When my daughter graduated from college a couple of months ago, I told her I would take her on a trip of her choice. She asked me about the fine print and limits, exclusions, etc. I told her it would depend on if I wanted to go to the same place she wanted to go. She gave me a hint - volcano. Specifically she wanted to go to Pompeii, yes, the one in Italy. And since it was something I wanted to do as well, I could not veto the suggestion!
I decided that it would be better to plan our own itinerary instead of choosing a package tour - in order to give ourselves as much time as we wanted to see Pompeii. I also decided to stay in one place and really get to know it instead of trying to do a whirlwind tour through Europe, or Italy even, and spend more time travelling than actually seeing the sights. This plan worked out very well for us.
I was very busy at work, and in the evenings, I planned the trip. It did not seem real that I was actually planning a trip to Italy. We don't vacation much - mostly day trips here and there, so this is a very big deal for us.
It was hard to time the trip well - I didn't want to go when it was too hot, but needed to wait for her to graduate, and my peak work time to be finished, try to be back before our Japanese guest arrived, and choose economical travel times, etc.
So we went. To Italy! Just me and my daughter. As you can see, it is a gorgeous place. We took lots of pictures and had a great time. I'll share some more pictures in a future post.
