shave ice & gelato

I leave in 1 week!! I still have SO MUCH to do!! I am trying my best to stay calm and take things one at a time.

For this trip, I decided to go back to places I have been to before to get to know each one more in depth. I started out by reserving apartments in Venice and Rome and then decided on the "middle” according to the train schedules and connections.

I have never considered renting an apartment in the past but after reading so many wonderful comments about staying in apartments on the Slow Travel website, I decided to take the leap.

My apartment in Rome was the first accommodation reserved. I must thank Ann, another Slow Traveler, who pointed me in the direction of this lovely apartment in Trastevere.

I next found an apartment in Venice. I have been a little nervous about my apartment in Venice as there was no down payment required or a credit card number needed to reserve this apartment and the availability calendar continued to show that the apartment was not rented during my requested dates for months after I made my reservation. I was originally told that keys would be sent to me and I was given directions to get to the apartment on my own. I was also told to pay the agency the following Monday (as I arrive on a Saturday when they are closed). When sending my re-confirmation email the other day, I was told that a new person was now handling the apartment. After my initial panic, and reassurance from Slow Traveler friends, the woman contacted me and all is well. She will meet me at the train station in Venice which makes me feel much better. This way, she can answer any questions I may have about the apartment and I won’t be wandering around lost with my 4 maps of Venice. The apartment is in the Cannaregio area close to where they filmed the flower shop scenes in the movie Bread and Tulips.

After setting my beginning and ending places, I next worked on the "middle". I always try to see my friends while in Italy and so the 3rd part of my trip planned was a stop in Coccaglio to visit Katia & Guido. We met many years ago while sitting on a bench in Vernazza waiting for a train that was an hour late and have been good friends ever since.

The rest of the "middle" was the hardest part to plan. I wanted to try to do more of a "slow travel" trip this time but ended up planning a 1 night stay in Bologna and then a 3 night stay in Cortona.

I thought about staying in Bologna the entire 4 nights but wanted to stay in a smaller town for this part of my trip. I have not been back to Tuscany for a few years and so I decided on Cortona, a town I have only spent a few hours in once many years ago.

After looking at the train schedules, I decided to make a 1 night stop in Bologna on the way. The train trip would have been 6 hours from Coccaglio to Bologna with at least 3 changes in trains and that is something I just did not want to do. That is how I ended up with a one night stay in Bologna. I am actually excited to return to Bologna, even if it is only for 1 night. The food is amazing there and I have already decided where I will eat. I will only grab what I need from my suitcase and I don't plan to unpack everything so I can get right out to see the city right after I arrive.

Recently I realized that my itinerary may now have a little glitch in it as a strike has been announced for the day I plan to take the train from Cortona to Rome. After looking at all my options, I decided that I will go to Rome a day early if the train strike is not called off. The apartment is available and the woman renting it has been extremely generous in offering it to me without charging me since I will still have to pay for my room in Cortona as I need to give them notice of any cancellations 2 weeks in advance.

Here is my final itinerary:

arrive in Milan, June 9th
take the train to Venice
1 week in Venice (apartment in Canareggio)

2 nights with friends (Katia & Guido) in Coccaglio

1 night in Bologna – Hotel San Porta Mamolo

2 OR 3 nights in Cortona – B&B Le Gelosie
*depending on the train strike

10 OR 11 nights in Rome (apartment in Trastevere)
*depending on the train strike

depart Rome
1 night at the Newark Liberty International Airport Mariott
arrive in Honolulu

I must thank everyone on Slow Travel for all of your support, advice, hotel reviews, restaurant reviews, and trip reports. I will try to post when I can while in Italy to let you know of my adventures.
ciao!!
~girasoli

Yesterday, I thought I would be relieved to finally have a day off from blogging after blogging daily for an entire month. Instead it felt quite strange to not add a new post. I might have felt differently if it was a work day. I came in under the wire, adding a new post last night at 11:43 pm.

A new challenge has been made and so here I am trying to blog daily once again for the month of March (2 months in a row)! Today's post will be my bare bones itinerary for my summer trip. This way I can slowly reveal more details about each place I plan to visit over the next few days.

If nothing changes (which could still happen), my itinerary for this summer looks like this:

*depart from Honolulu in the evening/ spend much of the following day in the Newark Airport / arrive in Milan the following morning

*7 nights in Santa Margherita Ligure (Liguria) - Hotel Jolanda

*5 nights in Acqui Terme (Piemonte) - Relais dell'Osso

*6 nights in Bologna (Emilia-Romagna) – Hotel Porta San Mamolo

*3 nights in Zurich (Switzerland) - Hotel Glockenhof

*depart from Zurich in the morning / over night in Newark / arrive in Honolulu the following evening

**Changes were made on March 24th - see "my new itinerary ~ Italy trip 2008" for updated itinerary.

Back when I was planning my trip, I realized that it was cheaper to fly in/out of Zurich than to fly in/out of Milan. The airfares were so high that I was trying to find a way to save a few dollars. Because I did not want to deal with the long train ride both ways, I decided to compromise and fly into Milan and out of Zurich. In 2003 I spent my last night in Zurich before flying home. I enjoyed my brief visit to Zurich and always wanted to return to get to know this lovely city a little better. I thought it would be fun to go back to Zurich for a few nights again.

I initially paid for my ticket, but then during that 24 hour time frame when I was able to cancel my ticket, I decided on using my miles instead to book my trip. I did not even think about any other options when canceling my paid trip and booking my trip with miles. That was pretty stupid of me. I could have even stopped in Boston on the way home for a few days to visit friends and family and possibly catch a game. This would not work now though as I am starting my trip later during my summer vacation and only have a few more days off when I return home before starting work again.

At the same time I booked my trip, I booked a room at Hotel Glockenhof in Zurich. It was a more expensive hotel, but I was able to get a good deal (200 Swiss Francs/133 Euros per night) compared to their regular prices. The following day the Euro hit a new high and since then the dollar has continued to fall.

During the past few weeks, I have continued to read up on Switzerland. At the same time, I started checking out the train tickets. I did look at the travel options before booking my trip but did not think to check on the prices. I was in shock when I saw that it would cost 133.90 Euros for first class/87.50 Euros for second class if I took the fastest train - Bologna to Zurich (a 5 hour 35 minute trip) and 121.90 Euros for first class/80.50 Euros for second class for the slower train - Bologna to Zurich (a 6 hour 35 minute trip).

At this point, I started checking out cheaper hotels to find a way to save a few dollars. I also started reading about recommended places to eat and realized that Switzerland does not have any no-smoking laws in place. I have taken for granted the new no-smoking laws in Italy and forgot that Switzerland has not also adopted the new policy. The long train trip was not sitting well with me. I hate being enclosed in any type of transportation vehicle, especially when the trip is long, and that includes planes, trains, and automobiles. I think that is why I love being on a boat.

I started to think about the hassle of being in smoking places, the cost of the train trip, and the falling dollar and started to wonder just why I was going to Zurich since it would be such a long trip to get there for only a few nights.

The other nagging problem with my itinerary was that I was not going to stay with my friends Katia and Guido on this trip. We have been emailing back and forth since I planned my trip for this summer trying to figure out how we could meet. I was trying to plan a trip with longer stays and fewer travel days and finding a weekend in Coccaglio was not working out. I was hoping that we could meet somewhere instead but that was not looking good and was not the same as staying for the weekend.

I first met Katia and Guido during my very first trip to Europe back in 1999. While waiting for a train to arrive in Vernazza, I sat next to this nice couple (Katia & Guido), on a cement bench (which I found out in 2006 is no longer there). Lucky for me, the train was running an hour late. During that time, we struck up a conversation, exchanged emails, and rode together to La Spezia where we were both making connections. We kept in touch through email and the following year, Katia met me in Verona and took me to her house in Coccaglio where I spent the night. Our friendship has grown over the years and each time I have returned to Italy (except my trip to Sicily), I have stayed with Katia at her family's house. A little over a year ago, Katia and Guido married. I was invited to their wedding but could not attend due to my work schedule. Katia and Guido came to Hawaii last summer for their belated honeymoon. We spent a wonderful week together renting a house up on the North Shore.

After writing my posts on Santa Margherita, Acqui Terme, and Bologna, I started writing my post on Zurich, but for some reason, I kept finding other things to write about and could not get my Zurich post finished. I still have it in draft form.

Sunday night, I had this brilliant idea. What if I spent my final weekend with Katia and Guido and flew out of Milan instead of traveling to Zurich. I remembered reading somewhere that I could change my airline ticket for $50.00. I checked the flights and there were still seats available with miles flying out of Milan. I sent an email to Katia with the idea. She was thrilled. Here is part of her email:

ciao!!!!!
che bello!!! che bello!!! che bello!!!
wonderful!! wonderful!!! wonderful!!!!
My easter egg brought me a wodnderful surprise!!! Susan is in the egg!!!!!
I'm so so so so so happy that we'll see you and we'll spend some days together!!! WOW!!!

I called the next day to make the change. The best part is that it will only cost $36.00 instead of $50.00 because I asked about the Switzerland Airport Passenger/Security Charge of $36.70. The person re-priced the ticket and I was refunded the difference.

Now my trip is perfect!

I finally have everything confirmed once again :-)

*depart from Honolulu in the evening/ spend much of the following day in the Newark Airport / arrive in Milan the following morning

*7 nights in Santa Margherita Ligure (Liguria) - Hotel Jolanda

*5 nights in Acqui Terme (Piemonte) - Relais dell'Osso

*6 nights in Bologna (Emilia-Romagna) – Hotel Porta San Mamolo

*2 nights in Coccaglio with Katia & Guido

*1 night at a Malpensa airport hotel - First Hotel

*depart from Milan the following morning / over night in Newark / arrive in Honolulu the following evening

I found a great travel discussion board, when planning my first trip to Europe back in 1999. On this board, I was very fortunate to meet Francesco. I was looking for information on Florence and he was interested in learning more English. We began to write back and forth and after a few months of corresponding, we decided to meet for dinner during my stay in Florence that summer. I remember my mom being nervous about me meeting a strange man that I had met over the internet. I assured her that after many months of corresponding and the fact that he was bringing his girlfriend, Irene with him, everything would be fine.

Everything did turn out fine. In fact this chance meeting on a discussion board turned into a wonderful friendship. We have kept in touch over the years and have continued to meet whenever it worked out. Both Francesco and Irene (who married in 2001 and now have two children, Sara and Gabriele) as well as both of their families have welcomed me whenever I have come for a visit.

Somehow, we lost contact last summer. The other night, while finding anything possible to do besides concentrate on trip organization and packing, I decided to try once more to contact them using every email I had for them…and it worked!!

My wonderful surprise is that we will be able to meet once again. I was already planning a possible daytrip to Florence after not having been there since 2001. Yes, I know, a daytrip is not long enough, but a walk around the beautiful city of Florence is always worth a visit. The train travel time is short and since all my photos of Florence are pre-digital, I thought it would be fun to spend some time there once more.

So, instead of lunch in Florence, I will hop on another train and have lunch in Empoli with my wonderful friends. I will also meet Gabriele for the first time. I am so excited and just know it will be a day I will treasure always.