Italy Links

Check out all of these links.....

http://goitaly.about.com/

Proposed Iteniary

This was sent to two different travel agents so we will see soon what they come up with.

If there is anything you think of that I missed with regards to this please let me know ASAP.

Dad

Walenta Family Trip: Italy 2014

Various Dates:

Departing on April 5^th and returning to USA on April 19^th

Departing on April 12^th and returning to the USA on April 26^th

Departing on April 26^th and returning to the USA on May 10^th

One adult will be flying from Denver and returning to Denver.

One adult (senior age 68) will be flying from Jacksonville FL and returning to Jacksonville FL.

One adult will be flying from Philadelphia and returning to Philadelphia.

(We would like to meet up at the departing Airport for the Trans Atlantic portion of the flight so we could do that leg together.)

The person flying from Denver is rather tall and is looking at the possibility of needing extra leg room so a bulk head or emergency row seat would be a first choice.

Interested in looking at a package deal with an airline but would if possible prefer to pick my own hotel in Rome. If that becomes a problem, we can work around it easily.

Cities to sleep in and duration at each location:

Venice – 3 nights

Florence or Lucca – 3 nights (choice driven by hotel cost)

Rome – 4 nights

Sorrento – 3 nights

Hotels: Economy is the key to this trip. Looking for clean and safe hotels while keeping the cost down as much as we can.

Require a triple room and since it is three adults we would prefer three beds regardless of the size. If necessary, a queen and a twin size bed would work.

In room bathroom is required.

We do not need or want a lot of hotel amenities. Free wifi would be good and free breakfast would also be good.

Would like hotels that do not need up front payments if possible and are fully refundable.

Central locations in each city are important.

Rome: Termini or Vatican area will work.

Florence: Near the city center.

Lucca: Inside the wall.

Venice: Not on the mainland. Walking distance to the Rialto Bridge or St Marks is a plus.

Sorrento: Near public transportation.

(Looking not to double back upon ourselves at any point and will do various local day trips from each location).

Will travel between cities using a second class train ticket.

Suggestions for city passes if you have any. We will probably do a Roma Pass and can get that at Termini.

Do not care whether we start in any specific location and am interested in keeping the airfare cost to its lowest point.

Can fly into Venice and out of Rome or Naples (depending on the airfare difference between using Naples or Rome we can look into taking the train from Sorrento to Rome for the flight home.

Also interested in the cost of travel insurance for this trip.

If you have any questions, my email is afvet45@yahoo.com and my cell number is 727 424-5436.

Thanks,

Paul

Italy Links

Some links you may find interesting.

http://www.dreamofitaly.com/public/How-to-Order-Coffee-in-Italy-Travel-Tips.cfm

http://www.dreamofitaly.com/public/How-to-Order-Coffee-in-Italy-Travel-Tips.cfm

http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/italy/italy_menu.htm

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g187768-Italy-Vacations.html

http://www.amazon.com/Rick-Steves-Italy/dp/1566916798

http://www.justitaly.org/

http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD

http://www.agoda.com/europe/italy/rome/domus_roxy_guest_house.html?asq=bs17wTmKLORqTfZUfjFABpGQ1lgOMWZbD70ukmedx16iU50uiUFg6f7PaVSeuo%2bjP%2btuzwpawAnW3RfZ7tvCAc9lL4aw5C31jTpN39b2DsFBl0BVbcQdRJcLVyEwP%2fY%2flldI%2fRFbpXecugrYZScLNRa2ZQkVEy6qUGYxZWInnHd10gpowdLZxTXUdK0lII95ivxvvpsr%2byY0GCX9ixKfEwDVCwKCQJVHM79Mo0whNCw%3d (If this link does not work, just type in Domus Roxy and look for the link to the hotel. It is where I stayed and where we will be staying when we visit Rome.

Pictures

How can I add pictures to this blog?

Locations

Here is a short list of placews in Italy that are certainly worth seeing. This is by no means a complete list and I hope that both of you will be adding towns and areas to this list before we have to pick an exact iteniary.

Rome, Florence, Venice, Assisi, Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento, Mt Vesuvius, Capri, Lake Garda, Milan, Genoa, Calabria, Mt Etna.

Start doing your research and lets come up with an awesome list.

Also check Trip advisor for great suggestions and reviews.

Another good placew to check is at Rick Steves.com

He has been doing travel and reporting for many years and has some great travel book out there and his web site is beyond awesom with information on all sorts of travel from hotels to trains to just about everything.

He also has guided tours of alot of places in Italy and the cool thing is that you can down load them to a tablet and then list to them while you are visiting a certain site and it is just like having a tour guide walking right next to you. And once downloaded, you do not need a wifi connection to list to them.

I will be putting together a few different itineraries over the next week or so based on the various number of days the two of you can commit to. I will start with 7 days and then add 10 and 15 day outlines.

If there is anywhere in Italy that you really want to see, post it here. I am sure Lisa that you would love to see the Jewish ghetto in Venice and I know that you Chris want to visit the ruins in Pompeii.

I am fairly open to alot of places so I will defer to the two of you and will instead comment on the places you list.

As far as where we fly from goes, once we firm up a date (the two of you need to work on that since I can get the time off whenever I need it (hahahahaha), we can then look into the costs involved with flying into one city and out of another so we do not back track.

Even in 15 days there is simply too much to see but I am sure with some give and take, we can come up with a trip all of your friends will be in envy of.

Chris is going to work on us being able to post at least part of this on Facebook so any friends or family who might have some good trip ideas will be able to contribute to this blog, unless of course you would rather keep this private which is certainly fine by me and may in face make things cleaner and easier.

This will be the place to post any links the three of us come upon and the place to throw out questions.

I am rather flexible as to when we go but I know both of you have other commitments to work around but please lets make that our number 1 priority as there is not much we can do till we know when.

Dad

We are up and running!

This blog has been set up to show the planning stages of the upcoming Walenta family trip to Italy. We will update the blog from time to time with ideas of places that we want to see, links to other sites that would better help us plan our trip and pictures or videos of places we eventually plan to travel to. If you have any ideas that you want to share with us that will help us plan the best trip possibible we would gladly love to hear them!