After many years dreaming of Italy, I finally decided to jump into solo travel with the 9 day Rick Steves' Europe Heart of Italy tour. I have always had a penchant for traveling whether through books, photography, cooking, or visiting locations in person; after all, the mind travels as much as the body!  However, this was my first trip without friends or family.  A tour is a great way to take a gentle step into the world of solo travel without the worries of most travel arrangements or safety concerns.  Think of it as hybrid solo traveling between a few days on my own and the group tour with some free time to do as I wished.  What better way to do this than in Italy?  

I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite part of the tour.  How does one choose between the art, food, history, landscape, language, olive harvest, other tour members, local people, and vibrancy of everything Italy has to offer?  I genuinely enjoyed the others on the trip as well.  While I was a bit worried that they may not want to interact with the solo travelers, this was far from the case.  We wove in and out of each other's experiences, even during the free time we had to explore on our own.  I would happily travel with any of them again in the future (tour friends: let me know if you are interested!).

Expect 2-8 miles of walking on uneven cobblestone with stairs each day of this tour (see the map above for the number of nights you stay in each location).  It is worth training for that distance and the terrain ahead of time so you can enjoy the trip and spare yourself some sore muscles.  Since I was on the younger side for my tour, I was given a room on the top floor of each hotel to spare those who have achy knees from climbing several flights of stairs.  This means that I had some of the best views of each city!  You will see pictures of this throughout each site's dedicated page.  What I love about traveling on a Rick Steves tour is that there is a nice balance between structured and unstructured time, no need to make hotel or travel arrangements between cities, all of the breakfasts and half of the dinners are covered, I did not have to worry about gratuities for the hotels or tour guides, and I did not have to wait in lines!  I have seen so many pictures of the lines at some of the places; we just walked right into because the company arranged it all ahead of time.  

Come and join me for my best vacation to date, the adventures, and learn a few Italian words along the way in this digital scrapbook! 

Andiamo! (Let's go!)

 A Little About Me

After years of paying off graduate school loans, I was ready to celebrate with a new set of stamps in my passport!  Preferring to travel when the temperatures are a bit cooler and the schoolyear is in full swing to reduce the number of tourists, I knew I would need to travel by myself as friends and family were not available.  I could not wait to see Italy after reading the classics like Dante's Divine Comedy, Virgil's Aeneid, or Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome.

As a big believer in fully throwing myself into new things, it did not take long after securing my spot on the trip.  Quickly, I was starting to learn Italian (highly recommend learning basics of the language; it served me well as you will see in restaurants and taxis alike), learning about the Etruscan people, and physical therapy to hike Cinque Terre with ease (weather permitting).  It did not take long for people in all aspects of my life to become as excited about Italy as I was, eager to hear all about the trip when I returned home with some even planning their own Italian vacation after hearing about mine.  My dad gladly volunteered to come and pet sit my 8 month-old mischievous but very adorable kitten.  Friends counted down excitedly with me.  Coworkers were waiting to hear with bated breath about all of my experiences and they are still asking about it months later.  My energy and excitement about this adventure was contagious!

My family stumbled across Rick Steves when packing for a trip to visit family when a suitcase zipper broke.  My parents quickly looked for a location nearby that sold a new one and were surprised to see a store they had passed by many times, but not entered: the Rick Steves headquarters store.  They left with travel brochures and the new suitcase.  It was not long before they went on their first Rick Steves tour (one of many!) and shared their love of these tours with me on my first tour: Best of Ireland.  After that trip, I decided to leap into international solo travel with Italy.

I could not have been more pleased with my trip and continue to bask in the glow of the Tuscan sun that continues to reverberate: Italian lessons continue as I plan to return, I am learning traditional Italian cooking, and keep in touch with a few of the lovely people I met on the tour (see the Post-Tour page for more).

Join me as I share my adventure with you, hopefully helpful advice, and lessons learned from a solo-traveling gal who fully immersed herself in the wonderful things Italy has to offer!