The Mediterranean Adventure - One Item From My Bucket List

I went on a vacation to Rome, Italy, Athens and Santorini, Greece in October, 2019. Living in Northern Maryland, we had to take a shuttle that picked us up from a location closer to BWI at 10:30 AM. We flew out of Dulles (Washington, DC) at approximately 3 PM. We had a connecting flight at JFK (NY) that departed at approximately 5:30 PM. We arrived in Rome, Italy at 8:10 AM. We could not check into our rooms until 3 PM. We dropped our bags off and walked to the grocery store near buy to get bottle water and snacks. From there, we took an Uber to the nearest restaurant. Our first authentic Italian meal was pretty good. From there we took another Uber to the Trevi Fountain and did shopping around the area. We did not get back to our hotel until 6 PM. Was I beat...from 10:30 AM to 6 PM the next day. We toured the Vatican and other major tourist areas. The Vatican tour was amazing. We spent two nights in Rome. We took a flight to Athens. Of course we toured all the main attractions and did some shopping. We were scheduled to stay in Athens for 3 nights and take the boat to Santorini where we were also scheduled to stay three nights. The experience to Santorini was the worst for me. The travel agent told us that we would be on the boat for about 6 hours. It ended up being 8.5 hours. Needless to say, we were not happy about that. Santorini is an island and the only way to get there is to fly in or take a boat in. The boat is so huge. This is the only way they get food and other commerce. The tractor trailers, buses, cars, etc drive on the ship and drive off when they reach Santorini. We come in at the ocean level and I believe the height is 1900 km from sea level. If you can imagine a mini van traveling up a single lane unpaved road in some places with zero guard rails and having to pull over to the shoulder to let other traffic go in the opposite direction. This is all up a volcano. Very scary. The hotel was up a hill that we had to walk when we wanted to go to eat or shop. The entire island is hilly. Our accommodations were less than expected here. We ended up checking out a day early to return to Athens because the travel agency had us taking that boat at an hour that would have gotten us back to Athens at 12:30-1 AM. By the time we got to the hotel, we would have to shower and be ready for a 3 AM pickup to come back to the states. What sense did it make for us to pay for a hotel room for 2-3 hours? We will never use this travel agency again. When traveling, especially abroad, do your research first. Make sure the travel agency is not inconveniencing you so that they have a better profit margin. Sorry I can't post pictures. They are all on my iPhone. If you are my friend on Facebook, some are posted there. Look for the end of October to the beginning of November, 2019.