Oh my goodness…so this is how I stumbled across the latest flight deal that I just booked which is from New York (JFK) to Rome (FCO) nonstop for only $200 roundtrip! I was at work working one of my firewatch shifts and I was working a little longer than usual to help out a co-worker who needed to take care of some business. I try to stay up to date on my emails and I was checking my inbox and I came acrosss a heading from Going that read “*nonstop*-Rome $195 (Mar-Apr/Nov)”. I was in utter shock and the only question now was from where? When I opened the email and saw that it was from JFK I knew I was going to have to book it but I wanted to check something first…

My mom has talked about visiting a place called Umbria located in Italy. She saw it on tv one day on a show she was watching and said that it seemed like a place to go to just get away and take a breath. They showed a retreat of sorts where there was meditation, relaxtion, peace and quiet. Given how busy my mom usually is taking care of family I could see how this would appeal to her. I looked it up some time back and took a mental note. After our trip to Paris earlier this year I asked her where she wanted to go next (even though we are slated to go to New Orleans in June for a family reunion and Costa Rica in July) and she said Italy and I immediately thought Umbria. I checked the distance from Rome to Umbria and it’s only about 2 and a half hours driving distance so it was a no brainer, I was getting 2 flight tickets one for me and one for my mom.

I began browsing the dates in November as March is coming to a close and April is too close for a trip after my last and before my next. The only availability I saw was early and mid November but the issue was I have a trip for November scheduled already for mid November. I skimmed the available dates for sale and found a spot to insert the trip (literally right before my existing trip-I will be going from one trip onto the next which will be a first for me so we will see how that goes…craziness). I have us booked and just wish that we could’ve stayed longer given the amazing flight deal but we’ll get a good taste of life in Umbria in early November. As I was securing dates I could see the price changing and availability disappearing so I had to act fast. The airline is Norse which we flew via Paris and I enjoyed Norse so I was ok with that (they are a budget airline out of Norway). I was too excited and thought about holding out in telling my mom but who was I kidding I had to tell her.

I was anxiously awaiting to get off and get home so that I could call her and tell her that were’re going to Italy this year. I had her guess some good news that I had to tell her and she did guess that it was a new trip for this year but she didn’t know I was going to tell her that she was going with me. As soon as I told her that she knew it was Italy and she got excited with a sense of surprise. She deserves it and it’s something else she can look forward to before the end of the year. Y’all, I’ve already started looking at Airbnbs and it looks so pretty there (even placed a deposit on one to hold it for our dates because it looks perfect for our stay). I’m super excited about this trip now and there was no way I could’ve passed up on a deal like this after all it is within the realm of my “sweet spot”.