One summer my friend and I decided to go to Italy for a holiday and we decided to travel there without going through a travel agency. You know, you would be submerged (淹没) in crowds of tourists and lose lots of opportunities to get familiar with the country more closely. We started to think over our trip and managed to come up with a free tour of Italy.
The trip was not very long but it was still very impressive (印象深刻的). We look forward to going there again! Of course, we spent lots of time arranging (安排) the trip, but it was well worth it! Of course I was afraid that something would go wrong and I was especially anxious about my visa, but everything went quite smoothly in the end.
The most difficult part was getting a visa (签证) without an invitation. In the Italian consulate (领事馆), one must hand in some official papers proving that one has a hotel booked for oneself in order to get the visa. Then we had to solve the ticket problem. Airlines often sell cheap tickets and we bought ours far in advance. The next step was to book a hotel. We finally booked a hotel about 30km away from the heart of Rome and it was the perfect choice for our trip.
Every day we took a train that carried us to the heart of Rome. Our big house, which was surrounded by the forest, was a rare place for the fresh air and absolute silence, beautiful views, hospitable hosts, comfortable living conditions delighting us to no end. Besides this, we were very lucky that our mistress was a Russian. She gave us a lot of advice that was of great use. She told us what transport to choose and where the best places to go.
Don't be afraid to arrange your trip by yourself. It's not difficult! The only thing I'll say right now is that we really enjoyed traveling by ourselves. We walked with a map and a guidebook to wherever we wanted and we even met some of our fellow countrymen on the way just two or three times. So, if you're also planning a "single" trip, don't forget to take a RussianItalian phrasebook as people in Italy prefer to speak in their native tongue.
