Travel planning is hard work

Dear Reader,
I had planned to tell a story today. It seems that every time my husband, John, and I get going talking about a recent trip our audience tells us we should take our routine on the road as a comedy act. I don't know why. For years friends have been telling me I should write a book but everyone writes a travel book so I've never been able to choose a unique topic.
Today I'm pressed for time because we are going to the Russian River Valley Wineries Annual Barrel Tasting event tomorrow for the next three days. We go every year and usually end up buying wine futures, a case of wine before it's bottled at a lower price. It's a lot of fun and we usually meet a lot of fun and some crazy people. The wine servers are usually a hoot as well. You get to taste their latest vintages straight from the barrel which gives a nice clue as to what the wine will taste like once it's through aging.
I am also planning our next trip to Italy in May and haven't had much time to work on it because of my new website. I'm sitting here staring at 3 B&B offers for the hilltown of Asolo, Italy and can't decide. Being a hilltown, it requires lots of climbing and has no train station so we will need a car to get there. But once you arrive by car, it can be very difficult driving the narrow winding streets and then there's no where to park anyway. So I'm trying to decide between a hotel in the centro storico (old town center) with paid parking, or two beautiful B&Bs in the nearby countryside. One is about a 21 min. walk (all uphill) to town and the other is quite a bit farther away and looks like it's downhill first and then uphill again. These are the kinds of things that are very difficult to determine before a trip because even if you can find a decent town map, you can't tell how steep it is by looking at it. The farthest away place has free bikes which would be fun but not if we have to ride up a very steep hill. But it's the best price by far. An entire apartment with two bedrooms for only E110.00. The other is a small house with only 1 bedroom. We would have to share the bedroom with two king beds (it's a big room) with our two traveling companions and I don't know how they'd feel about that. The central hotel is double the price at E110.00 per room. This may end up being my choice in any event just to be in the center of town.
Then I have to choose between two B&B offers in the magnificent little town of Soprabolzano up in the Dolomites mountains. We stayed here last May as well but our hotel is not responding which leads me to believe they are fully booked. That's what I get for waiting too long to start looking.
I haven't even found an apartment in Venice yet. The one we stayed in last May isn't responding either. I think they are still mad at us because we had trouble getting cash to pay them before leaving. A Bankomat machine (ATM) printed out a reciept for the E400.00 but gave us no money back. And it was night so we had to go back to the bank the next day. The apartment owners were a bit mad at us. Oh well. They need to learn to chill out a bit. These things happen. It's Italy afterall.