Planning the Perfect Family Holiday

Earlier in the year Matt and I were talking about vacations and holidays:

1. The only place we go on vacation is the States to see my friends and family (this isn't all bad because we go to Kauai often enough).

2. Matt never gets to choose (okay he was kind of whining about this, but since it was basically true I let it slide).

3. We have not taken a family holiday to a foreign destination in years (I don't count Tenerife as a foreign holiday destination because it is just one giant English pub along an expanse of sand).

Matt decided that he would like to take the family on holiday and that HE would CHOOSE the destination.  My inner control freak was a little bit a lot uncomfortable with allowing him this heady freedom, but the rest of me agreed that it was only fair.  After thinking long and hard (about 2.48 minutes) he informed me that we would go to Italy.

And so we began to plan and in planning got really, really excited.  Think of how great it will be:

1. Sitting at a sidewalk cafe sipping espresso in Rome.

2. Enjoying a langorous 6 course dinner in Tuscany.

3. Marvelling at the ruins of Pompeii.

4. Drinking in all of the sights we could cram into 8 days.

5.Having Maddie to ourselves the whole week and Maddie having us at the same time.

We decided to go in June because if we were to wait until Summer Holidays, the prices just about triple.  The week of the 8th was chosen, tickets were booked and diet was started in anticipation of eating my was down the West Coast of Italy.  Matt convinced me that renting a car would be the best way to go - screw public transportation - let's have the freedom to go where we want, when we want.

me:  "are you sure you will be comfortable driving over there?"

matt: "why not - it shouldn't be much different that driving in Germany or the States"

me: "okay, if you are sure......they have really good trains...."

matt: "stop it"

Car was booked (with trepidation), dog was book (to the kennel a.k.a 'the dog hotel'), hotel in London was booked so that we didn't have to drive to Heathrow the day of our flight.  Next thing to do:  

1. Figure out exactly where we wanted to go.

2. Book some places to stay.

Matt decided that he didn't want to:

1. Know EXACTLY where we would go - he wanted to have a loose game plan and see where the trip took us.

2. Book places to stay as we wouldn't really know where we were staying until we got there.

I convinced him to a least book a hotel in Rome for our first night so that we weren't stuck driving in a strange city during rush hour looking for a hotel.  I made this happen by booking the hotel as 'my treat'.  I found a great place right next to the Vatican and mere walking distance away from more sights than we could possibly take in.  We then decided that it would be prudent to book a room near the airport on our final night as our flight was early-ish and we didn't know how long it would take to get there from the city.

As for the rest of the trip we made our game plan which consisted of spending a night and following day in Rome, driving North through Tuscany and stopping in Florence and Pisa, then cruising back down South to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, finally returning to Rome for a final evening.

Done and done - let the holiday begin.  We were so ready for a break and as the weeks got closer our excitement grew.  I love traveling - don't you?