Booked Italy for October/November 2010

I have now booked flight, hotels and rental car for Italy in late October/early November 2010. This of course will coincide with my 40th birthday and I am doing 2 full weeks. I will spend the beginning and end in Rome and I am going to fly down to Sicily for about a week where I will stay in Palermo and rent the car to drive around the island. I am not a fan of driving during my vacations but there really isn't anything for it but to do that on Sicily as far as I can tell.

The location is chosen strategically to be someplace warmer during the time of year for my birthday. While I enjoyed Sweden it was a tad cold. I am not averse to continuing to go to colder places but they have to be open as well and a moderate amount of sites in Sweden were closed though I did manage a full itinerary. I figure more northerly places will have to be chosen for spring/summer trips in general in the future.

I am going to be flying through British Airways. I wasn't going to purchase anything before the Japan trip but the airfare is at a price that I suspect I won't be able to beat. I purchased through Orbitz though so if BA lowers their prices for my flights then I will be able to get some money back. The pricing is about 200 less than the best price I saw for the same trip last year (which is what prompted me to get Macchu Pichu in in 2009 instead of Italy).

For hotels I have booked Hotel Milo Rome for the stay in Rome (obviously). Found the place through Kayak but booked directly through the hotel's website rather than through anything external. The benefit is not charging the credit card until I get done with the stay. The negative of course is I will be held slave to the exchange rate variances from now until then. I have to assume that as long as Obama is in office the value of the dollar will continue to tank as he builds up more deficit. Anyway, for the stay in Palermo I am using the hotel Albergo Atheanaeum which I booked through Hotels.com because well I didn't find the direct site before I booked as well as the fact that I was able to save 20% by booking more than 5 days and I also used my Hotels.com welcome rewards free night one one of the nights. I had managed to gather enough nights booked through them between the Sweden and France trips. So basically I managed to get the room cheaper than I would have directly but I also had to pay the cost up front. At least it wasn't very expensive. So far that means I have paid up front for the Palermo hotel and the flight.