Off to Sorrento

Up early once again, breakfast and off to Sorrento, about 475K from Florence.

Good drive through the hills and countryside of Italy. On the way, all the folks on our bus sang happy birthday to Bonnie and our tour guide, Allison, presented her with a cookbook of Tuscan dishes. Bonnie says she will prepare a Tuscan feast for all our friends.All of you better be ready.

On the way we stopped at the Cassino War Cemetery where thousands of Canadians, New Zealanders and Australians are buried from the 2nd World War. The cemetery is kept in wonderful shape by the local people.

We left the War Cemetery and travelled south driving through Naples to Sorrento. What wonderful views of the coast. Absolutely beautiful.

This is the view from our balcony at the hotel.  We really lucked out here.  Not everyone got a ocean view, just 5 couples but the other rooms have good views too, just more gardens etc.

Having drinks on the balcony.  It is a cloudy day and we had some rain off and on. but warmish.

This is our room.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  It is really lovely.  All the rooms have been great so far.

We took our bus to a fabulous restaurant further up the hills to a small town.  The owners and their son (who's around 45) greeted us. We had the usual 5 course dinner which was delicious which included crab legs, mussels, clams, white fish, pasta, stuffed tomato, a salad, pizza, dessert and lemoncello an after dinner liquor.

There was a fellow playing music, and low and behold didn't he start playing Happy Birthday to me.!!!  The son, who is the head waiter, came to my table and sang to me.  Couldn't ask for a nicer birthday.

The music played on and all of us got up to dance at one time or another, including our tour guide Allison.  She is marvellous.

Tomorrow, the isle of capri and the Amalfi coast

A day in Firenze

Well what a day today was. Once again up early to a great breakfast.
Next we were off on a walking tour of Firenze (that is Florence for all you non Italians)
The main problem with our walking tour was it was raining!!!
Oh well I guess you can't have good weather every day. (why not?)

We headed for the museum to see Michelangelo's David. This statue done by Michelangelo when he was quite young is described as the "perfect man".
The women seemed to think so but the men thought he could have had some improvements. (like a beer belly)
What do you think?

From there we went to Dantes Piazza for shopping and then on to a Tuscan town in the hillside called San Gimignano. What Fantastic views!! We had lunch, a glass of vino and some wonderful gelato.

The town had 77 towers.  The people in the old days lived in the towers to keep safe from the people of Pisa who they were enemies of.  There are only ll towers left and the town has build up all around the towers today.  We had gelato in the the shop that won awards as the best gelato for four years straight, and it was delicious.  We had carmel cream and of course pralines and cream.

From there it was off to a "Tuscan Feast" at a Hilltop restaurant. Again wonderful views, a 4 course dinner and a cooking demo from the chef.  He showed us how to make perfect risotto, but don't get your hopes up, because Bonnie will not be making it any time soon because there is no written recipe and I am sure I (she) will never remember the whole process.

The scenery up here in Tuscany is utterly amazing!

Tomorrow --- off to Sorento

Pisa and Florence

Well another early day. Fantastic hotel on the Venice islands and breakfast was equally as good.
We left at 7:30 for Pisa. We arrived in time for lunch and walking around the tower and other areas.
Friends of ours, Bill and Josie, from Texas were in Pisa yesterday and unfortunately  Bill was unable to straighten out the tower. We were a little disappointed but never fear, "Super Bonnie" is 'on the way'.

This is the after picture.
From the before picture below, you can plainly see the great improvement in the tilt.

Now does the 1st picture not look a lot straighter than the 2nd?

From Pisa, we took off for the short jaunt to Florence, the shopping capital of most everywhere according to the guide. There is a statue of Dante of Divine Comedy fame in the square and a million shops selling everything from jewelry to fashion to leather to junky trinkets.

We headed off for a gold demonstration on how gold jewelry is made, onto an Italian leather manufacturer for a demonstration on how they make italian leather products.
From there we headed to a wine store for wine tasting. A number of bottles later we stumbled out of the wine store and headed to the bus to continue on to our hotel.

We had a dinner with wine that was included in our tour package. This is the 3rd one that we have had included.  This is the greatest tour group.  

Our tour director Alison is absolutely fabulous.  She explains everything well, tells us stories about the history of Italy and has a laughing half the time with her great sense of humour.  She has taken special care of me since I can't always keep up and goes slower and checks to see that Bonnie is here when we stop.   Our bus is roomy and comfortable.

An early night (if you call 9:30 early) and off to explore Florence (and the 'David' statue by Michaelangelo) tomorrow at 8:00 AM.
The ladies say the statue is the perfect man. The guys say baloney, that the perfect man is any man.

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Ohhh, Venice!!

Once again, up early to begin another adventure.
A great drive through the Apennines into the River Po country.

Arrived in Venice just after lunch.
This is such an amazing place.  Apparently though, it is sinking and may not be here by the year 2050.
Our hotel is on the old section which is all islands and no cars. We took a boat to the "islands".
We were a little uncomfortable sleeping on an island that is sinking, but I am sure it will hold up for tonight.  Our hotel, The Venezia is really exceptional, and newly built in the last year.  That is very unusual in this country where most everything is hundreds of years old.  The decor is gorgeous and we have most comfortable looking king size bed.  Can't wait to climb into it for the night.

As stated, we arrived in Venice in the early afternoon.  We walked along the boardwalk and over 3 bridges to reach the Gondola boats.  The boat held 6 people and we shared ours with a family from Toronto of all places.  A lovely couple with two young adult children.  It was really surreal riding through the canals on the gondola.  I felt like I was in a dream.

Next we went to St. Mark's Square where there are tons of shops and restaurants and cafes. We had drinks with some of our new friends and then met our guide and had another free drink on the plaza and listened to the beautiful band playing.

Free time for dinner at an Italian Restaurant (of course).  There's no point getting any other kind of food when you are in Italy We had dinner with eight other travellers from our group and then we had to rush to meet the rest of the party for a boat ride on the Grand Canal at night.

The lights of Venice at night on the canals is spectacular. This grand canal is much larger and is the 401 of canals as apposed to a two lane highway.  Transferred to another boat which took us to our hotel on one of Venice's (182) islands.  We are now experts at getting on and off boats!

Tomorrow we are off to Pisa and Florence.

The Vatican to Assisi

Well I am typing this from the hotel lounge.  No internet in our room.  

Up at the crack of dawn, great breakfast and left for the Vatican at 7:30.  Our audience with the Pope was very early.  lol.  The climb up the circular ramp at the Vatican to see views of the Vatican and Rome was a hard climb.  Bonnie almost didn't make it, but Joe, kindly told our guide she had a problem with the climb (and centred her out quite nicely) and so they went very slow, and for the rest of the day everyone kept asking if I (Bonnie) was okay.  What a view!!

The Sistine Chapel was absolutely amazing.  The ceiling by MichaelAngelo was the most amazing thing we have every seen.  You would swear (not in church though) that the ceiling had sculptures in it, it looks so 3D, but it is all flat.  He was so wonderful a painter.  The hardest thing was trying to look up at the ceiling (maybe 60 feet) because it was hard on the neck. No pictures were allowed.

We went to St. Peter's Basilica where St. Peter is buried.  It can only be called a basilica if a saint is buried there otherwise it is a cathedral. So wonderful to see it all.  By the way The Pope wasn't available unfortunately.

The above tapestries are in the hall near the sistine chapel.

On to Assisi.  Our bus is very comfortable with lots of leg room.  Only 40 seats on the Insight buses as compared to 55 on some others.  Well, guess what!  The town of Assisi is on the top of a hill!  They got at taxi for myself and three other ladies to get up to our hotel, the rest of the group walked up the hill.

However, there was a downhill and then long uphill road to get to the St. Francis Basilica.  I made it though and it was worth the climb.

Tomorrow, off to Venice.

Roma, Roma, Roma

The start of the day was not great.  Specifically because my curling iron/flat iron does not work here.   The handle gets warm but not the flat iron part.  So I combed my hair and that is it!  Not great but what can you do.

Breakfast buffet was excellent and the hotel is really lovely.  First stop on the tour was the Colosseum!
Absolutely amazing when you get inside and hear all about what went on there.  What ruins are left actually survived the earthquake around 500 AD.

Joe inside the Colosseum.

Then we saw the church of St. Peters in Chains where St. Peter was put in chains before he was to be crucified and the angel came and the chains melted away.  He was still crucified, and upside down! Gross.   We saw the Magnificent 'Moses' structure by MichaelAngelo, below.

Off to the Catacombs  which were a little scary I have to tell you.  Of course they are underground.  I counted the steps down to the 2nd level -54!  OMG.  I counted them!  The walkways are very narrow and cold and dark except for the small lights they have down there.  I started to get a little claustriphobic before we finally got out and I kept thinking "I hope those lights don't go out!"  One wrong turn from your guide and you would be down there forever.  They go for 11 miles.  We were both relieved to get back up, although I had to stop a couple of times on those darn steps.  No pictures allowed at the catacombs.

Lunch was on our own.  We had panini's, wine and beer.
Back to the hotel for a short rest before the walking tour at 3pm. I slept for about and hour and felt better.
We went to see The Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.

We threw coins in the fountain and made a wish.  Then we went to The Piazza Square in downtown Rome.  What a crowd! I think everyone in Rome was at Trevi Fountain today.

We had 2 hours of free time and sat in the sun with a wine and a beer, then had pizza and salad for dinner.

Tomorrow, off to the Vatican and hopefully our audience with the Pope and then onto Assisi.

We made it!  We spent time in Air Transat's guest lounge and had all you could eat and drink, and great seats.  The flight was great, nice and smooth, but unfortunately we couldn't sleep much.   The Premium Seats were a little better than regular seats but not much. We got a champagne, a blanket and neck pillow, earphones and earplugs and an eye mask.

We arrived at the huge and very busy airport in Rome.  We had to take a light rail train to get from the airplane to baggage pickup.  Insflight's bus picked us up and we were transferred to our hotel.  There was a message waiting for us from John and Jean.  Unfortunately the short meeting turned out to be a long meeting at a restaurant, food and drink, which meant we were unable to get together with them.  That was quite a disappointment.
However the restaurant was spectacular in decor and the food was true Italian and guess what, all the food and all the wine was at no charge.

After the dinner we went for a bus tour of the lights of Rome.  Bonnie kept drifting off to sleep.  They stopped so we could walk up one of the seven hills of Rome. Joe went, Bonnie stayed in the bus and dozed.

Tomorrow "a tour of Rome"

May 24/2013

















Wow, it's finally here!!! We leave tonight at 10:40pm and fly to Rome via Air Transat.  We are all packed and wracking our brains to think of that one thing that you realize you forgot after it's too late to go back to get it.  I wonder what it is???

When we get there, and get to our room at the Hotel Londra e Cargill Rome, we are going to meet our friends Jean and John Bolton for dinner and/or drinks, depending on the timing.  That's so cool!!

Arrivederci!!

Wow, it's been a long time since Hallowe'en and so much has happened.

Our winter was really good.  My sister Jacquie came down to Texas to join us for 2 1/2 weeks and then come home with us.  Her friend Todd from the Eagles Club was driving down to South Padre Island where he has a condo and dropped Jacquie at our place on March 16th, 2013.

Unfortunately for both Jacquie and me, the day they arrived I had been taken by ambulance to the hospital.  That wasn't good.  I had a severe asthma attack that they called a mucus bloc and it cut off my airways.  Joe managed to get home and leave a note for them to call our friends, Mercedes and Norm, who then told them what happened.  I was doing alright by then and came home only to go back to emergency a few days later with another attack.  This time they kept me in for 3 days.  Not much fun for Jacquie, fending for herself for the most part while Joe was visiting me in the hospital.  By the time I got back home I was on medication and a new pill called Daliresp (Daxas in Canada) and it made me so spaced out, I could hardly function.  Thank you to all our friends for their support.  Mercedes, who stayed all night with me the first night.  Marcella who sat with me during the day and offered her support.  Betty, who came over and kept Jacquie company when she was alone.  Also Norm, Wayne and Andy who I knew were there to lend a hand.

We got home safe and sound on April 7th and my respirologist suggested I stop taking the pill which I did with pleasure!  After that, having finished taking  the required medication, I was feeling pretty good.  I am back to exercising and feeling great.

By the way, Joe went through a rough time worrying about me and being loving and supportive as always. Thank you Joe, you are my rock.

We had a surprise 25th Anniversary party for Laurie and Rob on April 28th.  We managed to get in touch with friends and relatives who attended and it was a great success.  Matthew, Jamie and Sarah helped out, and Christine, my niece made beautiful centrepieces which we gave as prizes for a "scratch and win".   Rob's co-worker Teresa made a great video, and we had pictures on a screen of the family over the years that Joey set up for us.  Thanks to all who came to help Laurie and Rob celebrate.

So now we are getting things together for our trip to Italy.  We will be gone for 3 1/2 weeks and will write in this blog while we are away.