Well we finished our planning phase. All hotels are booked and confirmed, down to the floor, view, breakfast, bathroom etc. I have read at least 200 reviews on these 5 hotels. And if you look at my sheets of paper here in front of me, i researched approx. 180 different hotels on the entire trip. Wow im a nerd. Our Siena hotel has a curfew of 1am, which most hotels in that city have so the owners can go to bed. Wired huh? When averaged out over the trip our hotels are $137 a nite, which is similiar to America i [View Full Entry]

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We are well into phase 4 now. We have made some slight adjustments and we think this plan will stick. We have made reservations in Napoli and Riomaggiore. Here is our plan: 9/27: Flight at 2:30pm 9/28: Arrive Rome, 2hr Train to Napoli, tour city. Sleep at Hotel Duomo 9/29: Visit Island of Capri 9/30: Visit Mt. Vesuvio 10/1: Finish Napoli, 4hr train to Firenze, tour city. Sleep at ___?___ 10/2: Tour Firenze 10/3: Tuscan Wine Tours (exact tour to be determined) 10/4: San Gimignano, Lucca 10/ [View Full Entry]

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Well i think we settled on an OFFICIAL iteniary. It is as follows: 9/27/08: Depart Raleigh -Day/Nite in air 9/28/08: Arive Rome, Train to Napoli -Nite in Napoli 9/29/08: Tour Napoli -Nite in Napoli 9/30/08: Amulfi Coast -Nite on Amulfi Coast 10/01/08: Capri Island -Nite in Capri 10/02/08: Tour island then train to Firenze -Nite in Firenze 10/03/08: Tour Firenze -Nite in Firenze 10/04/08: Tour Tuscany -Nite in Firenze 10/05/08: Tour Tuscany, San Giaminano -Nite in Firenze 10/06/08: Hike Cinque Terre -Nite in Riomaggiore 10/07/08: Tour Riomaggiore, Train to Siena and tou [View Full Entry]

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Jenn here!!! So today i did a full day of research for hotel reservations in the cities/towns we will be staying in. Learned that most places are small and book fast. One place only had 3 rooms!!! Oh well I guess its good we are planning a head and not just showing up looking for a place (that was our idea to start). Got most cities covered. Still researching Rome. [View Full Entry]

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ITS OFFICIAL We just bought flight tickets!!!!! We spent $2300 to fly. ....Paul is freakin out man... he has to fly a turboprop from raleigh to newark.... he is not so happy. jenn is smiling from ear to ear. paul is getting drunk after commiting to this trip. BUT WE ARE BOTH ESTATIC ABOUT IT. we are going for sure!!!!. We fly out 9/27/08 at 1402hrs. We get back 10/11/08 at 2236hrs. Wish us luck... this weekend we will purchase rail tix and finalize our daily iteniary. WOOHOO [View Full Entry]

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hey, both of us here, on a wifi. we decided today that we are going to make reservations for 1 hotel in each city. that way when we get there we can cancell if we want to, but at least we got a pre-planned hotel to stay at. (we forgot to buy plane tickets last friday.... we got hungry,thirsty,sleepy.) we are getting closer to a master plan, to be published later. just wanted to drop this note from toledo ohio. [View Full Entry]

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Hi! Its Jenn. So yesturday was a big day. Got my passport app sent off. Then we went to borders to check out books and language programs. We got great pharse books and then a program to teach us the language so we don't look dumb when we are over there. Paul is picking up the language better than me, but I'm sure I'll pick it up soon. Thats all for now plan ticket purchase is coming soon. [View Full Entry]

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Ok, today i found out that the vacation cycle is avail for me to take. Jenn talked it over with her parents and got the "you should do it" approval. I told my parents about it.... so phase 1 is complete. We are going to try to go. now we start researching and planning the trip. .......................HERE WE GO [View Full Entry]

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Today we finalized the fact that we want to go. Duhh. We picked regions in italy that we want to go to. Tuscany, Campania, & Lazio. Those cities include florence, cinque terre, siena, naples, capri and rome. We talked about how we could afford this trip. We are thinking about $4000 for each person. We priced air, rail, and hotels to get a ball park. Air was 1100, rail was 375 and each city had its own average hotel price. All between 100-175 dollars. The dollar to euro conversion is at a dismal $1= 0.6382 Euro We thru out just a [View Full Entry]

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The idea of Jennifer and I going to Europe starts. During the movie Bourne Ultamatum. We talked about my first planning of this trip last year with my buddy matt. since that trip got cancelled i decided to try and go again. We figured we were strong enough in our relationship to go. Today we are thinking about a southern europe trip. Maybe include italy, switzerland, france, germany. or scratch those and go to italy and greece We devised 5 phases of this trip Phase 1 Pre-Planning: Dream and reason (talk about going and give ourselves a good excuse as why [View Full Entry]

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