A priest friend of mine and I had to scrap our initial itinerary for an Italy trip we were planning for next summer. With the dollar as weak as it is right now, the trip was just too expensive.
I’m being cautious about it because, when I brought my last group over, some people traveling with me were just overwhelmed by the costs. It made for a stressful trip and took away a lot of the enjoyment I usually get from visiting my second favorite country.
So yesterday, it was back to the drawing board. We’re going to shave off three or four days (sorry Milan, Padua and Venice), and go back to a pretty standard trip I have done many times.
Landing in Pisa, we travel a short distance and stay for a few days in Florence. Personally, Florence is one of my all time favorite cities. Just amazing.
Next, we travel south to Assisi, another wonderful place, but altogether different from the big city life of Florence. We’ll stop by Cortona and Orvieto, then head down to Rome, where we’ll be for the great feast day of St. Peter and Paul.
It’s been three years since I took my last trip. I can’t wait to get back. I’m also excited to go to Italy and try plenty of vegetarian food. Everything tastes better in Italy, and my mouth is watering already.
Dreaming about something like a trip to a foreign country takes my mind off some of the day-to-day grind that I find myself in. It certainly is helping me take my mind off all the crazy political ads, polls, etc., that it seems we can’t get away from right now. I don’t know about you, but I will be glad when this election cycle is over.
