Greetings all of you who helped me plan my previous (first)trip to Italy.
A year and a half ago I took my wife and her mother on a 12 day trip that started in Rome and ended in Paris, with 7 days in Tuscany and the Cinque Terre neatly tucked in the middle. There were many things I wanted to do or see, but compromised because the trip was a gift to them. One of them, who shall remain nameless, also left my RS Italy 2008 guidebook on a restaurant bench outside St. Peters Basilica on Day 2, which meant all of my notes, carefully marked pages and advice from many of you were not available in Florence, Siena, San Gimignano and the CT. You can't imagine what we missed and didn't find out that we missed it until watching RS's DVDs on our return.
Anyway, armed with a new Italy 2009 guidebook I am contemplating a return trip alone to some of the same places we visited, and wanted to ask your thoughts about a 63 year-old man in reasonably good health doing this by himself? (I did climb to the top of the Duomo, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone going to Florence) Has anyone out there tried this alone, man or woman, and what could you share about your adventure. If not, can any of you share your thoughts, advice and/or concerns about my doing it this way. My time frame is about ten days around the last week of September or the first week of October, roughly the same time of year we did it in 2007. This trip does NOT, however, include Paris, for the locks would surely be changed when I returned home if it did. By the way, we stayed five nights in an apartment in Florence and cooked food each night that we bought in the piazza that morning. I'm not much of a cook, so hotels, B&B's, etc. would be better. Many thanks.
PS If anyone is interested in this area in the fall, Continental Airlines quoted me $603 + tax RT from NO to Rome.