60 & Over Travel Inspiration

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My wife and I planned our first bucket list trip and COVID canceled it! No matter it just gave us more time to plan and age. We waited two years before we would take that trip to Italy. Following COVID, immunizations and boosters neither one of us were in top notch health!

First, let me explain we are DIY travelers. My wife has severe asthma and MS and feels self conscious about her fatigue and difficulty breathing in groups. We don’t mind travel with a couple of friends but tour groups and cruises aren’t our style. We were very ambitious on our first trip and carried backpacks! We can call that mistake #1!
We have created a Travel Guide that you can purchase from our Etsy shop, https://italyhasmyheart.etsy.com/ Italy has my Heart!

Our mistake #2 was our itinerary. We planned something for everyday. It was way too much. Nine days into our trip Kay thought she had sprained her ankle on an all day large group tour (we thought it was small). By the third city she could no longer walk. We were able to get a taxi and get to the center piazza where she found a pharmacy and some compression bandages. We still had 8 days before we were flying home. We had to cancel all of our Rome tours. We found a hop on hop off bus and saw Rome from the outside. She managed to walk to the Coliseum, the Vatican and Trevi Fountain. When we got home we discovered she had a stress fracture. Stable but still fractured.
We wanted to truly experience Italy. We took cooking classes in several cities, ate at some wonderful inexpensive hole in the wall restaurants. We used the trains, buses and taxis. By the time we left we felt like seasoned pros.
If we are staying more than one night Air BnB is our choice. We find grocery stores or markets and cook lunch or dinner. It makes for a memorable trip just experiencing an Italian grocery store. Now I’ve said the praise about Air BnB’s but be careful. Our last one in Rome had 47 steps and 5 doors with different skelton keys to get to the apartment. So make sure your description says “lifts/elevators”.

The history and the food made this trip simply magical. When you plan your own trip you are going to have some bumps in the road. However, we are offering consulting zoom, phone however you want to talk and for an hourly rate we can help you with whatever you aren’t sure about.

#affilate #commissonmaybeearned