Italian Job, the logistics

From Umrah as family year end trip 2023/2024, to Italian Job as family trip 2024/2025.

It wasn't the original plan though. 

Before that, we had 1 big trip earlier as well in 2023. The Lon-Ams. And we’ve been addicted ever since. But that has its own story to tell. 

Back to this one again. 

After having spent quite significant amount of money for Umrah (around 40k total for our family), we thought of having something a lower key for the next one. With the pressure to utilise MAS' expiring points as an added reason. It was during the Malaysia Day break. We concluded the vacation plan with Seoul. Year end as usual. Made sense since the last time we were there was almost 10 years ago, and Naela and Aita barely remember things. 

But somehow, during November 2024 or so, Ermie queried some winter trip question. After gotten to know the deals that she got, I asked hubs to just have a quick look, whether there's anything that might be a good deal. There definitely was. Around RM 2,700 per pax for adult. Even cheaper than Japan's tickets. Even more apt and timely for Lope's post SPM celebration. And another decision was made: To Italy we go. Reschedule Seoul to a much later, Autumn Trip.

On which we had to have a leap of faith. We have to assume that it would not clash with Lope's future foundation classes. While school's schedule might have been under control, foundation's is totally out in the open. 

After some chatgpt, Rome seemed to be a much better option for us. Cheaper options (hotels and food, or so we thought), lots of places to go. Warmer weather. We secured a return trip. Not long after, was the
checking for Goyard's location. There's none in Rome, but there's one in Milan. Vacation amendment no. 2 now ----> to Milan we go.

It wasn't decided as swiftly though. Thank God for Chatgpt archives, the 'Milan' journey was made after much consideration. Didn't take me that long to decide, but few were considered, but all revolving from Goyard destinations. I looked up Goyard in Berlin, which they don't, on the possibility of road tripping from Rome to Monaco, which clearly isn't a sound option. Which then led us to consider road tripping to Swiss. Which then led us to firm up our decision for a road trip. Which is for me at least, the best decision ever. 

Road trip to Swiss should be fun. And we would be able to tick off another country bucket list. No matter how shallow is the journey into Swiss. But a new country nonetheless. I was thrilled with the idea at first. However, after thinking of the possibility of border control issue, fuel, cost of fuel and others, I decided to take a much safer option to Venice instead. Travelling east coast has its charm as well. And risk free. 

After having set our mind on Milan, the next thing to deal with was the journey from Rome to Milan.

Again few modes of transportation has to be considered. From road trip, to train and bus. Cost, time, convenience were factored in and in the end, we opted for the fast train. Definitely not cheap, but it was definitely a nice experience. Managed to catch up with work and sleep on the train.

Now, back to the car rental. It was surprisingly quite reasonable. Problem was, we had to pick it up from the airport. Since the trip was planned to be on our 3rd day in Milan (plus we never travelled by air in the first place), we had to make a trip to the airport specifically. Good thing was, the journey to Milan airport only took half an hour train ride. But another problem arose. It was such a long queue to get our car. So, our trip was delayed. I had planned a very pack roadtrip schedule, to ensure that we can maximise our journey well, by visiting as many places as we can. And to avoid night time driving as much as we can. Well, plans are meant to be broken. But I’ve learnt from enough travels already, I have made the road trip to be almost airtight. Adjustments were made quite easily and timing has always been there as a guide. 

By now it has been 6 months since we had the trip, yet the memories remain so vivid. Traveling together as a complete family is nothing that I will ever trade off with. No matter how deep inside the pockets we had to dig, InsyaAllah with Allah’s wills, financially and physically, we will always look forward to every year.