Serendipity-the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, while searching for something entirely different.

Serendipity is one of my favorite words, I like the romantic sound of it and I often use it to refer to some events and incidences that happened to me or to people around me.  It maybe shallow to consider my family’s vacation to Europe as serendipity but I am really looking for something else when I discovered that I can afford to tour Rome and Paris. 

It all started with the Travel and Tour Expo held at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia last February 15 to 17.   My family and I went there to check out some tour packages to Beijing.  I want to explore that city before the Olympics this year, and walking along the Great Wall of China and entering the Forbidden City are two of the 101 things I want to do before I kick the bucket.    While checking the tour packages being offered by different travel agencies, I chanced upon some European packages and calculated that a Paris and Rome trip is somehow within my reach (I might have to tighten some strings here and there).   So I requested with my travel agency, Qatar Airways Holidays for a trip to the capital of France and Italy for three persons.    The trip will only be for a week, to be out of the office longer than that would be suicide for me.

The Paris and Rome tour package is enough for a 50% downpayment for a Chevrolet Captiva I’ve been dreaming about or we can add that amount to get the MiniStop Franchise my wife is hoping to own.    But I figured that owning an SUV is not part of my bucket list, though I dream of having my own group of companies,  chasing a childhood dream weighs heavier.  Admittedly, it is not a good financial decision, but dreams are pursued at a high cost (no pun intended), literally and figuratively.  I’ve been dreaming to go to Paris since I was in Grade 2 and to Rome when I was in Grade 4.  So enough justification, I booked for a European Holiday from March 15 to 22, the dollar cost be damned.          

The following are 9 of the 101 Things I Want To do before I die that I intend to accomplish during this trip. 

1.  See the ruins of Ancient Rome (specially the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Imperial Palace)

2. Visit the Vatican and its art treasures (this includes Michelangelo Buonarotti’s Sistene Chapel paintings and Raphael Sanzio’s School of Athens)

3.  Cross two european countries by Eurorail

4. Visit the Louvre (See the Venus the Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the paintings by the Italian masters that I only see in art books and encyclopedias, plus visit the Denon Wing, where the novel and the movie The Da Vinci code started)

5.  See the real Mona Lisa

6.  See a painting by Claude Monet (my favorite painter)

7.  See the Eiffel Tower

8.  Pay homage to the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte (my childhood idol)

9.  Explore a foreign city without any guide (except for a map) and without asking for direction.    I don’t have any particular city in mind for this goal, but it will be very special if I will achieve this in Paris or in Rome.