Well,it's about six weeks until I depart for a fabulous month in Italy, and here I am hopping back and forth between the Europe and Asia boards!
My month in Rome/Venezia I'm dubbing my "Arreviderci Italia" tour. (I'm taking t-shirt orders.) This will be my fourth year in a year in Italy, and I fear if I don't switch gears,I'll never see the rest of the world! So, a year from now I'll be going to India. Anyone working on the trip after the next trip?

that is fourth year in a row

Oh definitely. I have several potential trips in an embryonic state at the moment. I'm not allowing myself to think beyond those .

March 2005 planned- Costa Rica-Panama
July 2005 almost planned-Baltin
July 2007 planned in my head- Greece- 3 generations
Gee, what's to do in 2006?

I'm retiring in, let's see here [consults handy calendar] ... 24 days. Trouble is, my wife aims to keep working for another five years, so my first post-retirement trip is with our daughter to Hong Kong in February. After that, we're planning our annual trip to France in May, which we think will be the Auvergne. Après ça, we're dreaming of New Zealand, with visions of using round-the-world tickets, but I think that's still a few years away. Somewhere in there is also a Great War battlefields tour with the history buffs in our extended families.

As others have said here before, planning trips is a great deal of fun.

Anselm

Oh, yeah! I'm working hard on our first family trip to Costa Rica for June 2005. But at the same time I'm actively working on our first family trip to Ireland for June 2006.

And I am compiling files on our trip to Australia or New Zealand (hard to choose).

PLUS I HAVE SEVERAL FILES FOR MY RETURN TRIPS TO BELLA ITALIA! Rome, Tuscany...can't wait to get back...

It's not a sickness...IT'S THE CURE!!!

Yup, me too. If I am not in some stage of planning my travel forecast for the next few years, I feel lost! My plan so far is:

May 2005 - Munich/Prague/Vienna (with my best friend - one last hurrah together before I tie the knot in September!)
December 2005 - Costa Rica (Honeymoon!)
Sometime in 2006 - New York
Sometime in 2007 - France

And beyond that, who knows...those are my "musts" for now....

You are only doing TWO trips in 2005?? Hey, you'd better start catching up....I've already got four planned....

I'm starting to feel better already.

I am just now planning my first over seas trip to London this spring and already trying to figure out how much vacation I will have left to go other places (really want to go to Tuscany). Never have left the country in my life but now I can not seem to wait to leave and keep leaving LOL.

massagediva, well I am suppose to go to Hawaii in April, Italy in June and again to Italy February 2006. And probably Santa Barbara and Portland OR somewhere in between the trips. So, what is the RX for us? Win the lotto would sure cure the sickness don't you think?

Hi diva,

>This will be my fourth year in a [row to]Italy, and I fear if I don't switch gears,I'll never see the rest of the world! <

Why is it necessary to see the rest of the world?

(except for Paris)

We will have to travel three times a year for the next eight years if we want to do all the trips I have researched and planned. I'm hoping that our physical stamina will hold out that long, since each trip is very active. We are suddenly realizing that we're not the "younger generation" any longer and are feeling a need to not delay any experience. I have travel books all over the house and am mentally in many different parts of the world each day. Glad to hear that I'm not alone in my love of very long-term planning.

I can't travel anymore but it's alot of fun helping my sister who goes wherever it seems to interest her.

My husband is supposed to get four weeks of vacation, plus 4 personal days in 2006. If this dream comes true, I think we will head to Australia, where I have a friend.

For now, it's New York for Christmas; Florence and Rome at the end of February, and a trip or two to the Jersey shore this summer.

Our daughter is getting married in October, and we are lucky to be able to go anywhere at all this year. The cost of a wedding is staggering, and our daughter (only child; girly girl) wants quite a shindig.

And then, maybe, Australia in '06!

"Our daughter is getting married in October, and we are lucky to be able to go anywhere at all this year. The cost of a wedding is staggering, and our daughter (only child; girly girl) wants quite a shindig. "

This is OT and maybe out of line, but... most of the big fancy weddings I've been to have ended in divorce, often rather rapidly. The small, quiet ones have led to lasting marriages. Maybe your daughter should use the big wedding money on a big trip instead!


best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

http://www.straughan.com

Why, of course!
I'm almost certainly going to Lyon in April 2005 (or some other place in France, I'll know for sure in February, when I buy my flight ticket) and already thinking about my first "serious" trip to Italy in October 2005 (been there before, in Turin and the Piedmont, mainly for work, but it was 7 years ago).
April 2006 might be France again, or Holland, or Italy...who knows?

Yeah, what's up with the high divorce
rate among overly-weds? We attended
two huge over-the-top nuptials this
year and both are now finito - in fact,
one marriage was over before the
Thank You notes had been mailed. In
the other case, the (foolish) parents
had a huge Visa bill for wedding expenses still outstanding!

I'm with Ira. The rest of the world is highly over rated - except for Paris!

I am ALWAYS planning another trip. My husband says I don't like to finalize our plans for any trip, because then the search and research are over! I have several itineraries planned -- if only we had the time/money to do everything I want to do!!

Our youngest child graduates from high school in 2 and a half years -- after he leaves for college, I want to take a 3-week trip to Italy with my husband. I'm currently doing research for that trip.