Everyone loves to travel. But believe it or not, doing it right and traveling on a budget takes a little skill, knowledge and practice. But the required skills are not difficult, the knowledge required is easy to obtain, and the fun is in the practice! This past spring my wife and I were lucky enough to be able to spend 10 days in Italy. We didn't spend a fortune, we scrimped on a few things and spent on others, and the net result was a very pleasing travel experience. Planning your trip, of course, is key. We had agreed to our general itinerary and had a limited amount of time to spend, so the general outline of the trip was pretty clear from the start. We flew to Rome, spent a few days taking care of the biggies like St. Peter's, and the Vatican Museum, and did lots of strolling around the city.

Where did we stay? At a "budget" hotel. How did we find it? The Internet. There are so many choices of reasonably-priced hotels, that the biggest problem is narrowing down the list. If you have even minimal Web-surfing skills, finding your accomodations this way is really pretty easy to do. Many establishments even offer a discount for reservations made online. Oh, by the way, when we paid the bill on the way out, we paid in cash - another discount!