the flow. 

Blank calendar page for August

Blank calendar page for September

Normally on previous trips we didn't have to book so far ahead for places we want to visit/things we want to do.  I found this is not the case for Italy.  I will have to book a month ahead of when we want to tour the Colosseum in Rome.  I've been reading posts on Trip Advisor about this and fingers crossed I'll be able to get us tickets.  I can't not do a tour of the Colosseum!  Same goes for the Vatican for the tour I want.  I don't want to be in the Sistine Chapel with hundreds, thousands of other tourists!  I will have to prebook some museums.  Long list.  I thought doing this trip mostly in September there would be fewer tourists.  Wrong per Trip Advisor!

I've been doing folders with information on restaurants, attractions, etc. for each destination in Italy.  Hoping this hard work will pay off.  

Thanks to all on Trip Advisor who answered my questions and gave good advice.  Just a few to mention that answered my many questions and provided me with helpful information-MCat, elstravels, mesh, SKALondon, G M, lastraniera, Snorkelbear, The Spanish Steps Apartment, dbabe, and so many others.  And for those who posted recent trip reports or who were planning a trip for dates around the same time as ours and asked questions before I could!-Noah75639, Teacher91, CarsonsMommy.  I've been using TA to help plan trips for many years now.  This blog not only is a way for me to keep the memories of a trip alive but to "pay it forward" in a way.  Hope my information can be useful to future travelers.

So on to the preparation phase of our trip.