Trip Planning – Barcelona & Italy

So, I have been busy planning my trip for the 2 weeks I’m traveling after I finish working in Spain this summer. My Mother and I booked the majority of our flights, hotels and tours this past Saturday and I wanted to share with you where and what we booked.

First of all we researched a lot about hotels to book etc. We found the Frommer’s Italy book as well as the Rick Steve’s Europe Through The Back Door book very helpful.

We booked all of our flights using EDreams. I also used this website last year, it is a great website to find flights within Europe for cheap. The website scans all the airlines in Europe to gather all the possible options for you, much easier then searching all the airlines individually.

The beginning of our trip starts in Madrid where I meet my Mother then we fly to Barcelona. Once in Barcelona we are staying at the hotel; Hotel Jardiwhich by reading the reviews and the travel books it seemed to have rave reviews. They also offer a shuttle from the airport for 50 euros each. Once in Barcelona we are always taking a tour called theArtistic Barcelona Walking Tour. We booked this tour on Viator. An Amazing website full of tours for all over the world with a variety of different price ranges.

After Barcelona we then head to Milan, Italy. In Milan we are staying at another highly recommended hotel called King Mokinba Hotel. We also have a tour booked from Milan that is a day trip to Cinque Terre, apparently a must see in Italy! Another place that we wanted to go see was the Last Supper picture but everywhere I look tickets seem to already be sold out for late August, so we may be out of luck.

After Milan we head to Rome. In Rome we are staying at Hotel Solis. My Mother found this hotel on hotels.com, breakfast is included and they also have a shuttle service but the hotel has yet to email us back on how to book that. Since I have already been to Rome and our hotel is located near all the touristy spots we decided to not book any tours in Rome and just explore on our own. Although, we may book tickets for the Colloseum  in advance to avoid longer lines.

After Rome we are flying to Florence. Florence does appear closer to Milan and originally we had planned to fly there before Rome and make our way down Italy but the way flights worked it was easier and cheaper to do it in this order. In Florence we are staying at Hotel Academia, located near all the must see places in Florence. We also have a day tour booked while we are there called “Tuscany In One Day” offered by Viator. Where we get to explore all of Tuscany, have a Tuscan lunch, wine tasting etc.

After Florence we are heading to Naples. In Naples we are staying at the Belle Arti Resort and we will be in Naples the longest (4 nights). From Naples we plan on doing a half day tour to Pompeii and also we have booked a private tour through Viator that was a bit more expensive but you explore all the Almafi Coast with a tour guide, just the two of us and we can control how long we stay in each stop.

After Naples we are flying back to Madrid and staying in Madrid for a few days because flights any date after the 27th of August went up for some reason. So we plan on staying downtown Madrid and just doing whatever we please!

withlovexo