anyone else out there addicted to Italy?

I've only been once and I'm dying to go back. I'm trying to figure out a way to go for a few months or even a year. Don't know if that will be possible. Maybe it's just people named Julie. ;)

I do want to go to other places too though. My sister and I going to do the Camino in Spain in a few years and I want to go to Denmark soon too.

No, you're not crazy. In May we're headed there for the 15th time. It's an extremely varied country, and just packed with beautiful scenery, historic sites, and magnificent art. There is so much to do that in all our trips, we have rarely revisited specific places; Rome, Florence, and Venice being exceptions to that. Our "problem" is that we never manage to do all the things I tab in my guide books, so one trip sets us up for wanting to return. Our upcoming trip, for example, is for two weeks in Tuscany, where we've been at least three times. Except for Florence, no place on our itinerary is a repeat.
BTW, I feel the same way about France, which we've visited 12 or 13 times.
We also branch out every couple of years. Since 2005, we've done trips to Scandinavia, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Croatia. We enjoyed all of them, too.

We keep going back, but with occasional jaunts to some other place at the beginning or end of our trips to Italy. We've been four times and are planning our fifth visit for next year. We'll be going to Barcelona first for a few days, primarily to see the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, and then on to Italy, including at least Spoleto in Umbria and Rome. I easily have enough potential itineraries for Italy for ten more trips.

My theory about what makes Italy so special is that there is no other country on earth that can compete with it on a per square mile basis for culture, history, art, food, natural beauty, architecture, music, and so much more. There are other countries that can compete with Italy on a few of those, but not on all of them. Take history, for example - Italy has the Roman Empire AND the Renaissance. Most cities in Europe were just a collection of huts when Rome was ruling the Mediterranean.

Our first visit was in 2003 and I studied a little Italian before going. I got hooked as well on this amazing country and started studying the language more seriously for our following trips. It really deepens the experience to be able to engage in conversation with the locals. And it's a very fun language to speak.

Can't agree more with Michael! We've visited 3 times as well and while I was planning our last (3rd) trip, I thought that this would be our last trip to Italy for a while and that on future trips, we'd branch out & see other countries in Europe but since visiting for the third time, I want to return to Italy again! My friends & family think I'm nuts for wanting to go back to Italy again but I don't care! My husband and I feel at home there. The people are lovely, the food is wonderful, the historical sites amazing, etc. The list goes on! Can't wait to return to Italy on a future trip. I'm even dreaming about retiring and moving to Italy! A girl can dream, can't she??

Michael:
I've been to BCN several times since my bro& sister in law lived there for some years. There is much more to BCN than the Sagrada Familia, which I found less interesting and beautiful than most other things. The old medieval part is best. Give it 4 nights.

I'm addicted. I admit it. I'm planning 2 trips this year. I went 2 times last year. This will be about my 12 or 13th time. I even have gone so far to ask for Rosetta Stone Italian lessons for a birthday a few years ago so I'd have better understanding of the language when traveling there.

Been to Peru and England and France on vacations, but while there wished I was in Italy. I feel homesick then I'm not in country. I daydream Italy, my calendar is Italy, I cook mostly Italian, my home is decorated with vacation photos from Italy...get the picture?

I probably was Italian in a previous life.....that's the only explanation.

Get on Wikipedia and research Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan Airports to see where you can fly on EasyJet.com, Vueling.com or any other good budget European air carrier.

That way you can visit other places within Europe and fly into Italy very cheaply. It would allow you to see new places AND visit your beloved Italian cities on the same trip.

It's easy to go in and out of U.K., but budget air carriers don't go from every big city to other big cities. You can see a little airline travel politics being played with routing.

Julie,

Based on my experience, what you're feeling is perfectly normal. I feel the same way. I typically visit several countries on each trip, but regardless of where I travel in Europe, I always get back to Italy every year. The reasons I like Italy are much the same as others have articulated - the food, scenery, culture, history, art, people, etc. and I also feel quite at home in some of the places I've visited. Of all the languages in Europe, I most enjoy Italian so that's what I've been studying for several years. On each trip, I try to both explore some new part of the country as well as re-visit places I've been before.

I'm already working on plans for my next visit to Italy this year.

You're not crazy. I go to Italy every year, too. I thought it was because my family is from Campania, and it really is home for me. I've been to other places - France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, England, Poland, Croatia, Greece and Turkey - and loved them, but I feel like I'm cheating on Italy!

I started going to Italy with my parents when I was a child and felt like I was really home. The first time I went to Sicily it took my heart.

The line in Roman Holiday where Audrey Hepburn replies that her favorite city was Rome makes me cry. So do the strolling musicians singing Neapolitan songs in restaurants all over Italy.

I like the idea of flying into another country and then going to Italy.

Guilty...I'm obsessed. My first trip was in 1980 and reconnected with our family in Calabria. Contact had been lost since 1939 with the onset of WWII. It was an incredible adventure and has caused me to want to return as often as possible...and I have. Italy will seduce you, sometimes it will infuriate you, but it will always seduce you.

With retirement in 2005 came three goals and number three was to return to Italy every summer for a month. Fortunately, all three goals have been realized, to date. We've made friends with many people, particularly in the Castelli Romani area south of Roma.

We do visit other countries, but always include the majority of time in Italy. My cousin Lena from Calabria lives in southern Switzerland with her husband and children and we stay with them every second year. In 2010 we spent two weeks driving around Ireland with a loosely developed itinerary and then flew to Italy to finish our trip. Last summer we ended our adventure in Paris primarily because Delta has non-stop flights from there to Pittsburgh, where we live. I didn't have any burning desire to visit Paris, but the direct flight was the convincing factor. Incidentally, we did really like Paris and its attractions.

Italy is my happy place and just being there is enough for me.

Go and have fun.

Buon viaggio,

I am so in love with Venice...we've been over to Europe 3 times since 2008, and all three have gone to Venice. (London and Portsmouth, UK all three, but only because my sister lives in Portsmouth and we fly in and out of Heathrow.) Our last trip in 2012 we were going to do North France, Paris, down to Avignon, Nice, then return to Cinque Terre (second time) and Florence for the first time...and I say to hubby...but we are only a few hours by train from Venice, let's go back. So we ended up starting the trip in Venice (flew from Heathrow) and going 'backwards'. And of course, because we spent those 2 extra nights in Venice, I chopped a night from Nice and Avignon. Hubby says next time, we are not going back to Venice...lol. And I am really starting to yearn for a return to Rome, which we did in 2008, and would love to explore Tuscany region more...yet I still want more of France, and to visit Scotland and Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands...the list goes on...but Italy is my 1st love...

I think that I may need to have my husband read this thread so he can see that I am not the only one that feels this way!

I have been to Italy twice, and dream constantly about returning again. Since returning from our last trip I have been researching my family ancestry, and have learned my great-great-grandfather was from a tiny commune in Calabria. I even meet the dual-citizenship requirements! On our next trip I would like to head south and see what I can learn about my family roots!

I imagine that my love for Italy will be life-long and that I will keep going back for more!

Not crazy at all. I have gone to Italy (Rome for a week and Florence for a week) twice. Also have been to Paris and London. We are planning our 2015 trip and my brain says to go somewhere I haven't been but my heart keeps coming back to Italy. Would like to do a more rural trip this time.

I have to agree with all of the posters here. There is something about Italy that draws people back over and over again. Partly it's because there's such a variety of places to see that you can't get the full flavor in one trip (unless it's a long one). I've been to Italy 4 times but my trips have mostly been to different areas of the country - a tour overview of the country and then separately to Tuscany, Sicily, and the Lakes area in the north.

I've not been to Europe nearly as many times as a lot of the contributors here have. In general I don't go back to the same places over again because there's so much more I want to see and I can only travel there about every other year (not several times a year as some here) so Italy is unique to me in that respect. However I must admit that I feel that way about France also, would jump at the chance to go back again.

So, no you're not crazy (or else we're all crazy too). But you may find that some of your friends and family think you're crazy just because they don't understand. We understand.

I'm with everyone else - Italy keeps on calling me back. I am trying to plan this years vacation - it will involve Crete and maybe Istanbul, but trying to see if I can somehow fit in a stopover in Italy - want to go back to Rome and love Venice and really enjoyed Orvieto when I was there......oh dear!

So addicted we've barely left for 20 months. :-) So much to see and do, and not doing is good too. And the food, the wine, the people.... I am afraid of the culture shock when we do return to the US.

Thank you all for your stories, replies, insight, etc.! It feels so good to know I am not alone...David, I think your suggestion is wonderful. I am going to investigate what our options our to include Italy on our trip. I feel the same way as you all do. I have been thinking about getting a language software to start learning the language because I have heard that it makes your trip so much more special to be able to interact in the native language. I have had a hard time justifying it because I don't know when I'll go back, especially since I feel like I should go see more of the world. So far I've been to Italy twice, and Germany, France, London, and Ireland once and I have a long bucket list of other places. However, even though I am young, some days life seems so short and I think to myself, if this was my last trip to plan, where would I go?? And, without a doubt, Italy would definitely be it!

Julie... this site is a great place to come to reaffirm your feelings.... as there are many of us out there:)
I think you need to follow your heart and travel to the places that make you happy. I love all of Europe but have a few favorites that I return to as often as possible...Italy, France, Germany, English countryside... and while I have traveled to many other places there are a few that call me back over and over. And as you stated in your last post... where would you go if it were your last trip?
I think that it is a great way to look at it. Although there is the trite statement 'you will return' that is not true for everyone. I just recently lost a good friend who should have had more time to travel, but life interfered. Thankfully, she made the decision to spend her time and money on as much travel as she could manage and at the end she had no regrets. And her friends have the beautiful memories of time spent on amazing trips in wonderful locations...those times are priceless.

I love all these pro-Italy posts! We are spending more than half of our three weeks there this summer. We went in 2000 to Italy and honestly, I just did not like it. Not sure why. But we are taking the kids this time and wanted to go to Rome with them, so... here we are back in Italy for most of it! I am really looking forward to it - hoping I just missed something last time, was too tired, we moved through too fast... something! I think I will love it this time! :)

I'm an Italy addict also although I've travelled many times to France and the UK, and most other European countries. I've also gone to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, etc. But Italy remains my favourite and I seem to go there every couple of years.

If you want to look at cheap travel options from Italy to other countries, check out blu express - a discount Italian airline. I flew them from Rome to Nice. They have some interesting destinations in smaller communities.

http://www.blu-express.com/en/index.html

We made our first overseas trip this past spring. Although our primary destination was Italy, we chose to take a cruise to minimize handling our luggage and to make traveling between cities easier. We were happy that we chose to plan our trip this way since it got us to some of the areas in Italy that we had dreamed about while allowing us a taste of port cities in France and Spain. But like everyone else, while away from Italy, we felt the pull back and were very excited when we sailed into the port at Naples to see the Welcome sign on the seawall! We had thought that this was our dream vacation in our semi-retirement. In fact, like I said in the beginning, that was our FIRST trip to Italy. Instead of satisfying our desire for overseas travel, it only succeeded in whetting our appetite, and it is Italy that we dream of. Rick Steves' guide books gave us the self-confidence to venture out, and the port city cruise book made my husband realize that although inconvenient, missing our ship was something that could be overcome if necessary. We are now planning our return trip to Italy but this time we are looking at the Rick Steves tours.