An Expedited Passport to See Venice in Winter - Expedited Passports

Summer is Venice’s high season, so most travel guides recommend visiting the city in spring or fall instead. But what about winter? As New York Times reporter Rachel Donadio recently discovered, winter in Venice has its own special magic. In the article, she writes about seeing the city in winter for the first time: “The light, as always, was beyond compare and there was a watery chill in the air. I loved it immediately. ”

In winter, it’s easy to get into normally busy attractions like the Doge’s Palace, and the damp chill can be easily kept at bay with hot coffee. Even better, Alitalia is having an excellent special on tickets at the moment. You can fly directly to Venice from Chicago for $867 round trip, or fly into Milan from New York for $622 and then take the train to Venice. If you take the Eurostar, you’ll be there in less than three hours. For more potential itineraries and prices, see Smarter Travel.

The sale is on until March of 2011. If you’d like to take advantage of it, keep in mind that you’ll need a passport if you don’t already have one.

If you apply for a passport without expedited processing, you can expect to get your passport back in the mail about 6 weeks after you send your application in. The State Department’s expedited passport processing normally takes about 3 weeks, which is still a long time to wait.

If you need to travel sooner than that, you have two options that can further reduce the time it takes to get an expedited passport. First, you can apply in person at a regional passport agency office. You’ll have to make an appointment to do this, and you may have to spend a lot of time and even money to get to the office since there are only 21 passport agency offices that serve the general public in the United States.

The second option is to order an expedited passport from a private expediting company like RushMyPassport. We meet with the Department of State on your behalf to submit the application, so you get processing times as low as 24 hours with no need to make an appointment or travel to a passport agency.

Apply for your expedited passport with us today!

Rome might seem like an unlikely place to travel and celebrate Halloween. After all, what’s scary about pasta, pizza, fine wine and gelato (except, perhaps, for the resulting effects on your waistline)?

The Eternal City is beautiful and filled with life, but there’s also a darker, haunting undertone to the city as well. And what better time to explore it than Halloween, traditionally the day when the spirits of the dead get to come back and mingle with the living? Here are 4 reasons to get a fast passport and celebrate Halloween in Rome:

• The Catacombs- When Christianity was still new, most of Rome was pagan and burying dead bodies was still something of a novelty. Most people who died were simply cremated. Burials were also forbidden within city walls, so wealthy Christians living outside the walls donated land to be used as burial sites. The dead were buried in underground tunnels. Today, these catacombs are open for tours, although most of the bodies have since been moved.

• The Capuchin Crypt: Below the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, Capuchin friars buried their dead, then later exhumed the skeletons and used them for a super-creepy interior decorating project: bones adorn the walls of the crypt in intricate patterns, bones form chandeliers and light fixtures, and entire human skeletons are arranged in various poses. The entire crypt functions as a memento mori (reminder of death), pointedly brought home by the inscription in one of the rooms: “What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be..”

• The Colosseum: Thousands of people and countless wild animals died in the gory “games” held in the Colosseum. Is it any wonder that some people consider it to be haunted? According to WorldReviewer.com, many people have even claimed to see the ghosts of gladiators re-enacting their last battles.
• Castel Sant’Angelo- Originally built as the burial place of the emperor Hadrian and his family, the Castel Sant’Angelo was later used as a prison, with executions being held inside.

If you’d like to visit Rome for Halloween, you’ll need to get a fast passport. Regular passport processing takes about 6 weeks, while the government’s expedited processing option takes about 3. But never fear- fast passport processing that takes as little as 24 hours is available at Regional Passport Agency offices or from private expediting companies like RushMyPassport.com.

Apply for a fast passport with us today!

Is a visit to the Eternal City on your bucket list? Take note: the New York Times is reporting that this fall is a particularly good time to go. That’s because o Dr. Roberto Cecchi, Rome’s new Archaeological Commissioner, has made it a point to both restore and restore access to archaeological treasures that were previously closed to the public. For example, through October 2nd, the Colosseum now has extended Saturday hours and is open until midnight. You’ll also be able to see the usually closed arena level and part of the hypogeum, the area where wild beasts and gladiators awaited their turn in the arena. The Baths of Caracalla will also be open for tours after dark.

Additionally, the Temple of Romulus in the Roman Forum is now open to the public, as are some recently restored frescoes in the House of Livia.

If these exhibits pique your interest, you should go ahead and renew your passport now if you want to see them. The New York Times spoke to Colosseum director Dr. Rossella Rea, who implied that the expanded hours and exhibits would probably not last forever:

These new fall options for visiting Rome’s most celebrated archaeological parks is tremendously exciting for both travelers and archaeologists. Yet in a city where cultural financing is tenuous, it is important to seize on new openings as they come about. “We want to continue to do more here,” Dr. Rea said, “but in the end it all depends on money.”

Whether you need to renew your passport or get a new one, you should expect to wait at least 6 weeks if you apply with normal processing. For an additional $60 fee, you can apply for expedited processing, which will reduce the time it takes to process your application to approximately 3 weeks. If you can’t wait that long, don’t panic-you do still have some options. Either make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency or use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com.

Renew your passport with us today!

If you’ve been waiting for the Mediterranean to become more affordable, why not get a fast passport and get cheap tickets with Alitalia’s latest sale? SmarterTravel reports that the Italian airline is offering great prices on flights from the US to Mediterranean countries including Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey.

Flights from Barcelona to Miami are available for as little as $661 per person, round trip. Flights from New York To Rome start at $804, and flights from Boston to Florence are $860. For $920 you can fly from Chicago to Venice, and for $941 you can fly from Los Angeles to Madrid. Flights from Chicago to Thessalonike, Greece are $1,207. However, given the situation in Greece right now, flying may be more expensive than to other destinations but room rates are likely cheaper. Meanwhile, $1,260 will get you to and from Istanbul.

The cool thing about these prices is that they are all-inclusive, including fees and taxes, so what you see is pretty much what you’ll get.

The sale is good for travel in September and October, which is fine if you have a passport. If you don’t have one already, though, you’ll need to apply for fast passport processing. Normal passport processing takes at least 6 weeks, and I don’t recommend that you cut it that close. For fast passport processing, you can request expedited service, which will cut processing time down to approximately 3 weeks.

For even faster service, you can make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency office if you are traveling in 2 weeks or less. However, a much more convenient option, especially if you don’t have a passport office nearby, is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport. An expediting company will personally deliver your application to the Department of State. Processing times depend on the level of service you select, and they can be as low as 24 hours.

Need a fast passport? Apply with us today!

Fans of the “Godfather” series of books and movies now have a new reason to get a passport: Naples has repossessed the properties of  mafia leaders and is turning them into retreats for tourists, according to the New York Times. For example, a 17th-century farmhouse owned by Bernardo Brusca, former capo of one of Sicily’s more notorious crime families, is now a luxurious bed and breakfast.  In the Times article, Emiliano Rocchi, the head chef of the bed and breakfast, explains:

“All the municipalities in the area were part of a long, violent mafioso history that they wanted to leave behind. Turning these Mafia properties into socially beneficial projects is a way of doing that.”

One such bed and breakfast is even located in the town of Corleone, made famous as the ancestral home of the Corleone family in “The Godfather.” Agriturismo Terre Di Corleone was once owned by Salvatore Riina, the leader of the entire Sicilian Mafia.  Nowadays, the gorgeous, peaceful scenery and local, organic food makes it a great base for exploring Sicily.

Visitors to one of these bed and breakfasts may be attracted in part by their histories, but the program is actually helping local Sicilians shake free from mafia domination. The New York Times interviewed Francesco Galante of Libera Terra, who explained that with the bed and breakfasts and increases in tourism, people now have other options:

“The people from the surrounding towns now get to choose where they work,” said Mr. Galante. “They no longer depend on the favor of Mafia firms, or Mafia-connected businessmen. They feel the difference.”

To visit Sicily, you will need to get a passport, of course.  Make sure to apply early- it can take 6 weeks or longer to get a passport if you apply with normal processing.  If you pay an extra $60 to order expedited service from the Department of State,  you can cut the waiting time in half, down to 3 weeks.

However, if you need to get a passport more quickly, the quickest and easiest way is to use a private passport expediting company, like RushMyPassport.com. With an expediting company, you can get a passport in as little as 24 hours with no need to make an appointment or travel to a passport agency office.

Need to get a passport? Apply with us today!

Thinking of Tuscany, it’s easy to get lost in a daydream of bright sunshine, fields of sunflowers, excellent wine and adorable quaint villages. However, if you visit Italy during the summer “high season,”  the reality is often quite different. Those adorable quaint village squares? Packed with tourists.  Museums and monuments? Packed with tourists. Local vineyards? Packed with tourists.

In today’s New York Times,  Danielle Pergament writes that a guest at her wedding, which took place in Tuscany in the summer, described the region as “beautiful, hot and full of Americans.” This is an apt description of high tourist season in Italy.  You’ll still enjoy yourself, but you won’t leave feeling like you’ve experienced the best that Tuscany has to offer.

To avoid the crowds, your best bet is to get a fast passport and leave now, before the tourist season kicks into gear. As a bonus, the New York Times article notes that Tuscany actually gets more colorful in the winter-instead of the parched gold of summer, the fields turn a vibrant green.  You’ll also enjoy better food, as most of the local delicacies are actually in season in winter and early spring, and cheaper prices for just about everything.

To visit Tuscany, you of course need a valid US passport.  You’d better get a fast passport, too-Italy’s low season ends this month, so you need to leave ASAP if you want to take advantage of low prices and experience fewer crowds.

Normally, it takes at least 6 weeks to get a passport. If you apply for a fast passport using the government’s expedited service, you can expect to wait at least 3 weeks. If you want to leave the country sooner than that, the easiest and most convenient option is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com. With an expediting company, you can get fast passport processing, in as little as 24 hours, without having to make an appointment or drive out of your way to get to a regional passport agency office.

Don’t wait-apply for a fast passport today!