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Travel App Tuesday

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It’s Travel App Tuesday!

Every Tuesday I will be covering and hopefully introducing a travel app that seems helpful.

Today’s travel app is Packing Pro.

Ever wish you had made a list for your pre-trip ‘to dos’ and items to pack? Every time I go to pack for a trip, I wish I had a previous list to help me remember everything. Now there is a very handy app called Packing Pro, for the IPhone, IPad and IPod Touch, that comes with a master catalog of 800 items organized into 13 different categories. A brand new feature allows you to sync all your devices with iCloud.To get you started there is a demo trip that shows how a finished packing list might look. Playing with the components help to get acquainted with the app.

When you create a new list, a menu with 7 possibilities comes up allowing you to choose to create a new packing list from one of your other packing lists, a sample packing list, from scratch, or with Expert Help.Choosing Expert help brings up questions that will help populate a list based on the number of female adults, male adults, children and days of the trip. There are other choices based on weather, destination (domestic or international), food preparation and clothes washing. Each item can be further described with the number required, its weight and value, whose item this might be (or whose responsibility), which bag the item will be put and a place for a note about the item.After choosing how to set up your trip, you have the opportunity to edit the items in each category. Items can be deleted or added, or rearranged within the category.Categories and items can be added to the Master Catalog and different ways of sorting the items, including showing all the items that are not packed.Other features include the ability to import and export lists, possibilities for custom designing the look of the app and complete instructions in the info section.

The app costs $2.99 through the app store of the device.

Click here for the developer’s webpage.

The Aeolian Islands

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Aeolian Islands, Lipari, ItalyOH MY!  COULD A BUNCH OF ISLANDS GET ANY BETTER…EVEN BETTER THAN THE CARIBBEAN?

Named after the Greek god of the winds, Aeolus, the archipelago known as the Aeolian Islands, or the 7 sisters, as in the Pleades, the Aeolian Islands just might have a leg up on the Caribbean for diversity and beauty.  Just as 7 sisters would be different, each island has a personality of its own.  One is lush, one smolders, two are so separate from the others its as if they have gone off and to meditate.  Others are covered with lava rock, pumice and obsidian with crystal clear turquoise water while one in particular erupts daily…this is the firey one.

ADD ON TO CALABRIA TRIP

A pleasant excursion is planned to linger a little longer in Italy’s glorious southern region with a visit to the Aeolian Islands located just off of the northern coast of Sicily.  Lipari, the largest island, is the base for daily excursions to some the other islands.  One of the islands is known for its delicious hot sulfurous mud baths.  Accommodations are at a luxurious 4 star hotel with beautiful verandas and a swimming  pool.  It is near the harbor and the small town of Lipari where there is shopping on the little streets and many restaurants to choose from.Lipari, Aeolian Islands, Italy, Sicily

From Lipari there are several excursions you can choose.  One of my favorites is a boat trip to the beautiful island of Panarea, the opportunity to swim in the beautiful bay of Cala Junco.  You will stop at a village on the island and continue on to Stromboli, the island with the active volcano.  Here we will visit different places to swim and go ashore for a delicious local pasta dish.  It should be about dusk after eating and we will be able to see the eruption of the volcano when it’s most spectacular.Lipari, Aeolian Island, Aeolian Islands, Volcano, Tyrrhenian Sea, Tyrrhenian Coast, Tyrrhenian Beaches

Details of the trip are here.