Italy 2011: Planning and Travel Days

No story is complete without the background information (or the Exposition, as we English nerds have named it). So, the story of our Italy trip began five years ago, with our honeymoon. Our plan was to go to the Riviera Maya and stay at this super cute hut-like resort on the Caribbean. Then, Hurricane Somebody changed our plans. The resort was basically leveled, just before we were going to book our honeymoon. So, we got a little 'international shy' and decided to stay on US soil...New York City and Washington DC became our honeymoon. We also decided to start saving up for our 5-year anniversary and take a trip overseas.

Our Italy trip began as a trip with 12 high school kids and another teacher chapperone through Passports travel. We would have started in Rome and ended in London on a 15-day trip, with a strict agenda and lots of responsibility. When that group didn't have enough signed up for 3 adults to go, we decided to go anyway...by ourselves, without much of an agenda...and it was amazing!

I love to plan things, but I was a little nervous about planning a trip to a foreign country, especially when neither of us even had a Passport when this trip started to take life. So, once our Passport applications were off, we began planning our trip. And...Rick Steve's is our hero! If you've never traveled using Rick Steve's as a guide...do it...do it now! He has videos, books, and even audio tours that can save you TONS of money and are a perfect mix of touristy things and life in the city. So, we bought Rick Steve's Italy, borrowed several other RS books from a teacher-friend and started to plan. Before we stepped foot on the plane, we had plane tickets, a super cute B&B reserved, train tickets to three cities, and a very rough idea of what we wanted to see. We didn't plan things to the minute, we barely planned things for the day, and what we had planned we threw out as soon as we hit Italian soil. And I loved it! Shocking, I know, the planner of the year goes to a foreign country with half a plan!

So, here is the story of our not-so-planned-but-oh-so-amazing Italian vacation...

ITALY2011

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Our flight left St. Louis at 5:30 pm on Monday, June 6th, so we arrived early, boarding passes in hand. We got through security quickly (even though neither of us had remembered to sign our Passports...oops!) and found a good spot to sit and wait. And while we waited we heard...."Shoe Shine, Get Your Shoe Shine"...over and over again by this very funny shoe shine man.



So, we hopped on the plane, found room for our carryon bag (barely) and, with a stop in Memphis, were off to Amsterdam. At the exact same time, our friends Kyle and Kristen were on a plane headed for Europe, so we sent pictures back and forth of our adventures. Ours accidently turned out upside down, and we thought that was hilarious...so we sent it as it was!

On the long flight to Amsterdam we watched Just Go With It (pretty good) and peeked over the seat as the man in front of us dominated Angry Birds...and commented in Dutch!

Finally, after a quick layover in Amsterdam (no we didn't buy any wooden shoes, but we thought about it!), we saw the Italian shoreline.



When we landed in Rome's Fiumiciono Airport, it was Tuesday at 3:30. So we had been traveling for what felt like 24 hours, though with the time changes it wasn't, and we were tired! So, we grabbed our bags from the baggage claim and attempted to call our B&B to make sure they were ready for us. With some help from the airline help desk, we finally got in contact with Mary (our wonderful B&B lady and new Italian friend) and started the walk to the train station.

We stopped at the automated ticket booth and (again with help from an Italian) bought two tickets on the really convenient Leonardo Express train to Termini Station. We boarded with our luggage and arrived at the Train Station. We quickly learned that "Uscita" means Exit and we went out of the train station in search of Via Cavour, the major street that our hotel was on. Unfortunately, we wandered a bit trying to get our bearings, but eventually found Via Cavour 101 and our B&B- Gulliver's Lodge.

We pressed the buzzer and opened the door to hear, "You made it!" from Mary, the owner of the B&B and our favorite Italian! She brought us in and we sat and talked for a while about our travels and what we wanted to do while in Rome. She gave us great tips and recommendations and marked a map that led us through the city for days. At the time, all I could think about was getting the keys to our room and laying down, but we quickly learned that the Italians aren't all about getting business done. They are more concerned with the experience of people than a transaction, which I didn't understand at the time, but grew to love as the trip went on.



Mark was excited that we got to stay in the "Yellow Room" (one of the four rooms at Gulliver's Lodge), at least for a couple nights until we had to move to the "Green Room".

After we got settled in our room a little and took a quick nap, we went out in search of pizza. Unfortunately, one of the pizza places Rick Steve's recommended wasn't open then, so we found the closest place that would make us a Margherita pizza (sauce, basil, and mozzarella) "to take". We ate our pizza in our room (since Rick Steve's had said it's cheaper not to eat sitting at the restaurant- which is true).

Once we devoured our pizza, we decided to walk down to the Colosseum, since it was just a short walk from our hotel. It was beautiful at night, with lights and special effects on the buildings around it.

  What a great introduction to what we would see in the days to come!