Two Old Ladies and an International Traveler

Well, that's been the plan for several months now anyway.

Actually one of the old ladies could actually also be called (at least once) an International Traveler. Her first, and to date only trip out of the country 5 years ago or so was with her son (the now International Traveler) to her "adopted" son, Saumil's wedding in India. I soooo wanted to go with them. I had so many reasons not too. First I wasn't invited, but I'm sure Saumil would have welcomed me anyway, then it was an expensive flight and finally I didn't have vacation left, although I bet I could have negotiated that too. By the time of the trip, I was just kicking myself for not just saying, "To hell with it, I'm going too." I was nervous for them, Brian had also not traveled outside of the country. I figured it was the safest travel, since Saumil had arranged everything and arranged for a cousin to meet them in Mumbai, before their final flight to Ahmedabad, India. From what I've been told there was considerable culture shock.

Since then Brian has met Saumil and his bride and a whole group of international travelers in Thailand, Cambodia and Argentina. I'm sure I'm missing something there and Brian will correct me. He's been wanting me to travel with them for some time now.

On April 16th, my sister, my nephew and I will be leaving for a trip to Italy. Well, at least (borrowing a well worn saying of my mother's) "God Willing and the Crick Don't Rise"

It started out as a family discussion of celebrating my 50th birthday almost a year ago. My ELDER siblings have all been surprised by a massive fun birthday party when they turned 50. For various reasons I did not want that to happen and we began discussing a trip. One thing led to another and it morphed into a 2 1/2 week to Italy.

So I worried some whether Helen and I would be dragging Brian down from visiting everywhere he wanted to go, but I knew that we could each do as much or as little as we liked.

I'm not sure when it started, but Brian began to have back problems. He's a 6'3" 34 year old who has climbed up cliffs, so the back issue was a surprise, at least to me. Recently the pain had become unbearable and he first started with a chiropractor. Several weeks ago, they did an MRI and suggested therapy after reading the MRI report. When therapy wasn't helping, the therapist looked at the actual MRI. Two bulging disks pressing against a nerve. The therapist called a surgeon immediately and got Brian an appointment that day. It was Friday, 4 weeks before our trip.

Interestingly enough, the surgeon had a picture in his office of he and his family in from of the Roman Coliseum. Brian pointed to the picture and told him he was going to be there in 4 weeks, The surgeon told him he would need back surgery and he would be in alot less pain with the surgery than without and he could do it the next Friday.

So, with just shy of three weeks from our trip, Brian had surgery. I saw him two days after the surgery and was worried. He looked "broken" and was "bent". He said he was ahead of schedule according to the doc, but it worried me. Sitting is the worst part and we have a 10 hour flight from New York to Venice.

But he was determined, been on a treadmill walking up to 3 miles. Today he told me that he was feeling so much better that if our trip was tomorrow, he could do it. The therapist told him he is way way ahead of schedule and tomorrow he's going to wear a backpack with weights during his session.

So he'll be in shape enough for the trip, but I doubt he'll be outrunning us by the time we go. I want to make sure us "old ladies" get his bags for him. We just can't take the chance that he messes up something on the trip over. Now, how will that look, some seemingly healthy man making a couple old ladies lifting his bag into the overhead and yanking it off the conveyer belt? I think Helen and I will deliberately make it look like he's just some spoiled kid who makes old ladies do the heavy lifting. ;)

But a few days ago I began to get a little sore. Today I felt like I did a couple weeks after my hysterectomy, which was NOT pleasant. By mid-day I was fearful I might be getting that dreaded kidney infection that left me with septic shock two years ago or something even worse. I rushed to my doc, who rushed through all kinds of tests. Doesn't look like it's anything to worry about and I'm hoping a couple of days from now I'll be "in the pink".

So, apart from some recent concerns that we may have to cancel our trip, for now it looks like a "go".

We'll fly into Venice and stay three nights in a "flat" where the gondolas float past the window. The owner will meet us at the Rialto bridge and walk us to the place. This is a pic from their website. We found this place when someone Brian works with said he had recently stayed there, so we know it's legit. It's between the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's.

Then a few train hops and several hours later we'll head to Manarola. One of the "Cinque"s of Cinque Terre. This is where hiking and steps will come into play. We believe our hotel is one of the yellow buildings at the edge of the cliff. I learned about Cinque Terre from someone I met at the Indianapolis airport when I was looking over the Rosetta Stone stand. He and his wife had been to Italy and told me this was their favorite place. From Tripadvisor to Flickr research, we feel great about the place we picked. Arpaiu.

This is from the inn's website of the view from our room.

Three nights later, we make the obligatory stop in Pisa for a quick stop for a "holding up the leaning tower" pic and rent a car to drive to Volterra (Tuscany). We picked Volterra after Brian watched a Rick Steve's program from there. We've found an agriturismo, which is a working farm that by law has to make more money from the farm than the inn. Flickr'ing it we found someone who stayed there and loved it. They will even teach you how to make homemade pasta.

Three nights and back to Pisa to catch a train to Rome. A B&B at the top of the Spanish Steps was recommended by one of our Fort Myer's "neighbors".

Six nights in Rome with most likely a day trip to Pompeii. We're hoping to even take a hot air balloon ride while we're in Pompeii.

Hopefully this itinerary allows up enough time to take in the "feel" of Italy, not just rush from site to site.

One week from now, I'll be bidding, "Ciao" I'm excited, nervous, wishing Bob would have gone and hopeful we all stay healthy before and during our trip.

(p.s. Thanks GB for the blog subject suggestion.)