Wish List: Italy

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I have a friend who lives in the Middle East and I was fortunate enough to get to visit her last year.  While I was able to make the trek there, not all of my friends have that flexibility.  It’s a long time to get there and return – almost 21 hours there and almost a full day back via Frankfurt.  It’s a culture shock too. For those reasons, I’ve been working on a plan to get us to get together somewhere in Europe so that others can join up for the vacation.
Il Ponte dei Sospiri (The Bridge of Sighs) in Venice, so named since my Iberian choices were overruled
Spain and Portugal lie roughly along the half way point between the nearly 7,000 miles between Philadelphia and Abu Dhabi.  So I propose that, looking into ideas for Lisbon or Barcelona. However, I’m overridden and my posse calls for Italy.
Il Torre di Pisa - in Italian, it's just a tower
Outside of the distance being a little askew (about 2,700 miles from AUH and 4,300 from PHL to Rome), Italy could be the ideal location.  I just don’t know what we’ll do.  Do we stay in one city, like Rome, and see the sights? Do we rent a villa in Italy, like a co-worker’s family did? Do we travel across the countryside from town to town to see a bit of it all?
La Basilica Papale di San Pietro (St. Peter's Basilica), visible from Italy but is in the Holy See
I don’t have a clue as to what we’d like to do.  However the plan is to go in mid- to late April. (Right now, that seems to be the best time for our schedules.)  Yet, I have a lot of research to do.  I need to learn Italian history.  I need to be familiar with the different styles of cuisine.  I must bone up on my Italian wines, since I’m really a new world grape fan.  One thing is for sure, we will have a blast when we get to go.

Any ideas or tips?  Feel free to tweet me or post your suggestions on blogger or facebook.

Images are courtesy of TripAdvisor.

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