Our First Trip To Italy

Our first trip to Europe was in 2018. We visited Italy and France with our son, Tyler. He was seventeen at the time and shares our passion for travel. This post will focus on our visit in Italy.

When it came time to start planning for the trip, I told Bill about my desire to go to France to meet our exchange student, Antoine and his parents, and attend a festival that only occurs when June 24th is on a Sunday. The festival celebrates Le Grand Pardon. I'll cover this in a future post. Bill was a bit reluctant at first, but when he realized I was serious about going, alone if necessary, he said he would be happy to go if we could include visiting Italy in our plans. I hadn't even considered Italy as a possibility. The more we discussed, though, the more it seemed like a good idea.

So, I got busy planning on how we could make this work. I knew I had a certain date to be in Chaumont for the festival. Should we go to Italy before or after? That was the question. We decided to make Italy the first part of our trip because it gets really hot in the summer. That way we would hopefully miss some of the heat by being there in mid June. Well, we didn't exactlynbeat the heat, but still had a wonderful time.

Planning was much more daunting than I had envisioned. I had contemplated using a travel agent or book a tour, but because we needed to be in Chaumont on specific dates, I decided it might be best for me to take care of the planning myself. We had very specific wants on this first trip. I was the most concerned about what we would do in Italy, so that was my primary focus. That shouldn't be too difficult, right? I'm a planner by nature, and this was an ambitious undertaking. I've never planned a trip like this, but I was excited to get started

In Italy, we planned to fly to Rome, spend a few days there, make a day trip to Pompeii, then depart to Florence. We would spend a full day and night in Florence, then on to Milan. From Milan, we wanted to take the train to Paris, hopefully traveling through Switzerland on the way.

For our time in Rome, we had a specific list of sites on our itinerary. We found a top floor apartment with a gorgeous terrace view of St Peter's Basilica. That would allow us to be close to the Vatican. Touring the Vatican was a big priority for us all. I could only imagine what it was going to be like to see the Sistine Chapel in person.

Then we planned to see the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps and one of Bill's wishes, Circus Maximus. He has always been fascinated with gladiators!

Pompeii was an easy day trip from Rome. We were able to book a tour that included a climb up Vesuvius. That turned out to be a great Father's Day jaunt for my adventurous husband!

TIP: Be sure to check websites for any destinations that may require the admission, reservations, or would be best to have an expert guide. You will want to verify dates and times that these locations are open; whether you need to acquire tickets in advance; and whether there are special holidays or closures that may interfere with your plans.

We combined guided tours with touring on our own. That fits our travel style quite well. We like to explore and don't necessarily want to be expected to stay with a group all of the time. We used guided tours for the Vatican, and our Day Trip to Pompeii. I purchased tickets in advance to see The David, and The Last Supper. The Last Supper is a guided tour, with very limited availability. That is one you definitely want to research dates and book in advance.