When in Rome...

I usually try and stay in a central spot when traveling, somewhere near public transport links. 

For the Rome part of our Italian trip, I initially planned on staying in a hotel near the via Repubblica that I found on www.hotels.com. 

Then my husband’s wish list was to stay nearer to the Piazza Navona area.  I looked at this area and wasn't finding anything suitable.  I started looking at the area around the Spanish Steps (Campo Marzo) and the hotel prices seemed a bit crazy. 

I found a fantastic website called www.airbnb.com that lists apartment rentals and managed to find a gem of a place.  The nice thing about Airbnb is that you can see a bit about the owner and the reviews of the guests that have stayed there before.    The place where we stayed was in a fantastic location and was equipped with everything we needed.  The link to the site is here.  I would definitely recommend it.  The nice thing about booking through this site was that we could pay upfront and not have to worry about what the currency would do later, which proved a good move on this trip! 

The owner of the apartment arranged for a driver to collect us from the airport to the apartment which really helped after the long trip.

She and her husband showed us around the area near the apartment, pointing out quaint streets like the Via Margutta, the nearest convenience shop and good places to eat breakfast and lunch.

Airbnb is not really well-known amongst people I have spoken to, but we had a good experience using the site and the reviews were very accurate.  A nice way to meet local people.

Getting a visa

South Africans passport holders need to apply for visas for the Schengen area before traveling to Italy.

You can only apply for the visa three months before the trip.  The visas are done through the company Capago, who are based in Wierda Valley in Sandton (if you live in Joburg).  Their website is https://www.my-europe-visa.com/ and all the information that you need is there.  We took our photos at their offices and also paid when we were there with a credit card.  The visas took a week to get back. So quite speedy.

I usually make the appointment a few weeks in advance which forces me to get the paperwork together in time.

Friday thoughts

I came home and there was a little decorated cupcake waiting in the kitchen.  The spoils from Friday playgroup.  When the little one got back from his walk to the park, it was quickly gobbled up.

My mom popped around and had dinner with us.  I decided to make pizza. Used up the mushrooms in the fridge, fried up some bacon, added a little onion marmalade and topped with cheese and thyme. Baked for 15 minutes and then added rocket from the garden and a few slices of avocado. There wasn't time to take a photo but it tasted good.

Flying away

For the trip we just recently took to Italy, we flew into Rome on Air France via Charles de Gaulle airport and out of Florence.  There are no direct flights to Italy from South Africa, so it was a case of a connecting flight and the question was via where…

I usually check which flights are the best prices on www.travelstart.co.za and then check the most competitive prices on the airlines own websites as well before deciding on a plan. We learned the hard way that it's better to do an open jaw flight when we went to France and our train took double the time to get back to Paris than it was meant to and we ended up having to pay for another flight to get home! And extra taxi ride, extra night in a hotel with lots of stress... In the end we had a special evening, but I wouldn't like to repeat that experience!  Air France’s website allowed us to do the open jaw flight effortlessly on their website for not much difference in the ticket price.

One nice thing with Air France was that we could pre-book seats on the international leg of our flights.  We booked seats on the upper deck, and were seated in two seats next to each other. We were also able to pay a little extra to book exit row seats, which meant we had lots of space.  I always seem to find people in front of me who are quite happy to recline their seats as far back as possible which makes me really grumpy, so this was a bonus! There are only a few rows of economy class on the upper deck, which meant the flight was nice and quiet too. Helped along by a little sleeping tablet too!

We left quite a big time gap between the connecting flights... Just in case! In the end, all the flights we took were running on schedule but it would have been stressful if any one of them had been delayed. And we had a few hours to kill time in Charles de Gaulle both ways.

We mostly read on our iPads, walked around a little, checked out the shops that were either the equivalent of a not very exciting news agents or totally high end boutique. The eating places at the different terminals ranged from small and dingy to quite nice but expensive.  I was glad that I had a good audiobook loaded on my iPod and tried to zone out.  The airport offered 15 minutes of free wifi per device that allowed me to quickly check email and let everyone home where we were. You could extend the wifi at a reasonable cost, but I didn't think it was necessary. 

Having flown enough international flights to know which I liked and didn't like, this was one provider and route I would gladly do again. 

Preparing before you travel

I love travelling and discovering new places in the world that I have dreamed of going to. But I suspect that I get more enjoyment out of the planning that happens before the trip.

It keeps me going for months before the trip actually happens and so, by the time I actually travel, I feel like I am already immersed in all things to do with the place I am going. The more self planned travel I have done, the more tips and tricks I have picked up along the way and the more adventurous I seem to have become.

A few weeks ago, we (my husband and I) took a beautiful two week trip to Italy. I have been asked by people I know to share the itinerary, which I will do in the next few posts. I spent a good few months planning this trip and was really pleased that everything went according to plan.  

My first overseas trip was in 2004. I had known my now husband for a year when we went, and he convinced me that a trip to the UK with only the flights booked and a bit of reading in the guidebook would be sufficient. He had travelled there a number of times before and I trusted him on this. We travelled for a friend's wedding. The trip started with the wedding for the first few days whereafter we were handed the keys to their car and the keys to the flat in central London. And please to fetch them at Heathrow on a Sunday night in two weeks time (easier said than done in those pre-GPS days!). 

We had a super trip but seemed to waste a lot of time trying to find places to stay once we had settled on the area we planned to stay that night. I am glad we did that trip in such a spontaneous way because it convinced me that that way of travelling probably isn't the best thing for my personality. And that Basil Fawlty's brother wearing a string vest really did run a small B&B in Brighton and he really did serve sausages that closely resembled cardboard for the breakfast. It was a "once in a lifetime" experience that I am not sure I would like to repeat anytime soon!

When we travel, I am conscious that I won't see "everything" in this lifetime. I try to remember that there are no travel police checking that I see the 10 best things to do in a place. So, I try and plan that we don't just do a whistle stop trip of all the places we are going to, and rather try and see fewer places, and spend a few extra days in each to really savor them.  Of course, there is only ever so much time and money and I try and balance this. So my trip to Italy didn't do the three typical highlights of Rome, Florence and Venice, because we decided to do Rome, Umbria and Florence instead.  And it seems to work for us.