Southern Italy - May 20th, 2008

I know I know. I just got back from Cancun and I've already booked my next trip to Italy. It'll be my first time in Europe, so I'm excited to see what it's like over there.


This is not going to be one of those "continental breakfast - bus - nap on bus - get off to pee and take pictures - get on the bus - buffet lunch - forced shopping - listening to your tour guide blabbing about the passing images out the tour bus window - some more nap - buffet dinner" kind of trip. I've been on to way too many of those stupid tours and honestly, you don't see anything unless you reach deep into the place you are visiting and just explore on your own. This is going to be a "DIY - get off the beaten path - spontaneous - semi torturish" trip. Much to the liking of my semi-backpacking trip to Tibet, but a little bit better in terms of the hotels and conditions (I mean, Tibet and Italy aren't exactly on the same level).


The route would be as follows: Palermo, Sicily - Agrigento, Sicily - Taormina, Sicily - Sorrento, Campania - Isle de Capri, Campania - Naples, Campnia - Rome.


We are going to concentrate on Southern Italy because 1) we are going at the end of May, so it'll still be chilly up north by Florence and Venice, 2) I don't want to do the classic (boring) route of Rome - Florence - Venice - Milan, 3) it'll be so crowded in the cities, I'll save that for a winter trip where I don't need to wait in line for 3 hours to see a cathedral, 4) Southern Italy has better food (confirmed by numerous sources) and 5) Hotter guys, tehehehe, some dark bronzed Italian eye candies~

I hope the weather would be nice enough we can jump in a water for a bit. Sicily, Capri gets so crowded when June/July hits, because all the Italians are going to be there for vacation, so we might just miss the crowd.

We rented a car to go around Sicily and drive up to Sorrento. They gave us a manual car at first. See I wouldn't mind if there wasn't that 8 hour drive up to Sorrento, but H said it'd be too dangerous driving in a unknown area on a manual. So we added some $$ and got an automatic. For the trip, I bought a GPS too. It's got everything on it, multiple destination routing, mp3 player, point of interests, and a photo viewer (don't know who would look at photos while driving, but whatever)

Generally, I take 2 types of trips. The ones where I just go to major tourist attractions, stay in hotels and not at all tiring, since I'm probably on a bus tour. Those kind of trips, I take with my mom and dad (like the Mexican cruise).

Then there are these sponteous, book as you go, could be physically challenging trips. Like the one I took with Linda and Peggy to Tibet. Usually we'd be in hostels that we found in Lonely Planet the day before. Finding where to go ones we get there and just sponteously decide where to go. You could say we were lazy, but i think it's more fun that way. I wonder how we survived the 3 day trip to Mount Everest Base Camp, but we made it and it was the best experience in my life.

So this time, I carefully planned everything in advance, including the attractions we are going to visit and the resturantes we are going to eat in. It's a little too over planned, but since we are spending so much money on it, might as well make the best out of it. I don't want to be hungry and have no where to eat, and just grab a McDonald's when I'm in Italy.

Anyways~~~ I'm so excited! only if I could just concentrate on my GMAT and actually STUDY!!!