This year, international travel is cheaper for Americans than it has been in a long time.  The exchange rate between the dollar and many foreign currencies has improved, and the economic situation has airlines and hotels slashing prices to attract tourists.

What does this mean to you? Well, if you’ve ever wanted to travel internationally, this is the year to plan a trip. If a trip to Italy is on your life list, the best time to travel is right now. Spring is the best time to visit Italy-flowers are blooming, the weather is mild, and high tourist season doesn’t start until summer.

There are also some great last-minute travel deals out there. For example, this special from Eurofly covers your flight and hotel for 6 nights in the Eternal City for only $1299.00. What should you do when you get there? This post on Destinations for Leisure covers the basics: the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Colosseum. To which I would add: the Pantheon, the Galleria Borghese for art history buffs, and the Capitoline Museums for lovers of archaeology.

You can also channel your inner Goth at the Capuchin Crypt beneath the Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception, where for centuries, monks used the bodies of their fallen brethren as adornment for the chapel, turning them into furniture, scupltures, wall hangings, or just posing the remains in niches in the walls of the crypt. Pretty creepy! Shake off the chill with some excellent Roman cappuccino-named after the brown robes and white hoods worn by the same order of monks that built the crypt.

Of course, if you’re heading off to Rome, you’ll need a passport if you don’t have one yet, and you’ll need to get it fast! Currently, even expedited applications are taking at least 3 weeks to process-by the time you get your passport, Rome may have traded pleasant spring weather for the scorching heat of an Italian summer, and tourists will have descended on the city in force.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to rush your passport: using a private passport expediting company. An expediting company will rush your passport application to the US Passport Agency and deliver it by hand, where it goes to the “top of the stack” for special processing.

With an expediting company, your rush passport could be on its way back to you in as little as 24 hours!

Don’t wait to travel: Rush your passport with us today!