Italy: Planning & Introduction

We planned on spending Amanda's birthday week in San Francisco and Napa Valley this year, but then we discovered a mistake fare and decided to forgo our original travel plans for Italy.  In Italy, we visited Venice, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Milan.

Part 1 - Planning & Introduction
Part 2 - Venice
Part 3 - Rome
Part 4 - Florence
Part 5 - Tuscany
Part 6 - Cinque Terre
Part 7 - Milan

"I came to Italy expecting adventure. 
What I never anticipated is the absolute sweet joy of everyday life - la dolce vita." 

-Frances Mayes

This Blog Series

In the upcoming posts, we will highlight our time and travels in each area, in the hopes of:

1. Being helpful if you are planning a trip to Italy or if it is on your travel bucket list.

2. Showing you that Italy can be done on a budget.

3. Remembering our first adventure to Europe. 

The Fare

It was a quiet Saturday spent back in our hometown, but in the frugal travel world, there was a lot of chatter on Twitter and Flyertalk. We joined in on the excitement and buzz.

The fares were available for many destinations including the following: Dublin, London, Paris, Barcelona, Oslo, Amsterdam, Delhi, Mumbai, Sydney, and Dubai plus many other cities. We decided to book Milan, Italy because it was the cheapest fare, and Italy was on our travel bucket list.

Sure it was a little bit of work to find the fare(s), go to the Wideroe website (so thankful for Google translate), convert Norwegian Krone to US Dollars, use a credit card that didn't charge international fees, and then sit and wait patiently for hours and hours to get ticketed. But to us, frugal travel is worth some of this hassle.

We ended up paying ~$132 round trip per person from Newark (EWR) to Milan, Italy (MXP) and $10 per person (taxes and fees) and ~14,500 points total (using our Southwest Companion Pass for Amanda) to get from Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) to EWR.

Southwest is our favorite domestic airline.

Overall, the MSP-EWR Southwest flights cost us $20 (for taxes and fees). The EWR-MXP flights cost us a total of 1,604.00 NOK or $262.95 in US Dollars. The grand total for flights for two people from MSP to MXP was $282.95. 

Flights from MSP to MXP for two people usually cost $3,816.80!

An added bonus to the cheap fare was that we earned miles on the United flight(s) as well, and the miles alone are worth more in dollars than we actually paid for the flight!

Flying United over the Alps in northern Italy

Research

Once the tickets were confirmed, we had to decide where we wanted to go once we arrived. Most people plan a trip like this a year out, but we had less than three months, and our time there was limited! Yikes. We spent hours doing research, reading reviews, watching travel DVDs, reading Rick Steves and other travel books and listening to some Italian language CDs. Let me just say, we are so thankful for the local library.

Some resources we used: Rick Steves, some of our favorite travel blogs (Million Mile Secrets, The Points Guy), Trip Advisor, and recommendations from family and friends who had been there before.

After locations were selected, it was time to book hotels (some on points), figure out what to do in each area, and last but certainly not least, where we wanted to eat. All while doing so on a budget.  To give you an idea, the entire trip cost us just a little more than what a single roundtrip airplane ticket would normally cost. Yes, that includes everything: flights, trains, car rental, hotels, food, and sights.

We always carry-on luggage. Saves time (and money in some cases), especially when flying two different airlines.

How We Got Around

Walking. We purchased Streetwise maps (pictured above) off of Amazon to get around each city. Not only are they laminated (for when it rains), but every single street is labeled on the map along with the public transportation systems and sights. We used small post it notes to mark the locations of restaurants and gelaterias to try as well. That way we weren't constantly looking up addresses and trying to find where we were going. It was all mapped ahead of time. The hotels do hand out maps, but they are paper and can be confusing since all of the streets are not labeled.

Public transportation. It is easy to use and very cost effective. We used trains to get from city to city within Italy, buses in Venice, Rome, and Florence, and the metro (subway) in Rome and Milan. Also, we rented a car for two days and drove to Tuscany and the Ligurian Coast.

Walking the platform at Milano Centrale Station

What We Would Do Different

Remember to bring the camera battery charger and extra battery along. I was very conservative taking pictures the first couple of days because I forgot those items at home. We ended up buying a universal battery charger there, but it was pricey at 39 euro (~$53.57 dollars).

A Dream Come True

Italy has always been on our bucket list and to be able to travel there without breaking the bank was a wonderful surprise and blessing. We're already dreaming about our next trip there to visit Varenna on Lake Como in route to Switzerland and Slovenia.

Travel map in the guest room.

We hope you enjoy reading the upcoming posts. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact us, we'd love to hear from you!