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We (husband, myself and 2 grown kids)are planning a trip to Venice, Florence, Rome with a day trip to Pompeii and Then to Paris and Normandy. Plan is to go the end of June into July for 2 weeks. My husband and I have been 4 times (last trip in 1990). So much has changed. Do I have to make train reservations between cities from home? Do I have to book tickets to attractions in advance? I'm a bit overwhelmed as before we just booked air and hotels and did our day to day thing.

Would like to do an ABNB in Rome so we can do laundry. Any help with that would be apprectiated.

Sorry for all the questions. Looking forward to all your suggestions.

Carolyn

Hi Carolyn... No need to book train tickets way in advance. I would leave everything until around a month out and then see what the covid situation is. You'll get cheap tickets a month out and there'll be more certainty.

Just booked VERBO places in Venice,Florence and Rome. Hope we made good choices. Booked based on reviews and locations. Hope that works out. Never did that before.
Carolyn

Carolyn, we use VRBO and AirBNB a lot and can't think of one terrible experience? We pay close attention to the photos and reviews, we prefer places with a lot of current reviews, but have taken chances with few reviews. We like the properties with a lot of quality pics to get a feel for condition and layout. Example...If a property has 2 bedrooms and the owner only posts pic of one, the coffee pot, the couch and 10 pics of town scenes they lose my attention and I don't consider them. If we can get the actual address we'll google map the street views. A decent cancellation policy is always a plus. We want to travel abroad asap, still waiting for covid to run its course, hopefully this summer travel will be simpler.

Thanks so much. We did the same but always nervous to press BOOK because we have never done this before. Looking forward to sharing this trip with our grown up boys. They are planning the adventure and my husband and I are along for the food as we have been to Italy 4 times before. Our last trip was in 1990. LOL

If I think of more questions (which I'm sure I will) i' will post. Thanks so
much.

Carolyn

Stayed in a great Airbnb in Florence a couple years ago. If you want info I can do some digging

Already booked on VERBO. Thank you though. Now I guess we wait to have someone contact us and to pay and get final info. This is all new to me.
Carolyn

Highly recommend the AirBNB VRBO path, as per above , so much more comfortable and you feel more a part of where you travel. Hope you have been contacted by now, in my experience you hear within 24 hours usually.

We have all our VERBO reservations done. WE now need to find a day tour to Pompeii and Amalfi Coast from Rome for a day.
any suggestions are welcome. There are so many tour companies.

Also, wanting to do a tour of the Colosseum and the underground there.

Thanks so much.

Carolyn

Hi Everyone.
Just booked a tour of the Colosseum with the arena floor and tunnels included. Sounds like a good choice. Now working on a Pompeii one. I'm a site called Untold Italy. Lots of good info there.

Carolyn

Hi everyone.
Another question. When visiting churches with the boys do they have to wear pants because shorts are not allowed? They usually wear longer cargo shorts that end in the middle of their knees. It will be July and hot. I'm good with wearing capris. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Carolyn

I hope this helps.

https://www.romecabs.com/blog/docs/how-to-dress-when-visiting-romeitaly-churches/

I just returned from Italy. The only place I needed to cover my knees was the Vatican.

Thanks. The boys can wear pants that day.


I'm assuming that we have to Covid test coming back to US. Where do you that? Maybe it will change by June.
Carolyn

Scurvy--would appreciate hearing about your trip, when you can.

Hi Carol.
We are not going until the end of June. Getting excited. I will try and do a trip report when we come home.

Carolyn

joe--Scurvy said he just returned, so my post was aimed at him, but I would love to hear about your trip also.