Counting down-Italy 2022

 Today marks 30 days till we fly out to Rome, our first significant trip since 2019. Our path will take us on a similar route to our last trip when we toured Sicily, the main difference being that we will not be joining a tour group but will be exploring on our own. That opens up a whole other world of opportunities or, to put it another way, to screw up!

The plan will keep us busy for about 30 days if all goes as scheduled.

 I said at the end of my last trip that I would do things a little more spontaneously, leaving more things to chance. Yet here I am, 3 years later, with most of the T's crossed and the I's dotted as usual.

Starting with 3 days in Rome, the balance of the trip is evenly divided into 2 fourteen day segments, one in Tuscany followed by a second 2 weeks in Sicily.

I had hoped to squeeze in a few stops in SE Italy ( the heel area of the boot) but decided that adding 6 extra stops was pushing things, so that will wait for another trip, 

This being our third trip to Rome there are not a whole lot of major sites that that we haven’t seen already. The exceptions being the Borgia Gallery and the underground areas of the Colosseum, which were not accessible on our last trip.

 The Borgia Gallery tour is booked but the visit to the Colosseum through the "Official" site can only be booked within 30 days of the planned visit, so 2 days from now. We could have booked through Viator or similar but that, like many of the other "tours" they offer, more than doubled the price.Being, as Susanna terms it, "Seniors on a fixed income" we are doing this more or less, on a shoestring budget. 

Remembering the articles promoting Europe on $50 a day, I have to wonder if such times ever actually existed.

  Looking at Tour Radar and similar sites, the average guided tour, these days, clocks in at upwards of $250 per person per day, not including flights. However, my main reason for not doing an organized tour was less about the $$ and more about the flexibility.

 Breakfast at 6:30, luggage ouside the room by 7 and on the bus by 8 was all well and good 20 years ago. But as an old fart entering my seventh decade on the planet, I'd rather take my sweet ass time getting going in the morning. Also, most tours rarely give one a chance to explore the local area before one is off to visit the next church, museum, art gallery, ancient ruin etc. As an example, we stayed 3 nights in the city of Catania and other than a view out of the bus window as we sped out of town, we saw absoultely nothing of the city itself.

  With a few exceptions, most of our stops on this trip involve 2 and more often 3 night stopovers depending on the size of the town visited. The one exception will be a single night in San Gimignano, which most guide books suggest touring in a 2-3 hour visit. We have allowed a full 6 nights for Palermo as we will use it as a base from which to explore other towns on day trips.

  With plans to spend time exploring the hill towns and wine districts in Tuscany, it made more sense to rent a car for a week rather than rely on a rather sketchy public transport system. Obviously, driving and wine sampling do not make for a good combination, but I've selected our accomodations with that in mind, making sure that places have their own wine cellars or are located in close proximity to one.

 On our previous trip to Tuscany we spent almost a week in Florence as well as 3 days each in Pisa and Siena, so we will be skipping the first 2 and only spending 2 nights in Siena, more or less to rest up before hitting the road for Montepulciano and area as well as Volterra, Pienza, San Gimignano and a final stop in Lucca for 2 nights.

  From there a train to Pisa followed by a RyanAir flight to Catania will set us up for our Sicily leg of the trip.

 After an overnight stay in Catania we will spend 2 nights in the seaside town of Taormina before returning to Catania for 3 nights of careful exploration. While it is a bit too close to Mt Etna for my liking it is a town with plenty of amenities and is located within a relatively short distance of the Italian mainland and numerous other towns on the East Coast of Sicily. So it might be worthy of consideration as a winter getaway from the dreaded Canadian Winters. With furnished apartments from 400 Euro a montb it is certainly worthy of consideration.

  From Catania, we will head south to Syracuse for a 3 day stay, during which we may do nothing but chill OR if we are feeling energetic, use it as a base to revisit Noto and Ragusa or venture to the south coast area to the town of Scicli, supposedly the best preserved older towns in the area.

 Our last leg of the trip will take us, by train, to Palermo- the not quite classy and somewhat gritty capital of the Island. We've already walked off several miles of shoe leather exploring the city but one can never tire of exploring the markets and the side streets. 

 I've already booked some out of town tours so I'm sure we wont get bored. I just hope we can catch an Opera at the magnificent Opera House in the city centre, Who knows, we may even feel touristy enough to join a "Godfather tour" to the town of Corleone, as featured in the movie! I hope not!

 This being our 5th trip to Italy, I'm convinced it will be far from our last visit. From the amazing food options to the stunning street scenes, historic sites and ancient ruins it is a country that never gets boring. 

My favourite countries for such things were once Turkey and Hungary, but thanks to the oppressive political situations in both countries, I can no longer visit them with a clear conscience. But that is a whole other story.

 In the days ahead, I'll be posting my travel updates.

 Reading of delays and cancellations and especially that Toronto Pearson was nominated for the worst airport on the planet, I'm praying we do make it to Rome as planned.