Imagine Italia!

Vacations are great because you can enjoy them three ways: before, during, and after. The pleasure of planning and anticipation is my favorite: when everything is possible!

I love that you can pin places to a map and save them to Google Maps!  Over the last few weeks, Jenny and I have been drawing lines and pictures and filling up the map of Italy with dots we'd like to see. Special marks for fairytale places. Stars for hotels we've booked. Jenny is kind of bossy, but I'm happy for her to take the lead. She says since it's my birthday trip, I get to win any disagreements automatically. Awesome!

The incredibly inexpensive package we found in November provided a few nights in Venice and Florence hotels before staying with Alexa in Rome. Jenny booked us a few nights in an AirBnB farmhouse in Emiglio-Regianno, the province where every other town is named after a food (or the other way around)— with the plan to lay down our first few pounds after Venice. She got membership to Florence or something so we can go to all the museums. We wanted to stay in a monastery or a castle, too... and she found one that's the best of both worlds in Assisi. After months of dreaming, we finally have an itinerary. And some ideas on what to pack...

When you travel to Italy, everyone but everyone is excited for you and has advice and ideas! We have a list a mile long of all the places to visit! You probably have advice for us, too!