European car rentals and other tortures

This morning I spent several hours trying to rent a car in Rome. Wow! What a pain. Some of the web sites are so clunky it drives me crazy. And, if you leave it up too long while you compare it with some other site, it times out. At one point I had finally found the car I wanted for the price I considered reasonable. So I left the page open while I checked a couple of other sites. When I got back to the first site, the Alamo company, it had timed out. When I navigated back to the page where I'd just been, they informed me that NOW all the cars available for those dates in Rome where taken. Sigh. Oh, well, I finally found a car with AVIS for less than the Alamo car. I like Alamo because they spelled out the insurance question better than anyone else. That was crucial because my credit card company will cover the insurance except for theft. Alamo clearly states that theft is built in to the weekly rate. All the other companies do not spell that out. Of course, when I called the AVIS company with the question about declining collison but adding theft, they said that theft was built in as well. More sighs. Anyway, I'm supposedly good to go now and a car will be waiting at the Rome airport when we arrive.

Today I also logged onto the Bright Roam web site to purchase the proper SIM card for our world phone. Bright Roam is a great deal because you only pay for the use of the phone. No calls means no charges. It costs just a few dollars per year to be a member. So, the phone that we bought for the U.K. will work in Italy and Greece with the necessary changeout of the SIM card. Plus, they give you a US phone number in addition to the International number so you can give your friends the US toll-free number to call you and it automatically rolls over to the international number. Very Cool! I just need to charge the phone that we haven't used since 2008 to make sure it still works. Hopefully it will.

Master Card World Card Arrives

WhooHoo, my World Master Card finally arrived. I got that card because they claim that they will cover a rental car in Italy so you can decline the very, very expensive insurance provided by the car company. All you have to do is purchase theft insurance from the car company and you're good to go. Master Card has a number of criteria you must follow, including making sure you don't rent for over 31 days, that the contract is in the name of the driver, and that you don't rent anything worth more than $50,000. But not having to buy the car company's insurance is a big benefit. Now I have to start sorting through all the hype and find a car that is large enough to carry our gear, indescript enough so no one will want to steal it, and powerful enough so it can keep up with traffic. I originally signed up with American Express to do this deal, only to find out that they don't do Italy. Are they crazy? Who wants to go anywhere else?

Trying to find Insurance

One of the big problems with renting a car in a foreign country is insurance. If you get the rental company's insurance, you end up paying a bunch of money on top of the daily fee for the car. If you don't, and you crash (or even lightly damage) the car, you could end up responsible for whatever repairs are necessary PLUS whatever income they miss out on while the car is in the shop. Pretty dismal prospects. Thinking to head off this potential disaster, I signed up for American Express rental car protection. They add a small fee if you rent a car with their credit card and they cover whatever you do to it. However, when I read the fine print American Express expressly excludes Italy and a dozen other "high-risk" countries. So, what now? When I started "polling" my other credit cards none of them would cover a car in Italy. So, I'm going to apply for a card that purports to do the job. And if that doesn't work, I'll be buying the rental car company's insurance. I just won't like it. But since I have damaged all four of the last four cars I rented: one here, two in Italy, and one in the U.K., I guess I don't have any choice.

Finding a place to stay in Athens

This morning I spent several frustrating hours reading critique after critique on potential Hotels in Athens, Greece. We have to stay one night in Athens before boarding the ship for our scheduled cruise throughout the Greek Islands and Turkey. Man, what a pain. To read the critiques, most of the available hotels are hot, possessing of tiny rooms, less than clean, and good for not much more than having a roof over your head at night. The surrounding streets are filled with pickpockets, drug users, and denizens of every description. The showers are purported to be dismally small, the elevators equally tiny, and the breakfasts boring and not so fresh. About all most of them can boast is a close proximity to the old part of Athens and the night life. And, most importantly for a blog-writing fanatic such as myself, the wireless internet, if it exists at all, is usually charged for. Finally, I stumbled across the "Lotus Hotel," which is slightly removed from the city center, in a nicer neighborhood, and of fairly new construction. Further, the internet is reported as "free." So, being totally worn out from the search, I booked the Lotus and shall hope for the best. After all, it's only one night and I suppose anything will probably do fine. The cost is going to be about $120.00, is above my budget somewhat, but will have to be okay this time.

Making progress on lodging

Yesterday I lined up some of our lodging in Rome. For our last day in Italy before catching the flight home, I selected the terribly expensive Hilton located right next to the airport. I decided that it would be better to turn in the car the day before and then be able to leisurely walk to our Hotel for the night, then, just as leisurely, walk to the flight the next day. We'd have time for breakfast and, since our flight isn't until 10:00, we have plenty of time to walk across the courtyard to the terminal and check in before our flight. For our first and second nights in Italy after the Athens cruise is over, I selected the Colle degli Ulivi (Olive Tree Hill) B&B near Rome. After our experience with the hustle and bustle and lack of parking in Rome in 2006, I wanted something outside the city where we could easily park and ride public transportation into the city. We'll only be there a day before we head for southern Italy, Calabria, and the sun-washed island of Sicily where so many of Concetta's ancestors and relatives came from. This morning I received confirmation from Colle degli Ulivi so we're on for that one. They even have wireless internet, or so they say.

Coaxing Information from the cruise company

After repeated emails I finally learned the needed information on what happens on the final day of the cruise. Chris emailed to say that we would have to be off the boat by about 8:00 a.m., though we would probably be given breakfast. Therefore, it seems obvious that we should schedule our flight from Athens to Rome in mid to late morning. That way, after our two hour flight to Rome, we'd have time to pick up the rental car and drive to wherever we have decided to stay for our first night Italy.

Doing more footwork

Today I sent an email to the cruise folks to determine how long we can remain on board once we're back in port near Athens. If we're lucky, we can have a leisurely breakfast, do out packing, and then catch a midday taxi to the airport for the flight to Rome. I also sent an email to the chap in England who rented us the Mini Cooper for a month in 2008 for our trip around the British Isle. I was interested in finding out if Minis are available in Italy by someone he might recommend. And, I determined that the best thing to do for our last night in Italy would be to stay at the airport Hilton, even though expensive, so all we have to do is take the short walk to the terminal before flight time. It would also allow us to turn the car in the day before our flight. Once I hear from the cruise folks, I will book the flight from Athens to Rome.

Tickets Ordered

Well, I finally got tired of searching all the Orbitz/Expedia/Etc. Websites and just ordered the darn tickets. Got them from CheapOair.com. The process seemed to work out okay, but no seat assignments. I emailed CheapO and asked about seat assignments and they said they had already emailed them to me. They hadn't. So, I called the various airlines and did my own seat assignment task. For the most part, I got the seat assignments I wanted, all except for the outgoing Denver to Toronto 3-hour flight. On that one, it's what they call a "Shared Code" flight. That means that two carriers are in on the particular flight. I called each one and asked them to assign me a seat. Each one refused. So, I waited a time and called back. Once again the two carriers indicated that they were "unable" to issue a seat assignment. So, we'll have to take pot luck on that leg. Word to the wise: stay away from flights by a carrier actually flown by another carrier. You'll get screwed because no one takes responsibility for the seat assignments. Anyway, the trip has been scheduled. The next item is to find a flight going from Athens to Rome after the cruise, nail down where we're staying in Athens and Rome, and possible nail down the rental car in Italy.

Searching for a flight

Today I spent several hours trying to find the perfect flight(s). What we would really like to do is fly from Reno to Athens, Greece. Then, after the cruise is over, we'd like to take a short hop over to Rome (about a two-hour flight). Once we've spent a couple of weeks in Italy, we'd like to fly from Rome back to Reno. However, the airline companies seem to be conspiring to keep the perfect flights out of our grasp. I fear we're going to have to make some compromises in order to pull off our objective.

Tackling the nuts and bolts

This morning I emailed "Brightroam," the company who provided the phone that we took so successfully to England, Wales, and Scotland. All you do is get the correct sim card for wherever you're planning on traveling, then buy some minutes before you go. They give you a USA phone number to bounce USA calls to them. You also have a European phone number, if I remember right. On our trip to Italy in 2006 we found ourselves at an extreme disadvantage not having any way to communicate with anyone. The phone is a real must-have. I also contacted the cruise company to see if they had any tips on what to bring and not bring, and if there was any place I could go and read feedback on other cruises. Still to do is making sure our GPS works in Italy.

Booking the Tour to Greece

Well, this morning I took a deep breath and called the Archaeological Institue of America Tour company and booked our tour to the Greek Islands. Lucky I did. In our preferred price range, all but one of the cabins were already booked. So, we're committed now and we must begin to plan this vacation in ernest. My intent is to fly to Athens a couple of days ahead of when we must board the ship so we can see the city. Then, after the cruise is over, we want to fly to Rome, rent a car, and spend a couple of weeks in beautiful Italy and Sicily.

Planning for 2010 fall trip begins

Well, I just spent the entire morning surfing the internet, looking for ideas for our trip to Greece in September. As I already knew, having lived in Greece for six months of my life back in the 1970s, you must see the Greek islands by boat. Since I don't have a yacht at my disposal, I came to the conclusion that we must book a cruise. But Concetta and I have never been in favor of the typical cruise vacation: too many people, too much regimentation, too much food, just too much of everything. So,we decided on a cruise with the Archeological Institute of America. Their cruise seems to fit our needs exactly. They have a small ship and they visit more interesting places than the standard cruise ships visit. I still have to call in our reservation as you can't register on line. But I'm getting excited now. The planning -- and the fun -- begins at this point.