Have you ever been kinda 'meh' over a travel destination? I am super excited about going to Italy, but I am not really looking forward to a couple of the cities where I'm stopping, namely Rome and Venice. It's not like I could get away with NOT going to either one. It is an absolute necessity from a first timer to Italy point of view. Not going to either or neither would probably be considered sacrilege. Everyone I've heard from regarding these two cities have told me that it's really overrun with tourists (like me, the IRONY), it's full of long lines for major sites, and pickpockets. Their stories are filling me with a sort of dread. I am the kind of tourist that likes the off-the-beaten-path cities/towns. This is very hard to find in Italy, especially without a car, but I think I've settled into a nice compromise of two biggies and two very small towns (more on that later).Then again, I think I shouldn't be dumb and let others dictate my feelings on a place when I haven't seen it for myself yet. After all, I was told I'd probably get kidnapped when I went to Brazil and the same for Colombia. I was also told I would experience some pretty bad racism in Japan...and nothing could've been further from the truth. In fact I had the best travel experiences of my life in these places. I don't think anything bad will happen in Rome or Venice, but I'm a little leery of the general atmosphere. I don't think anyone wants to be thought of as a walking dollar/euro sign, but this is the general impression I'm getting from folks who've been there. To sort of offset the feeling of being a fanny-pack wearing camera toting ohh ahh tourist, I've booked an apartment in Rome and am staying a bit back from the hordes in St. Marks square in Venice. I'm hoping this will give me a better feel of the cities.
On the flip side there are two cities that I'm completely excited about experiencing. One of which is Matera. I'm going to stay in one of the cave hotels. It looks like it's going to be an utter bitch to get there and to make matters worse, the order of cities on my itinerary is completely jacked. I must've been high! So I'm going to hope that there's a plane out of Bari, the closest town to Matera with an airport, to get me back north. Another town where I'm stopping is Spello, somewhere in Umbria. Someone suggested I go to Spoleto, but I wanted to go somewhere smaller and maybe a little more peaceful.
Oh yeah, I've scaled back my original itinerary quite a bit to 5 cities. Venice, Rome, Matera, Spello, Milan. I don't want to constantly worry about how I'm going to get myself to the train station every 2 days. It's a vacation, I want it to feel like one. I also stopped practicing Italian, but am restarting today. It just got overwhelming in my mind and it still is. I still don't understand what I'm saying or why, but I'm just going to trust the process and hope for the best. Like Rome and Venice. :D
