As a preface I should explain that for the past ten years I have been developing fundraising trips for small not-for-profit organizations (churches and schools). I develop and market the trips, the participants make a donation to the organization (usually around $250 per person) to participate in the trip. The organization also makes money on the back end from volume discounts offered by the hotels.
This trip was for the benefit of a church in New Jersey, the tenth annual one from this particular church. It was the smallest group I've ever had (I cap trips at forty participants) with just twelve travelers.
For the church to expand its sources of income, ideally the participants should be a mix of members and non-members and this was the case (less than half of the group were members). This was not intended to be a religious trip or a pilgrimage but it was loosely based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
We had four nights in Umbria based about seven miles south of Perugia, and three nights in Rome. One of my lessons learned from years of these trips is to try and base in the city we'll depart from at the end of the trip, to avoid those nasty 3 AM wake up calls and a long schlep to the airport. Ideally I'd spend all seven or eight nights in one location but sometimes, as with this trip, that just isn't possible.
We arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport a little early and had one of those tarmac disembarkations that Alitalia is infamous for, climbing down the stairs and into a bus to the terminal. Fortunately it was not raining, I've had that happen in the past. Passport control is now more automated and moved faster than in the past, so that was a plus.
Once the luggage was collected we found our tour director for the week and headed to the bus lanes to meet our driver and minibus. Soon we were on the road to Umbria, but first we had to sit through some rush hour Rome traffic before we got to the A90 ring road. We stopped for a coffee and bathroom break shortly after leaving the autostrada near Orte. In chatting with the driver I learned that this stop was required for him, there are strict limits to the length of segment he can drive without stopping, as well as the number of hours he can drive in a day and the number of hours of rest required before the next day of driving. This would become important later in the trip when we wanted him to drive us to dinner one night.
Back on the road we headed to our first stop, Todi, where we planned to just wander about and grab some lunch so we wouldn't arrive at our hotel before the rooms were ready. We took the public elevator up to the town from the parking lot and discovered we had arrived on the weekend of their medieval festival, which was a nice surprise.
The group split up for a couple of hours and several of us had a nice lunch with an amazing view on the terrace of Ristorante Umbria (http://www.ristoranteumbria.it/it/).
After lunch we climbed back into our minibus and made the short drive to our accommodations for the next four nights, Alla Posta dei Donini (https://www.postadonini.it/) in the tiny hamlet of San Martino in Campo. The hotel and the grounds are amazing, they do a big business in weddings and I could see why. Even I could take beautiful photographs there.
Our rooms were ready so everyone checked in and did their own thing for a few hours, we met later for an included welcome dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Pantagruel. (I try to include dinner the first night as a way for the group to get to know one another, and also because on arrival day no one has really had a chance to explore the dining options yet.)
This trip was for the benefit of a church in New Jersey, the tenth annual one from this particular church. It was the smallest group I've ever had (I cap trips at forty participants) with just twelve travelers.
For the church to expand its sources of income, ideally the participants should be a mix of members and non-members and this was the case (less than half of the group were members). This was not intended to be a religious trip or a pilgrimage but it was loosely based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
We had four nights in Umbria based about seven miles south of Perugia, and three nights in Rome. One of my lessons learned from years of these trips is to try and base in the city we'll depart from at the end of the trip, to avoid those nasty 3 AM wake up calls and a long schlep to the airport. Ideally I'd spend all seven or eight nights in one location but sometimes, as with this trip, that just isn't possible.
We arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport a little early and had one of those tarmac disembarkations that Alitalia is infamous for, climbing down the stairs and into a bus to the terminal. Fortunately it was not raining, I've had that happen in the past. Passport control is now more automated and moved faster than in the past, so that was a plus.
Once the luggage was collected we found our tour director for the week and headed to the bus lanes to meet our driver and minibus. Soon we were on the road to Umbria, but first we had to sit through some rush hour Rome traffic before we got to the A90 ring road. We stopped for a coffee and bathroom break shortly after leaving the autostrada near Orte. In chatting with the driver I learned that this stop was required for him, there are strict limits to the length of segment he can drive without stopping, as well as the number of hours he can drive in a day and the number of hours of rest required before the next day of driving. This would become important later in the trip when we wanted him to drive us to dinner one night.
Back on the road we headed to our first stop, Todi, where we planned to just wander about and grab some lunch so we wouldn't arrive at our hotel before the rooms were ready. We took the public elevator up to the town from the parking lot and discovered we had arrived on the weekend of their medieval festival, which was a nice surprise.
The group split up for a couple of hours and several of us had a nice lunch with an amazing view on the terrace of Ristorante Umbria (http://www.ristoranteumbria.it/it/).
After lunch we climbed back into our minibus and made the short drive to our accommodations for the next four nights, Alla Posta dei Donini (https://www.postadonini.it/) in the tiny hamlet of San Martino in Campo. The hotel and the grounds are amazing, they do a big business in weddings and I could see why. Even I could take beautiful photographs there.
Our rooms were ready so everyone checked in and did their own thing for a few hours, we met later for an included welcome dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Pantagruel. (I try to include dinner the first night as a way for the group to get to know one another, and also because on arrival day no one has really had a chance to explore the dining options yet.)
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