I don’t have any plans to travel in the near future, so I have decided to share my 2003 trip to Italy & Switzerland.

I can’t believe it has been 15 years!! Way back then, I didn’t know anything about blogging. I shared my travels with family & friends by email. I started out, keeping up with my travels, but then sort of petered out. It became even more challenging once in Switzerland, both because of the local language keyboards there & because of all the smoking in places where internet access was available. I have more detailed info for some places I visited, a few scribbled notes I have managed to find from my 2003 trip stuff for other places, and photos with dates & times to help fill in the blanks.

My travels that year were during the 2003 European heat wave. It began in June and continued through mid-August. Fortunately, I was not there for the worst of it. Living in Hawaii, I was not usually bothered so much by the warm summer weather. I actually prefer warmer weather when traveling, but that year, it was HOT!!

This was the first time traveling with a digital camera – a Canon PowerShot A70. I think back now about that camera. Oh how I wish I had a better one! Of course back then, it was a “good” camera. It used the larger compact flash cards and a small size card was pretty expensive. My photos are not the best but they are memories. The camera did a horrible job in low light situations.

As you can tell by my itinerary below, this was not a slow travel trip! I did not join SlowTravel until July, 2004. I definitely would have done things a little differently had I known about Slow Travel and I definitely would have been more prepared, but it still was a great trip!

As I have been linking hotel info to websites, I have noticed that most of the hotels where I stayed have been renovated. I will make comments about each of my stays in my blog posts. If thinking about staying at any of the places below, I definitely would do more research to read more recent comments about the hotel. Fifteen years was a long time ago!

~ Italy ~

3 nights in Parma at Hotel Torino

3 nights in Camogli at Augusta Hotel Camogli

2 nights in Santa Margherita Ligure at Albergo Fasce
*I can’t find an original website for Alberge Fasce, but I would not recommend this place anyways. I will write more about my stay at this albergo in my Santa Margherita Ligure post.

2 nights in Empoli ~ staying with friends

3 nights in Ferrara at Locanda Borgonuovo

1 night in Mantova at Hotel Broletto

3 nights in Coccaglio ~ staying with friends

2 nights in Menaggio at Hotel Garni Corona

~ Switzerland ~

2 nights in Locarno at Hotel Garni du Lac

3 nights in Mürren at Hotel Alpina

1 night in Zürich at Hotel & Pension St. Josef

**On my way home from Switzerland to Hawaii, I did an 11-night layover in New Hampshire, staying with friends. I also visited with family & friends in Massachusetts. Highlights included a visit to Cape Cod, a Red Sox game, and an Eagles concert. It was so wonderful seeing everyone again. It was also a great way to break up travel from Switzerland to Hawaii.

Next up – 3 nights in Parma