Not gonna lie—I’m stressed. But excited! Work is ramping up as we hit busy times for various projects, and because these projects have had some delays, they’re now kind of lining up on top of each other. Whatever. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
Despite all that, I’m super excited! This upcoming week I’ll be going to Rome for the first time in like 8 years! I actually booked everything back in November rather impulsively, but that’s the beauty of not using money to book flights and such, which I’ll share below.
Background on this trip to Rome
Several years ago (during the pandemic, I think), I learned about a young man who died of leukemia when he was 15 years old, in the early 2000’s. But in his short time on this earth, he was a remarkable individual. His name is Carlo Acutis, and he’s from Italy.
I find Carlo to be remarkable because of his enthusiastic love for his faith and willingness to share that with others. A devout Catholic, he frequented going to Mass and was not afraid to befriend others and share his faith with them. He had a particular devotion to the Eucharist, and he created a website that talks about various Eucharistic miracles around the world (where the Communion wafer literally turned into flesh). The website is still online.
Additionally, Carlo was a nerd! Like…he learned programming languages so he could create that website. But what really resonates with me was that Carlo was also a video gamer! Apparently he played games like Mario, Pokémon, and Halo (I’m a fan of all three!), and he owned a PS2! (Which… those video game series aren’t on that console so hmmm…). I read books on Carlo, and he was self-aware enough to temper his playing of video games so as not to become addicted and distract him from God.
For more info about Carlo Acutis, here are 10 things to know about him.
With all that background, the reason why I’m going to Rome is because of Carlo Acutis’ canonization! This means that the Catholic Church will officially declare him a Saint (capital S)! He’s the first millennial saint to be canonized! (And first video gamer!).
Pope Francis announced his canonization date back in November 2024. As soon as I saw news about that, I immediately booked airfare and hotels. I’m glad I did that because I knew that the longer I waited, the costs would go up.
What my itinerary looks like
Let me slide in here and say that having points and miles is a great flexible way to book travel. I tend to hoard hotel points and airline miles, usually saving them for aspirational redemptions (like the world’s longest nonstop flight). But in this case, I’m glad I had enough hotel points and airline miles saved to book this trip impulsively. I’ll briefly talk about each booking and a little bit of my thought process for each, but the details of how I booked them will be shared in the reviews and trip report.
Flight: American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin DFW-FCO
First thing’s first (let’s buckle those belts)–gotta get to Rome. As I am DFW-based, I needed a way to get to Rome. Luckily, American Airlines runs a nonstop DFW-FCO flight. It wouldn’t have been a problem for me to connect to AA’s other hubs and onwards to Rome, but having a nonstop flight makes this convenient.
Because I’m approaching this trip with a pilgrimage mindset and trying to keep costs as low as possible, I opted to book only in the Main Cabin. I used miles. Besides, for review purposes, I don’t think I’ve reviewed AA’s B777-200 in economy yet.
Hotel: The Spring House Hotel
For the hotel, I wanted something Hilton since I’m a Hilton loyalist and Diamond member. Luckily, Hilton has added more hotels to its portfolio in Rome since the last time I was in town (which was 2017). I opted for The Spring House Hotel because it is conveniently located near St. Peter’s Square just outside the walls of the Vatican. That’s an easy walk. When I went to Mother Teresa’s canonization in 2016, I had stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn across Rome, and it took a while to get to St. Peter’s via the tram and walking.
Also, I’ve never stayed at a Tapestry Collection brand of Hilton. These are a curated selection of hotels that “offer guests unique style and vibrant personality”. So I’m excited to see what makes it unique and different from the standard brands I’m familiar with.
Hilton lets you book with a combination of points and cash. And I did just that in order to book The Spring House. I didn’t want to burn a lot of my points in one go so this was an ideal option for me.
Hotel: Hilton Rome Airport
I’ve stayed at the Hilton Rome Airport before back in 2017. It’s a good Hilton hotel for the “one last night before my flight tomorrow” stay. And that’s exactly how I am treating it. I’ll be checking into this hotel after the canonization so I’m sure I’ll be tired and sweaty from the day’s activities and will be interested in chilling out.
For this hotel stay, I actually booked it with cash. My thought was I wanted to earn points to get my balance back up closer to 1 million Hilton points, lol. It’s gonna be an expensive one night stay, but that’s alright.
Flight: American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra FCO-DFW
Actually, I booked my flights as a round trip. But two weeks before this trip, I ended up semi-upgrading my Main Cabin seat to Main Cabin Extra. I figured the extra leg room on the way home would make it a little more comfortable. And I don’t recall this type of seat and aircraft being on my review queue.
The American Express Hilton Aspire credit card that I used to book the Hilton hotels above has an airline credit benefit. Basically every quarter, I can get up to $50 credit on purchases directly made with an airline on certain purchases. So I justified paying the upgrade to Main Cabin Extra knowing that I’ll get a good portion of it back in airline credit. It’s the same benefit I used to upgrade into First Class on my way home from Alaska last year.
Bottom Line
I’m excited to go on this trip to Rome for Carlo Acutis’ canonization. With two flights and two hotels booked, I’ll be reviewing each and posting those here.
Honestly, apart from checking into each of these portions of this trip and attending the canonization, I don’t have any other rigid plans. I’ll have time to explore Rome for two days before the canonization. We’ll see what I end up doing!
So how would you have booked this itinerary? Lemme know down in the comments!
