Travel diary

Another travel adventure!

RiA
1 November, 2016
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The travel bug

I had such a great time on the beautiful island of Santorini that I was already thinking of where to go next. A new solo travel adventure. By now, I’d definitely caught the solo travel bug, so I didn’t care where I went, I just wanted to do it again! My urge to jet off was even more spontaneous than before but like my first trip, this would be another special packaged up by Moi!

Since I didn’t have a plan for where I wanted to go, Skyscanner’s search ‘everywhere’ feature seemed like a good place to start. It allows you to plug in your preferred departure airport and date or if you don’t know when you’d like to go, you can choose ‘anytime’ instead. It then returns a list of destinations and the fares to each of the country’s main cities starting with the lowest price first. Perfect!

Choices

The search bought up the likes of Spain and Italy. There were other options which were cheaper but these two offered what I was looking for. As I’d already been to Reus, Barcelona and Ibiza in the past, I decided against Spain. Italy peaked my interest. I’d already been to Rome before with friends, but despite being in and out so quickly, and only seeing a few of the main attractions, I was interested in visiting another Italian city I’d never been to.
One of the places listed was Venice. I’d seen many pictures – mostly of gondolas lined up across from St Mark’s Campanile, you know the one! As I looked into things to do while in Venice, I realised I’d be able to do a lot quite quickly. I wondered if I could combine a visit to Venice with another city. After speaking to a few people who said Venice was easy to get around, it further confirmed my thoughts. It could be done in a couple of days. Nearby cities were Verona, Milan and Bologna. There was also Florence and Pisa – both further away and West of Venice. They were places I really had an interest in visiting. I began to think of a trip to Venice combined with another one or two cities.

Next stop – new adventure!

So, I booked it. I found a good deal with Ryanair for a return flight to Venice. It seemed to make sense in my head, but once I started to think about itineraries and timings, logistically flying into and out of Venice made no sense at all! I really wanted to go to Florence and Pisa, but I’d literally be going backwards and forwards

I made a snap decision. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it properly. I decided to book a flight from London to Pisa. I’d keep my return flight to the UK from Venice which I’d already booked. It did mean I’d lose a bit of money but I’d easily have spent that going back and forth travelling. The thought of visiting another few cities made me push that to the back of my mind.

I’d be going on my first city-hopping trip. I did wonder if I made the right decision since I’d never done anything like it before. My excitement quickly took over that thought!