We were thrilled to be traveling internationally again for our eighth leg of full-time traveling. In some ways, it was a return to our old normal, bringing up fond memories of our first month-long stay in Budapest back in 2018 and other great times in Europe. But of course, the COVID pandemic made things very…
Author: Jaime
FAQ – Were We Able to Stay on Budget in Italy?
Because we spent quite an extended time in Missouri between Leg 7 (our south/southwest leg featuring New Orleans, Palm Springs, and Sedona) and departing for Italy in late August (4 full months!) I was able to give us a pretty significant weekly budget for this leg. We also used the flight credit we received when…
Roman Times
When planning this leg, a must-do for Chad was to spend a month in Rome. We thought it would be rather pricey and budgeted accordingly, but we lucked into a really affordable Airbnb apartment for about half of what we budgeted. That allowed us to up our food and entertainment budget for the whole trip,…
The Wonders of Naples
In the days leading up to our arrival in Naples, what I most hoped for was for warmer weather and sunshine. We loved Matera, but it was chilly and rainy most days. It was a low bar for success that Naples vaulted over. We arrived in Naples and returned the rental car at the airport…
Magical Matera
Matera is a place that not many casual tourists to Italy visit. It isn’t on the train line and even a bus takes a while to get there from any major city. But when I was researching this leg, Matera shot to the top of my list of places I wanted to stop with its…
Out of the Rain in Sorrento and Pompeii
I’m skipping over writing about our 6-day trip to the UK. To be honest, I still don’t know what to say about it. It became slightly marred by the UK’s unclear COVID laws, but we definitely had some good times there and a couple of great follow-up interviews with two of the subjects of the…
Our Time in Padova
Padova (the Italian spelling of Padua) was the perfect first long stay for our return to international travel. In addition to our wonderful day trips to Modena, Bologna, Venice, and Ferrara, we saw and did tons of awesome stuff in this university town. Here are our experiences with the sites of Padova: University of Padova/Palazzo…
Ferrara Day Trip with a Hike
One thing that’s been missing from our time in Europe so far is time in nature. Even our day trips to smaller cities like Modena still feel very urban. I found myself longing to be amongst a bunch of trees! So I did a little research and discovered that the town just to our south…
Overnight in Venice
After our trip to Verona, Chad and I separately but nearly simultaneously reached the conclusion that for our Venice trip we did not want the curfew of having to catch the last train back. So, we used some credit card points to book a hotel. We decided to prioritize location so it would be convenient…
Fair Verona Day Trip
When we were choosing a home base for this part of our time in Italy, it ultimately came down to Verona or Padua. And we knew whichever we didn’t choose as a home would definitely warrant a day trip. We first envisioned combining it with a trip to another old, beautiful town called Mantua, but…