After three trips, Rome stopped being somewhere we tour and became somewhere we simply stay. Here's what that shift taught us about retirement travel planning, and why a familiar city might be exactly what a bigger trip needs.

Three trips to Rome later, it's no longer a place Bran and Jeff tour, it's become a comfortable stop to land in. What changed, and why that's not the same as being done with a place.

Some of Bran and Jeff's best travel days meant skipping part of what they'd already paid for. Why retirement travel doesn't need to fill every hour to be worth it.

A two hour line in the heat cost us the Louvre. Rome's brick streets held the day's heat well past dark. Here's what a teacher's summer only calendar actually cost us on trips we'd already paid for, and why retirement travel planning means finally choosing shoulder season instead.