I can't believe it, our year long planning is about to come to an end. We will be winging our way to Italy very shortly! Right now I am taking care of copying passports and documents to tuck into our carryons. My husband is taking care of exchanging some of our money into Euros so we have cash when we land. The rental car is all set, (thanks to the help of this board!) and the hotels are booked. My daughter cleared off all her pictures on her laptop last night so when we get to Italy she can take a bunch of pictures, put them on her laptop and then transfer them to a thumb drive. I also purchased the adaptor for her laptop so it won't fry when we try to plug it in over there! Now, what about our iPods? Do I need to purchase a convertor as well as an adaptor for those?
Thanks for letting me ramble, I am just excited and needed to vent!!
Gypsygurl

I believe converters for all apple products are dual voltage, meaning you do not need a convertor just an adapter for the wall socket.

All you need for laptop, iPod are plug adaptors, two round pins.

Thank you!!

car hire, take photos of the thing when you pick it up, helps find it next morning and if the owners complain about how you return it you have the evidence

We leave in 8 days. Hope no hurricanes impact our ability to wing it easily to NYC or take off on schedule!

I've talked DH into using the kindle. We need to dowdload some reading for his downtime pleasure. But that's about it.

We hop the bus to O'Hare from Milwaukee, WI, then jet to Rome via AA at 5:10pm tomorrow! Can't wait. 7 glorious days in Rome and 10 heavenly days in Sardinia. I'm quite certain I have printed out and read every Rome trip report on this site that has been posted since 2006! We are taking Chef Andrae's cooking class, something I think will be one of the high-lights of the trip. Weather is looking pretty dog-gone warm.............but at least it looks dry!

We also take a picture of our little travel business card and leave it on both cameras in the event they are lost and we are lucky enough to get them returned! My Nook is loaded! I was very bummed to find out I can't load anything I purchase while over in Europe...big glitch I wish I had known.

It is midnight here and I just can't sleep because I keep thinking about our trip. I went shopping, didn't buy a thing, but tried on a TON of clothes, shoes, pashima shawls, hats and really nice slacks. Ended up at the Travelex kiosk where they told me about a car which can be loaded with euros. It is called a pin and chip card. Has anyone used one? Is it better than carrying plain euros?
Thanks!
Gypsygurl

We use these in the UK to carry sterling for use with cheepo airlines, they work like ordinary debit or credit cards. Good to know we could get euro ones.

Chip and pin is the term I understand and is the normal card type in europe which means that you don't sign anymore you just type in the pin.

Obvious stuff, do not give the pin to anyone, cover your right hand with your left hand as you type it in etc.

which parts of Italy will you be visiting ?

Feda,
We will start in the North at Lake Como then take a day trip to Switzerland. Then off to Venice, Florence, Siena, San Gimigiano, Ovierto, Sorrento, Pompeii and Rome.
I can't believe this is actually going to happen!!
Gypsygurl