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Come along as I recap our recent trip to Italy! We spent time in Venice, the Dolomites, Verona, Florence, and Rome. I go over the general layout of what we did for each area, some tips I'd recommend doing, and some things I wish we would have done differently. Let's jump in!
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What is Fit for Hiking?
Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. I am stoked about today's episode because I'm going to be recapping and kind of going through some of the frequently asked questions from my Italy and Dolomites trip. And as I'm recording this, I literally just got back from this trip. Okay, so everything is super fresh. I landed back in the US at like 5 p.m. yesterday, and I wanted to get on here and go through all of this before I start to kind of like lose track of what our itinerary was, all the things we did like. It's still so fresh and I'm so excited about everything we did. It was an absolutely incredible trip from top to bottom. We saw so much. It was so diverse. We covered so many different landscapes and different cities in the span of two and a half weeks, and I have gotten so many questions about our itinerary, how we did it with our toddler, what all the details looked like, what all we booked, how the backpacking trip looked in the Dolomites. Just so many different questions. So I wanted to get all of that into this episode today. So we're going to be covering quite a lot. And if you are. Thinking about planning a trip to Italy. Um, hopefully this will be helpful for you. I had never been to Europe until this trip. Um, so this was all very daunting to me. When we first started looking into planning this trip, it was all exciting. And then it was like, Holy crap, how do we put together all of these things that we want to do? How do we book all of these things? I was so clueless because I've never planned a trip to Europe before. Right. It's it's a little bit more daunting than an area that you're familiar with. So I hope that this will be helpful in kind of figuring out how you want to structure your trip to Italy. And I'm going to go through the whole itinerary and kind of what we covered, but we mainly focused on northern and central Italy, because if you're also trying to do like Amalfi Coast or Positano or Sicily, all of those things are really far south. So it's important to understand, like with how much time you have, what's realistic, it was really important for us to do the Dolomites, and that's in northern Italy, um, almost into Austria. So we were really far north in the mountains. It just was going to be very difficult to do that and go all the way down to like the Amalfi Coast area or super southern parts of Italy. So we kind of had to pick and choose, and we decided to skip the southern parts for this trip. Hopefully we can get there again, who Who knows when. Maybe someday, but that would be a totally separate trip for us because we only had two and a half weeks and we wanted to do a good chunk of time in the Dolomites. That was definitely priority. And then we kind of base everything around that. So here is what our general itinerary looked like. Like I said, we were there total for two and a half weeks. So our first day we arrived from a straight shot from Chicago to Venice. We flew out of Chicago and it was just a direct flight for about eight hours. Not bad at all. Um, however, it was an overnight flight and then we got there in like the middle of the day. So it was about a nine hour difference. And that was tough for everybody, but especially for our daughter. Um, so we kind of hit the ground running in Venice. We took a quick nap, and then we immediately had a gondola ride booked. So we did the gondola ride. And then our night was just crazy because our daughter was adjusting to the time difference. She didn't want to sleep in the middle of the night. We were exhausted because we hadn't really slept on the flight. It was a whole thing. We really only had not even 24 hours in Venice, and I'm going to go over the things I wish I would have done differently. This is one of them. We definitely did not allow enough time to like. Get our bearings with the time difference. I had never experienced a time difference like that before, um, in travel. So that was a lot and definitely a lot with a two year old. I think we were overly aggressive about being able to experience and enjoy Venice, and then leave so quickly the next day to head to the mountains. So anyways, we had about 24 hours in Venice. Really glad that we did it. I wish we would have had more time in Venice. I loved Venice, I think I had heard a lot of people say that it was overrated and that it's not worth going. I totally disagree, I thought it was very magical. Super cool. I wish I would have had more time there. Okay, so we had 24 hours in Venice. We picked up our rental car in Venice and headed to the Dolomites. Very important. If you plan on doing the Dolomites, you're going to need to rent a car because where as the rest of Italy you really can hang with, like the trains and buses and stuff like that. The Dolomites, everything is very spread out. It's mountainous. Things take hours, even if it's not that far mileage wise. So you're going to need a car. There's not going to be sufficient trains to get you to these different areas of the Dolomites. Um, so we rented a car from Venice, and it was about a 2.5 hour drive to where we stayed in the Dolomites. We picked a town called Mazin Mazin, and there are so many different options of where you can stay. So, you know, take that with a grain of salt, depending on what itinerary you want to do. This was a nice central area for us based on all the activities that we wanted to do in the Dolomites. So we kind of looked at a map and we were like, all right, we want to go here and here and here, and here's our where our backpacking trip will be. What makes sense? And no matter what, we had to do a lot of driving. So we kind of picked the most central thing where we would maybe drive like an hour to this or two hours to that, but nothing would require us to drive like four hours. You know, one way, because we had certain things that we really, really wanted to see. So Messina ended up being a really nice central location. It's a very cute little mountain town. It was gorgeous. The drive from Venice was beautiful. I was shocked at how fast we started seeing the mountains as we left Venice. Um, it's just crazy that you can go from being on the water to some of the most amazing, breathtaking mountains in the world. Um, in 2.5 hours. Insane. Um, so then we made our way to the Dolomites, and we had about six days there. So that gave us about, you know, three and a half days to do kind of some day hikes, just exploring the areas that we were really wanting to see that were on our bucket list. And then we had, um, about three days for our backpacking trip. So that was how we structured it. And on our first day of the Dolomites, we went to um Lago de Corsa. This was an amazing lake, and I'm sorry if I'm butchering. I'm not very good with Italian, even after being there for two and a half weeks. Um, that was an amazing like. It was honestly one of my highlights, which I will also go over. Absolutely loved it. We just did that for like a golden hour experience after driving that day and checking into our Airbnb. And that was perfect for like, my whole family. Um, and side note, my parents and my sister and brother met us in Italy. So it was us, my husband and I, our daughter, who's two, and then my parents, my brother and my sister. So it was really nice because we got this epic family vacation and we had so much support and help with juniper, which was a big reason why they came with, because they knew that we wanted to backpack and we had a concert booked and we had all these things we wanted to do. Um, and it would have been really hard to do all of that with her at this age. Like she has to take naps. There's a lot of considerations. And so we thankfully had their support. So the first few days of the Dolomites, we were with everybody and we were doing kind of more family friendly activities. And then during the backpacking trip, it was just my husband and myself, which was really nice to be able to kind of do our own thing for that and not have to factor in everybody else. Um, okay, so day one, Lago de Carranza. That was amazing. For golden hour. Literally the most beautiful lake I've ever seen in my life. The next day, we had kind of a rainy day, so we just took an opportunity to relax a little bit. We were all still adjusting to the time difference. Takes longer than you think, and it's exhausting when you're trying to be go, go, go and still adjusting to a nine hour time difference. Um, and all the travel. So that day we just kind of explored the town of Marin, had a slower day, enjoyed the gloomy weather, and then at night, my husband and I took a drive up this mountain pass to a refugio and got a drink up there, walked around, had such a beautiful drive. That was an amazing little highlight and it was like a 20 minute drive from where we were staying. The town of Mt. Zion just really did not disappoint. Um, and then the next day, we took a drive to Largo Debray. Um, this is a two hour drive from Messina. So we did spend a lot of time in the car that day, but it is an iconic spot in the Dolomites that I really did not want to miss. So we went to log of debris and the drive was absolutely out of this world, the most beautiful mountain drive I've ever done. So it was really a win win. Even though we spent a lot of time in the car, it was worth it. So I will definitely say if you're planning a trip to the Dolomites, you want to be aware of the distances between things. Don't just look at the map like really look up how long it will take. That way you're not super annoyed with like the Airbnb locations you pick, or it's not possible to get to all the destinations that are important to you. So we spent a whole day there hiking around, going to lunch there, getting some family photos taken. It was so fun. Um, the next day we drove to the town of or to say, and we took the cable car up to Shasta, which was another bucket list destination of mine in the Dolomites. This was about an hour drive from Messina, so not quite as much time in the car. Again a stunning drive. The town of Orsay is beautiful and you are required to take the cable cars to the the destination of Caseta or you have to hike in. You cannot drive to it. So that's just a little tidbit there. Um, so you can purchase the cable car tickets right on the spot. It's not something you have to book in advance. You can just show up and do it. And that was such a cool experience. It's a very moody type of landscape. Um, you're up very high. It's unlike any place I've ever been. It's super breathtaking. Um, so that was another little day trip that we did. And then the next day, my husband Shane, and I departed from the group and we headed towards our starting destination for the, uh, backpacking trip. So we started in the town of Mozo. This was about a two hour drive, so again, lots of driving, but it was so cool to see all of these different areas of the Dolomites. And my parents took juniper and checked out of our Airbnb that day, and they all went to Verona to wait for us while we did our backpacking trips. So it was kind of our little parting ways. Time. Um, so we could do our trip trek. And we started, like I said, in the town of Mozo, and we began our trek to our first refugio. It's really important to note that if you are backpacking in the Dolomites, you cannot just camp. You need to book refugees. It's illegal to camp there for whatever reasons, so you aren't doing a typical backpacking trek. You have to book these refugees in advance. They're really cool. They offer you a room, you have beds in the room. It's temperature controlled for the most part pretty comfortable. You also get like a dinner and a breakfast provided and coffee. Um, it's really cool. And you get to meet people from all over the world. So the Refugio experience itself is awesome. The hard part is getting them. You will want to book them pretty far in advance. I'll go over everything that we booked at the end of this. Um, so we had planned to do three solid days backpacking. Unfortunately, I ended up sick. Um, I got started feeling sick a few days into the trip, and I got a really bad, like, chest and throat virus. I was not feeling good on the track, but I was absolutely adamant that I could. I was not going to cancel it. Like, I've been planning this for so long. This was my dream track, so we still did it, but we had to shorten it a bit because I was feeling pretty rough. And you do share rooms at the Refugio, and I just didn't want to do that two nights in a row. So we started our trek in mosso and we first went to the Refugio Locatelli. This is a very iconic, like lunch, you know, type of refugio. You go there kind of as a way to like get lunch, get drinks, rehydrate. And it is at the base of tree time. So this was one that I really recommend. We didn't sleep there, although I do believe that there also is lodging. We just used it as kind of like a midday rest point, got a really good meal and then moved on from there. So la Catelli Refugio definitely recommend trying to stop there if you are doing anything around trade time as you're hiking in the Dolomites. And then we made our way to our refugio the first night and we stayed at Refugio Llevado. So all in all, that day was about 8 or 9 miles and we had 3500ft of gain. So it was a pretty brutal day as far as altitude gain, especially with how sick I was. But the views were so well worth it. Truly amazing. And then the next day we had been planning to make our trek to Fonda Savio. That was the next Refugio that we were that we had booked and we're going to stay at. But like I said, I was sick, so we decided to go ahead and trek out, and we had already really seen everything that we were wanting to see. There wasn't going to be a whole lot else that we were missing out on. It was just going to be an extra night, kind of staying in a similar area, not a ton of added mileage. So, uh, we saw Cadena de Mis arena, which is one of the famous viewpoints, absolutely my favorite of the trek. So, so cool. And then we ended up. Trekking our way out and finishing in the town of Miss Arena. So we had parked our car at the end, anticipating where we would finish based on where we were staying in our refugio and looking at the map. And we had to take, um, buses from where we parked our car to the start. So if you are doing a through hike, then you're going to want to plan the buses beforehand. So you know that you're going to be able to make it to your trailhead and leave your car where you want it. Um, you could try to hitchhike. We didn't we didn't do that. But that's something that you could try. I've done that for other backpacking tracks. So that was the route that we took. All in all, we really only hiked like 15, 16 miles. It wasn't that bad mileage wise, but we saw the best possible views and didn't even have to hike that far in. You can actually do a lot of this as day hikes. If you take buses to certain Refugio, you can hike around these areas. If you wanted to just do like Cadena deem as arena or Trade team or head to Loc Italy for lunch, you can do so many of these things from day hikes, which is really cool because there's so many different like buses and shuttles that will take you to certain refugio, and then you can hike around from there and then catch the shuttle back. You just have to make sure that you book those in advance. Um, so there's a lot of options if you want to backpack in the Dolomites. There's not just like 1 or 2 tracks. I mean, there are so many Alta Villa tracks which are like 5 to 20 days long. There's tons of via ferrata, which you kind of have to, like, clip in and get specific gear for. Or you can just do a trek like hours, which was the trade time lava trek, and it was very like. I want to say relaxing because it was hard, but it was not stressful. Like I just loved every second of it, even though I didn't feel my best. The views were stunning every single second of the track, and it didn't feel super pressure filled because we didn't have like 20 mile days. We didn't have Via Ferrata that we were having to do, and I really wanted it to feel completely positive, pressure free. And that's exactly what it was. So if you're not like a hardcore, you want to do a ton of via ferrata and you don't necessarily want, you know, 20 mile days, then that was a really great way to go. Your your route will also largely be determined by the refugees that you're able to secure bookings for. So that's something that you're going to want to start the process for like 8 to 12 months in advance, looking at the route that you want to do and then what? Refugees fall along that route so that, you know, okay, this is what my route will look like because we need to make it to this refugio on the first day and then this one on the second day. So that will also really determine your experience. And unfortunately, you know, unlike recreation gov in the States it's really tricky to get Ahold of the owners of these Refugio. We found all of the information through blogs, and then we would click on the link to like email these specific people who run these refugees. Oftentimes you're having to communicate in Italian and you're just waiting to hear back if it's booked or not. So it does require a lot of communication and forethought. You can't just like, go on a website and book it and be like, okay, good, we're all set. We were in this process for months trying to make sure that we secure these refugees, so definitely takes a little bit more stamina. Okay, so after we finished up our trek, we had about a three hour drive to Verona. So that was our next destination. We were in Verona for just about two and a half days, and while we were there we did a day trek to, uh, Lake Garda. So Lake Garda was about a 45 minute drive from Verona, and it was something that we really wanted to see, so we did a little day trip from there. We still had our car, so keep in mind we didn't have to like hire, you know, a driver or a shuttle or a bus or anything for that. We still had our rental car, um, which was really nice to be able to just do like day trips like that. I will say, when we're in the cities, it definitely made, um, parking a little bit more complicated because there's not a ton of parking in in some of these Italian cities. So Verona was awesome. It was very quaint, very beautiful. Um, it just felt like you were in a movie. Like it. Stereotypical Italian town. So cute. And we really enjoyed it. After Verona, we had our final drive. We had been planning to take a train, um, to our next destination, but there was a train strike, so that's something that you should be aware of. There are very frequent train strikes and that can throw off your bookings if you have trains booked. So we had to keep our rental car and we drove to Florence. We were in Florence for about 5 or 6 days and um, we had a lot of different things that we had booked there, which I'll go over when I kind of talk about the things that we had booked in advance, but we got to experience wine country. We got to experience amazing food restaurants, a cooking class, um, just some really cool stuff. And that time was kind of more laid back because we were in one spot for a little bit longer, which was really nice. Um, and then from Florence, we took a train. We had we had already dropped off our rental car in Florence at that point, at the beginning, because we really didn't need it from that point forward. And then we took a train from Florence to Rome. So Rome was our final destination. We had our flights booked out of Rome, and we were only in Rome for about two days, just long enough to attend a concert that we had booked. And, um, and And then we all flew out of Rome. Um, so in Rome, we kind of did some of the more classic things like the Vatican and the Colosseum. And like I said, we also did a Coldplay concert, which we had booked a year in advance. That was kind of the whole catalyst for this entire trip, which is kind of silly, but we are big Coldplay fans and we wanted to see them in Rome and it was absolutely amazing. So that concludes our general itinerary. And I know that was kind of long winded, but now you know exactly what our trip looked like. Here are some things I wish I would have done differently in hindsight. Less locations. I loved everything that we did, but I will say I wish we would have had more time in each spot, especially like Venice and Rome and Verona. We were only there for like a day to two days and it was not enough. And it just felt so stressful trying to, like, unpack and repack and check into Airbnbs and figure out where to park the car. It was just a lot, and I kind of wish that we would have eliminated like one of those locations. I don't even know which one because I genuinely loved them all, but I just think we tried to pack in too much into two and a half weeks because we were so excited. And I think if you don't have a kid with you or like a big group and you're traveling lighter, it makes it easier because you're not having to deal with. All of the luggage and dragging it through the train stations and stuff like that. But for us, it it just felt like a little bit too much. Jam packed into two and a half weeks. Um, also, I would pack a lighter for the train travel because trying to drag massive suitcases that are super heavy and tons of stuff through the train terminals, and on switching trains and getting on buses and things like that. Oh, it's a lot. Especially when you're also trying to make sure your two year old doesn't run away from you. That was pretty stressful. So I would pack lighter for sure. The next is bringing a portable charging pad for juniper, so like a diaper changing pad. Most of the bathrooms in Europe don't have changing tables for babies, which I thought was really interesting. So I would have brought something because I had to change her diaper like either laying on the floor or standing up several times, and that's just not ideal. Um, the next is booking slightly less activities and just allowing for more time transitioning to and from new places. So like the first day we arrived after a redeye plane and we literally had two hours, and then we had a booking for, um, our gondola ride. And it's awesome to have these things booked in advance. But it is hard when you're so, um, pressure filled with like, oh, we have to make it to this next booking. And same thing happened when we got to Rome. We, like, got off the train, checked into Airbnb and had five minutes to refresh and get on our bus to go to the Vatican. So I think it was just again, we were trying to pack in a lot, and I wish we would have allowed a bit more wiggle room into our schedule. All right. Those are really the only things I would have done differently. Everything else absolutely loved highlights of the trip. Entire Dolomites portion, but especially the backpacking. It lived up to all of my expectations, even though it didn't go perfectly as planned and I didn't feel great, it was still my highlight of the entire trip. Um, the next is Lago de Carita. Like I mentioned before, that was my favorite lake I've ever been to, and it wasn't even something that we had planned to do. I just looked up like, you know, pretty places to see Sunset in Mazzini once we arrived. And that was the first one. And I was like, oh, cool. And then it was one of my highlights. Um, the next is a cooking class in Florence. That was super cool. We did a pasta and tiramisu cooking class and that was just really fun. We got to learn how to make pasta from scratch, make tiramisu from scratch. I really enjoyed that and we had just booked that through like get your guide. Um, nothing too crazy. And it was super easy to schedule. Um, the next is the gondola ride in Venice. It was like a classic touristy thing, but it was so fun and a really cool way to like, kick off the trip. Doing something so iconic in a place that I'd wanted to go since I was little. Uh, another highlight was our Tuscany Wine Country tour. We did that from Florence and it was like a bus tour that took us to two different wineries, and that was absolutely idyllic. So beautiful. Uh, the next highlight is the Coldplay concert in Rome. It was just unbelievable. There are no words. It was the coolest experience. Um, and then Lake Garda. I really enjoyed Lake Garda. We kind of made a last minute decision to take a day trip there from Verona, and I'm really glad we did. That was very beautiful and it's definitely like a top lake destination in Italy. And then I really enjoyed the Colosseum and Vatican in Rome, just to get to see that history and be somewhere that is so rich with history was incredible. And even though we didn't have a ton of time, it kind of felt rushed and stressful. I would have felt pretty bummed if we would have missed out on some of those kind of iconic tourist destinations. Um, and then sunset in Florence at the Piazzale Michelangelo. It is the best sunset destination if you're in Florence. It kind of overlooks the whole city and it is stunning. We did that on our last night in Florence and I really loved it. All right. Let's talk about how it went with juniper, because I've gotten so many questions on how to do this with a kiddo. And first, let me say like she's two and two months. So based on how old your kiddos are, if you have multiple, it could be totally different for you. She's also traveled a lot. We've spent a lot of time in Guatemala and like traveling to other places than travel. Playing travel for long periods of time so she can kind of roll with the punches pretty well. Um, so it might again, might be different based on your kiddos personality and the travel that you've done. But here's what we packed. We packed a pack in play because we needed a place for her to sleep at all of our Airbnbs, and we packed a diaper bag with sunscreen, sippy cup, snacks, wipes, diapers and medicine, and a backpack carrier. So our Osprey backpack that she can sit in, we packed that. We didn't bring a front carrier or a stroller because she just doesn't really cooperate with those. She's kind of too big for a front carrier, and she hates sitting in strollers because she likes to run around. So that kind of just would have been a waste. And we also did not bring a car seat. So we were able to rent a car seat through the car rental, and that worked just fine. And the rest of the time we were on trains, so or buses. So we didn't need a car seat for her. There were a few times where we had to catch cabs, um, just to or from things after we had ditched our rental car, and that was not ideal. It didn't really think that part through, but she just sat on our laps and it was only for like five minute max cab ride. That was really all I would be comfortable with for that. Um, so that's why we packed for her. And one thing I would say is like, if you're bringing a kiddo on something like this, you have to factor in nap times back at your Airbnb unless they're like, find a sleep in a stroller or sleep in a carrier. Junie is just not at this age. And I kept saying, like, I almost feel that this trip would have been easier if she was one or even younger, because she would just sleep wherever we went when she was younger, and now she's so aware of everything she wants to run around, and she really needs to be back in like a quiet, cold, dark room for naps. So thankfully we had my parents and my family there, so we were kind of able to take turns. If there were things that my parents didn't really have the energy to do or they didn't really care to do, they would stay back with Junie and we could go out and explore all day. So that really, really helped. It's definitely something to think about if you're wanting to go, go, go all day. But you have, um, you know, multiple little kids and they need naps. That's something you got to think about because it's definitely going to change your timeline and and how you're structuring your days. Um, overall, I was very impressed with how she did on the trip. She adjusted like a champ the very first night in Venice. Like I said, she was up a lot because it was daytime in the States, so that was kind of confusing for her body clock. Other than that, she's done amazingly. She's already adjusted back on the back end pretty well based on when we had our flight time. Um, so honestly, I feel like so many people thought we were crazy for doing this with a two year old, but I didn't feel comfortable leaving her behind with family. Like back in the States for, you know, two and a half weeks, that would have been a really long time to be apart from her. And so it was either we do a really short trip or we bring her. And so we just decided, okay, if we can have family coming and helping us out with this, then it's worth it for us to bring her. And that was the decision that we went with. And I'm really glad that we did bring her and it worked out really well. It did change the dynamic a bit, obviously, and you're going to have more stress. You're going to have a little bit less downtime. You're going to have to factor in the naps and making sure that they are fed and cared for and all of those things. But it still was an amazing trip, and I'm really glad that we brought her. Here are all of the things that we booked in advance for this entire trip. Okay. So we booked the gondola ride. We booked the rental car for the Dolomites and the car seat. All Airbnbs. Obviously, the refugees and Lago Debray does require a reservation booking if you go between July 11th and September 11th. Thankfully, we were at the front end of this, so we didn't need a booking. But it is something to think about if you're going during that time frame. Um, we also booked, um, the bus rides for the through hike. So like I had mentioned before, we needed to take buses to our trailhead because we had to drop our car at the end of the trail where we were going to finish the hike. So that's something that you'll want to look into booking. If you're going to do a through hike, you can do like more of a roundabout route if you don't want to have to worry about that. Um, we also booked the train rides from Florence to Rome, and then a train ride from, uh, Rome to the airport. Where we were staying in Rome, to the airport and then a cooking class in Florence. We booked and a wine country tour from Florence to kind of like the Tuscany wine country. It was about a 30 to 40 minute drive. Um, and that was a bus tour. And then we also booked the Duomo in Florence. So this is the famous dome, um, that you can walk to the top of and kind of have a really awesome look out of all of Florence, and you do need to book that in advance. I recommend doing that first thing in the morning if you're going in the summer, because it is super hot. And then we also booked a hop on, hop off bus tour to the Vatican, um, where we got to see the Sistine Chapel and walk around and kind of see a lot of famous, um, you know, sculptures and artwork. And it was, you know, an iconic thing to do in Rome. So we did a hop on, hop off bus tour. So basically we could just get on and off as long as we stayed in our in our proper time frame with this one certain bus company. And then we also had to book Colosseum entry in Rome. So basically you have kind of a certain time frame that you needed to check in to go to the Coliseum. We didn't do a proper guide like a tour or anything like that, but we needed to book our entry to do that. Um, Rome is super touristy, super busy, crowded. So just something to factor in. Booking these things in advance made everything go so much more smoothly so you don't get there. And you're not just like, oh crap, well, we can't really do anything that we wanted to do or things that we should do while we're here. Okay, you guys, I think that this covers all of the frequently asked questions that I've gotten, at least generally. Like I said, I'm going to also be doing a blog post on a couple different, more specific topics with, uh, mostly the Dolomites, because that's where I've gotten a lot of my questions. But if you have additional questions about anything with our itinerary, how we plan this, how it went with bringing a toddler, what we would have done differently, what we packed, anything like that. You can always shoot us a DM at the fit, underscore or hiking Instagram page and let me know what else you would like to hear about or learn about. I hope that this is helpful for anybody who's looking to plan a trip to Italy, or wants to do a similar itinerary to northern and central Italy. Um, I cannot recommend it enough. I'm so glad that I finally got to Europe, and this was an amazing trip to be the first. Um, so thanks so much for listening today, and as always, I appreciate you if you are able to share the podcast, if you get a lot out of it, if you enjoy it, share it with people on Instagram, or just let people know about the podcast. All right. Thanks so much for being here and I will see you guys in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.