In the summer of 2011 my friend and I decided to go to Italy for a holiday and we decided to travel there without going through a travel agency. You know, you would not be seen among the tourists and lose lots of chances to get familiar with the country more closely. We started to think over our trip and tried to come up with a free tour to Italy. The trip was not very long but it was so exciting that we never forgot. We look forward to going there again! Of course, we spent lots of time arranging the trip, but it was well worth it! Of course I was afraid that something would go wrong and I was especially worried about my visa, but everything went quite well in the end. The most difficult part was getting a visa without an invitation. In the Italian consulate  , one must hand in some official paper proving that one has a hotel booked for oneself in order to get the visa. Then we had to solve the ticket problem. Airlines often sell cheap tickets and we bought ours far earlier. The next step was to book a hotel. We finally booked a hotel about 30 km away from the centre of Rome and it was the perfect choice for our trip. Every day we took a train that carried us to the centre of Rome. Our big house was among the forest. The beautiful views, nice hosts, comfortable living conditions made us happy to no end. Besides this, we were very lucky that our hostess was Russian. She gave us a lot of advice that was of great use. She told us what transport to choose and where the best places to go. Don't be afraid to arrange your trip by yourself. It's not difficult! The only thing I'll say right now is that we really enjoy travelling by ourselves. We walked with a map and a guide-book wherever we wanted to go and we even met some of our countrymen on the way just two or three times. So, if you're also planning a "single" trip, don't forget to take a Russian-Italian phrasebook as people in Italy prefer to speak in their local language. The hardest thing in preparing for his Italian trip was   _  .
booking a comfortable hotel on his own in Rome buying cheap airline tickets to Italy before travelling solving the ticket problem and booking a hotel far earlier getting a visa from the Italian consulate without an invitation