Our decades long planned trip of a lifetime to Italy is complete.  Starting our return from Rome at 7:00 pm Pacific time last Friday night, we made it home after three different airplane flights and twenty-six hours later.  Whoo!  That was a long day.  Thanks to Jose for picking us up at the airport.  Arriving at their house to transfer cars, four year old Jemma came flying outside to leap into our arms.  Hugging her tightly she politely asked, “Are you all done with Italy?”  We assured her that we were and that we were glad to be home.

What a trip!  Four country bumpkins take off for a foreign country we’ve never been to, armed only with internet research and various online reservations at each anticipated step along the way.  On reflection it seems pretty remarkable that EVERYTHING went so smoothly, without a hitch at all.  All hotel rooms or villas or rental cars or train tickets or boat trips or other planned excursions were there and waiting for us as we arrived at each location for that segment of our trip.  I kept expecting there to be some reservation or something that dropped along the way and we’d have to deal with it.  Nope, that never happened.

In our 31 days in Italy, we witnessed many, many amazing things, thousands of years old and breathtaking all at once.  We were repeatedly welcomed and treated with such hospitality by the Italian people we interacted with (Well, except for that store clerk in Venice regarding my attempt to use an extra plastic bag; and Doug’s toll booth person as we attempted to escape from Bologna (bye bye………..bye bye!)…….then there was that “delightful” man that Barb met who was sure that by Barb sitting on the ancient toilet in Ostea Antica outside of Rome, his children would never live to see these two or three thousand year old toilets.  Really?,?)  Anyway, with those very few exceptions, the Italian people were absolutely wonderful to us and could not have treated us better.

Italian wine, table wine, bottled wine, red wine, white wine, prosecco, 99 cent wine, expensive wine……..all amazing.  We learned about and partook of digestivos, those interesting small after dinner sipping drinks that tasted wonderful and actually helped us digest the meal we just ate.  And eat we sure did!  I believe I had pasta everyday for 31 days in ways I’ve never tried or imagined before.  There were various meats prepared for us that I’m still shaking my head at that I actually consumed them.  Most were pretty good (with the exception of that disemboweled squid body in Venice I couldn’t bring myself to finish).

We met some new friends in Italy that were real gems, like Irene in Pergine Valdarno, Giovanni and Miriam in Sorrento, and the owner and staff at our favorite restaurant in Chiusi, Tuscany, Osteria La Solita Zuppa who when we arrived late as they were closing told us, “for you we are never closed!”.  Each of these people went out of their way to make our stay with them memorable and again amazing.

For Lynda and me, this truly was a dream trip.  That we could undertake it and experience it with our lifelong friends Doug and Barb is again the stuff that dreams are made of.  When you spend 32 days alongside of anyone…friend or foe…..night and day, that time together will usually give you your fill of that person and you’re ready for a break.  I don’t know if it is a reflection of the Stockholm Syndrome at work among us (where you become friends with your kidnappers) or if we really do like each other so much, but from Day One to Day Thirty-two, the four of us got along great and at the end of the trip….we still really like each other.  And THAT I submit is another amazing fact!  Thanks to all who watched our travels through this blog, and thanks for all of those comments.  We talked about all of them and laughed along with you. 

Finally, Proverbs tells us that “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth up the bones.”  There were no broken or dried up bones on this trip (other than Lynda’s big toe nail which after impact came completely off)…..but there was a lot of laughter.  A LOT of laughter.  With our best friends.  We are so blessed!!!!