Prologue

This trip was something Greg and I had been thinking about ever since Alison and John were married, and particularly after they had children. John is Italian-American, with fond memories of his grandparents and of course, our grandchildren are half Italian-American. We got serious about it about two years ago, when some reservations about how young Julia was. We made some concrete plans to go during Spring 2012, but needed to scrap those, for various reasons. Initially, we planned for a week but airfares are SO expensive that it seemed to make sense to go for two weeks. Now that the girls were 14, 12 and almost 7, it seemed like the perfect time.
We had first experienced staying in apartments during Sabbatical 2010 and loved it! It really helps you feel like you actually live in a place for the length of time you are there. I owe thanks to my Italian study partner (CH--you know who you are!) for suggesting it. We've searched through both home away.com and vrbo.com. Many times, apartments are listed on both services. Vacation Rental by Owner is reputed to be cheaper but I have no evidence to back that up.
We first had to start with the airfares and after the sticker shock on that abated, decided on the length of time we wanted to start in Venice and where to stay. Then, we looked for a Tuscan house and had two days in between Venice and Cortona. We debated between going to Verona or to Bologna. We had taken Alison to the opera in Verona when she was 15 and liked the idea of doing that, so Verona was the choice. With the selection of an airport hotel in Florence and the rental of our 9 passenger van!, we were ready to go!

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