Ciao For Now

Having now visited together in 2012 more US states than in any year since our cross country driving vacation of 2000, my wife and I are capping a year of travel with a visit to Italy. Later today we fly to Rome and will then spend eight days with Vermont Bike Tours cycling by the sea near Tuscany. My wife has fantasized about a trip like this since reading the bestseller "Under The Tuscan Sun" years ago. We will not be living there nor renovating an old house in a quaint Italian village as author Frances Mayer did. But given our level of activity, we do plan to eat and drink as much as she, albeit over a shorter period.

My only previous visit to Italy was 30 years ago, part of a solo vacation taken using the Eurail system; Genoa, Pisa, and Venice were my three stops. One striking memory captured in my journal was the contrast between the orderliness of the last train station in Austria vs. the joyful chaos at the first stop after crossing into Italy. I also had an uncomfortable interaction with a woman on an Italian beach when the fabric gave way under my butt on a beach chair I'd thought was public. I stood helplessly mute as she screamed at me in a language I do not speak and then meekly walked away - ouch.

Would enjoy hearing your impressions of Italy and/or any embarrassing cross-cultural mishaps of yours on our return August 18. Until then, ciao for now!