Sad to leave Florence today. We were up and packed, then took a nice long walk around the neighborhood after our coffee knowing we’d be sitting for the 15-hour plane trip home. We said our goodbyes to Claudia at the BNB, and Maria (Antimo’s cousin and artist). Maria’s husband Ciro drove us to the airport
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M.G. Designs was our first stop today. I wanted to pick out a few of Maria’s beautiful pottery pieces to add to my collection. We figured out I could pay her with PayPal (since we don’t have credit cards until we return home). Otherwise, I would have had to go home empty-handed. (This is just
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A lazy start to our morning – so unusual for us – it was great. An older man was mopping the entrance floors and the stairs when we were going out – navigating wet stairs before coffee was fun. But wait! We left our room around 10:30 and returned at 10:45 because I forgot the
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Woke up this morning literally with a very cold shower. Apparently last night there was a gas leak in the apartment building and the gas was turned off at some point. Even though Antimo got up and turned it back on, I wasn’t able to get any warm water. Oh well, I moved a little
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Losing a day getting from Portland to Florence is the hardest part of the trip to me. I’m all amped up, ready to see and do everything, and I’m stuck in Seat 8A for what seems like 24 hours, but in reality is about 18 hours flight time. On the bright side, Dick and I
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What can a person say about air travel that’s interesting and without disaster to report. (Note to self: do not watch the movie “Sully” on this plane trip.) Our bags are packed and we’re ready to go. We were able to smuggle on an extra passenger (Nemo) that will be joining us on our adventures.
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  Let’s try this again. As you may or may not know, we planned a trip to Italy last year in September and due to my taking a bad fall just days before we planned to leave (resulting in a fractured back), that trip was canceled. So, after being in a back brace for over
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