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Florence: My Love for Pistachio Cream is Reawakened and Where are All the Toilet Seats?

 After our night flight from Paris to Florence, we arrived at the apartment that the five us would be staying in for the next three nights.  It was great, as it was centrally located and the apartment itself was lovely with plenty of space for us all.  The building however, was likely constructed during the Renaissance and I would bet that the door and its lock were originals.  The key was oddly shaped and I could swear that Professor McGonagall had a similar pair attached to her robe in all the “Harry Potter” movies. After three trips with suitcases up the smallest elevator known to modern man, none of the four 60+ people could open the lock due to diminishing strength and increasing arthritis in our hands.  Fortunately, our young niece was with us and was able to open the door with far less difficulty.  We had a similar problem the next morning, trying to leave the apartment but again, we were saved by the youth of our niece.  I am frankly now, afraid to be too far from her!  The nex
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Normandy, Mont St. Michel and Back to Paris: Why is Everything Here in French?

 We have been busy since arriving in Normandy. Yesterday, we spent the entire day visiting the towns and beaches notable for the D-Day invasion. To walk on Utah and Omaha beaches and see the American Cemetery’s flag ceremony while listening to “Taps,” was very moving, even 80 years later.  Thanks to Gold Beach Company, we had a wonderful tour guide, Victor,  who provided us with a wealth of knowledge about those eventful days. We all agreed that upon our return home, watching “Saving Private Ryan” (for the 10th time) and “Band of Brothers” ( me for the third time, Bob for the 150th time) is a must.  The next day, we decided to get up early and head to Mont St. Michel, a huge 8th Century abbey on the west coast of Normandy, located about 1 1/2 hours from Bayeaux.  Unlike the day before when we were expertly chauffeured around Normandy by our man, Victor, we were on our own and that meant the bus was coming out of the hotel garage to get us there.  As we were uncertain of the roads, we d
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Paris, Giverny and Normandy: Toilets, Croissants and the Woes of Traveling with Too Many Suitcases!

Just to keep everyone up-to-date: My suitcase weighed in at JFK airport at a lean 48.5 pounds giving me 1.5 pounds lee-way for buying some mementoes.  As we are visiting both France and Italy, that’s not going to work.  Unbeknownst to Bob, sometime between now and our next flight, I will be moving things from my suitcase into his in order to maximize my future buying opportunities.   We landed in Paris and hit the ground running.  As it had been a few years since we have been to “The City of Lights,” and our memories are not what they used to be, we did a morning walking tour to provide us with a review of where the major sights are located. Because we were absolutely exhausted, we then took a tour that can only be described as the “Cliff Notes” version of the Louvre.  For those who have never visited the largest art museum in the world, you need to be prepared upon arrival because it is not for the faint of heart.  The building is massive with multiple wings and approximately 625,000
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A Wedding in Tuscany and the Preparation to Get There!

Our nephew is getting married to his lovely fiancé next weekend on an estate in Tuscany, Italy.  Bob, my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, niece and I are first heading to Paris and then on to Normandy to learn about the area’s importance during World War Two—-a bucket-list check-off for us all.  But this blog is not about sightseeing or the military tactics used on D-Day. It’s about all the preparation that has gone into being ready for what I can only describe as the event of the season—at least for our family.   Our nephew Brendan is marrying a woman whose family is from India, and as a consequence, much of the three day celebration will reflect a traditional Indian wedding.  We are all so excited to be part of these wonderful wedding traditions so different from our own families.  For example, I doubt that the Tarantella (my side of the family) will be played and danced to and nor will we hear a  haunting rendition of “Danny Boy” sung by some “over-served” family member on Bob’s side.
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The Humor of the Irish and Sheila-isms!

 Being on an organized tour is not for the faint of heart. In four short days, we have covered so many miles and seen so many beautiful things. When I think about this vacation in the future however, the word “relaxing” will not come to mind. Our storytelling tour guide must have been an amiable drill sergeant in another life because she runs our platoon like a fine oiled machine.  The phrase “on and gone” has a new meaning to us all: “Be on the bus at the designated time because we are leaving.”  For the most part we have 42 people who are either guilt ridden Catholics like myself or our girl Sheila has us all scared to death that the bus will leave without us.  And that is why I haven’t written in a few days. I haven’t been able to “put pen to paper” at night because I can barely get my teeth brushed due to exhaustion and I’m afraid to type in the bus for fear of getting sick—even while wearing my Sea Bands!  Instead of writing about what we saw while getting on and off the bus, I th
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Dublin: Finding Our Inner Scorsese!

We “garls” have had a wonderful time these last three days getting to see the sights and sounds of the fair city of Dublin.  Rick Steves and the folks at Fitbit would have been proud of the number of steps we took in our quest to see all things Dublin including Trinity Church, the Book of Kells, Christchurch and St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Guinness Storehouse. But our time together was not all about fun and learning—we had work to do and movies to make! Eight months ago, Pat, a 40 year, recently retired English teacher began her own YouTube channel, “Book Chat with Pat.” The channel with more than 1800 followers, covers a panoply of literary topics, including the works of many famous Irish authors.  Pat hoped to film a set of “shorts,” videos of less than a minute, highlighting as many of these well-known authors as possible.  The problem was that the idea was a great concept, but the details had been, shall we say, less than fleshed out.   Although bleary-eyed, on the morning we a
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Dublin: A Brawl, An Arrest and Pat’s Excellent Adventure!

 Besides the anticipation of journeying to and arriving in Ireland, there was a bit of excitement along the way—and it started while in the plane. We were just minutes from landing when a fight broke out in the back of the plane.  A woman behind us started yelling, “Your child has been kicking my chair for the last six hours.”  The parent’s response, “Well that’s not my problem,” was not an acceptable to the woman, who then proclaimed, “Well, it’s not my problem, he’s your child!” The scuffling went back and forth a few times until we heard, “Mind your own business!”  Apparently, someone nearby tried to unsuccessfully intervene. We don’t know this for a fact as we couldn’t turn around due to the newly acquired “kricks “ in our necks from lack of sleep as well as our sardine-like positions in seats 27 A,B, and C.  None of us could understand why anyone would pick a fight at the end of a journey but maybe, between the kicking and feeling like a canned fish, she had had enough. The other
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