TRIP - Italy again: Florence, Venice, Rome [2018.03]

Annual Europe visit again :)

Cities
All Italy - Florence, Venice, Rome

Flights
Aeroplan YYZ-IST-FCO
Cash FCO-LIS-YYZ. $900 for 4

Hotels
Booking.com for all cities as we are group of 6

Schedule. Google Maps

Florence

• Day 1 - 
• Day 2 - 

Venice

• Day 1 - 
• Day 2 - 

Rome

• Day 1 - 
• Day 2 - 
• Day 3 - 

Good

• Nice weather for some days
• 
  

Bad

• Bad weather, rain in Pompei

TRIP History for 2014/2015/2016/2017

All of these trips are results of mistake fares or wanting to get out every few months, before Logan turns 2
Sometimes I don't even know why I travel so much, especially with children :-)  Certainly memorable

2014

• Jan - Taiwan
• April  - Italy <- mistake fare, $300/person to Italy (Florence, Venice, Milan). No regrets
• July - Atlanta, USA
• Sep - LA, Las Vegas USA
• Oct - Washington DC
• Dec - Taiwan

2015

• April - Seoul, South Korea <- mistake fare again ($500/person on Delta), will make it a family trip
• May - Turkey on Aeroplan, in TK Business-class <- mistake glitch, 50K Aeroplan/person
• Summer - Taiwan
• November - Dubai ($200/person nonstop on Eithad price error)

2016

• March - Paris ($300/person nonstop on AC price error)
• July - Prague, Hong Kong, Taiwan (Aeroplan Mini-RTW)
• November - Taiwan

2017

• March - Portugal, Spain (AA off-peak, 40K/person)
• April - SFO (Delta price error, $250/person)
• July - Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Taiwan (Aeroplan Mini-RTW)
• December - Nice (France), Taiwan (Aeroplan Mini-RTW)

Another flight price error booked & honored, Toronto-Paris round-trip for $300 CAD/person

Friday Sep 18
AirCanada.com had a price error of missing the carrier surcharge (about $450/ticket) to their Europe destinations

It started about 1 pm, ended around 2 pm (lasted only 1 hour and so), but I managed to book YYZ-CDG round-trip, $1000 CAD for 4 of us, for March 2016 (it'll be 6-11C in Paris, oh well)
By the time I try to book for May 2016 ($50 extra per person), AC already fixed the error, but they came out same day on Twitter to say they'll honor the tickets

I can't believe it still happens, but this is price error #4 for us in the last 2 years already!!!
I don't need to plan any trips ahead now (besides the annual summer back to Taiwan), I'll just let price errors dictate where we will go in future. I need more vacation days!!

None of these destinations below were on my soon-to-visit lists, but I am glad to have visited Italy (loved it), Seoul (so-so), Turkey (so-so), Dubai, and finally, Paris!!!

2014

• Wideroe - NYC-Milan Italy $300/person
• Delta - YYZ-ICN $500/person, booked for 2015 April
• Aeroplan stopover error - YYZ-IST in Business for 50K miles/person instead of 105K, for 2015 May
• Etihad JFK-AUH $200/person, booked for 2015 Nov

2015

• Air Canada - YYZ-CDG $300/person, booked for 2016

TRIP - Italy in 7 days (Florence, Venice, Milan) 義大利心得

義大利心得

我們一家大小(2大+一個3歲+七個月嬰兒) 從加拿大多倫多去義大利7天7夜 (真的玩6天而已) 回來的心得分享
去了Florence 3天2夜 Venice 2天1夜 Milan 2天2夜

• 吃東西
• • Gelato真的很好吃 不過每一家都不同 而且不便宜 最好吃的是Florence的Perche No
  • 吃飯 注意看cover charge就沒問題 通常一個吃的人收$1.5~$3 水$2~$5 大多數都收信用卡
  • 很多餐廳 都有免費Wi-fi喔
• 交通
• • 搭火車 要提早到 確定月台和作好位置
  • 搭公車/街車 請自己看手機確定位置 因為不會有人提醒你
  • 火車票 真的提早買比較省錢 我提早3-4個月買 都有買到$9/$19歐元車票 省了很多
  • 請記得Validate車票 我們大部分都有被檢查 - Trenitalia查了兩次(全程3次火車), Milan街車上一次, MXP火車沒有, Venice ACTV沒有, Florence ATAF巴士也沒有
  • 離開任何地方 都要檢查位置上面有沒有東西 我們忘了一台相機在火車上 <-- 找火車警察也沒用
• 景點 
• • 前提: 我們帶小孩去 所以幾乎沒去要門票的博物館/美術館/爬樓梯
  • Florence - 隨便走都可以 東西南北方向抓對就好 隨便走都碰到景點的感覺還不錯 人潮大致上OK 夕陽真的要搭公車上去廣場照相(帶腳架) 個人覺得3天2夜就可
  • Venice - 隨便走都可以 會有那種柳暗花明又一村的感覺很好玩  要找店家倒是有點麻煩 GPS大多數都準確 推薦去對面島上鐘樓回頭照相 個人覺得2天1夜就可
  • Milan - 米蘭大教堂 真的很多很多人 比較之下城堡那邊很悠閒 其他地方沒啥好看的 個人覺得2天1夜就可 甚至1天就可
• 安全部份 其實只要多注意 避開賣東西的人 大多數都ok 米蘭大教堂廣場是人潮最多 最有壓力的地方 Florence, Venice都還好 很自在
• 義大利人真的很愛小孩 我們兩個小朋友 每天都被摸和稱讚 也會有人幫我們一起拿推車 或者抱小孩子上街車
• 義大利人英文 一半不會講 一半講了也不太清楚 旅館的櫃台通常都沒問題 Local一點的餐廳英文都不行
• 歐元 如果有國外提款卡 真的到當地提款就好 我$120 Euro = $186 CAD 還比在加拿大換便宜 可以用信用卡就用 大部分的店都收 連Milan的pizza店$3 Euro也收
• 如果不是對自助旅行很自在 建議還是跟團好 我們習慣自助了 也都還是會碰到小罷工(Milan機場火車罷工24小時 所以我們改搭taxi去Centrale搭巴士)等等 或其他問題
• 很多城市旅館checkout都有city tax 大概$5 Euro/adult 超奇怪的 沒有含在費用裡面 Florence, Venice, Milan都被收費
• 到義大利 趕快找TIM的手機門市辦手機上網 我在Milano Centrale付了$23 Euro 一星期$15通話 300MB上網 大致夠用 可以熱點分享 不過每一家門市好像可賣的方案都不同

Ella & Logan

• Ella在Florence抱起Logan 結果掉到地板上 嚇死所有人了 還好沒事
• 小孩子很累 真的很揮 被我們抓到火車外面哭 大家都在看 不過後來每天都不錯 早上睡很晚 起來可以撐到晚上
• 大家很愛小孩 都有糖果和禮物

花費 Expenses (for all of us, in CAD $)

• Flights - YYZ-LGA ~$200, LGA-YUL-ZRH-MXP-FRA-YYZ $950 (Wideroe Price error of $300/person)
• Trains & Boats - Trenitalia trains (3 segments) + ACTV $260
• Hotel - Lots of points + $200
• Credit Card - $500
• Others - Cash $200 Euro
• Total about $2150 CAD for 4 of us = super cheap Europe vacation

Monthly Recap

Logan is 3 months old
- 56 cm
- 5.6 kg

Travel
- Heading to Taiwan for X'mas
Stuck in Vancouver for 2 days due to Ella's passport issue
Time to realize the importance of points, cash, knowledge of the area, and some luck

- Booked a NYC-Milan trip for April 2014, cost ~$900 CAD for all of us (Wideroe price error). Booked all hotels on points too
Destinations: Milan, Florence, Venice

- Booked 2 Mini-RTW Aeroplan tickets in J (125K + $400 fees) for Jason for 2014



What else?
- Got a free Nexus 7 :)
- Got 2 Moto G phones for $240 total
- Bought things, gifted things, sold things