My husband and I arrived in Rome on a sunny Friday morning, bleary eyed and jet-lagged where we caught the il treno to Termini Station and were immediately roused from our daze to the sights and sounds of a city bursting with vitality. This was our second consecutive trip to Italy to explore more of Tuscany, Greece, Puglia and Sicily and the majority of our research and bookings were done on the internet, with some last minute decisions regarding the Greece component.

Flying into Ciampino airport just outside Rome on a warm day in the beginning of December, I stepped out into the sunlight and was immediately assaulted by a mass of cab drivers, all attempting to offer me their services. I declined politely, and inquired at a nearby desk what the best way to get to my hotel was, in my extremely broken Italian, which was, in truth, just Spanish spoken with an Italian accent.