“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take 
half the clothes and twice the money.”     
                                                    Susan Heller
 
At the beginning of August, we fly to Frankfurt [via Seoul] to begin our driving holiday in Italy. The first leg from there will be a side trip to Antwerp to watch our younger daughter [Kieren] compete in the Euro Gay Games ballroom dancing competition. We had travelled to Budapest last year to watch her compete and are really looking forward to seeing her compete again.
 
Planning for the trip started in November 2012 once we established the dance competition dates. The Belgian leg will be built around the dance competition so those dates put a marker in the sand for the biggie in Italy. In Italy, we had decided that we would generally stay about a week in most places with a couple of shorter stops and with two fortnight stays in Sicily. For accommodation, we had used Airbnb.com when we went to New Orleans over the Xmas period last year. That had been very successful and we stayed in a delightful house on the edge of the French Quarter, so we opted to use them again for our big trip in Italy. We won't be picking up our car until the Italian section so our Antwerp needs are fairly simple - self-contained apartment, kitchen, washing machine, wi-fi internet and proximity to the dance venue. On the Italian section, our requirements are pretty much same with the added requirement of secure parking for the car. We were able to secure our first choice accommodation almost all of our 20 locations. The only occasion we missed out was because we would not be arriving at that location on a Saturday. We will let you know how the chosen accommodation pans out.

We need to be mobile and as self-contained as possible so have opted for the Peugeot Eurolease scheme. We pick up our car - a new Peugeot 308 in Milan [our 1^st  stop in Italy] and return it 121 days later at Rome airport. It is a diesel [economy] with GPS [peace of mind] and for the period of lease, it averages out at $NZ34/day [plus running costs, fuel, parking etc]. This also covers insurance and in the event of an accident, a replacement vehicle. Normally there would be added fees for pick up/return outside France but because of the duration of the lease, that will be wiped. We had opted for the compact model car because we needed a small vehicle for in-town running and on some of the narrower back roads. We had tested the likely luggage on the smaller 208 model but it would have resulted in some bags having to be placed on the back seat in full view and we felt that would be too tempting to those with sticky fingers. Hence its slightly bigger brother.

This will be our 4^th  trip to Italy so we are able to give less emphasis to some of the more visited sites, such as Venice, Cinque Terra, Florence and Siena. The more astute, however, will note that Rome gets another healthy lashing at the tail end of the trip. We love Rome so could not say goodbye to Italy without cuddling up to the Eternal City for a longer period that we have been able to enjoy on previous visits.

The route we've selected attempts to cover as much of the country as possible, with the stopovers providing a base for day trips around that area [hence the need for a car]. After a brief stay in Milan [The Last Supper], we head north for two weeks in the Lakes district before dropping down to Turin [the Shroud] then across to the gastronomic capital of Italy, Bologna. Then down into Tuscany [Buggiano], Umbria [just outside Assisi] and Abruzzo [Giulianova] on the eastern coastline. From there, a long drive to the tip of the heel of the boot in Puglia, a stay in a Trulli house [our only planned non wi-fi stop] and across the instep to Calabria [Vibo Marina], before crossing the Messina Strait and driving south to Modica in Sicily's south-west. A fortnight there and another in Palermo before returning to the mainland and two stops in the Naples - Sorrento area. From there, the final leg is to the south of Rome and then on to Rome itself. The total distance between all of the accommodation stops is approximately 5000 km - the side trips may be twice that.

At this stage [3 June], we are just over eight weeks away from leaving so still reading and researching to ensure we get the most out of each area. One of our biggest challenges is keeping our baggage weight down as the flight from Brussels into Milan has a strict 20 kg limit. Suspect that means we will be making some purchases after Milan.