We (including Nickie) left Roma in our rear-view mirror and embarked upon the next leg of our journey...Firenze (Florence), Italy! Firenze at Christmas-time is filled with happy shoppers, bedazzled streets, and a blessedly marked absence of tourists. We stayed in our host, Lorenzo's, beautiful two-bedroom apartment with a living room and balcony right in the center of Florence. From our window we could see the market (that was completely set up and taken down ...

The Adventure Continues…. Whew! Our trip to Sorrento and Amalfi was a whirlwind three days! Upon this trip's heels, we headed back to Eternal CIty of Rome to celebrate Thanksgiving with Steve’s wonderful mother, Nickie, who was flying in to meet us. We jumped on two trains (both delayed) to hurry back to Rome to meet Nickie on Wednesday, November 22. However, although we expected her to already be at the hotel when we arrived, we discovered she was instead ...

The remarkable Sorrento peninsula lies about 1 hour south of Naples, Italy and can be reached by regional train. The ride was in a bumpy, circa 1975, highly graffitied, train. We passed the stop for the infamous Pompeii on the way (yes, that Pompeii:) After 36 stops, our Sorrento digs were about a ten minute walk from the end of the train line, and right in the center of town. Lovely spot with an amazing breakfast every morning. We checked out Sorrento that day, ...

Hello Dearest Friends and Family, We are now firmly on Croatian soil. This comes after a quiet week in the sleepy beachside resort of Polignano A Mare, Italy, about 30 minutes south of Bari by train. This will be a short post, as we did a lot of relaxing and drinking wine, in contrast to the non-stop exploration of earlier destinations. Polignano is perched on a cliff above the Adriatic, and has been home to humans for a long time. It's a bit gritty for a seasi...

Hello from Lecce, Italy! We arrived in Lecce, the capital of Salento, on October 23, and have been enjoying it, and the surrounding areas, for a good 10 days. There is a lot to experience, including wine, olive oil farms, churches, caves, and above all, the sea. Lecce is an ancient city, suprisingly, neither on a hill nor on the sea, which you may have noticed, is unusual in Italy. However it is an area rich in natural beauty, and I gather the Romans agreed and...