The beginning
To us who live in the far western Ligurian should use the Nice airport. For the U.S., then there are two direct flights a day, but we have not been used on the final destination:
Phoenix,
Arizona. The search for the best route, combined with the best price (to do no wrong in what is left of our Genoese, but I think even for non-Genovese is of much importance) led us to select American Airlines is the London-Nice , London-Dallas-
Phoenix and Dallas. After clicking to the ticket booth, I notice that on Thursday there is a direct flight London-
Phoenix, but it was too late. Starting to plan the trip we took broad vision of the trips listed on Viaggiscoop and with great humility, we have also written a couple of people who had already done in recent times, which, we are now available via e-mail and gave us the most valid indication of which, in part, because we treasure. I knew he lived in
Phoenix, an old friend, Ben, with whom we had not seen since the early years settenta, that since we were both military and he was Lieutenant at the command of the U.S. sixth fleet. I knew that the service ended, he returned to Chicago to complete his law studies and later moved to
Phoenix where he was a lawyer. Well, I managed to find it via the internet and we got in touch. I asked him to send me some maps of places to be able to make the best about the trip. Additionally, last October, had just published the latest edition of the Lonely Planet guide "South West U.S.." Guide that has proved very useful, indeed almost indispensable, for the immense wealth of good news reports, even if we then shared the opinion about some restaurants. We chose the location where to stay based on the places that we set out to visit. Very useful site www.grandcircle.org. Selected locations, starting clockwise from
Phoenix, we started to book, inside the "circle" hotels on the Internet. Small tactical error. After the experience acquired, we realized that we had to call and haggle on price, as I see it, with excellent results, my friend. Whether at the car rental for the property in the second period of stay in
Phoenix. In these two circumstances my Genoese was ashamed. The only place where I think you can not haggle is the El Tovar Hotel "at the Grand Canyon Village as necessary to allocate at least a year before, because it is known, opened in 1905, had distinguished guests, also includes Albert Einstein and President Teddy Roosevelt. Booked the flight, booked hotels, remained to book excursions, which, in truth we were not well oriented. My friend Ben told us that properly heard in April, there were problems about the book at the moment. What later turned out, fortunately, true. Upon arrival in
Phoenix was waiting for the airport. After we greeted each other, we started telling the last thirty-seven years and it seemed that we had seen the previous day ...