Sunday Morning Update after a Busy Italian Weekend!

A few things have happened over the weekend that involve our trip to Italy.  Please check out my information below, and see what has been planned.  If for any reason you would prefer to do something different than what is planned for the group, please let me know as soon as possible because the plans are in the process of being finalized for our April trip.



FIRST:  Rome Tour and The Vatican.  On our first full day in Rome we have a day-long tour planned which will cover the highlights of Rome and some of the surrounding areas.  We will be traveling by car and on foot with a private driver and tour guide.  As part of the tour, we have arranged a tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, but since most of us have already done that tour it will be only Michael & Belinda and Dan & Pierina doing this part of the tour.  While they are touring the Vatican we will tour the Trastevere area of Rome which is an old neighborhood on the "other side of the Tiber" which is what Trastevere means.  We will walk through this old part of town to see another side to Italian life.  The entire group will then meet for dinner at a local restaurant (chosen by Melissa from Best Rome Drivers). 

The Vatican tour requires a special tour guide as only guides sanctioned by the Vatican are allowed to give tours, so for the four of you going on this tour it will be an additional 37.50 Euro per person for the tour guide.

So, to confrirm - Michael, Belinda, Dan, and Pierina will all be touring the Vatican.  Gary, Gale, Dawn, Evelyn and Debbie will tour the Trastevere neighborhood, and we will all meet at a great place for dinner.  If anyone wants to change their part of these plans, please let me know.

SECOND - Hotel in Sorrento: 

I have booked our hotel in Sorrento.  There are so many to choose from, many of them on the very high, exclusive end and many on the lower end, and a few in-between.  I have chosen a very nice hotel in the in-between range.  I know some of you were thinking of getting one of the exclusive hotels with panoramic views across the Mediterranean, and it's not too late to do that, but hotel rooms for April were filling up fast so I secured rooms for all of us at the Antiche Mura Hotel with the idea that for anyone who does not want to stay here I can cancel their reservation.  But since the rooms have all been reserved on my credit card, I would appreciate confirmation from everyone whether or not you want your room.  The hotel does have a cancellation policy so I would be able to cancel but need to do it soon so my card does not get charged for extra rooms.  Sorrento is small, so we don't all have to be at the same hotel, but it's everyone's vacation so please feel free to keep this room or choose a hotel of your choice amongst the beautiful ones that Sorrento offers.  Here's my sales pitch for the Antiche Mura:  It's located in the center of town steps away from Piazza Tasso (main center of town with restaurants, shops, cafes, etc).  It got great reviews on tripadvisor for cleanliness, location and service.  The hotel does not have sea views because it is in town, but I have reserved us all Comfort Double Rooms which all have balconies overlooking the town or ancient walls (for which the hotel is named).  The total for our rooms comes to 93 Euros a night per person, and we will be there for 2 nights (for a couple this would be 186 Euros per night).  This includes a full buffet breakfast and the breakfast also got great reviews on TripAdvisor.  Sorrento is expensive, so this is actually a great price and I dealt directly with Michele- he is the manager - and have a confirmation directly from him.  I have included the link to the hotel, so please check it out and confirm to me whether or not you would like to stay at this hotel.

http://www.hotelantichemura.com/en/index.htm

THIRD - We found Pierina's Italian Family!

As you know, we recently met our long lost relatives from Philadelphia - Dan and Pierina!  Pierina knew her grandfather came to America with his two brothers many years ago, but knew little else about his family.  In early December I searched the Italian white pages for "De Federicis" in Montepagano and Roseto degli Abruzzi, which is where Pierina's grandfather Antonio emigrated from.  I found six names (some at the same address) and wrote a letter to each of them in Italian and English, and just yesterday I received an email from the grandson of one of Antonio's brothers!  He, his father and many others still live in the same town that Antonio came from, and as part of our trip to Teramo we will be making a side trip to this region so Dan and Pierina can see where her family is from.  Roseto degli Abruzzi is a resort town on the Adriatic Sea Coast with beautiful beaches and the medieval town of Montepagano is a short drive away.  I'll keep everyone updated as we receive more information.

So please review these recent updates and let me know if for any reason you would like your part of these planned activities changed.

Viva la famiglia!
Gale

OMG! (Oh My God!) - Exactly 3 months from today's date we'll be on our way to Italy!

In 3 months we will be on our way to our dream vacation in Italy - Rome, Sorrento, Capri, Naples and other fascinating destinations.  I've been busy finalizing our plans and some of you have already booked your flights. Soon I'll be sending out loads of information including travel tips, hotel information, detailed itineraries, and information about our travel expenses. In the meantime, I thought you'd enjoy this little video clip as a "teaser" of our upcoming trip. This 2-minute video is a clip from Rick Steve's travel channel segment as he traveled along the Amalfi Coast while on his trip to Sorrento - the same drive we'll be taking with our driver.  Scroll down and click on the "Amalfi Coast, Italy" video box below, relax, and enjoy the show! Buono viaggio!

NOTE:  Click on the small box with arrows on the bottom right corner of the video box to view on a full screen.  To see Rick Steve's entire (25 minute) Sorrento Video just google "Rick Steve's Amalfi Coast" or look for it on You Tube.

Amalfi Coast, Italy: A Cliff Top Drive

6 Months to Go, Some Moments of Anxiety, and an Unexpected Message

If you are reading this tonight (Wednesday, October 6th), then exactly 6 months from today you will be on your overnight flight to Rome, Italy. But if you don't see this until tomorrow (Thursday, October 7th), then exactly 6 months from now you will be arriving in Rome!

That's very exciting, but it also is making me very anxious since we don't have any plane or hotel reservations yet, and none of our plans are confirmed. We still have time, but prices keep going up, the U.S. dollar keeps going down, and the good hotel rooms are filling up fast.

But now for the good news - I have been trying to figure out how best to get around Italy. Italy's public transportation is great, but it is very time-consuming and tiring to travel by bus, train or taxi from place to place. Also, there are several of us and we will have loads of luggage to drag around with us everywhere we go. To make matters more difficult, we are traveling to Abruzzo which is in a remote part of Italy and which doesn't have a good rail or bus system - in fact, it's almost non-existent and very undependable. So, I have been emailing some of the "private drivers" and "transfer services" that I have found online, and most have been quick to respond but have been very vague, which is something that you will notice in Italians when you get there - they don't exactly pay attention to detail. But then I received a 2nd email response from one of the services that previously responded to me. This new response said: "I just noticed that your email was signed, Gale from Buffalo, NY. My entire family is from Kenmore, NY!" (For those of you not from Buffalo, Kenmore is a suburb of Buffalo - less than 10 miles away from us!). So that started an email correspondence back and forth, and without going into all the details of what we have arranged, we are now in good hands with an American girl named Melissa living in Rome, Italy! Che buona fortuna!

So now I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we are on our way to confirming all our plans, and soon we can make our flight arrangements and hotel reservations. I am in the process of preparing a packet that I will send or give to everyone by the end of the month, and it will have all the details of our trip along with estimated costs.

Tanti Baci,
Gale

Finally, This Is It!

We finally have an itinerary for our trip to Italy! We will spend 12 days visiting Rome, the Abruzzo region, Naples, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and the beautiful island of Capri as we travel from the Mediterranean coast to the Adriatic coast, and then south to the Campania area, and finally to the "Castelli Romani" area - the hills south of Rome where the Pope has his summer home and where our cousin Gabriella runs a bed and breakfast. You will have an option to arrive in Rome on Thursday, April 7^th or on Saturday, April 9^th. Gary, Gale and Dawn plan to arrive on Thursday. Danny and Margarita plan to arrive on Saturday. There is also an option to skip the family visit to Teramo and meet us in Rome on Monday, April 11^th. This option is for anyone who does not want to go to Teramo with us when we visit our family. You are all welcome to do that with us, but it is important to know that we will be in Teramo for the first 4 days of our trip and you might want to spend your time in Italy visiting one of the more touristy places or spending more time in Rome. We will not be renting a car while we are there so it will be a quiet, slow-paced visit. I don't want to discourage anyone, but I want you to know what that part of the trip would entail before you make your decision. If you have never been to Italy, Florence or Venice might be a good option instead.

The Itinerary below is what Gary and I will be doing. We have carefully planned what we think is a great itinerary but it also is flexible for anyone who might want to do things slightly differently. The itinerary lists some items that say "Optional" – these are things that Gary and I will NOT be doing mostly because we have already done it, but they are things we would highly recommend for others. If you choose to do one of the optional items, I would still be able to make all the arrangements for you. You will also notice in the itinerary that there are "private drivers" and "private tour guides" – these are services we will be using to make the trip much easier and comfortable by avoiding having to drag our luggage around - through the streets, on the trains and buses, etc. All our tours will be private, meaning we will be the only ones in the group. Once everyone has committed to what their intentions are, then I will be able to provide an estimated cost for the trip, including hotels.

Speaking of hotels, we plan on making our hotel reservations after we have purchased our airline tickets EXCEPT FOR our hotel in Sorrento. There are many choices of hotels in Sorrento, but most of them are either very expensive (think Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!) or small, cheap and somewhat questionable. There are limited reasonably priced hotels with good ratings, and these are already filling up fast for next April. So we plan on making our reservations soon – possibly within a week or two. I will send everyone the information when we are ready, and then you can decide if you want to reserve a room in the same hotel or if you would prefer to splurge for one of the higher priced (but worth it!) hotels with beautiful rooms with balconies and spectacular views overlooking the Mediterranean.

Here is our day-by-day itinerary of our trip to Italy:

Day 1: Wednesday: Overnight flight to Rome.

Day 2: Thursday: Arrive in Rome in the morning. Travel by private driver to Teramo.

Days 3, 4 & 5 – Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Teramo

Day 6: Monday: Travel from Teramo to Rome by private driver. Arrive in Rome late morning. Check into hotel and meet our private tour guide to get an orientation tour of Classics Rome which will include many of the major sights. We will have lunch in an outdoor piazza. The evening will be on your own. (NOTE: Meet us in Rome in the morning if you did not travel to Teramo with us)

Day 7: Tuesday: Rome on your own or OPTIONAL day trip to one of the surrounding areas of Rome and/or Tuscany or an OPTIONAL tour of more of the sights of Rome.

Day 8: Wednesday: OPTIONAL Vatican and Sistine Chapel tour. Evening on your own.

Day 9: Thursday: Pack your bags and say Arrivedirci to Rome because we are going to southern Italy to visit Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. We will travel by private driver for approximately three hours to get to the Bay of Naples area. Our driver will take us on a tour along the scenic Amalfi coastline to the cliff-hugging coastal towns of Amalfi and Positano, then a ride up to the town of Ravello with breathtaking panoramic views. We will have lunch along the way in one of the small villages, and return to our hotel in Sorrento in time to enjoy the evening on our own in this lovely, lemon-filled Mediterranean town.

Day 10: Friday: A short walk from our hotel to Marina Piccolo will bring us to the Sorrento harbor where we will travel by ferry or private tour boat to the Isle of Capri. After a half-day of sightseeing, we will return to Sorrento to enjoy the rest of the day and evening on your own.


Day 11: Saturday: Time to say goodbye to Sorrento. Our private driver will pick us up at our hotel in the morning and drive us to Naples. If time allows, we will drive through the area where the Boleeno and Aurrichio families came from. After a short tour of Naples and lunch in one of their famous pizzerias, we will travel by train to Velletri, a small village in the hills south of Rome. For our last night in Italy, we will be spending a relaxing evening at our cousin Gabriella's bed and breakfast.

Day 12: Sunday: A private driver will pick us up in the morning to take us to the airport for our return flights to the USA.

8 Months to Go, a Sudden Change of Plans, and How Well Do I Know My Brother?

After painstakingly working out an itinerary to try to make the most out of our trip to Italy, leave it to my brother Gary to suddenly declare: "I don't want to go to Venice!" I reminded him that he was the one that originally insisted that we HAD to include Venice in our itinerary, but he has suddenly decided he wants everything changed. I was instantly reminded of our last trip to Italy when he told me not to include him in our plans – he would make his own flight plans and all his own hotel reservations and he'd meet us in Rome. "Don't worry about me", he said. Well, I should have seen it coming when about two weeks before we were ready to leave he asked me "Where are we staying in Rome?"

I, of course, already had the rest of the group's hotel reservations, train tickets and tours booked in Rome, Teramo, Orvieto, Florence, Cinque Terre and Velletri – NONE of which included Gary. This was all done months in advance, so now I and my cousin Joyce had to scramble to try to find him hotels in each of these places, and change all our reservations, tours and train tickets to include an extra person. The only thing he had done on his own was reserve his airplane ticket – and most of you know what a disaster that turned out to be! Good thing he sent me his plane itinerary in time for me to catch that he wouldn't be returning to the states until another whole month after the rest of us got back! Ask him how much that little mistake cost!!!

So, getting back to the change in plans for Venice… in the original itinerary I had Venice as a side trip from Rome for a few reasons. First and foremost, Venice is far from anywhere else where we will be and is not easy to get to – and I wanted to minimize any travel with luggage and long train rides. Venice is on a direct line from Rome, but even the express train would take approximatley 12 hours roundtrip. Also, there may be some people in our group that aren't interested in going to Venice or have already been there, so I set it up as an optional tour. Now Gary has decided he doesn't like this idea. But… how well do I know my brother? Enough to know that if I cancel the Venice part of our trip, I will probably get an email from Gary a week before we leave saying – "What time do we get to Venice?"

But seriously, for those of you who may never again get to Italy, how can you not visit Venice? Some experts say that Venice is slowly sinking, so even if you do get back who knows what to expect for the future? New Orleans is a perfect example. The plan I am now working on is to fly into Rome as originally planned, but end the trip in Venice and return to the US from there. That way, it would still be optional for everyone and would minimize the travel time to and from Venice as it would only be one way. Gary's main reason for not wanting to go to Venice was because he didn't like the idea of leaving Rome for a day, so hopefully this plan will make him happy (and save a lot of last minute rearranging and headaches for me!). At least he gave me eight months notice this time instead of two weeks.

Now the only question is – does anybody want to buy a brother? Will trade 1 brother for 2 pizzas and a cannoli!

Bacioni a tutti!

P.S. - If you have any comments or suggestions on this post or any others, please post them in the comments section below. Would love to hear some feedback! After you post comment, click on select profile and choose "Anonymous", then click "Post comment".

An Italian Festival, a Taste of Things to Come, and Our Italian Mamas!

I just spent the last four days at Buffalo's Italian Festival – the 2^nd largest outdoor Italian festival in the world! My 80-year old mother went with me every day and stayed each night until they closed! We met up with family and friends there, we ate, we attended some great outdoor entertainment and concerts, we made new friends, we participated in the cooking demonstrations (and ate some more!), and we even won an Italian trivia contest!

While we were there on Friday with my Aunt Marie and my cousins Dawn, Susan and Dave, we saw a great performance by Franco Corso who is originally from Italy and charmed us all with his singing and his warm personality. The divas in the audience (Aunt Marie & Mom) even got a kiss! When we walked around the festival we ate some good Italian food and had some gelato. We also saw a very good replica of the Trevi Fountain and a Venice gondola complete with a gondolier. It reminded Dawn and I that in less than nine months we will be seeing and eating the real things in Rome and Venice!

The following night my mother and I watched a performance by Tony Galla, an Italian American originally from Buffalo who now resides in LA and has had several recording contracts as well as doing soundtracks for films and national commercials. We weren't as impressed with him as we were with the Italian singer from the night before until he called his sister up on stage and they performed a duet that we really enjoyed. Then he said, "You heard my sister sing, now do you want to hear my mother sing?" The crowd went wild as someone helped his Italian mama onto the stage. She took the mike and said - I just turned 90 years old June 21^st, and then she belted out a tune that brought down the house! She was as cute as can be and sang two more songs with her son and daughter before she said – That's enough! – and she got off the stage. But not before she danced a lively dance with the young man that came up to escort her off the stage!

But… the best thing that came out of going to the Italian Festival with my mother for 4 days was that she is now much more interested in our trip to Italy. Don't get too excited, she still doesn't want to go… but… she said if we do buy a piece of property there like we are planning, she will come and stay for a month! She said she'd even be our "Italian Mama cooking in la cucina".

So, this post is dedicated to all the Italian Mama's – especially the 90 year old Italian singer at the Italian festival, my "Zia" Maria, who is always ready to go anywhere and is such a pleasure to be with, and my own Italian Mama, Lori, who continuously amazes me and my brothers. Viva la Mama!