Oh - Otranto!

 

Another White Knuckle Day in the Car Ends Well

 

Traversing Trani

 

Observations after a full week in Italy

 

The Road is Long from Abruzzo to Puglia

 

You Seriously Can't Get There From Here...

 ... or Adventures in L'Aquila!

Do Laundry While the Winds Blow

 

Day One in Nettuno is Family Day

 

On the road... again...

 

Day Two in Rome

 Yesterday was Jewish Rome. Today was a Jewish perspective on a very Christian location - The Vatican!

Day One in Rome

 

From Denver to Rome

What a long, long trip from Denver to Rome! We left the house where we were staying at 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning in Denver. We had a very smooth trip to Newark, getting in shortly after 4pm. After traveling from Terminal A to Terminal C, we headed straight for the Polaris Lounge. We sat in economy plus on our first flight - which Lou didn't seem to get the gist of. He did ask me about the Polaris Lonunge, like why did we have it. (He'd also asked me why we had priority TSA clearing. I just shrugged and said, "I don't know.") The kids and I were all excited about Lou realizing we were sitting in Polaris. At first I think he thought the entire plane was set up as large as the cabin that we were sitting in.

On the flight, all I did was eat or drink or sleep. We were given water immediately before anything else happened. As soon as we were off the ground, I got some sparkling wine. Next were hot nuts, a glass of wine, a glass of water, and finally our multi-course meal. Lou and I watched The Book Club - The Next Chapter while we ate since it took place in Italy.After that, I laid out my lay-flat seat and more or less took a nap. Can hardly say I slept for the night since it was under 4 hours.

I woke up with less than 2 hours left of the flight. Snacks were being served... and I rewatched 2 episodes of Stanley Tucci's Searching for Italy. Then it was time for breakfast! Seriously. We landed shortly after.

Immigration is so automated, so much quicker and so much easier. Then onto the taxi line which seemed to take forever. Our crazy Roman taxi driver didn't disappoint. I had to cover my eyes at points. He dropped us off directly across the street from our hotel - but no where near a crosswalk. We had to walk 2 blocks to a crosswalk - and then 2 blocks back. Of course our room wasn't ready. We were tired so stopped into the first pizzeria that we passed. The waiter was quite a character. First pizza!

Back to the hotel. Lou napped. When he woke up, we walked around the neighborhood. We went to Piazza Navona and Campo di Fiori, both plazas that I'd been reading about over and over again. First gelato!

 

The big birthday surprise

This trip was originally planned as a way to celebrate Luigi's 70th birthday even though we'd planned to be home right before his birthday in 2020. Now, with the way things have worked out, we will actually be spending his 73rd birthday in Sicily. On the actual date. We'll start our trip home on the following day.

I really want to make this trip special for him so I've got a few surprises in store. I've needed to tell Lou about one of my surprises: a tour of the part of Sicily where he was born. I'm not sure if the company I'm working with realizes that we're kind of interested in little Luigi's young history just as much as his ancestry. We'd love to see places that have meaning to the short period of time that he lived in Sicily.

Today is the day that we're committing the funds and sending off the information. Names, dates, birth certificates, a marriage license, a passport, and so on. Obviously I couldn't come up with all the information on my own. This secret is out of the bag.

Lou is afraid that the researcher is going to put us in contact with part of the family that his mother broke ties with in the 1970s. My thought is even if that meeting is disastrous, think of all the other information that we can get. That we'll always regret not delving more into his history than an hour or so spent with people he doesn't really want to be with.

I'm not sure how much this venture will end up costing. A researcher will work in Sicily gathering information - and then the tour company will plan a full day tour based on what they discover. I wanted our tour to be on our first full day in Milazzo so that we'd have another few days to explore on our own afterwards, but the tour company's ideal date for something like this is the second to last full day in Milazzo. We can make it work.

I'm pretty excited.

Stayed tuned - serious planning going on