December 2010 - Italy, USA
USA | Illinois | Lake Forest| Italian ragdolls "My Doll" for Emma, Maddie and Josie
December 13, 2010
Hi Everyone, We are back in the land of the USA safe and sound. We flew on an Airbus 340/600 with Lufthansa. Good plane and nice having control of your individual TV screen and choice of programs. Lufthansa still feeds you and offers you free drinks even on our short flight to Munich. Munich is a nice clean airport. We'd never been there before. We arrived in Brrrr freezing Chicago, light snow and gusty 55 kts of wind. So the landing was a bit rough. So glad our destination wasn't Minnesota as they were having a blizzard and 24" of snow. Maddie was glad to see Grandma and Grandpa. She was my little shadow all day today and kept me busy building blocks she tore apart and dumping toys Grandma picked up. We'll be here all week and then Chris and Justin's on the weekend. We'll take the train to Mn. a week from tomorrow. Can't wait to play with Emma and Josie too. Glad to be home. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
December 9, 2010
Hi Everyone, We had a beautiful day in Rome yesterday with Brother Aaron Loch (Julie and Dave Pribyl's nephew)and Brother Matthew also from Minnesota. They met us at the Vatican and gave us a brief tour of St. Peter's before Pope Benedict did Angelus. Then we caught a train to Legionare di Christo where they attend the seminary. We were then treated like "royalty" to a lovely 3 hour many course lunch. We began in a private reception room where we were served drinks and snacks (nuts, chips...)
Then we were taken to a private dining room with a table set beautifully for four including a lovely floral arrangement. Each course was served by two other brothers. Glad I wasn't doing the dishes as everything was served individual from serving dishes onto our plates and we had a new set of dishes and silverware for each course. The "starter" was an antipasto plate of cheeses, meats,tomato, artichoke and white wine, the "primo" (1st course) was cheese/spinach ravioli with red sauce, the "secondo" (s econd course)was pork steak, little spiral oven baked mashed potatoes, carrots, spinach and served with red wine. Next came a fruit course followed by a mulitlayered filo/cream cake and coffee. Last but not least we were offered an aperitif Al choose lemoncello and I had Bailey's on the rocks:-) So we had a great day of conversation and wonderful food. My kind of day. Next time we'll take a tour of the grounds and visit the Holy Shroud of Tourin exhibit at the university. We simply just ran out of time. Before going home to Nettuno we stopped by to visit our friends on Pooh Bear's Rome apartment. Very cute and close to the Vatican. Gorgeous day today and home soon. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
December 6, 2010
Hi Everyone, Happy St. Nicholas Day
On Sunday we went with our friends on Quest, Robert and Christina to Rome to meet some other cruising friends from Kemer Turkey. Judy and Bob on "Pooh Bear" from Texas are renting an apartment in Rome for two months. We met them in the Trastevere area to go to the Sunday flea market. The Romans claim if something has been stolen during the week you can buy it back on Sunday at the market. It was a "zoo" jam packed with people looking an odd assortment of antiques and JUNK. But then one person's junk is another person's prize. This is the only place in Rome we've ever felt the danger of pick pockets. We are always so careful and I never carry anything on me. I did have a hand in my pocket one time and it wasn't mine! We had a nice lunch together and headed home after making plans for Pooh Bear to visit Nettuno on Thursday. We head for Chicago next Sunday. Pray for safe travel and good weather. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
