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".