Recently a friend of mine at work wanted to travel to Europe for the first time but was unsure if she wanted to go alone. With my love of travel I said that I would be willing to go with her. Her destination in mind was Italy; specifically, Tuscany.

Last week on Thursday I managed to find airfare to Rome for the both of us for just under $700 each, out of Minneapolis. This has been a pretty good year for airfare (who knows how long these types of fares are going to last). So now we have some planning to do.

I think the plan, for now, is to spend a couple of days in Rome and travel north. Likely to places such as Florence, Pisa and I think she really would like to go to Venice.

I was last in Italy back in 2004, so for me it will be 14 years, almost to the date, that I will have been to Italy so I'm also very excited to return and see some more of this beautiful country.

It's a very exciting time, for sure! She's so excited, which makes it all worth it!