CODY SOSSAMON PUBLISHER Ledger ad director Robert Martin was unable to give me an open page in today’s paper to use for the next installment about my trip to Italy, but he said maybe Friday. While you all are waiting anxiously, I’ll use my column to share a few observations about Italy and travel in general.

Some of you have asked about making reservations and going it alone or joining a tour group.

My answer is to each his own, but you couldn’t pay me to be a part of one of the tour groups following a guide from this sight to that. You can spot them from a mile away. They all have on the same color T-shirts, scarves or hats. Sometimes all three. The guide is holding up a flag of some sort so that all in the group can follow close behind.

The groups usually average about 20 to 30 in number and typically are middle age or older, but sometimes school-age. They all have some kind of earpiece so they can clearly hear the guide explain IN DETAIL what they are looking at. Most of them look bored to death.

There are a LOT of Oriental tour groups and almost to a person they have high-dollar cameras and lenses.

Going it on your own as we did allows everyone to sightsee at their own pace or not at all. We did have a few set times to enter places like St. Mark’s in Venice or the Vatican Museum in Rome. But once inside, we scattered to explore on our own, with only a time and place to meet later.

When freelance traveling with a group of 14, planning is essential. We started two years ahead, but it was actually fun and educational. We researched the places we wanted to visit, made reservations at major tourist sights, hotels, restaurants, and for transportation (car rental and transfers to and from airports).

We also agreed on a tentative agenda for where we would go on which day, but left a lot of wiggle room in case we decided to deviate.

By doing it our way, we saw and experienced parts of Italy that tour groups never even glimpse.

We shopped in the grocery stores with locals, we bought sandwiches in a cafe frequented only by locals, we took pictures in a sunflower field and a vineyard on the back roads of Umbria and Tuscany.

We met and mingled with REAL Italians, not the ones who deal with tourists for a living.

Life is different there. I think I mentioned the lack of ice and air conditioning in an earlier column. It’s not that it’s not there, there just isn’t much of it. Anywhere. Think you can buy a bag of ice at a convenience store? Wrong. There are no convenience stores and besides there are no bags of ice for sale. Heck, a bucket of ice in a hotel costs five euro.

No ice or vending machines in the hallways.) It was a small bucket and only half full at that. We only bought the one.

There are a few fast food joints like McDonald’s in the larger cities, but you have to search for them. Fuel stations with sandwiches and such are located on the austostradas (major highways), but are few and far between. Forget getting off at this exit or that for a quick drink, snack and bathroom stop.

The prices at the grocery stores (supermercato) are comparable to here, maybe lower. Fuel (mostly diesel) is much higher at almost 2 euro per litre, making it about $7 per gallon. That’s one reason everybody drives small, manual transmission cars that use diesel fuel.

There are few stop signs and fewer traffic signals. Italy has these things called roundabouts. Heron Circle in Spartanburg is a roundabout. They can be very confusing. Trust me.

Electric power is also quite expensive and a bit strange. The voltage is different. The plug-ins are different. With that in mind, you have to buy adapters and such to make sure things like hair dryers work. That was not a concern for me.

You have to make arrangements for cell phone usage, either renting one that will work in Italy or making sure your provider covers Italy and then get a special chip.

Money is something else that’s different. In Italy, they have the euro, which currently equals about $1.30. The larger the denomination, the larger the bill. The bills are different colors as well. Coins are used for 2 euro and less. We bought some euros here at our bank before we left, but you can easily use a debit card to get cash at any of the many ATMs in the larger cities.

The many differences between the U.S. and other countries are one of the reasons that makes travel so interesting. Not only do you get to see places you have only read or heard about, but you get to EXPERIENCE the differences.

It opens your mind to other ways of doing things. You grow.

I love visiting new places, but the very best part of traveling is coming home. Only when you’ve been out of the country for a week or two, can you truly appreciate life in these United States.

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.