I recently returned from a weeklong excursion to France and Italy.
My cousin is on her way to grad school and wanted to take one big trip before starting her new journey. Summer break, plus a travel fund made me the perfect candidate for last minute trips across the globe!
My cousin did most of the legwork in the beginning, deciding where she wanted to go and the route that should be taken. When I stepped in to assist, we began looking for places to stay through TripAdvisor (mainly for hotels) and Airbnb for residential homes.
This in itself was not an easy task because there are many things to consider:
• Is there Wi-Fi?
• If it is on the seventh floor, is there an elevator?
• Is it near any of the attractions that are worth seeing in the city?
• Is there air conditioning?
And trust me, that last one became very important as we were in a heat wave the entire time. Needless to say, the summer nights without air-conditioning were not the easiest.
We started our trip in Paris and hit the ground running.
We stayed in Paris, France for two days. Lots of site seeing and eating – that was the theme of the week. Neither of us had an interest in spending a lot of unnecessary money. Seeing as much of the city as we could was the goal.
We were able to travel their subway system everywhere we went and traveled between the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 16th, and 17th arrondissements. My Fitbit tracked us at over 20k steps a day!
Besides the Eiffel Tower, which I obviously loved a lot, we also enjoyed the following sites:
• Luxembourg Garden
• Petit Palais, an art museum that dates back to the early 1900s
• The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, a museum complex
• The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, also known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica (a Roman Catholic Church)
• The red light district and Moulin Rouge
• Love Locks
• Notre-Dame, a historic Catholic cathedral
Now on to Nice, France: I loved Nice. I’m pretty easy to please – and between the daily gelato and the beach, I was in heaven.
Not to mention our Airbnb abode had the absolute best view I’d seen in a while!
After Paris and Nice, my cousin and I traveled to Italy. We wanted to go straight to Venice, but that would’ve made for a long train ride, so we stopped for one day in Milan.
The colorful buildings and glass throughout the islands of Venice, Murano, and Burano were simply stunning.
The boat ride between the three and lack of cold water was slight torture, but it made me appreciate air conditioning just that much more.
We walked the streets of Venice from morning until evening.
I was sad to depart from my cousin as she traveled on to Rome, Greece and Santorini – which she says was the best part of her trip.
Tiffany’s travel tips
TIP #1 – Plan all your routes while you have the ability to use data at no cost or free Wi-Fi. Google maps will show you locations while off data and Wi-Fi but you have to load the maps before turning both options off. For example, if I knew which part of Paris we’d travel to, I’d go as far as to map the directions from our place to the location and screenshot the list as well as the map view. However, I was still able to open that portion of the map while roaming the streets. The blue dot will move with you, your directions just won’t be given to you step-by-step.
TIP # 2 – Keep your phone as charged as possible and eat at restaurants that have Wi-Fi so you can plan accordingly. This way you can feel safe while out all day long. Yes, charged phones add to my ability to feel safe. And you can check in at restaurants to help increase your Yelp cred – what, it’s just me who cares?
TIP # 3 – Invest in a great pair of noise-reducing headphones. The Bose around the ear blue tooth headphones, which can also be used with a wire when the battery dies, were great for canceling out the loud people on the trains.
TIP #4 – Pack light! I didn’t plan to buy much because as I said before, the goal was to view amazing architecture and eat all the food…but traveling from city to city with large bags just wouldn’t have cut it.
TIP #5 – Learn the most important words you think you’ll need before you are out and about without Google translator (which needs Wi-Fi or data to work). Words like restroom or your favorite foods – for me it was chicken and vegetables – and maybe even short phrases like “which direction is…” We were lucky in some restaurants because they either had English-speaking waitresses/waiters or they had American menus.
TIP #6 – Never be afraid to put your passport to use – even if it means traveling alone!
