Traveling for fun is one of those pastimes we (my husband Paul and I) have always considered too extravagant and selfish to indulge in. We’ve traveled for business and family obligations, and we’ve traveled with our son to give him the experiences we didn’t have as kids, but we seldom took a trip just for our own enjoyment.

Now that our only child is grown and gone and we’ve retired (mostly), we’ve decided to take that trip of a lifetime while we can still walk and enjoy it. We began planning several months ago, knowing that booking the trip would force us to keep our promise to each other to retire in June.

Music, art, and history have always been important to us, and Italy has been at the top of our bucket list since we learned what a bucket list was, so the destination was a no-brainer. And every time we watched a program on public television, we would see the ads for Viking River Cruises and we’d talk about how much fun it might be to take one. It only took one conversation with a travel agent for us to decide to combine the two, hence the title of this blog (though it sounds a little like this guy).

I created this blog to chronicle our adventures and share the experience with family and friends. As we finalize our plans and count down the days to our departure on November 2, I hope you’ll come back to check out our itinerary and wish us a buon viaggio.