Italy is a destination that is on so many of my friends, clients, and even my own travel wishlist. We think about eating delicious pasta surrounded by the beautiful architecture. and rich history of towns like Rome, Florence, Venice, and more. Today we're going to chat about why Italy should be on your wish list and the best way to travel there.
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Italy is a destination that is on so many of my friends, clients, and even my own travel wishlist. We think about eating delicious pasta surrounded by the beautiful architecture. and rich history of towns like Rome, Florence, Venice, and more. Today we're going to chat about why Italy should be on your wish list and the best way to travel there.
~~~~~~~
Grab Ryan's free download for planning the ultimate family all-inclusive vacation: https://bit.ly/allinclusivevacationtoptips
Grab Julie's free download for a baby and toddler vacation packing list:
https://bit.ly/babytoddlerpackinglist
Ready to plan your vacation? Most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip perfect for your family. Saving you time, money, and stress!
Join the travel conversations and the fun in the All Things Travel Show Facebook group!
Hello and welcome to all things travel. Italy is a destination that is on so many of my friends, clients, and even my own travel wishlist. We think about eating delicious pasta surrounded by the beautiful architecture. and rich history of towns like Rome, Florence, Venice, and more. Today we're going to chat about why Italy should be on your wish list and the best way to travel there.
Ryan:So, Julie, I've been to Italy several times. Um, The first time I went to Italy, it was with one of my class trips, and we were, in Greece for most of the trip, and we were in Italy for less than 48 hours. So, it was kind of like, here, here's Rome, now go home. So, I knew I wanted to go back. And, last summer, well two summers ago now and I've talked about it on this podcast, I did Adventures by Disney with my family, we worked with Ciao Italy too, I know we're going to talk about Ciao Italy a little later. It was my kid's first trip to Europe, it was an amazing trip, and Italy is the best place to get your feet wet when it comes to Europe.
Julie:Why do you say that, Ryan?
Ryan:I just think because, I know for my kids, one of the things that they really liked was, most everything we saw, they had a familiarity with.
Julie:Okay.
Ryan:like, you know, here's the Coliseum, here's the Pantheon, here's Venice, and Caleb, it's funny because Miriam would look at the art, And the architecture, and Caleb would think about Marvel movies, or Jason Bourne movies, or things like that, and he's like, That happened there, and that happened there! But that was cool! They each kind of had their connection with the, with the places that we went.
Julie:So we thought it would be really fun. To do a little bit of a mini series on places that we think should be on your travel wish list. These are going to be about five destinations we're going to talk about over the next couple episodes and these are things that either we get asked about a lot, we hear people talking about a lot, or maybe they're even on our own travel wish list like I mentioned earlier. Some people think of it as a bucket list but we're going to call it our travel wish list.
Ryan:And I'm excited. Cause at the end, we're going to do an episode on places that should be on your travel wishlist, but maybe you haven't thought about that's going to be a fun one.
Julie:That is going to be really fun. We hope that if these places are on your travel wish list, maybe you learn a little bit more about how you can make that trip happen. And, and maybe it's not as far off as you might think.
Ryan:want to plan an amazing trip to Italy, but you don't know how to get started. As your travel advisor, we work with you to create a customized itinerary for your European vacation and take the stress out of planning away so you can focus on the fun and creating the memories. Andiamo! You can reach me at ryan at creatingmagicvacations. com
Julie:You can reach me at Julie at CreatingMagicVacations. com. So let's chat a little about why Italy is a wishlist destination. I know so many people who they want to go to Italy. You know, I want to go to Italy. Whenever you hear somebody thinking about going to Europe, I feel like Italy is always on their list. I think of it as a must visit destination personally because of my family history. For everyone else, they talk about the food, the pasta, and the pizza, and the sauce, and the bread the wine,
Ryan:Julie, I have a quick story that involves you and me and Italy and pizza.
Julie:Oh, what is
Ryan:So, when I went to Italy several
Julie:Huh.
Ryan:I needed help because I had a big Disney trip that the people were doing their advanced dining reservations. And remember when I asked you to help me?
Julie:Yes.
Ryan:you got up at 6 a. m And you worked really hard and you got them all the dining reservations they wanted and I was so happy Well in italy it was noon And at the time that you were doing the advanced dining reservations early in the morning. I was sitting having a pizza tasting At the restaurant and they had us trying six different kinds of pizza with beer And everything and I thought I can never tell julie that this is what i'm doing while she's working hard To make sure that my clients are happy
Julie:So rude. Wow. Yeah. I did not know that
Ryan:They
Julie:Oh man, that's great. That's great. Well, you know, I hope your clients really enjoyed their trip.
Ryan:And I really enjoyed the pizza
Julie:Beyond food, Italy is a really popular destination because of its romantic ambiance. A lot of honeymoon couples want to go there. Actually, a friend's there right now on a honeymoon. And then the history. There's a lot that's enticing about Italy. You mentioned earlier, the Colosseum the Vatican, you know, things like that, that are
Ryan:Oh, yeah.
Julie:to go. Ryan, are any of those things, reasons that brought you to Italy what was enticing you to kind of go back?
Ryan:We had such a short time that first trip and we knew that that was gonna happen It was just the way that the itinerary ran So I definitely knew I wanted to go back and I had only been to Rome so to see other places because we were in Rome we were in Florence and We stayed in Tuscany and we also went to Venice And I will tell you Tuscany was amazing. Venice took my breath away. Like, those locations were just stunning. I mean just absolutely stunning. Fourth of July, I'm sitting in Tuscany on a farm with the woman that gave us a farm tour and they cooked us a pasta and she taught us how to make pasta. They cooked us pasta not ours that we made, real pasta. And we had their wines that were made up. Yeah
Julie:didn't trust
Ryan:They didn't trust us. No, So we had fresh pasta We had salads And there was wine from the farm and there was olive oil from the farm and we're overlooking the tuscan Countryside and i'm like I could spend every fourth of july in tuscany
Julie:remember the picture that you sent us with that view, and it was just beautiful,
Ryan:and and and venice is otherworldly. I mean, it's just It's such a different place than any place i've ever been it just I mean rome is cool because rome has the history and rome kind of has the The pomp if you will the pomp and circumstance, you know, because it's a big city an important city But those other places oh my gosh, they just were amazing.
Julie:Right, and, and having all those different cities within the same country
Ryan:talking
Julie:between, that's what makes Italy such a popular destination, right?
Ryan:I When we were in Venice, we took the train back to Rome, and it was a four hour train ride, and we went through Florence. You can really start at one end or the other and be relatively close without any trouble, getting to and from.
Julie:Right, especially with that train connecting, you're not having to board a flight to go anywhere like, you know, if you think about being in the U. S. and traveling to different destinations, you've got to board a flight to go there. You really can't do it much easier than you can over in Europe. That's just one thing that makes it so unique and so cool. And also it, this is something I've been looking at recently is planning my trip to Italy for a few years from now, and I'm like, how do I find the best itinerary to, to hit all these heavy hitters, Rome, to see the coliseum and the tre fountain, the Vatican, and, everything that's in Florence. There's a wine, there's pe, the, you know, Michelangelo's David, the Amalfi Coast. There's just so much to see there. So what kind of things should we think about when we're starting to plan our trip there, Ryan?
Ryan:There's definitely travel considerations. First and foremost, and you'll hear this for every international destination, but it's always good to remind folks, your passport needs to be valid for six months after you return from your trip. And that is important, especially in Europe. There are some places where they're a little more lax about that, but I've had people turned away that were going to Greece, and the young lady had to, stay in Chicago for several days to get her passport rectified. No, it wasn't my class. No, it wasn't my fault. It was the other person's but i'm not going to say that
Julie:And Ryan, tell people why they want six months left on your passport. Tell people the
Ryan:in case there's an emergency in case there's some some reason why you would have to stay on the continent is six months an overkill absolutely it is but that's just the that's just the general rule So that's
Julie:And emergency, you know, like a medical
Ryan:Yeah, right, right,
Julie:like that, where you're stuck in a hospital, you have to heal, who knows what happens. They don't want you to then be stuck in the country with an expired passport. A lot of people don't quite understand why I need that time left on my
Ryan:Sure The other thing to consider is for most people come from the u. s. It's going to be an overnight flight going there if you're doing non stop, you may have options. Especially if you're going from Either an eastern city or if you're going from a hub in the midwest like a chicago or something like that and obviously like everything else the earlier you book the better chance you have of getting that non stop flight yeah Most likely you're gonna be stopping in either Amsterdam or Germany if you do have a stop which you know That's fun, too. You get a kind of a different European culture
Julie:yes.
Ryan:Keep in mind if you're doing something like a Mediterranean cruise, you want to have some time not only to make sure you're in place but that you are as acclimated as you can. So I would recommend coming in, probably even two days earlier for a European cruise. And so take into account that nighttime flight because that will kind of change stuff.
Julie:Right. You don't want to be doing an overnight flight and then embarking on your cruise the morning that you arrive. You want to be arriving the previous morning at
Ryan:yeah, and and you will be getting in, depending on your layover, once you get over to Europe, you could be getting in relatively early, or to be honest, you could be taking an entire other day, I mean, it really, I've done it both ways you really have to look at that flight over and see how that's going to impact when you get there. And then, Europe is making some decisions about visas and entry taxes and things like that, so obviously make sure that you're up to date with that or the person that's planning your trip is up to date with what you need to do.
Julie:When the time happens, they said 2024. Now they're saying
Ryan:It's kind of like the enhanced driver's license in the U. S., right?
Julie:Right. That's right. It's a good comparison.
Ryan:So Julie, before we talk about some specific trips that you have put together I want to talk about where in the world does all things travel? So a place that we have not talked about yet on this show that keeps popping up relatively high, so I wanted to make sure we talked about it, is Gilbert, Arizona. Do you know Gilbert, Arizona?
Julie:I don't. Tell me about it.
Ryan:Do you know what they are known for? were once the hay shipping capital of the world. See, you learn stuff on All Things Travel. But hey, you want to know where I want to meet our listener, Julie? And this is right up your alley. I'm completely serious. So I'm looking at some pictures here in downtown Gilbert, Arizona. There is a restaurant called Topo, T O P O. It's a small little white building. I'll put up a picture of this when I put up the posting this week. And it looks like it has a... Beaver on top wearing a cowboy hat
Julie:Oh
Ryan:and at Topo this is what you can get it So it's kind of like a walk up stand. They have different burritos They have street corn or elote and they have soft serve ice cream, which includes Prickly pear ice cream. Does that not sound like it would be a great place for lunch?
Julie:It does sound like it would be a great place
Ryan:Like I
Julie:I would What? I can't imagine what prickly pear ice cream would
Ryan:Oh, I bet it'd be good. Have you not had prickly pear stuff like prickly pear? I I had prickly pear. Oh hard cider the other day. I was at
Julie:Oh, is it
Ryan:at a
Julie:is it like a spicy pear?
Ryan:No, no. No, it's just kind of a citrusy kind of appley flavor I want to meet our listener at topo and I want to have some prickly pear soft serve ice cream We are so excited that gilbert. Arizona is listening to all things travel
Julie:Awesome.
Ryan:All right, Julie, so you have worked up several options of trips here. Tell us about one of them.
Julie:Yes, so this is the fun part. This is where we get to tell you what your trip to Italy could look like and how we can make it happen. So we're going to talk about two different options because there are a lot of different ways to see Italy and depending on what type of trip you're imagining. That will kind of help us figure out which way to go with with this for you. So the first option is going to be just a completely land based trip and by that I mean, you know You're you're not taking a cruise. You're you're flying into Rome You're going around seeing cities and then probably flying back home out of Rome. You could do it guided Or you could do it self guided, you could do a private group, a lot of different options. Something like this would be best for families that have kids, I would say like middle school age and above, you know, where they're,
Ryan:I wouldn't go, I wouldn't go younger than that.
Julie:They're going to be able to keep up and follow along. It could be okay for a school trip. I know a lot of high schools offer something like that as the kids, you know, get older in school and depending on what subjects are studying older adults you know, that are doing, you know, all the destinations they've ever dreamed of. This is a great option for them or honeymoon couples. I mentioned earlier, I have some friends there on a honeymoon right now. So a company that we really love to work with for a tour like this, it's called Ciao Italy. The thing I really love about Ciao Italy, Ryan, is when we hear from them at our agency's conference, we are hearing straight from the owner.
Ryan:Guido. Yep.
Julie:You are really working with people who know the destinations really well. Let's talk about the Ciao Italia tour. So this is a nine day tour. It starts at 3, 500 per person, which I thought was a great
Ryan:absolutely. And this is kind of the greatest hits tour, if you want to think about it
Julie:It is the greatest. And that's why I wanted to feature it that that price is going to include your hotels. It includes most of your transfers. It includes skip the line tickets for the tours and your professional guides throughout.
Ryan:So you've got somebody really managing your entire trip throughout these nine days. That's great
Julie:It is awesome. And I'm going to just tell you a little about what cities you're going to go to and maybe a couple of the things that you can see there. So when you arrive, this tour is going to start in Rome. You're going to get a private transfer to your hotel. The next day you're going to be going to the Vatican. And again, you have a skip the line ticket to the Vatican, which is huge because there's a lot of crowds there.
Ryan:it's insane.
Julie:yOu have a tour there and then you kind of have that afternoon to yourself.
Ryan:Mm hmm,
Julie:You get another day in Rome, you can explore on your own, or you can do a tour with Ciao Italy, built into your itinerary.
Ryan:On our full day before our ABD we actually did a food tour with Ciao Italy, and I thought it was going to be a group, and it was just the four of us and the tour guide, and it was
Julie:Oh, that's amazing.
Ryan:was so much fun, it was a great way to learn about the city, even the, day tours or the half day tours are awesome.
Julie:Yes, they do have that option. This tour that I'm talking about, the Chow Italia tour is your full nine day tour. But you can just do like one day at a
Ryan:Correct, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julie:Mm-Hmm? So after you're done in Rome, you're gonna go over to Florence again. The transfers are included. So a car is gonna take you to the train station. You're gonna have a first class trip experience over to Florence. You're gonna go to the hotel and every time you go somewhere, they're not just gonna like drop you and be like, good luck. Now they're going to give you recommendations of where to go for dinner, where to go see the sites, how to get places. They're really going to be there for you as a good resource and a good support system. On day five, you're going to visit the David. You can admire the streets of the Renaissance and all sorts of great things in the afternoon. You have another day in Florence where you can spend the day at your leisure. Again, they'll give you ideas of where to go. Local markets, things like that. Then you travel onto Venice. And as Ryan said, that was one of the best cities he went to, right, on your
Ryan:Oh, absolutely. I absolutely loved it. I'd go back tomorrow.
Julie:So there's just so much to see in Venice, right? You have the canals there, you have St. Mark's, you have all these
Ryan:Yeah, the Doge's Palace, all of these cities are good for wandering, but Venice is a great city to wander and kind of, you know, Shane and I used to talk about this on this podcast. Safely get lost.
Julie:yes,
Ryan:kind of wander the streets and kind of stroll around and, cross a bridge here and wander down this street and, just kind of take it all in,
Julie:That's what I like about tours like this is it's not, we have to go here and here and here it's, Hey, we're going to do this tour in the morning and then you've got the afternoon to yourself, but we are still going to be a support system for you. So you're not just lost in the city. After you visit those three cities, you're going to depart home and if I were pricing this for a family of five, which my family is right now, it would be a little over 17, 000, which really is not. Bad for a nine day trip at all these cities, the tours included all that great stuff. So I think that sounds really fun. we are going to include a link to this specific tour in the show notes, and if you want to talk a little more about Ciao Italy, just reach out to one of us. The next option to see Italy is by sea. And this is a really popular idea. The Mediterranean cruise. There's a couple different ways to do it. You can do Eastern or Western. So either you're going to see. Countries like Italy and Greece, or you're going to see countries like Italy and Spain and France. So this one I focused on was Italy, Spain, and France, because this is kind of the more traditional Mediterranean cruise. And for me, when I think about cruising the Mediterranean, I think that's going to be best for families of all ages. You know, I would take even my little ones on a cruise, because we only have to unpack one time. We're able to visit more than one country without a lot of logistical planning. A lot of it is taken care of for us and, the food is included in the pricing on this, thinking of families with younger kids, I was looking at Disney Cruise Line, and they offer a seven night Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona. So, again, you're going to want to get yourself over to Barcelona at least a day or
Ryan:Oh, yeah, please take some time. I had a family do this last summer, and they did Barcelona to Rome, and we planned two days in Barcelona beforehand and two days in Rome afterwards, and that's just the right way to do it.
Julie:I would definitely do that. I've even thought extensively about, coming in, doing a small child Italy tour and then doing the Disney cruise line, Mediterranean cruise on the back end, that way we can get a little more ends up. In Italy, but still have that cruise experience for most of the trip. So this is a great option. You're going to start in Barcelona. When you're there a couple of days early, there's, there's a lot for you to do. And the, the cruise lines are really good about telling you what, what you can see there as you. meander along. You're going to have one sea day in the beginning and then you're going to go over to Naples in Italy. tHe city of Pompeii is there. You can look at the ruins. You can go through a historic center of Naples and explore a lot of history in that city. The next day you're going to be right over to Rome. So, The one thing about the cruise is it does go fast, right? You're, you're boom, boom.
Ryan:Yes, Yes, it's a sampling.
Julie:yes, it's very
Ryan:Barcelona, it's a tapas of a
Julie:I love that. I love that. So we're on day four of the cruise and you're already in Rome and you're going to, you can get off the ship. You can tour on your own, but I would definitely recommend booking a tour.
Ryan:Especially with Rome because you're not there. You've got to take quite a drive into actual Rome
Julie:Right, exactly. You can still book a tour, go to St. Peter's Basilica, go to the Vatican, go to the Sistine Chapel, and you can still get a really great day. When I was looking at the times that you're there, you still have a good 12 hour time frame that the ship is docked. After Rome, you're going to go real quick right over to Livorno and see Florence and Pisa. There's a lot to see there. Obviously the Leaning Tower of Pisa is probably what's going to come to everyone's mind. And then right away the next day you're hopping over to France. And I think that's really cool because you do get a really nice sampling of these places and to me, then that's a good way to say, Oh, I'd really love to come back to France or I'd love to come back to Italy. It gives you a good idea of maybe how to set your travel up in the future. So when I was looking at this because we talked about the pricing for the land tour. I priced a deluxe family ocean view stateroom with a veranda because I just thought you'd have to have a veranda on this trip. Like, can you just imagine, sailing up to Rome and sailing up to, Florence and sailing up to France, just beautiful views, right? So this was about 15, 000 for my family of five, but keep in mind that does include all your food and a lot
Ryan:you have two sea days. So there's activity I mean, there's all the stuff going on on the ship as well as your time in the ports
Julie:Yes, the only thing is that you do need to then budget for the excursions you're going to be booking because you're not going to go on a Mediterranean cruise and not book excursions. So that is
Ryan:by the pool. Yeah
Julie:Yeah, right. That's one big, I bet that pool would be really empty though,
Ryan:yeah, yeah,
Julie:That's one big variable with these types of cruises is it's hard to know in advance. How much those excursions are going to be but this does give you a really great option if you have younger kids and again that 15, 000 pricing that's for a family of five So, you know if you're not a family five, it's gonna be less for you And again, we will put the link to this cruise itinerary in the show notes If you want to check it out a little a little bit more about what a cruise to the Mediterranean could look like.
Ryan:that's awesome. Those are two really good examples of how you could explore Italy I could see doing either one. I kind of like the land one because you really get to go kind of deeper rather than, a lot of different things. But boy, that cruise would just be an awesome way to do it.
Julie:right. And I really think my family is going to be doing a mix of both because I have some members in my family who are a little skeptical of international travel. So I think they would be more comfortable on a cruise. And it's a great way to kind of, like you said earlier, like Italy is a great place to start dipping your fingers. feet into the water for international travel. And I think a cruise is, even more of that, right? It's a, it's a perfect example of like, really just getting your toes wet on that. Because you are in a safe environment. You are very much taken care of. Somebody else is taking you from place to place. You're really not responsible for a lot, right? You just. Follow the leader around for the most part. So I think for us, like we are looking at doing something like this in the next few years where my kids are still going to be pretty young and it would be a great chance for us to see a couple of different cities and then go back to the ones we really loved years down the road.
Ryan:That's awesome. Well, thanks for sharing Italy with us today.
Julie:You want to plan an amazing trip to Italy, but you don't know how to get started? As your travel advisor, we work with you to create a customized itinerary for your European vacation and take the stress of planning away so you can focus on fun and creating memories. You can reach out to us at julie at creatingmagicvacations. com.
Ryan:You can reach out to me at Ryan at CreatingMagicVacations. com. We look forward to talking to you next week on all things travel. So, Gilbert, oh, I had some notes. Goodness, Ryan.
Julie:You know, we'll just
Ryan:No, it's a cool thing. It's a cool thing.
Julie:All right. I can't wait to hear about it.
Ryan:Shut up.
Julie:That's gonna go at the end.