May 20, 2022

Last night, Jen and I drove to Omaha so we could spend the night and maybe get a little more sleep; the flight this morning was at 6a.m. and we had to be at the airport by 4:15. Everyone was on time (we had one moment of panic when a flight person at American told us they were going to cut of baggage loading in three minutes, but we really had another thirty minutes — whew).

We arrived in Chicago, got a quick nibble, then hopped on a tour bus to see Chicago, visit Millenium Park and the Bean, and kill some time during the long layover. The company, Chicago Private Tours, had been hired by EF, and the owner (Mike) and his cousin (Matt) were super nice. I learned quite a bit about the history of the city.

Back at the airport, we ate a decent meal, and now we wait to board at 4:30 for our 5:00pm flight to Rome. I’m in my comfy travel clothes and exhausted, so I fully expect to sleep the entire trip.

May 21, 2022

Our day of travel really began after we left Chicago for Rome. I am usually a good sleeper, but I think I only got about two hours worth of sleep. I watched two movies (The Lost City with Sandra Bullock and Licorice Pizza). There was one incident when a young man (probably in his twenties) passed out in the bathroom. I could see his feet as if he were bent over the toilet. The flight crew were pretty calm with the entire incident. He ended up walking off the plane fine, if not a bit shaky. Who knows what happened. Drunkenness? Hate to speculate (but will anyway).

In Rome we met our guide, Tiziano (or Tizi) and our bus driver Carmina (or Mino, empahasis on the Car). We went straight to the Spanish Steps and did a walking tour past Fontana de Trevi, the Pantheon, and ending in Piazza Navona. We had a loooooooong section of free time and Susie and I knew that was probably not a good thing for upcoming days and talked with Tizi about adding things to some upcoming days that looked like they had blank spots. We are going to go to the catacombs and the stairs to the Duomo.

What we did (we=Susie, me, Jen, Shelly, and Susie’s friends Rebecca and her sister Rhonda) was have lunch (for me, a wonderful Ciaci de Pepe (check the spelling on the first word, but this was spaghetti with pepper — delicious) then walked through Piazza Navona for a bit and ended up sitting for a couple of hours drinking wine and trying not to fall asleep. We had a little second wind, which was good.

For dinner, we went to Polese Trattoria with the whole group and had Spaghetti Carbonara and tiramisu. Because of my allergies, I got a different dessert, which was like a flan with a caramel glaze. Also delicious.

After dinner we went to the hotel (Aracini) where I showered and promptly passed out. It was so good to be in a bed with my feet up!!!

Buona Notte! (Well, I’m writing in the morning, so Bon Giorno!)

May 22, 2022

We had another busy day today though we felt better after a good night’s sleep with our feet up. We started at Piazza Navona for just a bit of free time before heading to the location where we learned to roll, cut, and spiral pasta. I do not recall what the chef said it was but I looked it up and it says either Sardinian gnocchi or Malloredus. We also learned how to make the sauce: NO CREAM. Very adamant about that. It was basically a bowl of pecorina (like Parmesan but made from sheep’s milk), water (from boiled pasta) until it is mixed but not watery, and pepper. It’s called cacio di pepe (same thing I had for lunch yesterday, basically).

We then went to the colosseum and the forum — since I’ve been here five times now (lucky me!!!), I kind of stayed near the back; however, I did remember key things as we walked along. For example, there is a white painted line outside the shorter side of the building that signifies where the colosseum used to go out to (so, wider — this section of the building has been crumbled over time because the land below is muddier and there have been 500 or so earthquakes since the building was constructed). I also learned that dead animals (from the gladiator fights) were immediately cut and cooked for the people. People that died in those fights were fed to the animals. I guess that’s one way to get out of burying anyone.

After the tour, we went back to Piazza Navona, a good meeting spot, and had about 75 minutes for dinner. I don’t really think that’s enough time, but oh well. I had an eggplant dish with lots of yummy mozzerella.

Tonight we have to pack a bag for tomorrow because we will get on a ferry and spend the night on that. We will start tomorrow at the Vatican then head to the port. The entire bus will get on the ferry. This thing must be huge.

Final side note: we did a quick karaoke and I sang a bit of Mama Mia. More to come…I guess (when we can hook up to the bus speakers!).

One more note: sat outside for bit with the ladies, having some drinks and telling stories. Jen and I then walked a bit to a small restaurant/bar and had a couple more. We met our guide there and a few students. Overall, a nice day.

May 23, 2022

Today we depart for the Vatican followed by an overnight ferry ride to the island of Sicily.

Once again, the tour of the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, and the Basilica of St. Peter were wonderful. Our guide provided many great details (that I may forget). There was one statue in the basilica that caught my attention this time around. It was created by Bernini after Henry VIII had broken from the Catholic Church to create the Anglican Church (because he wanted a divorce and the pope wouldn’t grant it). So, the statue is of a saint (Pope Alexander II) with statues surrounding him representing his favorite virtues charity, prudence, justice, and truth. In the entire scupture, there is a skeleton underneath (creepy — some will die and go to hell) and one of the virtues stepping on a globe. The part of the globe she is stepping on? England.

Something else I didn’t remember until being retold today was that Michaelangelo got inspiration for his painting in the Sistine Chapel from the statues collected from Ancient Rome and placed just outside the chapel. One of Apollo provided inspiration for the face of Jesus.

A favorite story from the Sistene Chapel is the wall that depicts judgment day. There are angels going to heaven, the raising of the dead, and some folks going to hell. There is some pagan imagery in that one near the gates of hell: Charon in the boat on the river Styx. There is also an image of a “devil” or the gatekeeper to hell. The face on this image is of a cardinal who did not like the nudity in the paintings. This guy went to the Pope and complained, and that is why Michaelangelo used his image in this way. When the cardinal heard about it, he complained again to the Pope who said, sorry, I can’t do anything about it. This pope really liked Michaelangelo!

After touring the Vatican, we were able to buy some gifts to have them blessed by the friars of the Vatican. I bought my mother-in-law a rosary and holy water (she requested the water), plus some holy water for Mike (Marlene requested that, too).

Lunch: Susie and I split a margherita pizza and caprese salad (yum) then we left on the bus for about a four hour trip to Florence. From there is where we get on the ferry to head to Sicily.

Some info: Queen Margherita of Savoy asked to have a pizza created for her, which is the pizza, featuring mozzerella, tomato, and basil (representing the four colors of the Italian flag).

In the afternoon, we took the bus about four hours to the coast (Naples) to board the ferry to get over to the island of Sicily. The traffic in Naples was absolutely crazy! Cars and motorbikes doing whatever they please. It was a little unnerving trying to get the bus in the right line to be able to board the ferry.

On board, we had a drink then went to dinner. Worst one we had. Most everything was cold and bland. It seemed like the majority of the people on the ferry were truck drivers. Maybe they just don’t care. Same group of people massively ogled the ladies on our trip. Ick.

After dinner, we went for another drink. Jen had bought a bottle of wine that we opened and immediately abandoned. It was absolutely terrible. For me, that wasn’t a bad thing. Fatigue caught up with me and I went back to the room to shower (pretty much a camp shower with an inch to move around in) and went to bed by about 10:15 p.m.

May 24, 2022

This morning was an early wake up call to disembark the ferry and head into Palermo, the capital city of Sicily. We had a wonderful local guide named Laura (lah-ORE-ah) who took us through the oldest part of the city, showed us the opera house (the steps in front were the scene of the death of Michael’s daughter in Godfather III AND is the first opera house to have a rotating stage), then took us to Montreal to see the basilica there.

Many interesting notes: the island was taken over by many countries/people, including the Normans who had four kings. After the fourth king died, the Norman rule was over. Sicily was under Spain’s rule until 1960 when it became part of Italy.

Mount Pellegrino is 2,000 feet high and all battles for the island involve this mountain. If someone could take that mountain, they took Sicily. In older times, people would live in caves in the mountain (grottos), including one woman named Rosalia. She, at 18 years old, decided she wanted to give up the life of the city and become a hermit. She lived in the caves until her death in September 1166 (don’t ask how Laura knew this…she just does). In the 16th century when plague broke out, the Sicilians prayed to their four female saints to help and there was no answer. Then, Rosalia appeared to a shepherd and said come get my bones and give them a proper burial and the plague will end. The bones were moved and the plague ended (again, Laura said, “no questions.”).

Laura also said the Sicilians know they are better than others but they don’t say it out loud because they are too polite. Why? She asked if we had statues of saints next to our beds. No. That’s why, she said. She was pretty funny.

We had free time to get some lunch. Shelly, Jen, and I found a nice side-street place. I had a beautiful salad (felt like I needed to balance out the pasta) and only ate half of it. Then, my stomach and kidneys were in pain. It took about an hour of the bus ride to get the food moving and for me to feel better. Lesson learned. Back to pasta.

Now we are going to Taormina for a night and tomorrow we will get to spend part of the day on the beach. Yay!

Arrived around 6pm. Our hotel is across the street from the water — blessed! My group went waterside to have a drink before dinner and enjoy the view. The meal was a three course meal — who eats that much? It was definitely better than the ferry (pasta, chicken, salad).

Now, off to shower, read, and sleep.

May 25, 2022

The breakfast spread this morning was great. I had salami, cheese, and a croissant. We have a walking tour followed by an afternoon at the beach. More to come…

We took two busses up the mountain to see the beautiful city of Taormina (our guide was Maria Rosa). It reminded me a bit of driving into Delphi though the streets looks more like an island in Greece (maybe Mykonos or one similar). There are lots of influences happening in the city because of all the times it had been conquered: founded by the Greeks (350 BC) then taken over by the Byzantines (Turkey), Arabs, Normans, the French, Spain, and finally Italy (in the 1960s).

Taormina itself is quite small with gates at both ends of a street that runs through it. In the distance you can see Mount Etna (and it was erupting, small little bursts). The Main Street (Corso U Berto) is named after the last king. In one building that looks like a castle at the top, you can see Spain in the window design and various building materials from Rome, Arab, etc.

There is a small Roman ampitheatre near this building that was used for smaller talks, speeches, and meeting spaces. Maria Rosa said it was important because in this small city there were two amphitheaters. This one seats 200. The other, 7,000. Many authors have visited the city (and probably this location) over time: Goerthe, D.H. Lawrence, and Guy de Maupassant, to name a few. The centaur (with the body of a woman — more honor status to women, interesting) is the symbol of the town.

The large one was made by the Greeks then added on to by the Romans (who also created coverings for it). The Romans also took out part of the orchestra and made seats for spectators higher because they brought in the gladiator fights with animals. All around the orchestra there was an enclosed tunnel for the gladiators to walk through.

There is a school — Babilonia — where college-aged students can come to study language and cooking (and other things though I don’t know what). I’d like to look into this.

There is a garden that was designed by a wealthy British woman who then married the doctor in the town: Florence Trevelyan Cacciola (the doctor’s last name) Trevelyan. Born in Halliburton 1852 and died in Taormina 1907. Uh, what? She was 54 or 55 years old — same as me.

We had time for some lunch (I had a giant calzone) then headed back to Naxos for a beach day. We rented a couple of chairs, dipped out toes in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and relaxed. After a much needed shower, we ate at a restaurant with a lovely view then headed back to the hotel.

A quick detour for Jen, Tizi, and me: we stopped at a bar that said (via the internet) that they would have karaoke. It was a beautiful building, quite large with both indoor and outdoor spaces. There were three people in the place (9pm). Tizi tried to talk to the manager about bringing our group in tomorrow night for karaoke and they were less than enthusiastic. After about 20 minutes of waiting and a sip of some atrocious wine, we left. That bar just lost out on having 30 people show up to spend money. Oh well.

Back at the hotel, Tizi and I joined some kids who were sitting at a rooftop location to play a game called Paranoia. One person whispers a secret question to another (and it has to have an answer that is someone in the group — like, who is the most likely to skinny dip), the person answers out loud (now, the person who is the answer is wondering what the question was), a designated person flips a coin and if it’s heads, the question is said out loud / tails the question remains a secret. It’s was quite fun. The most important rule is that no one can get hurt feelings over the game.

Tizi and I left and had one more glass of wine. Jen joined us after taking yet another work phone call (she worked the entire day), and then it was off to bed. Early morning tomorrow.

May 26, 2022

Today we begin with a 2.5 hours (maybe 3) ride to Siracusa where will have a tour (2.5 hours). There will be free time from 1:00-3:00 and we (Susie, Jen, Shelly) will meet Heather Reid, professor emeritus of Mside. She was my faculty mentor when I started and now lives in Siracusa.

The bus ride was only an hour and fifteen minutes, so that was good. Info I learned…

Siracusa was founded in 734 by the Greeks (Corinthians). They had economic issues on their main island so went looking for better soil for farming and found more than that here. In addition to the farming opportunities, they found fresh water supplies and the location was strategic. The quarries (limestone) proved useful for mining as underground, they were solid (top eroded more than underground). A majority of the rock used for building dwellings and monuments came from the quarry here. 120,000 “men” lived here, meaning those who had political rights. If you multiply that by about 3 (to account for women and slaves), that would be more like the actual population.

Dionysius (not the Greek god) was the ruler, and he was paranoid so set up shop in a cave. Because of the acoustics in the cave, the story is he could put his ear to the wall and hear about the things being said about them. Well, that’s the story supposedly told by Caravaggio (artist) who visited the island. Inside the cave, the local guide asked for a singer, so I volunteered and sang a portion of Amazing Grace so folks could hear the acoustics. Pretty cool. A bit further in the cave, maybe a better spot for acoustics, she had me sing again. Susie suggested Mama Mia, so I did that. This time around, a couple of other groups who were in the cave stopped and listened (I saw a few folks even taking some video). A natural wonder to be able to have those kinds of acoustics in the mountain (and I feel lucky to be the one to sing as the example). The cave and surrounding area is also a part of the set for the newest Indiana Jones movie.

Three styles of architecture: Doric, ionic, and Corinthian (I’ll have to look these up to note the difference).

We saw the Greek theater and a Roman amphitheater. The Greek theater had a covering over the okestra and scene because they were setting up for their Greek festival. In this theatre, the seats were carved right into the limestone of the mountain. When the Christians came through to use the area, they took spots all around the back of the seating area and made them into tombs. There was also a fresh water fountain that was likely highly decorated in the times of the Greeks/Romans. The water was the last part of an water system that diverted to this location.

After our tour, we went to Ortigia, which is a small island next to Siracusa. There, we did a short walking tour, then Shelly, Susie, Jen, and I met Heather. She showed us the Exedra Mediterranean Center, which is the location the most recent group of Mside in Italy students studied. It was a home at one point and has been converted to its current use. We had a nice lunch. One thing I liked most was the sampler platter featuring some typical foods: dried tomatoes, olives, a cheese with peppers in it, salami, etc. The cheese was a favorite of Hemingway who visited this location (Heather pointed just down the way to a bar he used to visit). She also mentioned another author who wrote about Hemingway and how much he liked that cheese (I’ll have to find out the name of that book.)

We drove back to the hotel (which, by the way, is just after the exit to a lap dance bar — so Tizi says, “Wakey, wakey, it’s the lap dance exit,” or something like that) and sat around for a bit. Susie collected names for the various options we will have when we get to Rome on Saturday, some kids went to the beach, some sat around and relaxed. Groups ventured out for dinner. My group went to Arcobaleno; it was basically deserted when we got there and the grandpa of the place seated us. This guy kind of made me think of my dad because he sat there by himself, watching the people go by, talking to himself a little bit. It was a bit sad, but he was probably the one-time owner of the place and was still in a location he was familiar with and loved. The pizza was pretty good.

Back at the hotel, we arranged with the elderly gentleman running the lobby bar (and helping with snacks and playing a keyboard — such a nice guy!) to allow us to hook up to his speaker through the keyboard and sing karaoke. I started (Proud Mary) and I could see the guy’s wife taking video of me. I guess that’s a compliment! Emma sang. No other takers. I sang again. Caleb and Emma sang. And then we were off. We did this for a good couple of hours then called it a night. A few folks went off to the bar. Tizi and I chatted outside for a while. I finally went up to shower and was in bed around 1:30 a.m. (yeesh).

May 27, 2022

Today will be a big travel day. We depart at 8:30 and ferry back to the mainland. We will stop in a few places but overall, we will be on the bus about six hours.

We stopped for lunch in a seaside town called Pizzo. Quaint, lovely, hotter than Hades, and a steep climb down then back up again. I guess that’s one way to sweat out the pasta. The majority of the group tried a dessert specific to this area called tartuffo di Pizzo. It was like a fried ice cream, kind of. It had a coating with various kinds of fillings. Lots of variety to test. Since there was a high likelihood of nuts, I skipped it but found a (really) tiny grocery store and bought some jellied lime candy (sounds maybe not so good, but it was).

During the ride, one of our students was doing some coughing. Both Susie and I gave her cough drops and asked her if she wanted to test for COVID when we got to the hotel. She wanted to — I’m guessing she wanted to rule it out. But it was covid. This immediately put Susie into “what now” mode. We went through a few scenarios: isolate her on the bus as much as possible, don’t tell the bus driver, make like it didn’t happen. There was some regret on Susie’s part for even testing her. However, testing was the right thing to do. We also wanted to find a way to allow her to travel with the group, but then how do you protect the whole group? For the moment, we asked the students to not relay info back home or to others to minimize rumor mills and went to dinner.

The restaurant wasn’t quite understanding that everyone got one drink: pop, beer, or wine. They brought water. Tizi made the drink request; they started bringing each table giant bottles of Coke. Tizi talked to them again; this time they brought big bottles of beer. One more try and they got the bottles of wine. Susie needed it (maybe the whole bottle). A funny moment happened when Rylee called out to a man and asked him for something. That guy had just come out of the bathroom and said, “I don’t work here.” It was a moment of hilarity we all needed. Later, a child (maybe age six) came out of the bathroom, and I called out to Rylee. “Hey Rylee, do you want to ask that six year old who just exited the bathroom if he can get anything for you?” Immediately she responded: “Yes, dessert.” A great comeback and another moment of comic relief for the group.

After dinner, we had more conversation about the situation. In the end, Jen said she would stay behind in Salerno with the student. Honestly, I was about to do the same and skip the ODK conference that I have immediately after this trip, so I’m glad she was flexible enough to offer. Lots of students took tests and many of them reported back that the tests were negative. We can’t really make them take a test or report back, so we aren’t sure if we are still carrying around someone who has the virus. Some students are doing some panicking, which places stress on Susie. It’s just a tough spot though we all knew the risks of traveling in a foreign country and possibly getting covid. We also had the student’s three roommates who got displaced when we isolated the covid so Tizi was trying to work on that (not very effectively, however, so Jen went to the front desk to try and move the process forward). Tizi is a nice guy; he’s just not that definitive or maybe as pushy as he could be to make things happen. He was also trying to get a hold of EF to get their protocol rolling, so I’m sure there are more things going on that I don’t know about.

A few of us went looking for a bar but there were no seats and the wind was really kicking up, so I decided to go back to the restaurant and buy several bottles of wine. Me, Susie, Tizi, Jen, and Caleb (Susie’s son) sat around discussing, sipping wine, and trying to find some calm.

Oh — the beds and pillows in this very nice hotel were wonderful. Grand Hotel Salerno.

May 28, 2022

During breakfast this morning, I sent the following message to the group:

“Good morning, folks. I know we just had a weird day. We are also tired and maybe thinking “I’ve already been to Rome” and possibly a little homesick. Those thoughts all make sense. Today, I encourage you all to shift your perspective (and maybe you already have). We only have a few more days in Italy to enjoy and make more memories. choose to make the most of it. Soon you will be wishing you were back and looking at the water, eating a couple of plates full of pasta, singing karaoke, mistaking people exiting bathrooms as servers…you know…all the good memories. So, smile. Enjoy. Be kind to each other. We have these moments to enjoy!”

Alright, a little repetitive at the end there, but I was trying to quell some of the anxiety.

We said our goodbyes to Tenly and Jen and are now headed back to Rome where we will visit the catacombs.

Susie, Shelley, Rebecca, Rhonda, and I had a nice lunch though it was pretty sweltering and I did inhale a couple of clouds of cigarette smoke — yuck. Shelley and I stood near the top of the Spanish Steps and taught Mikellie and Yessy the game “What’s his name and what’s his story?” (I don’t know if the game has a title, and I just made that up.) The idea is to choose a random person and someone else has to make up a story about that person. It’s an old game I used to play with Lisa. We had a great time and made up some pretty fantastical stories. When we met half of the group (the other half had been in the crypts), we all managed to make up some more stories and had some good laughs.

Next up was a wine tasting at a little store, which was a bit of good entertainment. The hotel is nice (great air conditioning) but kind of in a sketchier part of the city outside the main city center. The five ladies found dinner with a nice server who said they were full but we could have a table as long as we were done by 9:00 for the 9:30 reservation. It was 7:15. We thought we could make that happen. Uhhhhh — we did but it was 9:15. I tried ciace e pepe again and again, it was delicious. Back at the hotel I met up with Jason, Caleb, and Tizi for a couple of drinks then off to bed.

May 29, 2022

This morning we travel to Siena, a medieval town, and then to Florence where will take a cooking class.

Siena was a unique town mostly because of the buildings and the center area of town which was a circular bricked area that was used for horse racing. Susie, Shelley, and I ate at a packed restaurant. One server (not ours) made pretty long eye contact with me. Susie says, “that was a flirt—definitely flirting.” I made eye contact with a few more servers but none of them held as long as that guy did, so, I guess it was a flirt (or he was laughing inside at something on my face).

The duomo here had a facade that looked very much like the one in Florence. We were going to go in but the line was too long and we didn’t have enough time. There were also some buildings that had large metal rings outside the oversized doors. They were clearly made to tie up horses before going through the doors on a carriage.

The walk to the bus was nice; some of the flowers along the way were extremely fragrant. Many of us had to use a restroom. I had tried to enter a place and buy a croissant then use the restroom. The woman said I had to sit down to order. So, I asked if I could just use the restroom. She said I had to be a paying customer. I said, “I just tried to be a paying customer.” Well. I guess those are the rules. Thankfully, Mino was able to find us a restroom stop. Whew — the ride to Florence is going to be almost two hours.

In Florence, we immediately did a walk to/through three piazzas, ending in front of the duomo. The oohs and aahs from the students were audible and pretty cool. We had about 30 minutes to walk around it before heading to our cooking class. Susie, Shelley, and I found an outdoor spot and had a quick glass of wine.

The cooking class was long and tremendous fun. Everyone took part in either preparing the tiramisu, the pasta, or the bruschetta. During the process, another guide with another group came in and talked to Tizi; she smelled great, so I stopped her, told her, and she said it was pheromones. I told her I liked her already. She then said, come with me and took me to her group’s room and sprayed some of it on me. When I got back to our group, it was clear that this perfume was amazing, so I immediately ordered some for $141/bottle. You know what — I deserve it. Well, that’s what I’m telling myself anyway.

After dinner, we walked back with some pretty strict advice about the neighborhood, so we positioned our biggest guys at the front and rear of the line. Nothing ended up happening, but it was better to be safe. We did have two girls stop and wait for the group to pass, and when I got to them (I was at the end of the line, too), I took one girl by the arm and guided her back to the group, telling them they should get back in line and not be at the end. Well, one girl snapped back “I’m not going to the end…nothing will happen…” whine, retort, rude. I let it go until the other girl got off the phone and told her that her tone was not apprropriate. She said she pushing her back in line was not needed and she wasn’t doing anything wrong. More whining, so I said, “Watch yourself” pretty sternly. I’m sure she is super pissed at me, but here’s the thing: I’m not going to shirk my responsibility of keeping kids safe whenever possible. This was also the second time these two girls had veered away from the group while we were winding our way through a crowded area of Rome. I was done with it. Bad news: she is one of my ODK officers for the upcoming year. I know I’ll have to talk with her about this incident soon.

On to better things: back at the hotel the majority of our group sat around the bar and either played cards or drinking games. I have not laughed that hard this whole trip. One game — Ring of Fire — had an option to make a rule and Caleb (with an assist from Hannah B) made that rule that all statements had to end with “in my ass.” Seemed kind of silly and dang, it was HILARIOUS! I have had a wonderful trip so far, but that moment was awesome.

Off to bed. Covid tests first thing in the morning.

May 30, 2022

We began today with COVID tests, which have to be done within 24 hours of departure to the U.S. We also learned that this will no longer be needed in two weeks. Geez. Four students and one faculty member tested positive and will have to stay in Florence for a minimum of seven days. If they test negative, they can fly out on the eighth day. If anyone tests positive but is not showing symptoms, they can get a proof of health (something like that) from a doctor (and this will be coordinated by EF) to fly Delta the next day. If it’s another airline besides Delta, there is a three day period before they can fly. I only know this now after almost a full day of Susie asking questions and Tizi trying to get answers from the EF office in Zurich. U.S. office was on break because of Memorial Day and their emergency line was absolutely useless.

Before we left on our walking tour of Florence (we were down to 22 folks at this point — was 29 at the start of the trip), we made sure that the hotel was prepared to take care of the rooms and we moved the four girls into one room and Shelley stayed in our room (I moved into Susie’s).

The walking tour took us by the three important piazzas (kind of the same walking path we took with Tizi last night). The difference was we started along the river and walked to Ponte Vecchio bridge (Medici’s, jewelers, saved by Hitler during WWII). We also saw the duomo again (when the students turned the corner to see it for the first time yesterday, there were oohs and ahhhs).

After the tour, we went to the leather-making demonstration then had free time for lunch and shopping. This is when Susie worked on making phone calls to assure transportation was in order for Jen and Tenly, to make sure that EF would cover transportation for Jen to Florence (if Shelley gets sick and has to stay longer — we would want Jen to be there to help the students get to the airport), that transportation for the Florence group would be set up by EF, and so on. Susie also got 58 emails from the covid testing group: one informational email and one with the covid results — all in Italian. One email with all result in English? Sheesh. Her phone was almost out of battery so she forwarded all results to me so I could send them to the students. We asked Tizi to help us figure out how to read the emails and get the results. I figured it out. I like Tizi; however, sometimes he is a little behind the ball and getting things done. I will say that he made sure our quarantine group had what they needed (and it helped that the hotel knew and was prepared for this).

We then went to a wine tasting, which was informative and fun. Many of the students took this opportunity to buy wine as gifts for folks back home.

Dinner was good. Tizi had some money from EF because of the turmoil felt from having part of our group test positive, so he and I picked out some of the wine from the tasting and opened those at dinner. After dinner, we got the info for flying out, collected the whispers (headphones used on the local tours), and had one more drink before bed.

In bed by 11:30 p.m. — alarm set for 3:00 a.m. Cheers to lack of sleep!

May 31, 2022

All of our students have been on time for everything, and this morning was no different. Last one to arrive? Tizi. We got dropped off in some bus unloading zone and we didn’t really know where to enter, so I just took off and found the entrance. Susie and I figured out which check-in line we needed and off we went. Again, our tour guide was a little lacking in this area. Maybe we have been spoiled with a few of our previous guides; they gave us info about where we would unload, led us into the airport, walked us to the check-in, and knew where security was. Tizi didn’t have any of this info prepped. Okay — enough complaining because he really was a pretty nice guy.

Our long travel day includes a trip to Paris, six hours in the airport, a flight to Chicago, and a flight to Omaha. Things went pretty well for the entire group until we got to Chicago. There were so many people traveling from all over and by the time we go through the passport entry and moved over to collect and transfer luggage, we were all separated. Some smaller groups congregated and walked through it together, but Shelby (meek, quiet, hungover for the first time in her life) couldn’t not find her luggage nor did she have eyes on anyone. She called Susie in a pretty hefty panic attack and Susie calmed her and talked her through finding someone to help. Talk about a major growth opportunity for that young lady. I imagine, however, that she is still processing and perhaps thinking she will never travel again (or drink again).

Students seemed really ready to be home and knew that very soon they would be saying things like, “Wow, I was in Italy a week ago,” and further down the road, “I want to go back!” I know it might not exactly be the same for the students who are currently quarantined though I hope any of them that are having some negatively feelings right now will find a way to put them aside and focus on the fun things.