Cleveland

Putting it Together (Part 1)

One of the most fun things about any trip is the planning.  At least for anal retentives like me, I guess.

 I remember my second trip to Europe in 1989.  I was to spend a month in Italy before meeting friends in Paris.  I had a wonderful time mapping out my trip, checking train schedules, and carefully making hotel reservations in my halting tourist Italian.It was to be my second trip to Italy.  In 1987 I had the good fortune to go to Pisa, Florence, Venice, and Milan.  Amazing trip, but pretty easy, planning-wise.  Not so with the 1987 journey.

Here were the stops on my second trip:

1987 Europe Trip Destinations

• Rome
• Tivoli
• Naples
• Pompeii
• Perugia
• Siena
• Rimini
• Assisi
• Ravenna
• Bologna
• Ferrara
• Verona
• Sirmione (Lago ie Garda)
• Stresa (Lago Maggiore)
• Cervinia
• Zermat (Switzerland)
• Lausanne
• Geneva
• Dijon
• Paris

  It was a GREAT trip.  Rome knocked me out.  For a history buff, Rome is heaven.  You can see the various layers of its vast history all around you.  Memorable moment:  Seeing Who Framed Roger Rabbit in Italian at an open-air cinema in Trastavere. 

My day trip to Tivoli was memorable because of The Villa d’Este, a spectacular hillside estate with water gardens that cascade down the hill.

In Siena I climbed the tallest brick tower in the world.  In Assisi I saw the altar where St. Francis preached to the birds.  In Rimini I attended the Mr. Olympia World Bodybuilding Championships.

In Verona I soaked up Romeo and Juliet lore and experienced my first earthquake.  I saw both sides of the Matterhorn, the Italian side (Cervinia) and the Swiss side (Zermat).  Saw a pretty good production of Evita in Geneva.  Met my friends Laura and Ceci for a week in Paris.

Except for one missed train connection in Italy, which resulted in the one and only time I have ever hitchhiked in my life, my vast planning paid off handsomely.  Everything worked.

I realize that planning a trip extensively doesn’t seem very sexy to many people.  “Where’s the spontenaeity?” they ask.  Well, spontenaiety is great if you are rich and have unlimited time.  But if you’re not, and you wait until the last minute to book things, you can get shut out, shut down, and wiped out.

Tomorrow:  Planning progress for this trip!

[Note:  I have many great photos from the second trip to Italy, but alas, I don’t have access to them while I am on the road.  I’ll put some up when I get home.]