As we approach the end of our wonderful stay in Roma, we are faced with more goodbyes. Today, we said arrivederci (or ciao) to our trainer, Angelo, (from Rabbit Sport Center) who not only tortured us with full-body exercises for our aging carcasses, but invited us out for coffee with his partner, Meg. Not only …
Easter in Rome
This is our last weekend in Rome, and the weather is warming up. We decided to try and avoid the center of Rome as we thought it would be mobbed with tourists here for Easter (which in Italy is a four-day weekend). For Saturday, we set our sights on visiting the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome …
Bologna + Somewhere in Tuscany
I had mentioned to our niece Genny that the two of us could go somewhere together during the week while we left Steven home to work. (Aren't we nice?) She chose Bologna mostly because she had heard that it was liberal and LGBTQI+ friendly. Plus, it was only a bit over 2 hours by train …
Just the Bare Bones of Our Weekend
This weekend is going to be a calm and quiet one, no 11 trains, no traveling halfway across the country to go the ballet, not even a quick trip to Florence to see more of the sights. Wednesday as we were discussing our weekend plans, Sue stumbled onto a place called Jerry Thomas, that describes …
Eleven-train weekend
Yes, that's right: 11 trains. Sounds a bit overboard (off the rails?)(UGH! She is stealing my jokes!), but it just kind of happened that way. We started out Friday taking a cooking class about 25 minutes (by train) outside of Rome. That required getting to Roma Termini by Metro and then taking the regional train …
Weekend in Milano
But first, a visit with an old friend I used to work with an amazing reading teacher, Ellen. Ellen is now living in Amsterdam with her family and they are living the good life too. Finally, finally after trying several times to meet up, she happened to be in Rome last weekend. I hopped in …
Join a Gym …
Well, it doesn't have to be a gym, but get yourself into the world of people who really live where you're hanging out. In Guadalajara, we did yoga and learned some Spanish along the way. We also learned that Mexicans are helpful and friendly. Monday, we signed up at a gym, Rabbit Sport Center, (and, …
Florence for the Weekend
The view from our AirBnB's front window On Thursday, we headed out for a couple of days in Florence. Stacey had organized the travel, so it was smooth and easy. After an hour and a half train ride, we were in Florence. We grabbed lunch and checked into a fabulous AirBnB (link), which is two …
The first four days in Roma
This week has been a bit of a whirlwind, and this portion of the blog is going to cover only Sunday to Thursday. I promise will write more tomorrow or Monday about the rest of the week. I am also only including a few photos. Our amateur photos of Vatican do not do the the …
Frida Kahlo is everywhere
Our first major encounter with Frida Kahlo was, oddly, in Istanbul. What is the artist and feminist's connection to Istanbul? We tried to find out, and guess what? She doesn't have one! But posters, T-shirts (including one with her wearing a Daft Punk T-shirt of her own), phone cases, you name it, her image was …
Doing It On The Road 