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MY WIFE AND I VISITED Italy this year. We flew to Venice, where we stayed three days, and then hopped a train to Florence, where we spent the next five days. After that, we rented a car for three days and toured the Tuscany countryside, before catching a train to Rome for our final six days.
I learned a lot about Italy, but I also learned some things about myself. Here are 11 takeaways from our trip:
1. Going home was one of my favorite parts. Before I retired, I thought I’d spend months on the road, and maybe even live overseas for a while. But after two or three weeks of traveling, I’m ready to go home.
I miss my home, friends and routine when I’m away for a while. I don’t see how people, no matter how much time they spend traveling, can sell their house and not have a place to go home to. I wouldn’t feel safe and secure.
2. If I’m going to travel and see everything I want to see, I better do it now. While we were in Florence, my wife and I climbed to the top of the dome that covers the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as the Duomo. It was 463 steps to the top, and the passage is sometimes steep. There are many towers in Italy with breath-taking views that also involve climbing many steps.
I can’t see us being fit enough in our 80s to do things like that. Our 70s might be the last chance to travel without physical limitations.
3. Travel is not cheap. We have two more major trips planned this year. Funding these trips means drawing down our investment portfolio.
I don’t know if I’d have felt comfortable spending this much money on travel if I didn’t have a financial advisor giving me the thumbs up. That reassurance allows us to spend without fear that we’ll run out of money.
4. I wrote in another article about having only one credit card in our later years—how it would simplify our finances and make them easier to manage. I was wrong. We should have at least two credit cards.
My wife and I paid for almost everything in Italy by using credit cards. While dining at a restaurant in a small town in Tuscany, our credit card was rejected. We tried three times with no luck. I checked my Citi Mobile app and it was temporarily shut down for maintenance. Maybe that was the reason for the rejection.
Luckily, I brought another card with me—because we didn’t have enough euros to pay for the dinner. That’s another lesson I learned: Make sure you have enough local currency for emergencies, because you might not be able to charge everything to a credit card. For instance, we stayed at a hotel in a small town where we were required to pay part of the bill—the city taxes portion—in euros.
5. How to manage the exchange rate can be tricky. When you use your credit card, sometimes restaurants and hotels will ask you if you want to charge in euros or dollars. I once paid a restaurant bill in dollars. But the exchange rate seemed higher than when I was charging in euros.
According to American Express, if you’re using a credit card with no transaction fees, you usually save money if you make the purchase in local currency. When you choose to charge in dollars, there’s sometimes a hidden currency conversion fee added to the transaction by the merchant’s credit card processor.
6. I bought an international wireless travel plan when we went to Italy. Yes, you can make phone calls, text and access the internet using wi-fi. But I wanted to use Google Maps and get real time directions on my iPhone, and for that I needed a cell signal. Not all rental cars have GPS navigation.
If you’re traveling overseas, Google Maps is a lifesaver when trying to find your way around on foot or by car. It’s easy to get lost when walking those narrow pathways that traverse the canals in Venice, and those country roads while driving in Tuscany.
If you don’t want to pay for data usage, you can use wi-fi to download your destination ahead of time in Google Maps and save it. But transit and walking directions are unavailable offline. You also won’t get traffic information, alternate routes and lane guidance while driving.
7. If you’re traveling in Europe by train, the Trainline app is an easy way to check train times and prices, and to purchase tickets. There’s no need to print out a ticket. If you have the app, you can use a mobile ticket with a QR code that’s stored on your phone and that can be scanned at the station or after you board the train.
8. If you’re renting a car, it’s a good idea to schedule an early morning pickup because of the shortage of automobiles. When we picked up our car at 10 a.m., we were fortunate to get the last car that was available. If we had scheduled the pickup later in the day, we might not have gotten a car that would have fit our schedule.
9. You should shop around for the best deal on hotels. When traveling overseas, we usually book our rooms through Hotels.com. For every 10 one-night stays, you get a free night valued at the average value of the previous 10 nights earned. If you’re a gold member, you’re entitled to complimentary room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out at select properties when they’re available.
We received a free upgrade at a hotel in Florence. The room was located on the top floor, and had a private outdoor patio with a view of the city. It was one of the highlights of our trip. The accompanying photo shows the view of the Duomo from our room.
10. If you take medication, keep it in your possession when boarding the plane. Don’t stash it in your check-in baggage because it could get lost in transit. Also, the plane’s cargo area can get very cold for medicine that needs to be kept at certain temperatures. Losing your medication is a good way to ruin your trip.
11. When you live on the West Coast, it isn’t easy traveling to Europe. How great it would be to fly from Italy to Newark, New Jersey, and not have to take the long six-hour connecting flight to Southern California. Still, no matter how tiresome and inconvenient it is, we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
Dennis Friedman retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in manufacturing. Born in Ohio, Dennis is a California transplant with a bachelor’s degree in history and an MBA. A self-described “humble investor,” he likes reading historical novels and about personal finance. Check out his earlier articles and follow him on Twitter @DMFrie.
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Another tip: before leaving, send yourself an email to an address you don’t usually use on your phone or primary EM address (say an extra yahoo.com one). In that email include your itinerary, return flight info (including number of who’s picking you up at the airport) as well as photos of your drivers license and passport photos.
For itinerary use tripit.com. Can record flights, hotels, activities chronologically. Can also download the pdf’s for transportation. Can access from online too. (In Budapest currently).
This is just incase you happen to lose your phone (guilty) with all that information within it. Then you can at least go to your hotel’s computer and access that email. Plus the info to disable your phone ASAP. Cheers.
Since I started long distance travel before cell phones (internet cafes were a thing back then) I carry a piece of paper with important numbers and a copy of my main passport page in my money belt, along with copies of my credit and ATM cards elsewhere in my luggage.
Travel to Europe is my passion but I moved from NJ to CA a few years ago, so I can totally feel the pain. I remember on one occasion, 3 of us took a business class flight from Newark to London using our frequent flyer points. After our dinner and a movie, the flight attendant announced we arrived in London.
It was a short flight.
I took my daughter and granddaughter to Rome this spring — husband stayed home with the dog!
The trip was great!! Showing a teen “something different” is a lot of fun. I’m 80, but made sure I walked at least a mile every day before the trip. We climbed all over the Colosseum, walked very long distances through Pompeii, etc., but also sat outside in March at a tea room next to the Spanish Steps and sipped $9 ginger ales. (Maybe spending some inheritance in advance.) We also did a LOT of time at a Benneton store!
Best tip for European travel. Stay out of terminal 5 at Heathrow — it is a full fledged nightmare!! I think that most US connections from the US to Europe go through the terminal. The “experience” should be avoided!!
We went to Rome in 2010 with our then-16-year-old daughter. We made sure to book some fun stuff like a tour of the city on Vespas, and her guide was a tall, dark, and handsome Italian boy around 18. Every picture of her, she’s beaming.
We’d spent the previous week in Tuscany with family, so by the end of our time in Rome, she was asking, “Don’t they have anything but Italian food here?” It had never occurred to me one could get tired of it (I certainly hadn’t), but to be fair, I realized that she’d grown up in our California college town with very diverse cuisines—Thai one day, sushi another, tacos another—and wasn’t used to eating all one thing for a couple of weeks. So I got on my computer and found an “American” restaurant called The Perfect Bun, and I have photos of her with a hot dog in one hand and a Heineken beer in the other (drinking age was 16 in Italy), looking blissfully happy. We found an Indian restaurant the next night.
There is a bigger lesson with Dennis’ 2nd item. When I was 50, I made a realistic estimate of how many years I thought I had left. I fugured I had 40. I also recognized that the first 20 were likely to be a lot easier than the second 20. At that point, I reached two conclusions that changed my life. One was the same as Dennis’ 2nd item: Do things now! The other was to work to make those last years just as good – exercise more, stay mentally active, eat better, avoid unnecessary stress, and just be more active. I’m now halfway there and still feel 50.
Those two together are about some of the best advice out there.
Best advice is travel while healthy, do your bucket list, and enjoy it, travel bills be damned. You can admire your investments and count your pennies while in your recliner in the assisted living facility. Sadly, too much enjoyment is postponed until it is too late for enjoyment.
Love all the suggestions you have and that your commenters have here. I might add that we pack 2 carry-ons and, if needed for gifts or a long vacation, 1 checked bag. Pack the must-haves in the carry-ons (of course) plus a couple of days of clothing. Various and unpredictable events caused our checked bag to get lost or delayed by 3 days—and it might have been totally lost for all we knew. Ecuador, poor Spanish, small town. My souvenir of the trip is a too-small T-shirt that I bought of necessity at the flea market. It brings back fond memories of an other-wise great time.
Last year we took two big checked bags and two carryons for a little less than three months. Way too much. We leave Monday with one of each for at least six months before seeing our other stuff. Previous was a winter trip so bulkier clothes, but even so… No travel hacks really, just making do with less.
For #9:
Hotels.com is doing away with their loyalty program where you get 1 night free for every 10 nights. They are downgrading the program to basically a 2% back program instead of the more generous 10%. The devaluation follows the trend of what other hotel loyalty programs have done recently.
Hi Nate,
See my previous comments posted below.
as with all markets, competition. let us know if you (any of you) find a better deal. Thanks.
I had to laugh at this one because we’re in our last full day of a two-week trip to Spain, also from California. I definitely resonate with #1. We have taken several three-week trips, and I’ve really identified that I hit a wall at the end of two weeks and start to feel miserably homesick, even if I’m somewhere awesome and having a good time. I really do like my routine and comforts of home. It’s hard, though—as you mention (#11), it’s a long haul to Europe from California, so you want bang for the buck in terms of time spent.
Here’s one I’d add to your list.
#12. Be smart about what and when you eat. We’ve had a rough time on this trip with some meals that didn’t sit right. An added complication is how late dinners are in Spain. I’m normally early to bed/rise, so when I eat a big meal in the late evening, it interferes with my digestion and sleep. In the future, I’m (a) going to focus on lunch rather than dinner and (b) not going to feel pressured by the “when in Rome” thing to eat in ways/times that don’t make me feel good. That can ruin a trip.
12a. Be sure to carry a healthy supply of your go-to over-the-counter indigestion aids (Tums, Pepto, etc.). No need to go into details why, but if you’re in a foreign country and can’t find the stuff you would rely on at home, you might be sorry.
Agree about the meal times in Spain! I mostly ate tapas for dinner. I also carried Immodium in case I had to travel with intestinal problems, plus an antibiotic for killing any really bad bugs. Rarely needed them, it was my feet and ankles that gave me problems.
When I was in Barcelona, behaving like an ignorant U.S. tourist and eating dinner at 630 or 7 meant no problem getting a table at all the best tapas places.
I have never made it to Europe yet, but will…hopefully within next 2-3 years with family. So what time do people in Spain usually have dinner? close to midnight? 🙂
I think that 10:00 or later is pretty standard. Remember that Spain is still on the siesta system (or was, before Covid) and things are really dead mid-afternoon. The system works well in the south, not so much in the north.
I recall it being 8 p.m. or later, but others may know better. My godmother lived in Spain for the final decades of her life, and I remember as a teenager heading out to dinner at 10 p.m.
A couple of days of my trip were at an academic conference at a university about an hour from Barcelona. I was one of the plenary speakers, and the organizers took us out to dinner both nights. The first night started at 8 p.m. The second started at 9:30 p.m.—and that was after a full day of the conference that had started at 9 a.m.! I was texting my husband (who had stayed back in Barcelona) that we were just starting the meal at 9:30, and I got a lot of laugh emojis back. I’m usually in bed by 9:30.
I asked the woman sitting next to me at that late dinner: “So, I understand that people eat late when they’re going to restaurants. But what about when you’re just at home?” She said “Nah, I’ve got kids, and they have to get up for school. We eat at 8 p.m. at home” (which I still think is late!).
A few years ago in Valencia, the restaurants didn’t open for dinner until at least 10 — but it was summer.
Welcome home, I hope you enjoyed Italy. A few comments:
— 1. Good to find out what works for you. I traveled for months at a time, for years, until I was grounded by ill-health and Covid, but I kept my house. The mortgage was paid off so the carrying costs were low.
— 3. Travel can be expensive but it can also be cheap, entirely up to you. If you are interested in keeping your costs down I recommend Rick Steves’ “Europe Through the Back Door”. And some countries are cheaper than others and still worth seeing.
— 4. Definitely more than one credit – and ATM – card and split them with your wife. I traveled (solo) with at least three credit cards and two ATM cards. I also wore a money belt under my clothes. Get your local currency from an ATM at the airport when you arrive, unless your bank has lower fees for foreign currency than mine.
— 5. Always pay in local currency. You encountered the Dynamic Currency Conversion scam (look it up), and it is also infesting ATMs these days.
— 6. T-Mobile is my carrier and it includes reasonable international coverage for free. You can buy their coverage by the month. I don’t drive abroad and Google maps is also very good for public transport.
— 7. If you’re interested in train travel this is a great site: https://www.seat61.com/
Forgot to mention that if you are using public wi-fi, even if you aren’t checking your bank account or paying your credit card bills as I was, you need a VPN. I used to use Witopia and these days I use Proton.
Hotels.com recently announced a change in its rewards program that basically kills all its value.
Hi George, Hotels.com did announce they are making changes to their rewards program in mid-2023, but they haven’t announced all the details yet. They haven’t said anything about doing away with any of the benefits that I mentioned in the article. In fact, I called customer service and they told me those benefits aren’t going away. Thanks for reading the article.
In that case you might want to switch to booking.com. After a certain number of bookings you reach “Genius” level which comes with discounts.
#2 about steps and walking can’t be emphasized enough. Even if your investment portfolio declines today travel won’t be easier when older. Having left the Colosseum in Rome and currently in Belgrade to see the sites walking is unavoidable!
Dennis, you caught my attention in the first few lines as (1) we’re among those people who sold their house and travel, and (2) we leave for Italy on Monday!
We’re different, and the lifestyle isn’t for everyone. We haven’t really missed a place to go home to (although the carpet in the room we’re in right now could use a shampoo).
Whatever kind of travel one likes, your second point applies to all. Don’t wait.
Glad you enjoyed your trip and hope it’s not long before your advisor gives you a thumbs up for another.
I agree with your comments. I hope you enjoy your trip.
We’ve had two HD writers who have sold their homes and traveled the world — you and Mike Flack. For readers who are interested, here are their two stories:
https://humbledollar.com/2022/11/free-in-the-world/
https://humbledollar.com/2023/03/worldly-wisdom/
Four, no? Didn’t the Wassermans live in Europe this way until the pandemic too?
My recollection is they didn’t sell — they rented out their townhome while they lived in Spain.
It is great to fly from Newark to Europe, I’ve done it scores of times, Very convenient and you can avoid the hassle of going to Kennedy in NY.
One of our NJ benefits!
Dennis, thanks for the great advice. I want to second your praise of Google Maps. In 2019, my wife and and and two her brothers and wives went to Italy for 2 weeks. We picked up a rental van leaving Florence, driving through the Chiati region and some hill towns, ending the day at the home we rented just east of Siena. I was the navigator, and the Ap took us right to the front door, though hills, farms, lanes, and unmarked dirt roads. We then used it to drive to the small town of Alatri, and eventually Sorrento where we dropped the car.
My only other suggestion is bring my brother-in-law. He gladly drove the entire trip, and did a fantastic job. We go stuck in a steep, narrow lane on the outskirts of Siena. The road was closed at the end, and he had to back up a hundred yards, a 10-passenger, manual drive, Fiat van. It was quite the feat. Locals hung off their balconies and cheered. You have to love Italy.