My third trip with Flash Pack! South Africa and Japan had such different vibes, so I was looking forward to seeing how this group would gel. There were nine of us total, in this case eight from the US and one from Australia.
The group trip itinerary in the Amalfi Coast and Puglia was pretty short – less than a week – so I wanted to get to Rome a few days early and explore by myself to fill out my time in Italy. Growing up my mom was a museum docent and kids’ art history workshop teacher, and then I went to college for studio art and grad school for art history, so art has always been a core part of my life. I knew I’d be a kid in a candy store exploring the sheer amount of iconic Italian art that’s in Rome – especially works by Caravaggio and Bernini who are arguably my two favorites. Long overdue!
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It’s my instinct, when planning a trip, to want to optimize every last second and see everything I can see about a place. I love the jigsaw puzzle of a full itinerary, and have never regretted that level of planning. But the reality coming into this vacation is that from the moment I got home from my Japan trip last April 2023, my job has been relentless and even more stressful than usual, and thanks to a crazy project that forced me working through all of the Q4 and Q1 holidays I haven’t really been able to take a good day off since Japan. So while I was excited to see Rome, I also wanted to make sure to prioritize some much-needed R&R after this very taxing year.
The good news about Italy is that there are so many places I want to see, and as a South-specific trip, this one only scratched the surface and didn’t include any of the must-see Northern Italian places (Florence/Tuscany, Milan, Cinque Terre, etc). So chances are good that I will fly through Rome again, and in the interest of prioritizing actually vacationing on my vacation, made peace with the fact that there was a lot that would need to wait for a return visit.
I still managed to pack plenty in though haha, so enjoy my solo few days in Rome, followed by our fantastic Flash Pack group trip to the Amalfi Coast and Puglia.
As always, all photos are mine unless otherwise noted. Divertiti!
