Sept '06-Mostly finalized Italy intinerary: Florence, Orvieto, Rome, Capri, Positano, Naples but a couple last questions...
 

Thanks to everyone that's helped us so far planning the longest trip we've ever taken. We've never gone away for 23 days so this planning is a little tough. We want to see "it all", and of course that's not possible. This is a fairly firm, finalized itinerary and a couple of questions to follow:

9/9 Florence 4 nts - Il Vilino 135 euro nt

9/13 Orvieto 3 nts - Hotel Duomo 135 eur nt for a junior suite, our splurge that's not really a splurge :o), we'll have no car so this will be our base before Rome for Umbria day trips by bus or hired car

9/16 Rome 4 nts - Westin Excelsior - Free though Starwood pts (yahooooo!)

9/20 Capri 3 nights La Minerva 195 eur nt

9/23 Positano 5 nts Villa Rosa 160 eur nt

9/28 Naples 3 nt Renaissance (hoping to get Marriott Friends & Family rate through an aquaintence for 99 eur nt, otherwise it's about 205 eur in which case we'd probably pick a different hotel

The question is this: We'd leave for Florence on a Friday so I'd work a 1/2 day that day and leave our house around 3pm for that evening flight. If we did 3 nights in Naples at the end of the trip, we'd have to come back on Sunday morning, getting home late Sunday night. We'd probably be bushed, and then Monday is a kind of light work day for me where I doubt I'd even have to go in, but we wouldn't have a Sunday to "chill out at the house" as a free day before taking calls at home for my job on Monday - right back to work. Would you suggest only doing 2 nights in Naples at the end of the trip flying back on a Saturday, so we'd have a Sunday free to do laundry, enjoy the cats, etc... or go for the traveling gusto and just fly back on Sunday, wringing out every last second of our time in Naples, scoring an extra day in the city of yummy pizza and fast paced city life.

My job isn't that stressful where I NEED to have that Sunday to relax and get used to the time change, but it might be nice to have it? So, what would you do?

And yes, we're staying 3 nights on Capri! We are looking forward to the beautiful sights, the slower pace, relaxing at the hotel, and no, we're not cutting that part of the trip to 2 nights to add a day in Naples or Positano. Reason is: we'll be coming from Rome so we'll get to Capri towards the very end of the first day we check in, losing that day there. The next day we'd like to check out Capri town, hang out, shop, and enjoy the island's views. 2nd full day there we could go to Anacapri and do some hiking around. 3rd day we could do a boat trip around the island and chill some more. That's why we thought we'd need 3 nts.

Steve and Julia R
Silver Spring MD

Excuse me: Robespierre?

It's bad enough that the original poster posted a message with a title that screws up every other title, but you're the last one I would have expected to duplicate it, overlong title and all...

Stever,

I can't imagine 23 days of travel followed by a trans-Atlantic flight and not having a full day of rest, even if it means one less day in Naples. I'm only 45 but would probably spend half the sleeping and the other getting my life back in order before facing the office.

BTW, the itinerary looks lovely (although Rome looks awfully short to my taste).

Actually, Eloise, the new title is fine and will not cause any problems. It would have been presumptuous to edit it other than putting in the required spaces.

Robespierre and Bardo1:

Mea culpa! I see, belatedly, that Robespierre's post has the spaces.

My apologies!

You are forgiven - go, and sin no more. ;)

<b><font color="BLUE">Yo, Fodor's!</font></b> How about you scan every title and insert a space after every occurrence of - or / or ,

It won't make any difference if there's already a space there, because HTML compacts multiple spaces to one. There are ten spaces between here and here (look at the source if you don't believe me).

I agree - Robespierre did us all a favor. Especially after stevr topped his other thread and accused us all of having &quot;rules&quot; he innocently broke.

seriously doubt stevr will understand/appreciate the trouble Robespierre went to to help him out.

Oh, but I do appreciate it Robespierre, and I still don't understand why what I did caused such a ruckus, and messed up the entire web forum, but I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

If I have to write it a hundred times on a chalkboard, Bart Simpson style, I will, to keep the peace on this board. Now I get it - NEVER, EVER will I type in a thread title without that elusive space after a comma. I only did it to shorten the title so it wouldn't look so long. Believe me, if I had known what that would do, cause an almost axis shift and fry the nerves of you fellow Fodorites, I wouldn't have done it. It really isn't my goal here to pis* anyone off here, and if I did, well - my apologies. I wasn't trying to top my other thread to furthur add insult to injury. I really have better ways to spend my time. I was only hoping to say that I didn't really understand what I did and that it wouldn't happen again. I thought it would be redundant to start the thread all over, but Robespierre was nice enough to do this for me. The very very odd thing about all this is that Robespierre was my nickname for many years. How weird is that?

Over and out.

Steve R

Hi SteveR - you're taking this very hard. Maybe you know this but if you don't understand what the &quot;issue&quot; was, here goes - when you have a title with no spaces, the words do not wrap nicely and it causes the left pane to get messed up. This affects all of the titles in the left pane and forces the reader to have to use the left/right scroll bar to read the titles. If you click the &quot;Next 50&quot; link at the bottom of the left pane, you'll see the difference in the title formatting. To get back to the original question - your trip sounds like a nice mix of busy and quiet days. IMHO, I like to have a day at home between the trip and work - alleviates the jet lag a bit for me. Have fun!

Hi Stever -

Don't stress the message title thing. But DON'T EVER DO IT AGAIN!! ;-)

Personally, I make a point of having a day at home before returning to work. I need to pick up the dog, unpack, do some laundry so I have clean underwear, listen to the cat complain about our absence (&quot;you could have called! I was so worried!&quot;), buy some fresh milk and such for the fridge, chill out, and look at our photos and ticket stubs - just generally putz around and wallow.

It's a tough call because you're &quot;wasting&quot; a vacation day if you do it my way. But I've done it without that day at home and it just makes re-entry into real life far too harsh, IMO.

Have fun!

I know it is more sensible to have a day at home before reality sets in, but since you mentioned that your Monday at work will be light, I say, &quot;Buon appetito!&quot; Stay in Naples and have another slize of pizza.

We've done it both ways- sometimes arriving at home only hours before we both needed to be at work. Although that was definitely too hectic, the leftover excitement of a great trip to Italy got us through the work week, until we could collapse the following Saturday.

Whatever you decide, good luck, and have a great time in Italy!

Personally, I would gladly give up a night in Naples for a day to re-group at home. I seem to react to jet lag more on the return trip than the outbound trip. But you'll have to make that call. Enjoy!

I'd spent every last minute on vacation! You say your job isn't that stressful, so I think you can get back up to speed at work without cutting short your trip. Just my opinion.

Thanks everyone for your responses, and yes, I guess I was taking it pretty hard. It's just been one of those days... I'm over it now. I was wondering why I had to scroll right left and back just to read posts the day I posted that question. Little did I realize that my dimwitted move had set that off.

I think we WILL cut our trip to Naples short to 2 nights from 3 nights. This way I can recoup my energies and have a day to unwind when we return and enjoy our much missed home. That peaceful moment of seeing your house upon return, the joy, the familiar smell of it when you walk in the door, the relief, the happiness that it hadn't burnt to the ground through some freak situation :o), when finally returning from abroad. There's nothing like getting back from a long trip and having a day to catch up on mail, clean up all the litter boxes that your neighbor didn't do such a good job of scooping, putting everything away from your luggage, sorting out all the gifts you got from the trip, returning all the messages from people that thought you were in town (even though you told them you'd be gone) - you know, those messages that come every few days for a week or so &quot;Uh, you still haven't returned our call about doing dinner this weekend, are you guys ok?&quot;

Then there's the cleaning up of all the newspapers that accumulated on your driveway even though the Washington Post PROMISED they wouldn't deliver them by accident like the last 10 trips you went on where they were supposed to stop delivery, but they delivered them anyway!

Well, you get the picture.
Cheers,
Steve R

I suffer horribly from jet lag so would allow the extra day at home. I don't mind getting in at midnight and going to work in the morning from a Mexico or Hawaii beach vacation (I'm on the west coast) but for Europe I always leave a day or two to recover (but honestly it takes about five days to get over the jet lag for me).

Thx Suze, and I agree.

One last question on asking to be charged in euros and not American dollars - I emailed the hotels as you guys suggested about this and they all said they could charge in euros due to the dynamic conversion thing.

Another hotel wrote this back though...

&quot;the new dates and the new room are not a problem. September 20 to 23 ( 3 nights). Your card will not be charged unless you make a late cancellation.
Charging Euros is not a problem. Anyway the rate depends on the fluctuation of excange rates. Just to let you know, I have had cases in which old clients called to let me know that their banks used a much worst rate in
comparison with the one proposed at the immediate conversion.
Anyway in order not to be blamed we tend to avoid the immediate conversion.&quot;

Does this mean that it may NOT be in my best interest every time to be charged in euros?

Steve

It is <i>always</i> best to be billed in local currency. Otherwise, the merchant's processor will do the conversion to dollars and mark it up. A lot.

If you are ever presented with a charge ticket in dollars, ask them to rerun it. If they decline, write <b>Local currency not offered</b> above your signature, and dispute it when you get home. You will win, because the Merchant Agreement <u>mandates</u> that the customer be given the choice.

Steve &amp; Julia, Great itinerary--you will have fun !

&lt;&lt;Just to let you know, I have had cases in which old clients called to let me know that their banks used a much worst rate in comparison with the one proposed at the immediate conversion&gt;&gt;

Steve, don't believe them! This is an example of what I mentioned on your other thread, the merchant will try to tell you that it is to your advantage to have them charge in US$. It's never true. Also, even if you specify before the charge is made that you want it in Euro and they agree, you will sometimes STILL see the US$ on the slip. That is when they will say that it is just for your information. Also not true.

2006 September is 9 months away! I suggest you build flexibility into your 'finalized' plan. You may also want to consider alternate plans. You have time to do a detailed research of your trip itinerary. Next advice..learn some Italian!