Adventures in Africa

 It’s been 8 years since I last wrote a post. A lot has gone on. I have four darling grandchildren.   I started delivering Meals on Wheels as well as doing volunteer work with the Christ Child Society, but this year I have been doing nothing but traveling. It started out in January when Ellen Pozek, Jean Tobia and Donna Callahan traveled to Death Valley, Saguaro and Joshua Tree National parks as well as Palm Springs. In March, I headed with Donna Callahan to the Galápagos Islands and Machu Picchu. Then in May, together with cousins Ginny Kirk and Nancy Lamkin, we traveled to Italy 🇮🇹 to visit cousin Margaret Ewing at her beautiful home 🏠 in Italy where we lived La Dolce Vita for a week. In August, I travelled to California to attend the wedding 💒 of my cousin Valerie Gaino to Andrea’s Baer as well as visit my cousin Ginny and her husband Mike in Long Beach. 🏖️ In September, I went to the Shaw Festival in Canada 🇨🇦 with my friend Mary Ann Nofel to see the plays “Anything Goes” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” In addition, I traveled again with Ellen Pozek and Jean Tobia to see the Indiana Dunes and Mammoth 🦣 Cave national parks 🏞️ in addition to visiting the Bourbon 🥃 Trail. Then, on October 11, I celebrated my nephew Tony Piccirilli’s wedding 💒 to Shelby Siddons in Jasper, Indiana. Are you tired 😴 yet??!!  I sure was!!!! 

But there was still one ☝️ more trip planned to take, and it was to the continent of Africa to visit Rwanda 🇷🇼 with a former Lakewood High colleague Elaine Leickly as part of a sponsored trip with the Cleveland Zoo which would incorporate a golden monkey and gorilla 🦍 trek. I also decided to extend my stay in Africa to go on safari in Botswana with a high school classmate Maryann Ambrose. And if I complete this trip, I would then have visited four continents during this past year which seems totally unbelievable to me.

But the Lord was with us, as Elaine and I started our journey on a 6 am flight from Cleveland to Washington DC where we boarded an Ethiopian Air flight ✈️ that took us to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 where we had a layover of eight hours until our  flight ✈️ to Kigali, Rwanda. 🇷🇼 finally landing at 4:45 pm Rwandan time. The tour company used by the Cleveland Zoo made sure we were met and helped through customs. It was great to see some familiar faces as we arrived very tired at the Four Seasons Hotel 🏨  a very nice accommodation for my first night of rest on this new adventure. 

How are you going to keep her down on the farm after she's seen Paree!!!

Bonjour!
My dream trip of going to Paris has finally become a reality🗼🗼🗼 on Monday, September 18, Neal and I boarded a Delta flight direct from Pittsburgh to Paris.  The flight went smoothly landing in the morning of September 19 and after  getting the keys to our flat beneath the  Eiffel Tower, we were on our first adventure in discovering Paris.  We managed to find the Paris tourist office to pick our museum pass.  And, of course, while walking to the bus stop by the Palais Garnier, we stopped at Pierre Hermes for their world famous macarons. We found our back our cozy little pensione just long enough to pick up a camera and walk over our neighbor--the Eiffel Tower.  And we were there for the next three hours venturing all the way to the summit!! And the views of Paris were breathtaking🗼🗼🗼 we then ventured and found a lovely neighborhood fruit market and cheese and wine shop.  We came back home just long enough to change clothes so we literally could walk around the corner to a lovely restaurant highly recommended to Neal by the first girl he ever  kissed called Restaurant de la Tour. The food was amazing.  I had a duck fois gras and cheese salad along with duck breast in
a phenomenal raspberry sauce.  Neal had autumn zucchini soup with shaved Parmesan with duck leg confit.  Great way to end an exhausting day🗼🗼🗼

On Wednesday, September 20, We took Rick Steves' favorite bus 69 to the Louvre where we embarked upon an 8 1/2 odyssey in search of Neal's 40 favorite art masterpieces. Although the art work we saw was magnificent and inspiring, it was like playing "Where's Waldo?" In the Louvre as it is an enormous palace and directions in finding exhibits  were confusing at best.  However, the Louvre itself is a masterpiece of architecture beyond description with each hall and wing having its own special detailed features. While we were in the Louvre, we took a well deserved lunch at Angelina's where we had the most decadent African hot chocolate.  Picture melting an entire bag of
Godiva chocolate and then drinking it with real whipped cream on top! It paired well with the New
York-Paris macaron, one of its house specialty desserts!!!  And, yes, we are eating our way through Paris!  We then took a night ride on the Seine river to see the city at night.  We were exhausted once again and just went to a local cafe called Cafe la Dome where we both had the special Boeuf burgoniogn at 14 euros with spaghetti.

On Thursday, September 21, we took the bus to the Museum  d'Orsay and went on a guided English speaking tour of the major masterpieces of the impressionists--Monet, Manet, Renoir, dega, Van Gogh and cezane. Although we did not eat at the museum, their gorgeous res taurant and Cafe would be a delight for anyone.  Then we headed over the the musee orangerie to see the full size round room with the water lillies at four different times of the day. Neal headed over to take a picture of the obelisk on Concordia plaza and bridge.  We went home to get ready for our. Night at the Moulin Rouge which was really a phenomenal show complete with our bottle of champagne.  And in true Paris tradition, we ate crepes at the cafe Suffren at 11 pm at night.

On Friday, September 22,  we walked to rue grenel and Rue Cler where we saw some great food chops. we then sauntered to the army museum where we observed a military awards ceremony complete with military band and official fly over.  We then saw Napoleon's tomb at the Dome Church at Les Invalides.  We strolled over to the Rodin Museum to see the thinker, the kiss and the hands as well as the gate of hell and city burghers of Calais.  We went back to rue cler to stuff ourselves with crepes--mine was Nutella and banana.  With full stomachs, we walked off some of the calories by heading to the top of the Arc de Triumph.  Each high view allowed us to see different perspectives of


the city. It was here that we first saw the Grande Arche that is a big rectangle office building with the middle building and is in the direct line of the arc de triumph and mimics it.  Dinner that evening was at Le Cassenoix which means nutcracker.  The best and most fabulous food--a Michelin recognized restaurant that was around the corner from our apartment,  in fact, both restaurant we no more than a. Two minute walk from our place.  Both were run by a husband and wife team with the husband being the chef and both are closed on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, September 23, we got up early and went to the top of montparnasse office tower.  The second tallest building in Paris.  Because of morning haze, the views were not that great, but we learned the names of some buildings heretofore unknown.

Arriverderci Bella Italia!!!

Today is our last full day in Bella Italia. As I pass the fields of sunflowers, wheat and corn fields, and the many vineyards of Tuscany on my way back to Rome, I revel in the peace and tranquility that is in the countryside of Italy. It seems as though every square inch of land bursts forth some type of vegetation that has a purpose. Along side all of these fields are century old farm houses of stucco and red tile roofs as well as towns and villages seen in the magazines or movies of a typical Italian countryside. As we drive along the autostrada, I try to soak in the sunshine that has graced this trip to the country that my grandparents called home and is the land of my roots. Right now on the bus, they are playing the movie "Roman Holiday" with Gregory Peck and Audry Heburn, who played a princess who escaped the confines of a royal life to enjoy the simple pleasures of a typical day in Rome.
Life in Italy in general is very practical. We just passed a truck carrying dairy cows and within each cow's stall on the truck there was a fan placed their for their comfort. So typical Italian.
We just are coming from our last stop on the tour which was to visit the town of San Gigimignano. It boasts to be Italy's best preserved medieval town complete with all types of shops and spectacular views of surrounding fields of sunflowers, vineyards and olive groves. It gives and excellent picture of what Italy looked like in the Middle Ages. The best gelato in Italy can be had in its town square at a place called Pluripremiata Gelateria Artigiana. I had the passion fruit and pineapple flavors and it was phenominal and deserved my ranking as the number one gelateria in all of Italy (at least on this trip!!!) What was also cool about this town is that near the top of the town, they set up an outdoor screen along with a bunch of chairs and that is their cinema. It is a one movie town!!
We stopped for lunch in Siena which is where they have the Palio which is a horse race in which all of the 17 neighborhoods of the town compete for bragging rights. I purchased a panforte which is a local delicacy sort of like a heavy one inch fruitcake. I purchased one with just figs and nuts which tasted like a crunchy fig newton.
We headed to Rome and to our hotel called the Sheraton Golf as it has one of the few golf courses here in Italy. It costs about 60 euros per round. After freshening up, the entire group drove on the bus back into the center of town for our group picture which was taken in front of the Coliseum near the Arch of Constantine. Then we headed for dinner at the Opera ristorante which had an opera singer and accordion player who entertained us while we ate our dinner of pesto cavatali with pears, followed by chicken with arugala and rosemary potatoes with lemon sorbet for dessert. Then we went across the street for some gorgeous nighttime photos of the Castle San Angelo as well as St. Peter's in the distance. After returning back to the hotel, we all gathered near the pool to share the bottles of wine and food we had purchased during the day and to say our goodbyes as it was the last day for our tour group.
From the time shared with our Italian cousins to the time spent with strangers who became our friends on the tour, I have come to learn to love the simple joys of living that exemplify life in Italy. Life in Italy centers on the three F's of food, family and friends mixed with a lot of love, a little bit of vino and a daily portion of gelato!!! Life is too short for anything less!!
As I try to savor and store in my memory bank all of what I have seen and done on this journey to Italy, I realize once again that it is in all of our differences that we are all the same. And that we all want the same things in life. As we drove passed one of the American cemeteries here in Italy from World War II, I realize that the price for our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness was paid by those who came before us and that they deserve to be remembered and appreciated for what they did for us and the world we live in today. God bless them and God bless us all!!

One hot body or buns of marble!!!

Today we left Lake Maggiore and headed for Pisa. It was a long bus ride which was complicated by some minor traffic detours. In traveling along the way, we saw rice paddies...not exactly like it might be in Asia...but rice paddies nonetheless used for the making of risotto. Also passed mountains which looked like they were snow capped but in reality they were mines for marble..Carrare marble specifically which is the marble used by Michaelangelo as it usually has no veins in the marble which leads to no cracking when sculpting.
When we arrived in Pisa, for the first time in Italy the weather and sun was hot. There was no breeze like we had been used to so far. Of course, we did the obiligatory pose in from of the Leaning Tower which is 15 feet off center and is 200 feet tall and 55 feet wide built by three different architects. Had to pay 30 cents to use the toilets which were fine. Except for the first time I used the public toilets, the rest of the toilets have been pretty normal.
Then we headed to Florence to make sure we got into the Academia which is the museum that houses the David. Most of the the big museums are closed on Monday so we had to make sure we got in on Sunday. David is truly magnificent. His eyes are dreamy, and he has a great butt.
Michaelangelo's philosophy was that the sculpture is inside the marble just waiting to come out and he was just the instrument used to release it from its marble prison.
Then we traveled out to a restaurent in the Tuscan countryside to have an authentic Tuscan dinner and was serenaded by a trio consisting of two guitar players and one singer named Gino.
Today we went to the Duoma in Florence. Every city calls their cathedral a Duomo. It had a beautiful distinct facade made of white, green and pink marble from the surrounding areas. We visited several other churches, one being the church of Santa Croce which is the burial site for both Michealangelo and Galileo. We also went shopping for leather and gold. Bought a little of each!!! Of course, we had the obligatory gelato with the best so far being Della Palma in Rome.
Tonight I think we will go to another prix fixe dinner for 12 euros nearby.
Tomorrow we head to Sienna and then Rome to get ready for the trip back home.
It is weird to note that by now I do not feel like a foreigner here. Nancy and I have become honorary Aussies thanks to the 11 that are a part of our group and we all feel like native Italians. I think it is because of all the food we have been eating and the wine we have been drinking.

George forgot to leave the light on!!

The first picture is a view outside of our window at the Hotel Dino at Lake Maggiore. We started the day early with a boat ride on Lake Maggiore to go to one of the small islands on the lake that has a palace and gardens that belongs to the Borremeo family, the same family that St. Charles Borremeo comes family. The wealth has been in the family for years and although their coat of arms contains the word "Humility" there was opulence in every one of the 22 rooms of the palace as well as the step gardens that were behind it.
We then came back to the hotel to board a bus that would take us to Lake Como, the home of the infamous George Clooney. I kept looking for him, but he was no where to be found. We took a boat ride to see some of villas, but his villa on the lake was beyond the point where we were going. However, George is a motorcycle enthusiast and after we had a bite to eat in the town of Como, we headed to Lake Lugano which is just over the Italian border in Switzerland. To our surprise, there was a giant gathering of the Pan-European Harley Davidson Motorcylists. Maybe my friend George was here, but all I saw in abundance was black leather, booze and body piercings and tatoos as well as tons of traffic. So we did not get to do the shopping we had antipated. I only had the time to be able to pick up a bar of swiss chocolate and then head back to the hotel minus a George Clooney sighting!!
Tomorow off to Pisa and Florence.

A Lake Plus Spectaclar Views (ALPS Views!!)

We took one final boat ride from our hotel on Lido to get to our bus that was waiting for us at the bus terminal in Venice. We passed several cruise ships and saw many of the morning work crews with produce etc. setting up their wares. We headed on the autostada 4 for Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet. Along the highway, we saw many manufacturing plants. When we got to Verona, we were surprised to learn that it is the fourth largest tourist destination in Italy after Rome, Florence and Venice. Name any of the brand name stores, and they were along streets near the main square area. They also had a Roman Coliseum that is more preserved than the one in Rome and still has its seats of about 22,000 and is used for opera productions. There is also a large statue of Dante who was ostrasized from Florence and was taken in by the people of Verona. Saw the balcony of Romeo and Juliet(which was built in 1890 by a business entrepreneur) and the Embroidery shoppe that houses the Juliet club that answers letters to the lovelorn.
We then headed to Milan which is the financial capital of Italy. It is basically just a big city except for the main square area. First, you start with La Scala opera house which was completed gutted and reopened in 2006. You also see a huge statue of Leonardo da Vinci who is from the Florence area but applied all of his invention and ideas in the city of Milan (which was the capital of Italy for a couple of years at one point in history). Then you walk into the Galleria which is an open shopping area covered with a beautiful glass ceiling. At the center where there are four corners, you have the stores of Louis Vitton, Prada, Gucci and then McDonald's!!!! I just laughed to think that McDonalds rates up there with the designer labels. I guess Armani is desperately trying to buy their space. As you walk out of the Galleria, you immediately cast your eyes on the magnificent Duomo, the great cathedral of Milan. There are over 2,000 statues as well as 52 hundred foot granit columns inside the church. It contains the largest stained glass windows in the world. It is of a gothic style and is the fourth largest cathdral in the world. In Italy, all of the stained glass windows and statues on columns were designed to tell stories to the people who could not read or write. We ended with a visit to La Rinascente which is a 7 flooor department store similar to Neiman Marcus which has all type of designers having a set location on the various floors.
We headed and are staying at Lake Maggiore. Our room faces the lake with the mountains across from us. We will do more exploring tomorrow as there was a light rain tonight when we arrived. We are staying at the Hotel Dino which is definitely a spectacular resort hotel. Talk more about it tomorrow. Ciao!!

Venice Shopping Extravaganza

We started the day taking the boat from our hotel on the Lido Island to the island of Murano for a glass blowing demonstration at the factory and of course shoppping for bargains there. I bought a necklace and matching earrings along with a vase. Would have liked to buy some wine glasses but I already have too much stuff to pack and lug around.

Then we went to St. Marc's square where our tour guide pointed out the significance of many of the structures and their coumns and mosaics. Then we went shopping specifically searching for a shoe store recommended by our guide during our wine tasting tour. We finally found the Keyes shoe shoppe on Camp S. Lio and a couple of the girls found bargains. I just went and got my obiligatory gelato for the day which was a spectacular fig flavor.

We then piled into a water taxi to go over the lagoon to the island of Burano which specializes in lace and mask making. In addition, had a fabulous fish feast dinner complete with a fish spread on bruschetta, salad, fish lasagna, white fish, calamari, shrimp, fish risotto and almond candy and cookie and fruit for dessert. Of course, every meal has wine and coffee included.

Bought some more purchases.

Doing wash and trying to get the clothes to dry. Leaving tomorrow for Lake Lugano near the Swiss border with stops at Verona and Milan.