My Travel Blog
Teenagers… that's what we were this weekend. Well, I didn't wear short shorts and blue eyeliner and my husband left his baggy low-riders at home, but we stayed out late, ate fatty food at 2 am and slept half the morning away - twice. My parents took the kids for the weekend and we made good usage of this time! Our kids are funny and fun and we love them to bits, but it's also nice to leave all responsibility for awhile and act irresponsibly! Poutine at 2 am? Perfect!
Aside from red wine and general debauchery, this weekend was also supposed to include finishing up the Italy preparations. Verona has been booked so we are now fully accommodated and the transportation issue needed to be determined. I did some comparisons between keeping a rental car for an extended time versus train tickets and shorter car rentals… the combinations were making me a bit batty and in the end it was determined that cost-wise it was pretty much a wash, but in terms of time and convenience it makes more sense to keep the same car for 12 days. The places we have rented have parking facilities and just because we have the car doesn't mean we need to use it, but it does avoid the hassle of returning cars and getting new ones. So, final decisions are made and reservations are underway. Final verdict; train tickets from Rome to Florence (where we will pick up a car), then after returning the car in Verona we will take a train from Verona to Venice. Sounds easy, right? It took awhile to get to that conclusion so let's just say that looks can be deceiving... I'm glad that is settled and now we're pretty much done in the planning department; next thing to occupy the brain - what to pack. Stay tuned.
We leave in two months exactly - whoop whoop!
Ayeyeye I'm stuck! Stuck on Verona, that is. I was zipping along nicely and feeling proud of myself for finding great places in both Rome and Pisa. (As an aside - we've decided on two nights in Pisa between our week in the Tuscan hills and heading up to Verona. Not to worry, we don't intend to stare at the tower the whole time as we plan to hit the beach!) Booking Rome was really easy to do as there was still a lot of availability and the prices were very reasonable. We will be in a sunny 2 bedroom apartment within walking distance to most major attractions for $136/nt. Score! As for Pisa… we're only there for two nights so a rental apartment is out of the question. We booked in to a cute little hotel and it will be a nice change to have someone else make the beds for us!
Now Verona… It hasn't been difficult to find apartments to rent but the prices are much higher than they are in every other city I've looked at. I've tried every avenue I can think of and they all end up being the same with the exception of a conference center on the the edge of town. I'm still thinking it over and hoping that something fabulous and cheap appears in the next few days, but it's not like the prices are insanely high, just higher than I'd like. As a quick aside, I typed 'Verona Rental Accommodation" into google and ended up with a Holiday Inn in Verona, Wisconsin - not exactly what I was looking for! I'm sure we could buy a bottle of Italian wine and a nice cheese plate but the ambiance wouldn't quite be the same!
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