KarenWoo What a magnificent trip report here! I was away on vacation and I finally came back to read up on the Dolomites and the Lakes. Wow, the Italian Alps are gorgeous. After spending a little time in the French Alps last summer I kept thinking I'd like to visit the Dolomites sometime (soon) and do some hiking. But there's too many places to go and too little time. I am in awe of you and so many Fodorites who have spent lots of time in these parts of Italy with so much knowledge. You must take very detailed notes along the way? I can barely remember what I did yesterday let alone a 5-week trip. I'd love to visit these smaller towns in Italy but both DH and I are adverse to driving in Europe, what did Ed think about driving? Did you drive or did Ed do all the driving? Was it difficult to figure out parking in the small towns? Also am jealous you're leaving for another trip soon. Have a great time and I hope to read all about it upon your return.

yk, thank you so much for your compliments! I do bring a journal with me, and I write in it every night, but what I write is very brief. I typically allocate 1 or 2 pages to each day. I basically list what we did and saw, our impressions, and what we had for meals. I fill in the blanks with things like brochures, maps, restaurant business cards, etc. I throw all that stuff away after I am finished with my report. And I also refer to my photos for more details.

Ed does all the driving, and luckily he still enjoys driving in foreign countries. I don't have the confidence to drive internationally. He has more patience than I do with trying to find parking spaces. In places like San Gimignano and Pienza, for example, he found car parks outside the city centers which are typically pedestrianized. Not a long walk from the carpark to the center, but oftentimes uphill in these hill towns. Sometimes the more complicated part was figuring out how to use the parking pay machines! :) But oftentimes Italians would help us.

I see that you have started a trip report for Alaska. How awesome! I plan to read it. Ed went to Alaska decades ago on a business trip but I've never been. Just a few weeks ago we talked about going to Alaska before we get too old to travel. So your report will come in handy. We aren't cruise people either, but Ed has several friends who took Alaska cruises and really enjoyed them, so he might want to do that. I would prefer to drive, and I would definitely help with the driving.

Haha, I make my son write a journal when we travel, but being 12 and not really a "writer", what he writes is very basic with just the facts but little elaboration. He also skips over a lot of stuff so not totally reliable! Maybe I can cough up the courage to drive internationally. My husband isn't the best driver, but he also is a terrible navigator :( Actually My son is a much better navigator and with better eye sight!

You should definitely go to Alaska! My big take home thought was, "why did I wait until I'm in my 50s before visiting Alaska for the first time?!" There is more than 1 way to tour given it's such a big state. For people who have the luxury of time, they can start with a 7-day cruise from Vancouver, visiting the SE part of the state (that's the part that doesn't have roads) such as Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka, Skagway. These 1-way cruise end in either Whittier or Seward. From either place, you can start your driving tour of South Central Alaska to visit Kenai Peninsula and up to Denali. I guess depending on what you want to see - the Denali hwy is closed at Mile 43 until 2027 due to landslide. Many people say Denali is most spectacular beyond Mile 43 so keep that in mind and save your trip until after 2027 if that's what you want to see/do.

Outstanding trip report
 

Hi Karen,

Great report with so much useful information. I’m sorry to hear your husband lost his wallet. Also sorry you had a poor dining experience at Bottega del Vino

This is a photo of the large wine menu at Bottega del Vino:

[img alt="IMG_6244.jpeg"]blob:https://www.fodors.com/9bbe8137-eaa4-4cf8-9884-883659b987fc[/img]

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...f20293111.jpeg
Wine menu is the big one

What a wonderful trip report! I so aspire to you be you when I retire, but I'm already feeling it in my 50s. I don't think I could do such a long trip, especially going to so many places, but I'm scribbling down more Italy ideas nonetheless. The Dolomites have been on my bucket list for a long time too.

Hi Karen,

I just read your entire Trip Report again. My son and new wife are in Italy now for their honeymoon -- Rome, Florence, Monterosso and Mian -- and I wanted to re-read your very helpful sections on Florence, CT and Milano. You are an amazing trip planner! Do you have any tricks? Spreadsheets? Other research tools besides the books you mentioned?

I think Parma and Venice are a must for long-ish stays. Did you like the Cannaregio in Venice? Or was the Dorsoduro your #1 neighborhood? We will probably rent apartments.

Merano also looks darling and a great way to see the Dolomites. We are not big hikers so perhaps we put a few nights there during this Italian trip as well.

Thank you for all of the many many details. I am still working on my Christmas trip to London and Amsterdam. I don't see a Trip Report to London on your profile, but will look at your Scotland one!

Have a wonderful rest of your week. Thank you again!

Hi mendota98,
Thanks for this photo! I always regretted not taking a photo of this gigantic wine book.

Thank you, PegS! I hope you make it to the Dolomites! They really are jaw-dropping gorgeous!

Hi lrice! It's good to hear from you again. Congratulations to your son and new daughter-in-law. They picked some lovely places for their honeymoon.

Regarding trip planning, in addition to the guidebooks I used, I also browse online and read various travel blogs, etc. I am also on the Rick Steves travel forum and the Trip Advisor travel forum, so I get good advice from those folks, too. And I love reading trip reports. The Fodors trip reports I mentioned in my first post were really helpful in planning this trip.

I create spreadsheets for restaurant recommendations and hotel recommendations. I create a calendar using WinCalendar so I can see the whole trip at a glance. This includes the destination's name, hotel, and any sightseeing reservations I have made. And then I create a very detailed itinerary using Word. This includes each destination we are staying in with a list of sites, and brief descriptions/highlights of these sites, and possible daytrips. After I made all of our train reservations, car rental reservations, and private driver reservations, I added that information, too. My Italy detailed itinerary is 29 pages.

And I bring with me a soft-cover 3-ring binder with dividers for airline reservations, hotels confirmations, car rentals, detailed itinerary, etc. In this digital age, I am sure a lot of people rely solely on their phone but I don't feel comfortable doing that. I worry that my phone battery could die or that there isn't a signal where we are. In fact, today my husband brought my phone to the Apple store because my phone was draining the battery much too quickly. The technician was able to solve the problem; it was basically something I was doing wrong. And we are leaving tomorrow for Romania and Budapest, so I am in dire need of my phone. I just feel more comfortable having paper confirmations with me. I remember that last year when we flew from Sydney to Christchurch the airline personnel wanted to see paper copies of our flight to Christchurch and paper copies of our return flights home. And something similar happened in 2019 when we flew home from Ljubljana. So you just never know when someone wants to see paper confirmations.

Regarding Cannaregio versus Dorsoduro: I much prefer Dorsoduro but maybe that is because we spent a lot of time in Dorsoduro and not that much time in Cannaregio. We were in Cannaregio on a Sunday, and it was very, very quiet. Maybe a little too quiet for us. While we found Florence to be much too crowded, we do enjoy a somewhat lively, bustling place. And maybe Cannaregio was quiet because it was a Sunday. And in Dorsoduro, we were so close to so many interesting and beautiful places, such as the Zattere and the Guidecca Canal, Ca Rezzonica, and only a 20-minute walk to St. Mark's Square. And you are close to the Accademia Art Gallery and the Guggenheim Musem, which we didn't have time to visit, and La Salute Church, which we sailed by but didn't go inside. But I know that a lot of people like Cannaregio.

We haven't been to London since the 1970's!!! We hope to rectify that in the next few years. :)

When are you going to Italy? Is this for a month?

Whoa! KarenWoo, you certainly take the whole trip-planning to the next level!!! I feel like I've found my people here, lol. My friends are always astonished by the details when they ask me to send them my itinerary, for them to plan a trip. Some people might think it makes the trip too rigid. I feel the exact opposite! The more info and details I have, the easier I can pivot to something else if Plan A doesn't work out, because all the info is there already. For most of my trips, I just type up a doc with day-by-day itinerary with websites. On a few other trips I have used a spreadsheet. But I still tend to use just one single document instead of switching between different applications. I haven't decided if I like doc vs spreadsheet better. I also have a separate app called TripIt - I think it was recommended here by Fodorites. The app automatically imports travel reservations (airlines, car rentals, hotels). I find it useful at the start of trip planning because it's easy to see if I have accommodations booked for each night of the trip, esp if I'm moving place to place. I always worry I get the dates wrong when making reservations, so having the TripIt calendar listing the check-in and check-out dates ensure I booked everything correctly.

Anyway, you are the QUEEN of trip planning, and we can all plainly seee how that pays off with this trip! Have a fabulous time in Romania and Hungary. Can't wait to read all about it when you return. bon voyage!

Enjoy your trip to Romania and Hungary. I've long wanted to visit Budapest but I am hesitant because of the government that is in power.

Still planning our Italy trip and switching things around to be able to schedule a November 1 or 2 visit to the Last Supper, just waiting for them to open the calendar but I don't want to wait too long to book flights and we would then fly roundtrip to/from Milan and pushing back a week, the flights are cheaper and the hotel you recommended in Venice had availability, although that could easily change.

While I am not as detailed as you are with the planning records, I also print out confirmations and if we are driving at all, which we are not planning to do this time, my husband will print out pages of the route with Google Maps and can discard as we go along.

Safe travels and we will look forward to your trip report