Pre-Travel Zone!

I am now officially less than a month away before I leave for Italy! I am both excited and nervous at the same time. I don’t know quite how to describe this feeling other than to say that I’m in that “Pre-Travel Zone”. I’m excited, anxious, nervous, can’t concentrate on work. And I literally walk around with Italy on my mind all day long.

I’m pretty much prepared. I have my hotel in Ravenna booked. I have my Tour to the Dolomites and Doges Palace and Secrete Itinerary Tours booked and paid for. I have my new GSM cell phone with an Italian SIM card ready. It's definitely convenient to have my Italy Phone number to give out to people before my trip. And I don't have to waste any of my precious time there by having to look for a cell phone and SIM card.

My apartment is paid up. I received final instructions on where to meet the apartment representatives. I arrive around 10:00 am in the morning and since check in isn’t until 3:00 pm, I made arrangements with the apartment representatives to leave my luggage in the apartment until the official check-in time (which was very nice of them). This will allow me to start my Venice adventure right then and there. I’ll probably find my first Chow Venice recommended restaurant and have a really nice long lunch. My goal is to take one of Shannon's and Ruth's recommendations in each of the six Districts and enjoy a really great meal (and one or two glasses of fine wine goes without saying, of course). And then, I’ll just have a look around. I think I may get right into my “must see list" of things with a visit to the Maria Salute Church.

Things to do: I need to prepare all my Train Schedules for my day trips to Ravenna, Ferrara and Treviso. I’ll also review the Vaporetta schedules to Burano and Torcello. I need to transfer my funds into my two dedicated VACATION ATM cards and start working on my packing. Then two weeks before I leave, I’ll call my credit cards and ATM banks and give them my travel dates and also re-confirm my hotel in Ravenna.

Wow, this is very exciting! A really special thanks goes to all those wonderful members of the Slow Travel message board Community. They are passionate about travel and always generous to share their time, knowledge and experience with others. The Slow Travel trips reports and photos inspire me and their message board posts educate and prepares me. This trip just wouldn’t be possible without the Slow Travel Community. I’m just so glad that I found them.

Well, I guess this is it. That’s my itinerary! Next time I’ll post will be in less than a month from VENICE Italy!

Ciao’ for now!