Blog #2: The Itinerary

So where are we going on our Italian adventure?  Well, the dream vacation for Sandy has always been Tuscany.  In 2008 we went on my dream vacation to Greece; in 2009 it was to Japan where Kristin has always wanted to go; and so now it is Sandy's turn.  Of course I'm very happy to come along too.  I had the opportunity to visit Italy in 1975 when I was in Grade XI in high school when I came over with the Latin Club (do they still teach Latin in high school?).  We went to Rome, Naples, Capri, Pompeii, Assisi and Florence.  I only have vague memories of this trip 35 years ago, so going back now will be just like a new adventure for me as well as Sandy.

With Tuscany as our primary destination in mind, this is where we started our trip planning.  When we went to Japan to visit with Kristin, we decided to try a service called Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO - http://www.vrbo.com/).  With this service, we were able to find a house in Kyoto that was well located by the Philosopher's Path and Ginkaku-ju (the Silver Temple).  We were also able to locate a small two bedroom apartment in Tokyo that was conveniently close to a train station that then gave us access to everything else we wanted to see.  So after weeks of searching on VRBO, we located what looks like a very nice apartment in the village of Baberino Val d'Elsa, about 30 Km south of Florence (http://www.vrbo.com/19410).  The following pictures are from the VRBO website:

View from the Master Bedroom over the Tuscan hills

Master Bedroom on Second Floor of Apartment

We contacted the owner, Cindy who is an American married to an Italian and has lived in Italy for the past 29 years, and found that her place was available when we wanted it.  We decided that we would do our travelling around at the front end of our trip and then spend the last week in one location in Tuscany, so we booked Cindy's place for the week of Oct 2 to 9. 

As it turns out, Cindy is also a Tuscan Holiday Consultant (www.tuscanholidayconsultants.com/Accommodations.htm) and has been a great source of advice for other parts of our trip.  When we went to Japan, we had two local guides (Kristin and Eddy) who spoke the language and were able to take us around.  When we travelled to Greece, we used a local Athens travel agency to plan our trip and it turned out to be a very good decision, so we were happy to find a local to help us plan this trip too.  Cindy recommended two small boutique hotels or B&Bs in Rome and Venice that we booked and has offered some useful advice about other parts of our trip. 

We arrive in Rome on a direct flight from Toronto at 7:20 in the morning on Thursday, September 23.  We have arranged for a pick-up service at the airport to take us directly to the Casa di Serena B&B (www.acasadiserena.it) where we will drop off our luggage and then take the two block stroll over to the Vatican where we plan to do a tour. The following pictures are from the Casa di Serena website. 

Casa di Serena B&B Common Area

Casa di Serena Bedroom





Hopefully, we will be able to get some sleep on the plane.  Sandy can sleep anywhere, but I never have been able to sleep much on planes.  I suppose that this trait goes back to my days in the Air Force when I was an Air Navigator.  The plane was always my work site and not a place for sleeping.

We haven't planned our detailed itinerary for Rome yet, but we expect to do a bus tour of the major sites and then maybe a walking tour as well.  We only have three days and three nights in Rome, so we won't be able to see a lot - just the highlights.  We are calling this trip "A Taste of Italy" not just because we expect to enjoy some great food, but also because we will be travelling around a lot and seeing several places.  We hope to return several times and see other places in the future and to go back to some favourites.

We are planning to meet up with some old friends from my college days at RMC, Steve and his wife Diane.  Earlier this year I got together with Steve to go for a run.  We were chatting about old times and realized that we had both been married for 25 years.  I mentioned to Steve that we were planning a trip to Italy to celebrate our anniversary and Steve said, "Wow, Diane and I are planning to go to Italy too".  I didn't see Steve for a few months after that day and our planning was advancing so I thought I should send him our itinerary.  Steve sent his itinerary back to me and we discovered that we were overlapping for one day in Rome where our hotels are only 3 Km apart.  We are also going to be near Florence for a few days at the same time.  Steve and Diane have rented an apartment in Florence after they spend a week on an organized hiking tour of Umbria, the region just south of Tuscany.

When we leave Rome on Sunday, Sep 26 we will take the train up to Venice were we will spend two nights at Casa Martini boutique hotel (www.casamartini.it).  Our plans again are somewhat flexible for Venice, but we will have the evening of Sep 26 and all day on Sep 27 to see the highlights such as the canals, the bridges, the Piazza San Marco and the Basilica.  I thought that maybe we would go for a gondola ride, but we have read warnings about how the gondoliers like to rip off tourists.  If they start singing, they charge you extra.  However, how many times do you get to Venice?  Here are a couple of pictures from the city's official website (http://www.comune.venezia.it/).

On Sep 28 we will pick up a rental car at 9:00 AM and head off for Monte Bianco, which is the Italian side of the famous Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the European Alps.  It's a five-hour drive on a major highway, so it will be like a drive from Ottawa to Toronto for us.  Milan is about half-way, so maybe we will stop there for lunch and to look around for an hour or so.  When we get into the Italian Alps, we will drive to a town called Courmayeur where we have booked two nights in the Romantik Hotel Villa Novecento (http://www.romantikhotels.com/Courmayeur), where they have assured us that our room will have a gorgeous mountain view.  We actually have two rooms booked at this hotel - one for Sandy and me and another for my brother Andrew and his wife Birgit.  They will be driving down from Germany and will meet up with us for this part of our trip.

The next day we are going to split up.  Andrew, Birgit and I will be going on an excursion to the Colle Del Gigante and Sandy is either going to take the cable car up the mountain to the Pré-Saint-Didier Thermal Spa (http://termedipre.it/en/) or she will stay back for a relaxing day in the village and do some shopping.  Unfortunately, we won't be around long enough to do both, so we have to choose one or the other. 

I've always had a passion for reading mountaineering stories, so I want to go up on the glacier. I've arranged for a guide with a local company to take us up.  They have this amazing looking excursion that is supposed to be for "beginners", but when I contacted them, they asked me if I would be bringing my own equipment including boots, crampons and harness.  Well I don't have such suitable equipment, but they will provide some for us.  I have never used crampons before, although I did use a harness when I learned to rappel in basic training in 1978, but have not used one since then. So we will see how strenuous this little hike up the mountain side is.  We're all in good shape.  Andrew and Birgit have not made plans for the day after the mountain hike so maybe they will go to the spa, but Sandy and I will be moving on. Here is a picture from the guide company's website (http://www.guidecourmayeur.com/index.php).

We will be at Courmayeur until the morning of Sep 30th, which just happens to be Andrew's 50th birthday.  So we will get a chance to celebrate with him at breakfast - that is if he can get himself out of bed the day after our excursion on the mountain. Now that he's joining the ranks of us senior citizens, I expect him to be moving a lot slower, but until then he will probably climb like a mountain goat.

We might make the short drive through the tunnel under Monte Bianco to Chamonix, France while we are in Courmayeur.  However, Sandy and I will head out fairly early on Sept 30 to drive down from the mountains to the Mediterranean coast, across the French border and into Monaco for one night.  We will observe this playground of the rich and famous and see the palace, harbour and the Monte Carlo casino, but I don't think we will gamble much since we can't stand to lose money.

The next day, Oct 1 will be my birthday.  We plan to leave Monte Carlo fairly early and drive along the coast to a town in the Italian Riviera called Camogli, where we have booked a B&B up on the escarpment overlooking the sea.  Along the way we plan to visit some ancient caves and also to stop for lunch in Genoa.  Here are some pictures from the website of our Camogli B&B (http://www.bed-and-breakfast-in-italy.com/pagina_popup.cfm?ID=13784&IDregione=8).

On Oct 2nd will drive to our Tuscany apartment.  Along the way, we plan to stop and hike into the Cinque Terre.  Here is some information from the region's website where they have lots of photos (http://www.cinqueterreonline.com/).  Our friends Roger and Bonnie Chiasson hiked into the Cinque Terre last year and highly recommended the trek.

The Cinque Terre, are five small villages on the "Costa Ligure of Levante".  This territory was long isolated and the characteristic Ligurian culture has been conserved. The five villages were only reached by the outside world about one hundred years ago, when the railway line was built. The chain of mountains that surrounds these villages runs parallel to the "Appennino Mountains" and creates small insenature [Italian for creek], steep valleys where the towns are situated. This makes for a unique landscape, different from the rest of the coast. Right in the center of this landscape during the centuries was placed the man Ligure, always in struggle and always in love with its territory. The result of this geography is the typical houses liguri, the narrow bands and the knoll in terrace built on the rocks. The Cinque Terre is a National Park and territory protected by UNESCO.

So on Oct 2nd, we will finally end up at our Tuscan apartment, which we will use as a base to explore the region.  We don't have definite plans yet as Cindy advised us to see what the weather is like and go day-to-day.  We will be in Tuscany after the busy season. They will be harvesting the grapes when we are there and I imagine we will sample a lot of different wines.  We will go into Florence of course for a couple days, but also would like to see Sienna, Pisa and perhaps Assisi, where St. Francis founded his order.

Our last night in Italy will be spent at a hotel near the airport on the night of Oct 9th.  We then fly out on the 10th and get back to Ottawa at 6:10 PM.  Well, that's our itinerary.  We hope to report on many of the things we see and do as we go, but we'll see if we can get the Internet connectivity as well as the time and energy to report and upload pictures. Stay tuned friends and family.