How late is too late to plan a trip to see the Olympics? Apparently, eight weeks is (almost) enough time. As I was researching possible destinations for a trip with friends in February, I realized the week we had chosen overlapped with the opening of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. From there, an idea was formed. Why not? Organizing a trip to see the Olympics seemed like a doable task, and flights were reasonable. Never mind that this is the most geographically widespread Winter Olympics in history and our group was likely to consist of eight to ten people, at minimum. The logistics of getting a group of that size into and out of the country, finding lodging and transport, not to mention navigating Olympic venues together, was likely to be a challenge, but definitely an adventure. What else is experience for?
The first decision to be made was how much to narrow our scope. Visiting Italy presented lots of opportunities. Should we try booking flights to make day trips to Venice or Rome from Milan? How many different Olympic venue cities and towns should we try to visit? Should we venture into Switzerland? What about exploring the French alps, in addition to the Swiss and Italian? In the end, we decided to cross the border into Switzerland for two nights, specifically to ski the Matterhorn in Zermatt (satiating our group members with IKON passes) before returning to Italy and attending Olympic events in Cortina, Milan, and Livingo, in that order.
After taking a look at what was available, we booked tickets to see mixed doubles curling, the USA women’s first ice hockey game vs. the Czech Republic, men’s big air snowboarding, and, of course, tickets for the opening ceremony. Additionally, we bought tickets to tour the Duomo, while we were in Milan, which we were encouraged by several people shouldn’t be missed.
Things were shaping up well as we prepared to leave. Our group solidified at ten in mid January. The EU hasn’t yet implemented their ETIAS visa waiver system (planned for later this year), so, as long as our traveling companions already had a passport, there was no additional documentation needed (or so we thought). The biggest potential disruptor for the trip appeared to be several late January snowstorms, which our flight (out of Roanoke) was scheduled between.
The snowstorms, in fact, did not have any impact, other than Gabby and I having to push the car up the hill from the garage when we went to go pick up the Kershners the morning of departure. However, the afternoon before we were supposed to leave, I was pricing rental cars and researching various insurance coverage options. In the process, I ran across a warning that, according to Italian law, a US driver’s license is not automatically valid in Italy, but requires an International Driver’s Permit as well. Despite having traveled to and/or driven in over a dozen countries, this is the first time I had encountered this. I confirmed this finding on the US embassy’s website for Italy, where I found an alternative option. As a substitute, a local translator can take your US license and provide a “certified translation” in Italian. Doing so, however, requires finding such a translator, delivering your physical license to them, which, after translating, they go before a judge to certify the accuracy of the translation. In addition to the logistical complexity, this would also be costly.
I tried to apply the “standard idiot” test to this problem. Surely your standard idiot renting a car in Italy hasn’t thought about an IDP until they get to Italy. So what happens then? From what I found, it is a 50/50 shot whether a rental car company will ask for an IDP, or require one to rent a car. However, the real issue would come if you are pulled over by police (whether for speeding, an accident, or just a routine checkpoint). In that case, if you are unable to produce an IDP, they can fine you 500 euros on the spot and impound the car. There was even some possibility (though likely remote) of being arrested for driving without the proper documentation. So, I eventually concluded the standard idiot probably takes the risk when he arrives in country without an IDP and needs to rent a car. However, that wasn’t a risk I was willing to take, with the potential downside of stranding our group of ten somewhere.
So, how do you get an IDP? There are two organizations in the US that issue them: the American Automobile Association (better know as AAA) and the American Automobile Touring Alliance. Both of organizations require submitting your application by mail two weeks in advance of your travel. I found out that AAA offices can also issue them on the spot, but, by the time I had figured this out on Saturday evening, the office had closed and wouldn’t reopen until Monday morning. This posed an issue, since the whole group was supposed to fly out on Sunday afternoon.
Eventually, after weighing all the possible options, we settled on a plan. I would depart on Tuesday afternoon instead of Sunday, along with Tanner, who was already planning on coming later. We would stop by the AAA office in Roanoke before our flight to obtain IDPs (including one for Joe, who would already be in Europe), then rent cars in Italy upon our arrival for transportation to and from the Olympic venues and our AirBnBs. Meanwhile, the rest of the group would continue on their (slightly modified) original itinerary and take public transportation into Switzerland, rent cars there, and continue their journey to Zermatt. A few additional wrinkles arose with a strike by the Italian train conductors scheduled for the day of the group’s arrival, a “car train” that required a toll to carry cars through a mountain tunnel on tracks, and the final leg requiring a train back into Italy so that Tanner and I could pick up the group without crossing into Switzerland, but, eventually, we had a game plan.
Somewhat surprisingly, the logistics of this route planned at this last minute ended up going fairly well, the one small exception being that most grocery stores were closed by the time the group arrived at the AirBnB. However, they managed to find a small market open till 11:00 PM fifteen or twenty minutes away, so no one went hungry the first night (that makes one out of the six, at least).
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Tanner and I began our journey. The stop at AAA was uneventful. I asked the agent how late he had seen someone come in to request an IDP and he said he once had someone who was "flying out the same day." We informed him that he would now have a new record, since we were flying out the next hour. He also said we were the most well prepared he had ever seen, in terms of the required documents for Joe’s IDP. I responded that, if we were truly well prepared, then we wouldn’t be sitting in his office.
From Roanoke, Tanner and I flew to Chicago, and then to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. In flight dinner was good (Indian chicken), and we both tried to get some sleep, in preparation for the next day. As we made our way through customs in Germany, I told the border guard that we were headed to the olympics, when he asked the purpose for our travel. He asked if I was competing or attending. That seemed like a far-fetched question, but, as we were boarding the flight to Milan, there was a delegation from team Romania dressed in matching tracksuits boarding also (as well as a guy in a full Penn State matching sweats).
No comments:
Post a Comment