Europe Planning

When Daniel and I first decided to plan a trip to Europe, we were so excited. We went to the bookstore that day and bought the first Europe guidebook we saw. Which was stupid because they are a lot cheaper on Amazon. But anyways, we got started right away reading and taking notes and planning our itinerary. Together, we planned all of Spain, all of France, all of Switzerland. Now all we have left is Italy. And for some reason, I'm stuck.

For the other countries, the procedure was to read the guidebook, mark what sounded interesting, then plot them all on google maps. Then we looked at the layout of everything and decided a logical order for things. We also decided what we wanted to do in the morning, afternoon, evening, and night because some things were time specific (like a dinner cruise on the Seine for example). It was pretty systematic, just the way I like it. Now I have gotten to Italy and I am so overwhelmed, I don't know what to do! There are so many things to see and everything is in Italian (obviously) so it's difficult for me to keep everything straight. Honestly it seems like all there is to see in Italy is churches and museums. That's great, but I want to see other stuff too. And there are so many cities. Florence, Venice, Rome, Milan, Siena, Naples, Sicily. How do we decide? We have to see Rome, and probably Florence too. I really want to see Venice, but my mom (and others) say that it's kinda sketchy at night and you don't necessarily want to spend the night there. Plus it's smelly and expensive. Ugh. My goal for this quarter is to plan Italy so that finally, we can start adding up how much everything's going to cost and plan our train routes. That's what I'm most worried about.

I'm also worried about getting there and running out of money. My sister did have a good point though. We should cut our trip down if we don't have enough money. Three weeks in Europe is still awesome. We don't have to go for four necessarily. I think Switzerland would be the first to go, even though I really really want to see Switzerland. Every picture and movie I've seen makes it look like how I imagine heaven. Bright green grass on hills with big snow-covered mountains in the background. Little towns with rows of cute pastel-covered houses and everybody sitting on their porch eating chocolate! Okay, that may be a little idealistic, but it still looks beautiful.

One week from today, I will be home after going to church in the morning, and getting ready for the wedding shower! I'm smiling just thinking about it :-)