While We are Waiting

Here are some pictures of the Famous Binder, to tide you over while you wait for me to write more posts

Here is what the Guidebook looked like, after I was done ripping it apart

Here is the Binder.  We didn’t actually go the Pisa, but it just looks so darned Italian

 

Here is the inside

 

And here are the guts for Ravenna

 

More to come as I sort through our 2,000 pictures!

The Ties That Binder Us

(Honest, this is the last planning post, I’ll get to the actual trip next!) 

As I mentioned, I got a lot of my travel information from some great ideas of what to do and where to go and how to do all this from some fabulous reviews on Cruise Critic dot com.

 

But the number one, absolutely required rule is this: 

Thou must havest a Travel Binder, and thou must fillest it with Many Good Instructions and Plans!

 

Now, who am I to argue with the Travel Experts!

 

As I made plans and hotel reservations, I saved all the emails in a Traveling to Italy folder.  I also made a spreadsheet with many tabs for Itinerary, budget, packing lists, time differences, average temperatures, suggestions…. 

I then bought a 2 inch binder and page protectors.  I made a cover sheet for each day with where we were, where we were going, hotels, tours and general information.  I printed all the relevant emails and added them to each day.

 

(My binder was white, but that didn’t show up so well)

 

For our travel guidance, I relied heavily on Rick Steves Italy Tour Book.  Rick lives in Near Seattle also, and has a lot of sensible, down-to-earth advice.  He is also very generous with his time and resources.  He has a lovely Travel Center and gives free weekly classes.

 

I took that lovely guidebook and it ripped it to shreds!  Let me point out, I did this with Rick Steves’ advice and blessings!  Why carry more of the book than you need.  We were not going to Southern Italy, why drag that part along?   

I then copied all of those pages and chopped then into little bits.  I put the instructions on how to get into the next city and hotel right on the cover page.  I put each specific activity we were going to do in its own folder.  I put any eating or sleeping or general information on the town in another.  It made it very easy to just grab the information we needed  and go.  I also threw in any city maps I had from prior trips.  I added a print out from Google Maps of where our hotels and major sights were. 

After I lovingly assemble this Impressive Binder of Travel, I was understandably proud of my efforts.   

The Blog Fodder (BF) said: “Wait a minute!  You are taking that THING with us to Italy?  I thought we were packing light?”

 

 

Um, where have you been the last six months, Bub?

And as I am in charge of packing, I made it work!  We still went with just the 2 carryon bags.  And we (mostly) knew where and when we were going!

A side note on Denise and maps:  I can read a map.  I can look at it and plot a course and see where I am going.  Then I look up in the real world, and nothing makes sense.  Are we supposed to go left here?  I dunno.  The BF is the Navigation Guru, but sometimes getting him involved enough to actually look in advance was a challenge.  Fortunately, we had a disaster early on in the trip, and he stepped up better from there.

 

So here we are, all packed, all planned, all ready to go!

I Wanna Hold your Ha-a-a-a-a-and….

Oh yeah, I'll tell you something

I think you'll understand

When I'll say that something

I wanna hold your hand

I wanna hold your hand

I wanna hold your hand 

……….Paul MacCartney, John Lennon

 

 

The absolute worse part about any trip is the dreaded airplane ride. 

Duh-duh-daaaaaaaaah! 

And if you live in Near Seattle, plane rides are long, expensive and inevitable. 

But, if we are going to Italy, it is time to put on my Big Girl Panties and start shopping.  I look at a search website first, just to see what is out there. 

Keep in mind, there are no direct, nonstop flights from Near Seattle to, well, anywhere.  There just aren’t, get over it.

 

Given my druthers, I would fly from the Near Seattle International Airport to Somewhere in Europe, and then from there to Milan Italy, either airport is fine.  But wait, I don’t want to fly into Heathrow….or Charles De Gaulle.  Hmmm, that kind of leaves Amsterdam or Frankfurt.  Whoa, airfare is HOW much?!?!?!?! 

Okay Plan B…From the Near Seattle International Airport to Big East Coast City Airport, then to Italy.  Well, that is better, but still expensive 

Plan C….Flying out of Vancouver Canada.  Can US citizens do that?  How do we get to Vancouver?  Cheaper, but much more of a hassle. 

Okay, then, if the airfare is going to cost so flipping much, maybe we should just go First Class.

 

 

Oh My!  That seems to cost more than the whole trip budget!

 

(I am pausing here so that the people who know me can finish laughing.  Yes, I have a vacation budget. Yes, I pay attention to it!  And then 9 times out of 10, I smash the hell out of it later! Note to self:  Add funds to the shopping budget)

 

Done laughing…let’s continue.

 

So, to make a long story short, after much drama I purchased 2 sets of tickets.  One takes us round trip to JFK in New York City using miles and the other takes us round trip from JFK to Milan.  It wound up costing us 1/3 of the Seattle to Milan price.  It is a little risky getting 2 sets of tickets, but I have faith, I have confidence, I have an AMEX with a high credit limit, if something goes wrong! 

But after a work flight that took off late and had several folks who had to race off the plane to get to their international flight, I got a trifle nervous.  So I started tracking the flights.  The good news is that over the last 2 weeks, they all have landed timely and the connecting gates are close to each other. 

But I notices in all this tracking, that the airline was offering us an upgrade to the front of the plane, with the seats that convert to flat beds for merely an unreasonable amount.  Much better than the outrageous price quoted us earlier.  It would be a little painful, but I could afford that.  What to do, what to do? 

As I was looking at this further, I noticed the seats were all individual pods.  I found some video footage and the seats are all isolated.

 

 

Now, while I am flying for work, I would love to have my own pod.  I usually put myself into a bubble and ignore the rest of the world.  But if I am going to travel for fun, and take BF (the Blog Fodder) with me, I want to sit next to him.  I want to chat with him.  I want to stare into his brown eyes and hold his hand.

 

So, no Front of the Plane for us!  We’ll stick to our lovely, side-by-side Economy Comfort Seats.  Thank you very much!

Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Or the Whole Reason We Are Here Today

Way back in 1986 there was a World’s Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  Since I had just moved to Near Seattle in 1985, and Vancouver is close to Near Seattle, it made sense to head on up and check this out.  I grew up hearing about The Worlds Fair and it sounded like fun.

 

So BF (the Blog Fodder) got us some discount tickets and found lodging at the University and off we went.  We had a great 3 days going in the pavilions and seeing the sights.  My favorite?  The Swiss pavilion where they gave me chocolate.  I’m easy that way.

 

In the years since then, the ’86 Expo came up as topic of conversation amongst our friends.  We all had a great time.  And we wondered if they still happen in the world. 

 

Why, yes, there was on in Korea and one in Spain and one in Australia and one in China, amongst others.

 

One time when this topic came up, we had just gotten back from our first trip to Italy.  And fell in love with everything Italian. 

 

Why look, there is a Worlds Exposition in Milan Italy in 2015!  Let’s go!

 

So for several years, The Worlds Expo in Milan in 2015 was on our radar.  And by “our radar” I mean “my radar.”

 

Fast Forward to the Fall and Winter of 2013/2014.  I was in the middle of a challenging assignment.  I was exhausted.  I picked up a bug and got a couple of sinus infections.  I was going back and forth to San Francisco every week.

 

I just didn’t have what it would take to plan a trip to Italy.  And I certainly don’t have what it takes to go to Italy without a plan.  Time to give up that dream.

 

So I found a cool cruise as an alternative.  We like cruises, having been on about 20.  This one went from New Orleans (I’ve never been there!) to Boston (I’ve never been there either) by way of Bonaire (oh, I’ve never been there)  Okay, that sounds good!

 

Since we hadn’t been on that cruise line or ship, I started looking for reviews.  And I found several FABULOUS reviews of this ship, written by women with passion and drive and a sense of humor.  I loved every minute of these reviews and really wanted to see this ship.  The reviews are on a website called Cruise Critic.

 

One small, tiny, almost-not-worth-mentioning problem….all the reviews were of Mediterranean cruises.  Cruises that took place in mostly Italy….

 

Oh dear!

 

So here we are, heading to Italy in May for the Worlds Exposition!  Maybe someday I’ll see Boston and New Orleans and Bonaire!

 

And in case you are wondering.  There is another Worlds Exposition coming up in 2017.

 

In Kazakhstan!

 

 

Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

Or, We Are Going to Freaking Italy!

 

So….we made the decision to go to Italy.  Now what?  Since this is our 3^rd trip, we did have some ideas of visiting old favorites and seeing things we missed in the past.  We could go for two weeks this time, which is about a lifetime too short, but it is what we had in our vacation banks.

 

When?  The Worlds Expo is from May 1 – Oct 31.  Okay…not June, July or August, that is when families vacation.  And families tend to have children.  We like children, but if we can avoid them in mass, we are all right with that.

 

Expo Website 

So May? Or September/October?  We were in Italy in May on our last 2 trips, maybe early Fall would be nice.  Nope, BF (The Blog Fodder) wanted May, so May it is.

 Sad note:  School trips in Italy are in May, so we didn't miss the kids!

Now where in Italy?  Well, Milan obviously!  Maybe Venice, maybe Rome, Cinque Terra? Almalfi Coast? Florence?

 

I did know where we were NOT going!  Verona.  No way, no how, uh-uh, fuhgeddaboudit.  And I blame Shakespeare.  Or the entrepreneur who decided to put a balcony in Verona, claiming it was Juliette’s balcony.  That’s right a fake balcony that a fictitious character did not stand in.  And the tourists flock there in droves. That really, really, really, really annoys the snot out of BF.  I’m even hoping we don’t see signs for the town when we drive by, I can’t take the angst.  So while I am sure there are many other reasons to go to Verona, you will not find us there.

 

So after much thinking and talking and reading and asking and agonizing, we came up with the following itinerary.  And by we, I mean me, with no objections and a few suggestions from BF.

 

Day 1      Seattle to JFK to Milan

Day 2      Milan to Lake Como

Day 3      Lake Como

Day 4      Worlds Expo

Day 5      Worlds Expo

Day 6      Worlds Expo

Day 7      Venice

Day 8      Venice

Day 9      Padua

Day 10    Bologna

Day 11    Ravenna

Day 12    Ravenna/Assisi

Day 13    Assisi

Day 14    Siena

Day 15    Siena

Day 16    Piedmont

Day 17    Piedmont

Day 18    Go Home!

 

We are staying in Bellagio at Lake Como.  I’ve stayed at the fake one in Vegas, so it made sense.  I suspect we will be recovering from jet lag and am planning a quiet day, an as-early-as-we-can-get-it-in-Italy dinner and a nice snooze.

 

We have tickets for 3 days of fun at the Worlds Expo.  I don’t know much at this point, but I expect it to be exciting.  The theme this year is “Feeding the Planet.”

 

In Venice we have a photography tour and some sightseeing planned.

 

Padua is the home of my favorite saint, Saint Ant’ny.

 

I have something special planned for Bologna…you will just have to wait and see!

 

We went to Ravenna the last time in Italy and just don’t feel we did it right.  We need to correct that error.  And see the REAL dang mosaics

 

Assisi – walk the pilgrim trail, buy a St Francis Bobble head…side trip to Perugia for chocolate?  They don’t like people from Near Seattle much there, we’ll tell them we are Canadian, eh?

 

In Piedmont we are going to our favorite Agriturismo.  They make wine there…good wine!

 

Then, unless I can convince BF otherwise, we will go home….sigh!

 

I plan to write a blog page for each day, when we get back, so stay tuned for our adventures!