WHAT A LOVELY SURPRISE !!!!
 I had nearly finished writing this article on:  HOW TO USE
THE INTERNET TO PLAN YOUR VACATION,  when my
younger daughter, Dawn phoned and said that they had won a
sweepstakes contest for an all expense 8 day trip for two to Italy
but were not in a position to take it and would we be interested.
 The usage dates were between April 1st and June 30th, 1998.  I
 had been in Italy back in 1946  but Thema had never been so we
said, "let's go."

 This started out to be a general article on using the Net to
plan ones vacation now became a personal report on how WE are
using the Net to plan our vacation trip to Italy this spring.  So if
you just want to follow along with us you can share that excitement
as we plan our trip. After getting the news I clicked on to the
(excite.com) search engine and typed in {italian+riviera+sanremo} our vacation was
to be on the Italian Riviera and we would be staying at  Hotels in
Sanremo and Ponteverne.  After viewing the many sites that came up we
settled on this one: > http://www.itwg.com/home.asp <   It had good maps
of the area, info on the Hotels and other aspects of the region.

 Then today December 19th,  1997 we got an e-mail message from
the sponsor of the sweepstakes giving us our e-mail contact in Italy. We
sent an e-mail message off to them at about eleven o'clock CST asking
a few questions and five hours later we had a reply back from Italy, a
part
of which I would like to quote,
        "ITALIAN RAIL PASS - KILOMETRIC TICKET
 The Rail Pass is valid on all trains of the Italian State Railways.
 The validity of each trip is 6 hours from the time punched for trips
 up to 200 kilometers, and 24 hours for trips over 200 kilometers).
 The names of the possessors of the Rail Pass must be indicated. and it
 is valid for First Class travel for 3000 kilometers. The Rail Pass has
a validity  of 1 month after being stamped.
 I will let you know the dates that the hotels can confirm your bookings
and then you may go from there with your air tickets to coordinate the
trip.
Incidentally, they are both lovely 4-star hotels and we will do
everything possible
to make your stay as pleasant as possible !
 You may e-mail me at any time and I will do my best to help you with
your
preparations and address you to the proper channels.
Very best wishes for the Holidays and a truly exciting and bright 1998!!
Yours truly,
Ellen .

 Imagine the time and cost if had we done this via mail or phone.
Yet here in our own home at local phone rates we  not only
got details on our vacation site, we will be able to make most of
our ticket and hotel reservations and lay out our itinerary all this
via e-mail.  We are excited about the trip and hope we can relay a
bit of that excitement to you as we make further plans.
We will keep you updated each step of the way.

 Limited space in the Tomah Journal allows only a few WEB
addresses but I do have a fair number on my WEB site that  you
might find of  interest. That address is:
               http://www.geocites.com/~billweber/
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