Wednesday night...last night

We went by ferry to the Fisherman's Island for dinner.  It was a dark ferry ride to the island but only took about 15 minutes or less.  We were two Collett groups there for dinner which must have taxed the servers etc.  I had a chicken dinner, which is of course ridiculous when going to a Fisherman island, but I was glad I had done so.  Those who had fish were disappointed in the quantity but I found mine perfect.  We had lots of wine on the table, both white and red, and started with the most typical caprese salad, which I had thought of being Mexican, however after having had it so many places in Italy, realized it must be Italian.  Anyway, delicious! Followed by the usual pasta course which appeared to be like lasagne, but green.  I didn't see any meat, so think it must have been just green pasta with a bechamel sauce.  Great also!  I don't remember much of the main course, except the chicken.,,dessert was ice cream!  The place was really overly full, and terribly noisy.  Some of our companions from the other Collett group, enjoyed their wine - a lot!  Ferry ride back to hotel in slight drizzle and ready for the next day trip home.  Our bus left at 8:15 a.m. for the ride to the Milan airport and took just an hour.  We were fortunate to have done web check in and so were at the gate in good time for the 12:20 flight home.  Huge, busy airport in Milan and long line for security.  A good flight although too little time in the Toronto airport for going through customs, getting suitcase and then going through security again with only minutes to spare before boarding for the flight to,VANCOUVER. ,we had 3:5 hours in Vancouver so certainly no rush there.  Limo picked up at airport in KELOWNA and home in bed by 2 a.m.  Of course I was awake at 6 a.m. 

Air Canada return trip was perfect...going on Air Canada Rouge, not great.  Definitely their cheapest option flight!  Wouldn't recommend it al all.  Breakfast was a slice of banana bread followed an hour later by a coffee.  Ah well, now home and enjoying the fall days. 

October 9

Left the hotel at 8:15 for the ride to the airport in Milan and the start of a very long day.  All the flights went normally but sooooo long.9 hours to Toronto and then a short time in the Toronto airport going through customs, and then security and just made the flight.  Then 5 hours to Toronto and then 3 hours to wait to leave from Vancouver to Kelowna...home at midnight and back in bed by 2 a.m. And of course wakened at 6 a.m.  About 31 hours all told getting back home.  Whew

Wednesday afternoon

Well, our last day of the trip.  Tomorrow we leave the beautiful hotel for the long trip home.  Our flight from Milan leaves at noon, so we leave for the trip to the airport at 8:15.  We fly to Toronto, then Vancouver then home at midnight tomorrow.  Which of course, will be 8 a.m. So 24 hours to get home after leaving the hotel.  This is a beautiful place and we had a really lovely dinner here last night with real cruise ship like service and dining experience.  Today we went to Switzerland on a bus trip to Lugano and then had a coffee and wander around.  Super expensive in Switzerland and so different from Italy.  A drizzly day but not cold.  Many had umbrellas but I didn't have one, but had a hood on my jacket which was sufficient. 

Tonight we go to an island via ferry for a final dinner with our travel mates.  It has been wonderful to be with so many people and see so many amazing sights.  I had seen many before, but it was amazing all over again!  Out weather was splendid throughout except,this last day when we have had rain and mist.  Not unpleasant, just not what we had...sometimes,so,darn hot! 

I shall miss the companionship when I get home.  I know it always takes two weeks to reaclimate to being content at home again.  Ah well!  Could be worse!  Dieting will begin again!

Wednesday October 8

Tuesday evening

We are now in Stresa at a most beautiful hotel full of old world charm. Lots of gilt, mirrors, and rococo furnishings.  Really so charming.  It is on the side of Lake Maggiore and we are socked in with the weather.  Foggy and rainy and cool, too.  Didn't believe I would get cool again.  We had a long bus ride today, leaving about 8:15 and had a lovely visit in Verona where others walked to see Juliet's reputed

home...but maybe not.  We walked to a nice little restaurant and passed the time most pleasantly watching the passing parade. Our trip is coming to an end, and although will be glad to be home, will miss the company of such nice people, for dinner, drinks and just passing the time of day.  Our bedroom has a huge chandelier probably from Murano.  Quite charming! 

Late Monday evening

Stefan will have surgery to repair his broken femur, but when I don't know.  Possibly Wednesday or Friday and Carmella who is our mother hen will stay on with him. His brother from Denmark and nephew will come to stay until,he can come home.  Ah, such a pity! 

We had a great day today visit g the doge's palace, and St marks square and had a gondola ride, too. Gondolier somewhat sullen and we paid something like 80$ per person, and there were six in the gondola, and friend on the trip organized their own for 80$ for the whole boat.  Ticked, indeed.  Weather fabulous the whole trip.  Tomorrow off to Stresa for two nights.  Then home...we leave early for Stresa arriving around four in the afternoon.  

Monday evening

One of our dear friends on the trip, Stefan has had a fall and broken his femur.  He is 83 and this will be a terrible set back for him.  He will have surgery here and then, I do not know what will happen.  It just happened this am so details are sketchy now.  I am heartbroken for this kind, gentleman and his dear wife! 

Monday a.m. October 6 continued

In my previous post, there was a couple of paragraphs in quotation marks.  This was from a letter to me from John Lummis which detailed some of his findings on his trip to Italy.  I thought his observations were interesting and worth posting.  

Today we will see the Murano glass factory, and also Burano where they make lace.  I am going on a gondola ride this afternoon, too., 

Monday morning

Well, we had a full day yesterday.  Long drive with a stop at Pisa and another couple of "pit" stops, and a winery.  We had lunch at the winery, which was a family owned place that also made olive oil.  We saw huge refrigerated vats..with bubbling water at the base.  I wondered why the water, and I was told that fermentation releases gas and this iras two fold use.  First to prevent air going back into the tank, and secondly to see that in fact fermentation is occurring.  The refrigeration keeps the tank at 20 degrees C because there is a tendency with fermentation for temperature to increase to such an extent that fermentation will stop as yeast will be killed. Interesting.  We had a great lunch, with appys of bruschetta then pasta, followed by biscotti to,be dipped in what they called a sweet wine, and which I would say was more like brandy.  Most enjoyable and of course lots of free wine of different sorts.  The bus was quiet after the lunch as everyone slept, full tummies and lots of wine. "The economy in Italy is the pits.  UI for people 18 to 25 is reported to be 40% but probably is much higher.  Everywhere we go there are Blacks from Africa mainly Senegal and Nigeria selling purses, umbrellas, sun glasses, etc.  They are illegal immigrants who receive 30 euros each day from the Government who cannot afford it.  If they sell anything on the street, they can be put in jail for 2 days and then they are out and sell again.  There arenot enough jails to take care of them.

We were really expecting a good tour to Florence and Pisa but the 10.5 hour tour proved to be the worse we have experienced.  All the others have been excellent.  The drive to Florence was 2.5 hours.  Our guide kept telling about all the fine restaurants and shops in Florence.  The most significant information she gave us was that Italy needs to have more rich Americans come and spend money to improve the economy.  The only viable business is tourism. Along the way, we saw a great deal of agriculture land growing vegetables and grapes.  Many of the factories are closed.  In 1966 Florencehad a flood and the river rose over 24 feet covering the main square with water to a level of 12 feet and all the shops were ruined.  We had a local guide take us around Florence for 1 hour.   Then we had 3.5 hours of free time hoping we would shop.  What a drag!  We then drove to Pisa to view the Leaning Tower and the main square.  The Leaning Tower is a lovely white building which has been restored many times because it is an important tourist attraction, to keep it from falling over. All in all, we had the guide guiding us for only 1 hour in a 10.5 hour tour.  Pretty Poor!!!  We have advised the powers to be."

the 

October 4

Well, this travel is aging! We headed out at about 9:15 for a visit to the Accademia and saw the wondrous works of art. Such beautiful statues and a wonderful guide to explain it all to us.  We had a long wait out in the cobbles until about 10:30 am then after the guided tour, wandered around the squares and finally had lunch about 1.00. Walked back to,the hotel arriving about 4:30.  Nearly dead as,it got hotter and hotter as the day wore on.  After happy hour drinks with friends, we headed to,the restaurant for dinner and now in bed ready for tomorrow's visit to Pisa, and Venice.  We will arrive there around 6 and I will be glad of the restful day on the bus after all that walking today.  Glad I,just had a,salad for supper after all the lunch today( pizza).  

October 4

We had a marvellus  dinner last night at a little restaurant near our hotel.  The best meal yet. We 40 people split up into three different restaurants all paid as part of the tour.  We had both red wine, white wine and water at our table.  We were then served four different kinds of bruschetta..mushroom, tomato, white bean and plain garlic/olive oil.  Then two different kinds of pasta...one with spicy tomato sauce, and the other a filled small round pasta, which I had never seen before, then roast pork with gravy and peas and then french fries and chicken.  Well, we were all stuffed but chicken was as delightful as the roast pork.  Then, tiramisu.  Wow'. I waddled out of there and had to go to bed to digest and naturally wakened early, as usual.  

Our hotel room is very pretty with inlaid wood flooring in an interesting chevron pattern.  Headboard is carved ornate wood.  Bathroom is attractive marble.  Not as many mirrors as in previous hotels, thank heavens!  Today we will visit the Accademia and see David in all his splendour and then a walking tour of Florence.  We are on our own for both lunch and dinner today.  Perhaps I could coast on yesterday...unlikely! 

October 3

We are now in Florence at a lovely olde world hotel and the room has high ceilings with frescos along the ceiling.  There is a big flat screen tv in the room too, and so far haven't turned on the tv in a week although there has been English TV to watch. We had a long day's drive today from basically Sorrento and with a couple of pit stops took 8 hours.  One of the stops was at a cameo place.  I didn't succumb. Tonight we have a dinner paid for as part of our trip at either of three restaurants..two nearby, and one a half hour walk away.  Which one did I choose?  Guess...close is best!  Tomorrow we have a city tour by bus, then a walking tour and we will see David in all his splendour at the Accademia gallery.  Will not go to the Uffizii gallery this time, but rather enjoy the ambiance near by.

October 2

Can hardly believe it is Thursday today and in fact when someone mentioned it today, I had to look it up on the iPhone.  

We had an exhausting day on the isle of Capri.  Left hotel at about 8 this a.m. by bus for the port of Napoli or Naples.  We went on the 9:15 ferry to Capri arriving about ten.  We took a small bus up the top to Anacapri where we wandered around and then had a delightful lunch..wine, beer, or pop and shared calamari and ravioli with ice cream for dessert.  All for 14€.  We then met and took a bus down to Capri where we loitered and shopped more..I didn't buy anything..we then took the funicular down to main square and met the ferry at 5:15 for the trip back to our hotel.  Arriving at 6:45 in time for dinner at 7:00.  My feet and legs are swollen and tired from all the walking and standing around.  I remember the Blue Grotto from a previous trip in 1963, but that was not on our agenda for today.  Apparently many times they cannot access the  grotto because of the seas...too rough or high tide or ???.

Tomorrow we leave here at 8:30 for Florence.  Yikes.  

October 1

Well, saw Pompeii today!  So interesting and I was glad of my walking sticks as the ground was very uncertain.  Had wonderful lemonade at lunch from the very large lemons here.  Limoncello very popular licquor although I liked the taste of the lemon creme better.  After driving to our hotel we went into Sorento and saw a shop where they do inlaid wood works.  Very beautiful and pricey.  A games table was 4500€.  It was nice though.  Back to our hotel,where we have a rather noisy room right on the highway. Hope they will,change that tomorrow.  We are off to Capri in the a.m. No rest at all when we are having fun! 

October 1, 2014

Knees are ok.  I used the walking sticks and will use the, today as we are off to Pompeii where there will be considerable flat, but uneven walking.  I feel my knees, well especially one...not the one from the trip in May but an Advil helps lot to minimize.  

We have a very compatible group from Kelowna and have joined with 20 Americans some of whom are so loud in restaurants.  There is always wine on the table at our included dinners and they seem hell bent on consuming it and then yelling to make themselves heard.  Conversation with our table mates is then impossible.   

We leave at about 8 this a.m. Breakfast at 6:30 and then bags out by 7.  Huge crush at breakfast so it is hard to get to the coffee.  Breakfast is interesting.  Buffet but the very best part is the croissants which are truly splendid!  And with a pat of butter!  Yummy! We have a 2.5 hour drive to Pompeii this am. I get the window seat all the time as Marilyn suffers from motion sickness so needs to be on the aisle. Rome will have a transit strike today involving busses and trains so will be interesting to see what traffic will be like.  Maybe we will make Pompeii by late in the day.
I find meal prices expensive.  Yesterday a drink of ice tea was 4 € ...no ice either. A gelato was 2.5€.  No third world country this! 

Dinner last night at a nearby restaurant was good, although the pasta here is superb, meat not so much. We had chicken breast last night and that poor chicken must have run his butt off. Of course, the pasta a course on its own. Vegetables seem to a la carte, so there seems a scarcity of them. 

The Barber of Seville

Tuesday a.m.

We had a fun evening last night at a restaurant with entertainment during the meal.  We arrived by bus, rather late because we had to make a detour because of some unknown road closure,.  We had a plate of some assorted prosciutto awaiting us.  Then four people came out singing some operatic arias.  Then we had the first course, of risotto...which was quite delicious, and more singing, then pasta course...also quite delightful, followed by selection from Barber of Seville in which an audience member was chosen and shaved using a huge sabre sword. So cute. Then main course of veal, spinach and roast potatoes and dessert of tiramisu.  All in all a great evening full of fun. The pianist who was the accompanist played a piece by Scriabin which I had played oh so many years ago.  It was impressive and I had forgotten it until hearing it last night.  Back home by 10 and had a good sleep until 4:30 am

Calzone!

Monday September 29

We had an exhausting day today...we had breakfast at 7 in the dining area packed with tourists from all over. Chatted with an Aussie couple who are on 45 day trip.  She is a quilter and went to America on a quilting trip,last year.  She liked Hancocks of Paducah.  We met our bus and 8 and proceeded to sight see until after one o'clock.  Most of it walking on cobbled streets. I used my walking sticks and don't know if they help as my knees hurt but I think they help a bit.  Rome has some beautiful things to see.  The colosseum was amazing, and we went down in the catacombs, too. Dark, but joyful, the guide said. We then went to the Piazza Navona...so beautiful, with a giant obelisk in the centre, and fountains, too. Our guide was a little difficult to understand but she was a champion of her Rome!  You could tell, she was so enthusiastic, and humorous too..I think!

We finally had lunch at about 1:30...the ubiquitous pizza and a whole bottle of water each as we were all desperately thirsty after our trudging along in the sun on cobblestones.  Dinner tonight and a show following. What fun it is.  Tomorrow many are going to the Vatican but I am not, so will have a restful day seeing Rome without the pressure of time.

Last night we had dinner at a restaurant nearby and the amount of food served was enormous...antipasti, then lasagna, then main course, and finally, best of all, gelati. Yummy. 

Sunday September 28

Today breakfast in the dining room with a rather odd assortment of stuff...filling but not sumptuous.  We walked to the train station about 3 blocks away, and I used my walking sticks for the first time.  Two of our group needed SIM cards and that was the place to get them.  So, it took them 2 hours to get them, so one of the fellows and Marilyn and I walked to Ruplica Piazza and then Santa Maria maggiore...then lunch where I ordered a calzone.  It came and was enormous.  Tasty but huge!  Then back to our hotel for a nap.  Dinner with our expanded group...about 20 Americans for a four course meal. Assorted meats, and bread with tomatoes on top and olives, followed by lasagna and then veal and oven browned potatoes.  A scarcity of vegetables...then the dessert which was two kids of gelati..one strawberry and the other pistachio...quite delightful.  Coffee too, if one wished, but I didn't.  We meet tomorrow at 8 am for the bus trip,for the day.  I signed up for Rome at night which is a dinner followed by a show of mildly operatic nature. The opera La Traviata is on near by but unfortunately cannot do both.  More adventures tomorrow.  Hope to get a picture of me and the calzone. 

Italy September 27, 2014

Well, we left Calgary for Montreal yesterday in good time and had two hours in the terminal there....NOT. instead of leaving at 9:30 pm we left at midnight, after sitting in the plane for an extra 3/4 hour while they did some engine repairs.  Flight was good and uneventful and food was served about 2 am and was adequate, but by no means a stellar meal.  The Aiir Cananda rouge was merely adequate.  There was a slice of banana bread at about 9 a.m.  Coffee arrived about an hour later.  Finally out of the terminal in Rome about 2 and met by our host girl and on to the hotel.  There was a demonstration and we couldn't get to our hotel, until 5:15.  But had a shower and fell better for that.  We will meet for dinner in 30 minutes and a bit of a wander.  We are quite central, and weather is perfect!  Will have a better day tomorrow with fun things to see and do.  We have free day tomorrow and have a dinner to welcome all at night! 

Day one September 26

Well, hurry up and wait!  Here in Montreal and plane delayed by two hours.  Instead of leaving here at 9:30 it is now going at 11:30.  I had a little sleep on the flight from Kelowna to Calgary especially as I had been up since 2:30....who knows why?  I am certainly a lark not an owl!  Had to get things organized to go so up I got!  We were lucky to have a sandwich on the plane from Calgary to Montreal as they ran out after we got the last two.  We apparently get nothing on the next flight except a continental breakfast.  
Very busy airport.  The adventure continues.

Diane Draffin🎵

Italy 2014

Here we go...departure day -1.  Awake way before the birds, but not before the dog!  He, who must be obey, wanted out at 1:30 a.m. And here he is now.  I, on the hand am wide awake!