So what's the hassle?

Originally Published on: Apr 1, 2006

Some of you may wonder what would be so scary about traveling to a fun place like Italy. Well, it's like this: too many unknowns! I'm in my 50's, and I've only been abroad one time, to Ireland, over a decade ago. That was scary, too, but so much simpler than this trip. On that excursion, I went to a conference, and stayed in the same place most of the 2 weeks I was there. Another plus was that I could understand and speak the language, English!

Though it was an international conference, most of the attendees were Americans, like me. So no big stretch there. As it turns out, I made several new friends and had one of the best birthdays of my life while I was there. In fact, some elements of that trip changed the course of my life, and my view of the world forever. It was literally a magical experience. But that's another story. In any case, none of that magic would have happened if I hadn't gone.

This time I wanted a bigger challenge. I'm going to a country that I know little about, where I'll have no relatives or good friends to anchor me once I get there, and I know very little of the language. I'm going alone, and I'll be using the train and bus lines to get to the small villages I want to visit. I'm not going the usual tourist route, and I don't want to be part of a tour that consists mostly of Americans. I'm trying to explore life outside of my comfort zone. However, that means my journey will be more complicated.

Like today. I started trying to make reservations for the different places I want to visit. I had to call some of them, and found non-English speakers at the other end. Though I'd prepared a list of questions and responses in Italian that I can speak and understand, it wasn't enough to communicate with them effectively. So I'm relying more heavily on places I can contact online. But there's another snag there...though I can make the reservation online, I have to fax my credit card info, and sometimes the fax won't go through. No big deal, just inconvenient and not what I'm used to. But by going through that process I learned a few things about how hotels operate in Italy. That's progress!