I knew this would be a particularly challenging “What We Learned” post to write, because so much time has passed since the leg (which took place from August to November 2025, and I’m writing this in August 2026) and because we’ve become pretty adept at the general mechanics of our travel life and know what we like. But we still came away with a few lessons from Leg 17:

Italy Definitely Isn’t Overrated

This is a lesson we learned in the fall of 2021 when we spent three months in Italy after receiving our COVID vaccines and seeing the world open up more and more. It feels like such a cliché to call Italy one of your favorite countries, but it is undeniably wonderful. La dolce vita indeed! 

This time we spent just six weeks in Italy and may have traveled fewer places, but it was still magical, especially our home base in Perugia. Between the incredible food, remarkable history, and decadent culture, life in Italy is truly fantastic. We can’t wait to return, although there is so much of Europe on our current list.

Our Capacity For Day Trips Is Really Only One A Week

There were so many potential day trips we could have made from Perugia and we had great intentions of trying to do two a week or at least one every five days. But with our busy work schedules and appreciation for our normal life, it was a struggle. We managed three incredible day trips during our four weeks in Perugia, plus a return trip to Assisi for truffle hunting, but it was too hard to schedule any more than that. 

This lesson is well-timed because we’re currently planning four weeks in Paris in 2027 and have already identified at least six day trips we want to do. We’ll need to figure out how to scale them back, combine them, save a couple for the future, or make them a separate trip before or after our time in Paris. 

Mistakes Are More Likely On Travel Days

We’ve learned many, many times that travel days are hard. We’ve also done a good job identifying ways to mitigate the difficulty with airport lounge access, paying more for easier connections, and researching as much as possible. Unfortunately, arriving in Sofia after a particularly challenging connection in Frankfurt following an overnight flight led to a very rookie travel mistake of paying double for our taxi to the hotel. 

Luckily, that was our only flight until we left Europe and we didn’t have another issue. However, I repeated this mistake on our initial arrival day for Leg 18, so it is one I need to keep learning. For Leg 19’s arrival in Brazil, I took the added step of prebooking our transfer from the airport to our hotel in Recife rather than navigating the taxi stand or Uber. The prebooked ride (through Booking.com) worked out great and I think we had one of our easiest arrivals.  

Travel days are hard, and it is easier to make mistakes on them, so we should be extra-vigilant and patient on those days, especially the first day of a new leg. And, if there are ways to make them easier, like paying more for a private transfer, it is generally worth it.

A Good Kitchen Really Helps

We prioritized a nice kitchen in all three of our long-stay Airbnb choices this time and it really paid off. In Bansko, we had the luxuries of a dishwasher and a Nespresso machine, which got us hooked on making espresso drinks at home (decaf for me). In Tirana, we didn’t love the city, but thought our apartment was wonderful, including the spacious kitchen. And in Perugia, we had practically a gourmet kitchen, including a Nespresso machine again, and a big gas range and lots of counter space. Cooking was certainly a pleasure there, and the kitchen and the wonderful view kept us enjoying the apartment there even when dealing with a 9-day wifi outage. 

Even when traveling, we still value our meals at home. And cooking is much more enjoyable when you have the right space and equipment. 

Prioritize Proximity To Running Spots And Supermarkets

Though the kitchens were great, we were a long walk to the supermarket in all of our long-stay Airbnbs this leg, which made grocery shopping more time consuming and difficult (especially the walks home!). Also, our apartment in Tirana was not near any good running spots, which made our month there particularly difficult for Chad since running helps not only his physical health but mental health too. We really need to make sure there’s a grocery store within a 10-minute walk for most long stays and that Chad is going to have some good running options. Often that is hard to predict (we thought the lineal park along the river by our place would be good for running in Tirana but it wasn’t). Since running, park walks, and supermarkets are essential to our quality of life, we really need to do the extra research to make sure we won’t be too far from any of them.

Summary

None of these lessons were particularly revelatory but they are good reminders for us. And looking back across the lessons, I’m reminded that Leg 17 really was a fantastic trip. We adored Bansko (hiking + jazz = perfect) and tolerated Tirana and fell back in love with Italy. But above all we were engaged, stimulated, and continued to learn new things. Highlights from this leg’s learning including a much better understanding of the perils of communism, especially in Soviet-era Yugoslavia, and greater appreciation of medieval Catholicism, especially the life of Saint Francis. We can’t wait to return to Europe in 2027.