Have you ever been experienced?

As my Italy departure date draws closer, I’ve been filling in the days of my trip (conservatively) with activities. I am not a traveler who feels the need to allocate every moment to an organized tour or event much preferring to select an item or two for each destination. For me, traveling is about being unscheduled and spontaneous. I’ve got enough on my agenda when I’m home.

In recent years, I’ve made a habit of looking for things to do on the Airbnb platform. They refer to these recreational opportunities as “experiences,” and I have to say, I haven’t had a bad one yet. From a farm to table meal in Greece to a full moon paddle board in Charleston, a baking class in Galway, and a two-hour natural mineral bath in the California high desert, I’ve found each of these activities to be unique and of good value.

My vacation in Italy has involved a lot of planning. Once the airline tickets were purchased, I worked out the general loop of the trip and next booked accommodations for the various places we’d be staying. As soon as the train schedules became available, train tickets, followed by ferry tickets, were bought. When these major details were finalized, filling in our time with specific activities became the next task.

Since I’ll be solo for nearly two weeks, I only needed to consider my locations and interests. If you know me at all, you know I love being outdoors, so I focused on activities that would occur under what surely will be a bright blue sky, generally opting for a single scheduled event per area. Here’s what I came up with:

My first multi day stay is in Lerici, which is slightly east of the Cinque Terre and La Spezia. Airbnb offered a 2-hour apertivo cruise in the Bay of Poets which sounded like an absolutely lovely opportunity to see the coast from a unique perspective. The reviews were all positive, so I booked it and am looking forward to taking in the views and dipping into the water.

Ever since I learned about the Cinque Terre, I’ve wanted to hike it and this is going to finally be my year! I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but with the anticipated heat I’ll be faced with, I decided it made sense to purchase a two day trail and train pass to keep my options open. I’ve read that parts of the trail are currently inaccessible so I now have the flexibility to hop onto a train if necessary. Ideally, I’d like to hike it north one day and south the next, but whether that’ll happen remains to be seen. I’m imagining crisp Pigato and oily focaccia and can almost taste it.

My second stop is in Lucca, a walled city which introduced me to my favorite salad – arugula, olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, grated cheese and salt and pepper. Ahhh. I am so excited to sit in a piazza to taste it again – and, yes, I do make this at home, but it’s not quite the same as eating it in an ancient Tuscan city, you know? I have 3 days here and have not committed to anything beyond my accommodations, but imagine I’ll do some biking on the wall and will seek out some natural mineral springs for soaking. Beyond that, I’m content to just simply be there.

Unlike my first visit to Florence, which was for a single day, this time around I’ll be there for almost a week. The first few days I’ll be on my own and I found what may be the most amazing yoga class location ever – on a rooftop with a 360° panoramic view of the city. Exercising when I’m on vacation isn’t necessarily a regimented thing for me because it isn’t unusual for me to walk 8 or 10 miles a day when I’m away. Plus all those wine glass curls, you know?

In the past, running has provided a great perspective on a new place but, between the anticipated heat and the continued rehab of my knees, it’s simply not the right time for that type of exploration. So, to balance out walking, I’m actively seeking out opportunities to get my namaste on while I’m traveling and I’m anticipating that this rooftop yoga session, followed by an included dinner, will ring all the bells.

Beyond Airbnb’s platform, we’ve reserved a couple of other things. When in Tuscany, it would be sacrilege to not imbibe local wines, so we’ve scheduled a trip is a visit to a winery for a tasting and tour. While there are countless options to experience this sort of thing, we went with a day trip, via train, to Fattoria Lavacchio, orchestrated by our friends at Cafe Capriccio. It looks like a beautiful spot and the winery comes highly recommended – bonus for the swimming pool with stunning views.

The only other firm plan in place is some time at the Uffizi Gallery. I had a brief visit with David last time around but there’s obviously much more to see and it seems like a good and mellow Day 1 visit for my guy after his arrival. We’ve pre booked our tickets to hopefully avoid waiting in line and I’m really looking forward to seeing The Birth of Venus, among other works.

A couple of other things on my radar are some spa services on Ischia, maybe some mud and a massage, and day trip to the Amalfi coast by water, but I’m waiting to reserve those until we’re there. That being said, though, I’ll be keeping an eye on availability and if things start booking up, I may reconsider my casual approach to these activities.

Do you have any must dos I should consider adding to my itinerary? How do you fill your time when traveling?