Italy & Greece

Step 2 – Determining our “Home Bases”

This was honestly one of the hardest steps in the process because there is just so much to see and do in each country. I researched and read so many different blogs of which Greek islands and Italian cities that best fit what we were looking for – food, activity, relaxation, and culture. We did not care for the party scenes or nightlife, so that did help in narrowing down our search.

For Italy, we started in Rome for many reasons, one being that it is a very central airport to a lot of Italy, and the train system within Rome is fabulous! From Rome, we chose Florence. Due to only having one week in Italy, we had to forgo our next pick which was Venice. It would have been entirely too jam-packed to try to fit Venice in for 1-2 days.

Greece required A LOT more research because there are countless islands that makeup Greece. We knew we were flying out of Athens, so that was the last stop of our trip. We chose to visit the islands of Mykonos, Santorini, and Paros before ending in Athens. I was so torn between Paros and Naxos, but did a lot of research to help me land on Paros, and I am so grateful we did – it was actually our FAVORITE stop of the whole trip.

*A lot of blogs are split 50/50 on whether Mykonos and Santorini are worth visiting. The typical tourist in me felt that I HAD to visit these 2 iconic islands. While they did have a lot to offer, they were incredibly touristy and expensive. I will go more into detail about it in a separate post.*

Step 3 – Decide How Long to Stay at Each

So you have your timeline of how long you have until your flight home, you decided where you want to visit, next is deciding how long to stay at each location. This step is when the fine-tuning comes into play. With one week in Italy and 2 cities, I split the itinerary to half in Rome, half in Florence. With two weeks in Greece and 4 islands, there is a lot of moving parts. Chris and I felt that one of the islands, we should spend more time to feel more relaxed and not so on-the-go.

We were on our trip from Sept 5-23

Rome:

• Sept 5 – We landed super early in the morning, and the time change was 7 hours ahead, so we knew the first day was going to be mainly getting our bearings, settling into our air bnb, getting food, and sleeping. So this is technically Day 1.
• Sept 6 & 7 – 2 full days in Rome
• Sept 8 – checked out of Air bnb to catch the train to Florence

Florence:

• Sept 8 – arrived in Florence in the afternoon and began exploring
• Sept 9 – full day in Florence
• Sept 10 – checked out of Air bnb to catch the train back to Rome

Rome:

• Sept 10 – back in Rome for a one-night stay close to the airport before leaving early the next morning to head to Mykonos
• Sept 11 – check out of Air bnb to catch flight out of Rome

Mykonos:

• Sept 11 – Land in Mykonos in the evening and check in to Air bnb, find dinner
• Sept 12 & 13 – 2 full days in Mykonos
• Sept 14 – check out of Air bnb to catch ferry to Paros

Paros

• Sept 14 – Arrive in Paros mid-afternoon, find a laundromat, check in to Air bnb and relax
• Sept 15 – full day in Paros
• Sept 16 – check out of Air bnb to catch ferry to Santorini

Santorini

• Sept 16 – arrive in Santorini mid-afternoon, find our way to the hotel, and drop our bags for a longer stay
• Sept 17-20 – 4 full days in Santorini
• Sept 21 – check out of hotel to catch flight to Athens

Athens

• Sept 21 – arrive in Athens mid-afternoon and take taxi to our final Air bnb
• Sept 22 – full day in Athens
• Sept 23 – check out of Air bnb to catch flight home to the States

Step 4 – Lodging

Lodging was one of the most overwhelming parts of the process for me due to the vast amount of options to choose from between Air bnb and hotels. All of our lodging was booked through Air bnb except for our long stay in Santorini, which was at a local hotel. We chose Air bnb because it didn’t feel so touristy, it was in the middle of all the action we were looking for, and they were cheaper than hotels.

Once you ask yourself all these questions and find these answers, it will be more clear on which lodging will fit your needs the best. For me, I picked 2-3 options for each location and researched on Google Maps how close these places were to the airport if we were flying in, the ferry port if we ferried in, or the train station if we rode in. I did the same research for the transportation we would be using once we left each location.

**Side note: if the Air bnbs don’t list the exact address (most don’t until you book it), I would look at it on the Air bnb map, find the closest restaurant or attraction listed, pull it up on Google Maps, and guesstimate where the Air bnb lodging was. This was BEYOND helpful when comparing where lodging was in relation to the transportation we would be using.

Step 5 – Transportation

One of our goals for this trip was to utilize public transportation as much as we could without renting a car or getting a taxi. Public transportation in Europe is far more accessible than American public transportation, and it’s inexpensive. Throughout our travels, we used the trains, planes, ferries, buses, and ATVs to get around. The only place we HAD to get a taxi was in Athens, more on that in the “Greece” post.

Aside from our roundtrip flights, we flew from Rome to Mykonos, and Santorini to Athens. These were very cheap and quick flights! We chose these flights because we wanted to make most of our time and not waste it on a several hours long ferry or train. The train system in Italy is spectacular and you can find trains at all hours of the day. We took the train from the Rome Airport to Roma Termini Station to get to our Air bnb with no issues. We also took the train to/from Florence – again, cheap and efficient!

Once we flew into Mykonos, we relied on the ferry system to get to the different islands until our return to Athens. The ferry system is not too expensive, but be aware that the union that runs the ferries goes on strike often and will cancel ferries for an entire day with as little as a 24-hour notice. This did happen while on our trip, but on a day we were flying (very lucky) – it causes panic among tourists and everyone is in a frenzy to get to their next destination.

While on the islands, we utilized the local bus system or rented ATVs for the day. The buses in Santorini were as little as 2 Euro a person and an ATV rental for a whole day was about 70 Euro + gas. More on expenses in a different post.

Step 6 – Plan Sightseeing & Activities

Now that all of the logistics are taken care of, you can focus on the fun part – sightseeing and activities! I planned about half of the activities we did ahead of time and the other half, we planned the day of or right when we got there. If you want to see some of the highlights that everyone does, such as the Galleria de Academia in Florence (home of Michelangelo’s Statue of David), you will have to purchase tickets ahead of time before they sell out. It is best to research what activities require tickets in advance and buy them ASAP. Below is a list of activities we did that required tickets for purchase; it does not include activities that were free.