After our first trip to Italy in 2013, we vowed that we would certainly return.
This time we have added nearby Greece to our itinerary after numerous recommendations – as well as a couple of “left field” add-ons whilst getting there and back.
After our New Zealand trip last year, we started to think about our next tour and Adrienne set about her search for frequent flyer flight options. Perhaps bizarrely (?) she latched onto a flight from Tokyo to Milan, via Helsinki, as the “starting point”. Then began to build around that. Intially not realising the timing coincided with Australian school holidays, flights connecting the start and return became a little complicated to plan so location-wise there has been a little padding !
We start with a Sydney to Narita (Tokyo) flight, but via Brisbane, then Narita to Milan, but via Helsinki. After travelling around new ground for us in northern Italy for about a week, we then fly from Bologna to Athens.
After a couple of days in Athens, we are off on another flight to Santorini. A few days in Santorini we next fly to Crete, but via Athens.
From Crete we fly back to Athens for a more detailed stay and then start to head home. We were originally flying direct to Helsinki from Athens to connect back to Japan however the Helsinki to Japan flight changed meaning we had to change the Athens to Helsinki flight – but a direct option was no longer available. So now we are going from Athens to Helsinki – via Stockholm. As we haven’t been there previously we decided to stopover for a few days.
Then its Stockholm to Helsinki and on to Japan – but Kyoto this time. Another new location so we added a couple of days there as well. Then finally Kyoto to Sydney – direct !
Despite the number of airports we do actually have plenty of other sights to see !
Looking forward to the next chapter in our travels !
