The past few days I’ve been planning our summer vacation. Since we’re staying over here, we want to make the most of our time. One thing we haven’t done yet is take the “rotator” to Europe. The rotator is a military flight that originates here, makes a few stops in various places in Europe (Italy, Crete, Spain) and then ends in Virginia. One of our military benefits is we can hitch a ride for free if there is space available (Space A). In the summer it’s almost impossible to get back to the East Coast because everyone is flying on orders and moving, but there are usually available seats for people who want to get off at one of the European layovers.
On the calendar for July 2014: I’m planning an Italian vacation. We’re going to hopefully fly into Naples (sometimes it flies into Sigonella, Sicily — the island next to “the boot,” but I’d like to do that in a separate trip), take the train up and visit Florence, Venice and Rome. I’ve been checking out AirB&B for inexpensive apartments to stay in (with excellent cancellation policies) and we’ll see if we can do this European vacation on the cheap. If we can, there’s no reason we couldn’t do it more often. I’d love to visit Spain/Morocco, Crete and Southern Italy before we leave here.
I’ve never flown Space A before and I do NOT like “winging it” or anything unknown/undecided so this will be an opportunity to stretch myself (again). I’m also sketchy on staying in unknown apartment rentals, but for a family of 6, there’s no more affordable way to go. 2 hotel rooms are not in our budget. Besides, if we spend our days out and about, we won’t be in the apartment very much of the time. It’s not like when we were traveling with Camille as a baby and I needed a place to go back to during the day to give her a break. I can handle a grotty apartment for a few days, right?
I’ve started devouring Trip Advisor reviews, I’m waiting on two Italy guidebooks to arrive, and then inshalla, it will happen.