We made the decision earlier this year to do a home exchange for our Italy trip.

If you have read my tips about home-exchange on my website or read any previous blog posts about it, you already know what a great idea I think this is. It really reduces the cost of travel so that I can go on more trips but also it makes it like a home away. I highly recommend it.

The Italian couple in Rome that we exchanged with were extremely easy to deal with and very friendly, making it a pleasure to make the exchange.

A women living in Venice offered but then I never heard from her again and she never renewed her membership. As it turned out this was very fortunate for us as Rome as our home base worked out beautifully.

I was a bit frazzled looking; I am sure, after the long trip and my fun getting stuck in the elevator at the Trastevere station. (See last part of the previous post) I am sure that I made a terrible first impression and on top of that my hearing aides needed replacing and I couldn’t get an appointment in time before I left. They were booked up for months so I stuck to English. I felt bad but what could I do. My espouse thought we looked pretty good considering how long we were on the road. It seems to me that men always see things like this in a better light.

Daniela and Rolando were friendly, charming and very helpful. This was their second home and they were not able to do a simultaneous exchange, so they waited in the apartment to give us the key. They showed us around their apartment explaining the do’s and don’ts, how to hook up to WiFi  the quirks and running of appliances.

They gave us a map and noted the tram 8 and bus 170. We made good use of those two modes of transportation over our time there. We told them that we had not committed too much in advance on this trip but would just see how things go. The only thing we had booked was the skip the line Vatican museum, Sistine chapel and a Chianti tour out of Florence. We also had train tickets on a Eurail Italy pass. They thought it was good that we were going to Florence.

The apartment was very nicely decorated and had everything we needed. It was in a  perfect location. There was a lot of activity and traffic outside but the doors and windows closed it all out.

They gave us their phone number and told us to call if we needed any help and they would get in touch later to see how things were going for us.

We were very happy with our exchange.

http://www.travel-tips-packing-luggage.com/homeexchange.html