Travel planning

We love to travel especially in Europe but it's too expensive to stay in hotels. So now that we are without dogs we are looking into the idea of home exchange. We've signed up for a website that allows us to find people who want to trade houses and sometimes even cars with people all over the world.  We've listed our house along with photos and have started sending requests to people in Seville and Sicily.

Part of the process included taking photos of our home from every angle both inside and outside. I had never before taken a photo from this angle. I think it shows our house off quite well.

The home exchange website sounds good but it turns out that not everyone wants to come here at the same time we want to go there. We've sent out about forty inquiries and so far haven't found anyone who wants to exchange with us.  I doubt that the west coast of Canada is as high up on people's travel lists as for example the south of France or Andalusia. That said, I'm sure there are people who would like to come here and it seems we might be better to try for something 2017.

Meanwhile we've jumped in and booked flights to Italy for four weeks in late September and if we don't find an exchange we'll go the Air B&B route. Our plan is to visit Rome again and then head south to Sicily. It looks like a fascinating place to explore. At our age we've decided that we don't want to put travel plans off. Who knows how long we'll be able to travel this way?