I am going to change the format a bit. Instead of huge dream vacations I will be focusing more on individual cities since in this economy very few people can afford the money or have the time to take long drawn out vacations.I will still do the occasional dream vacation but for the most part just individual locations.
We will start this new format out with a trip to Florence, Italy.
My trips all start from South Central Pennsylvania and there are a number of airports relatively close that I would use. Whichever one gives me the best price for travel is the one I would use. I am not locked into just one.
When checking airline flights always check more than one departure airport is there is more then one reasonably close. I have Harrisburg, Baltimore and Washington DC airports fairly close to me so I have several options when it comes to checking prices.
I am pricing this trip based on leaving the 1st Sunday in March and coming back that Saturday.
Flying out of Harrisburg the best price I found currently is $1055 per person round trip with several stops along the way.
Flying out of Dulles in Washington DC you can get the same trip, with just 1 stop on the way for a current price of $734 per person round trip so checking multiple departure points can save a bunch of money.
Since the Cheapest flight I found was Turkish Airlines I found a short video clip of a Turkish Airlines plane landing in Bologna which is where all trips to Florence seem to go from the searching I did.
One thing that I love to do when I get into a new city is to look around and get a feel for the people and culture and the best way to do that is to find some areas where the locals live and eat and try out those restaurants and shops and then hit the touristy spots to compare the 2 and see if there is a big difference or if tourists are actually treated like friends rather just visitors that are hogging up the shops and causing traffic jams and such.
Some of this is research you will need to do once you get in country unless you have some friends or relatives that are local to the area. Never be afraid to approach someone and ask questions. The best way to make people be willing to help you is to at least make an attempt to speak at least some of the language of the country you are in. If the locals see you making an effort but having problems they will be more likely to help you out by speaking English. Not everyone is a great English speaker but English is pretty well known in most countries around the world so if you have some Italian in this case and they have some English you should be able to have at least a reasonably informative conversation.
Never having been to Florence my research shows that as much of Italy there are quite a number of Museums and of course some wonderful churches. See what you can see. Go to a Mass and watch the service. And of course make sure you eat hearty. You are not going to get Italian food any more authentic then when you are in Italy.
Just be cautious and pay attention to what is going on around you. Any big city anywhere in the world will have their share of less than desirable people but if you just pay attention you should have no trouble at all and speak to and treat people the way you want to be treated. They are not your servants you are not at home so behave and you will have an awesome trip.
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