Italy

Usually, travelogues start and end with the travel. But the trip to Italy was unique in so many ways that it has to be extended beyond that.

Inception - three months before the day of travel.

Why Italy?

First, it had been on my to-see list for a long time, since our days in London in 1995-96, but somehow my husband was vehemently against it.

Second, as most of you know, my husband has been travelling frequently to London over the past 5 years. He had accumulated miles as a British Airways frequent flier member and suddenly realised that a majority of those points would be expiring by the end of 2019.

Third, he and his friend were turning 50 this year (they were born one day apart) and they wanted to celebrate it in a special way.

Last but not least, the four of us hadn't been on a vacation together in a long time.

So, many birds in one shot - international vacation.

Now that the why has been established, the next question - where? Europe was the choice based on travel time from India. While we covered quite a bit of Europe in our earlier travels, there were still some places to cover like Germany, Austria, Hungary, Greece and my long-time request Italy. Somehow, Italy it was.

The next step was fixing the itinerary. Visa application requires travel documents including local travel, accommodation bookings etc. etc., so we set about planning the itinerary. Due to paucity of time, I was in a new job, had already taken quite a few holidays, I felt guilty taking more than a week, we stuck to the standard tourist route - Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome. But it seemed too hectic and I was compelled to seek a ten-day leave and Naples was added to the list.

Applying and obtaining Visa was in itself a great adventure. Those who travelled to Italy would vouch for it. There are two ways to apply for Visa - directly at the embassy or through VFS services. Each channel has its own set of documents to be submitted. Since we were in Hyderabad, we had to go through VFS. We made the mistake of following the Embassy checklist. We were sent home and asked to come again with the proper set of documents. We did that and were still harassed for improper documentation. Like the bank statement, it said last three months, which we got but then apparently it should be up to 2-3 days prior to the submission date!!!! Anyway, the waiting game started. We applied two months ahead of the travel and didn't hear from the Embassy for three weeks. We tried calling but all our calls got diverted to VFS and they didn't have any information, as their job was limited to collection and delivery of the paperwork. It was really frustrating. My friend started coming up with alternate plans since none of us wanted to cancel our vacation plans. Finally three weeks after applying, five days before the travel date we got our Visas. Apparently, we were the lucky ones, there were people who got their Visas on the day of travel!!!!!

Execution - things that could have been disastrous.

First, we neglected the fact that it was winter. Not exactly forgot since we did pack warm clothing but did not factor in the duration of the daylight. By 4-4:30pm, it would be too dark to carry on any site seeing. We had planned meticulously and accommodated two days for leisure and relaxation. We had booked Airbnb with stunning views, gazebo, solarium and more to utilize those leisure days to the maximum. Due to the short days and my insistence to cover everything on the list, the two rest days were consumed and we ended up tired.

Second, rains. We did not anticipate rains and due to that, we were stuck with wet clothes, smelly rooms and lugging umbrellas around. Luckily, except Rome, other places the rain would subside whenever we were on the road. The Venice floods started the day after our visit. We were in Airbnb at Rome and in that locality, the centralized heating was not to be switched on till mid-November (global warming, I guess). So not only dampness but we had to deal with the cold during the nights.

Third, tickets to museums and cathedrals. Though most of the websites warned us about long queues and to pre-book the tickets, we overlooked that advice. The reasons being multi-fold. Major being the time of our visit. We thought it would be a lean period and there wouldn't be much crowd, wrong, I guess there were many others who thought like us. There is an option at most places for guided tours and skip the line tickets, which were more expensive. So we ended up prioritising the places and going in only for the major ones like the Vatican, Colosseum, and Pisa.

Third, the food turned out to be a major issue. I know Italy is famous for its food!!!! While I enjoyed Italian cuisine, my husband and friends were tired of the "bland food", they were craving for spices. We did visit a few Indian restaurants but they were not satisfied and ended up cooking one day!!!!! I had issues with their hot beverages, they were not hot enough. It was raining and cold and the tea, coffee, hot chocolate were lukewarm at best.

Fourth, we relied heavily on local transport throughout the trip. This worked out quite well and even though lugging the luggage didn't seem too strenuous, I would still recommend taking cabs when you have luggage. Another convenient thing was that the metro tickets were valid on the buses too, which was very convenient once we realised it. Google Maps was a boon, it made our lives so easy. The only time we had a problem was the train from Florence to Rome, it got delayed by about two hours. Without any prior intimation, we had to spend almost half a day at the station.

Conclusion - home sweet home.

By the time we were ready to pack our bags, the feelings were mixed. While the food and all the walking made homecoming a pleasure, the hectic schedule and lack of relaxation made it equally hard. Luckily we had planned the return on Saturday and we had two days to get over the jetlag before the gruelling daily schedules. I tried beating the jetlag by not sleeping during the daytime both on Saturday and Sunday and was feeling quite fresh by Monday morning. But then it is not easy to fool jetlag, it hit me on Tuesday and I had to take the day off and sleep throughout!!!!!!

Let us now dive into the adventure Italy was......click here