Can I Actually take a European Trip Without Planning Every Moment?

I have an upcoming trip to Roma at the end of March.  Who was I kidding to think I could stay away from Italia for over a year!  It's close though, my last time on Italian soil was in November 2010, so it's been 16 months.

A few months ago I found very reasonable airfare from Savannah to Rome, under $1000, and that is always a bargain when I can find it.  So mom and I will be spending 8 nights in the Eternal city at the end of March, I can't wait!  It's as if a long-lost dear friend is calling me back, and her name is Roma!  And, now that I've had 22 weeks of Italian language lessons I'm very eager to try out my slightly larger Italian vocabulary!

Back in early November I found what appeared to be a terrific Roman rental apartment on the VRBO website.  I contacted the owner and she was quick to make a positive reply that the apartment was available.  She put me in contact with the management company she uses and a deposit was made.  I was thrilled to have found this 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom ground floor (courtyard entry) apartment just a block from Campo dei Fiori, a very central location.  The owner and management company were great to deal with, answering all my questions.

Fast forward to the end of November, just 10 days before I was departing for a 2 week trip to France and I get an email from the apartment management company.  They erroneously accepted the apartment booking for a time when the apartment would be unavailable due to renovations...UGH!  I did not want to deal with this right before departing for France, what a headache!  The management company immediately offered 4 other similar apartments, but none of them "fit the bill" like the original. Either it was a great location and no elevator to a 4th floor walk-up (a no-go for mom), or there was elevator access but the location was too far from our desired location. 

In the end the owner was accommodating and my whole deposit including the foreign transaction fee (which was charged to the credit card I used to make the deposit) was refunded.  So now, I was searching apartment rental websites in search of that elusive "perfect" place when mom had a great idea.

For years, every time we visit Roma we salivate at the possibility of staying at the Albergo del Senato, a lovely hotel right in front of the Pantheon.  Seriously, you cannot get much more central in Roma than the Senato.  I checked their website and found the rates for our dates to be "not too astronomical" so we decided to splurge and booked 8 nights there.  It also helped having friends who recently stayed there over the New Year's holiday tell us how terrific it was and that we would not be disappointed with this decision!

So, by early February the only things "set in stone" were airfare and hotel and I was honestly considering not booking anything else and just loading my iPhone with the 2 Roma-based foodie apps I was dying to purchase and "winging it" from there.  BUT, come on now? Me, the anal retentive travel planner, not plan ANYTHING?  Of course I couldn't let go completely!

I did purchase the 2 apps, Eat Rome by Elizabeth Minchilli and Rome for Foodies by Katie Parla, I can't wait to give them a "live, on the ground" test, but I have to say, I like what I've seen so far with these two apps.

Once the food related phone apps were purchased I thought, "How can I not book another tasting with VinoRoma"?!  So off I went to Hande's website to book her fairly new (maybe a year old) Sparkling Saturday wine tasting.  I am so looking forward to doing another wine tasting with Hande (or one of the other sommeliers) at VinoRoma.  I've already learned from Hande there is a world of Italian sparkling wines out there beyond my beloved prosecco!

So by last week the airfare, hotel and a wine tasting were booked.  I was still doing good with the "don't over plan" philosophy when mom sent me a link to an New York Times In Transit article from January.  Holy Moly....the Palazzo Farnese had started conducting one tour a week in English.  This palazzo is where the French Embassy is located and the interior has some of the most incredible ceiling frescoes you could imagine.  How do I know this?  Well, because Piazza Farnese is one of my (and mom's) favorite piazzas in Roma and we've had the good fortune on previous trips to be walking by the building when the upper floor windows were wide open and we could spy upwards from street level a glimpse of the ceiling in one of the rooms. Ever since then we wanted to go inside, but until recently the tours had to be booked way in advance by letter or maybe phone, I can't completely recall, but I do remember I thought it was a lengthy process.

According to this New York Times article the tours can now be booked online.  Being the good travel planner I am, I quickly clicked on my keyboard and went to the booking site.  After navigating to the calendar listing the March tour dates I clicked on the one and only English tour that was scheduled the week we would be in Roma and to my absolute dismay, all the spots (only 25 available) were full...UGH!  And here I thought a month in advance would be plenty of time.  But my hopes were buoyed when I saw there was a tour offered in Italian, hey, maybe my language lessons would pay off?  Nope, no dice again, all the spots on the Italian tour booked.  My last hope were 2 French tours listed on the calendar and jackpot!  I was able to book the last 2 spots on a 5pm tour.  Of course, we can barely manage proper greetings in French, so understanding what the tour guide will be telling us is a fantasy, but at least we will get to see the ceiling frescoes up close!

So as of this week I now have airfare, hotel, wine tasting and Palazzo Farnese tour booked.  Is that the end of my planning madness?  Well, yes and no.  There was one last booking I wanted to make. Since we arrive in Roma on a Sunday and I know many restaurants are not open for dinner on Sunday evenings, I turned to my trusty Roma food apps and found a place that we're excited to try that is open on Sundays.  One quick email to the staff at the Albergo del Senato and our arrival night dinner reservation is booked.

Ahhhh...I think I can now sit back and relax now.  A few things are booked and a few things are floating in my head of what we'd like to do such as a new exhibit of Vatican artifacts that is opening at the Musei Capitolini, not to mention a day trip to Ariccia for the famous fraschette with the even more famous porchetta and a (return) day trip to Orvieto.  Of course, that all depends on how the "wind might be blowing" on any particular day and if we just want to sit in a piazza with a glass of prosecco watching Roman life play out in front of us.