I’ve always loved Graeter’s Raspberry Chocolate Chip but I’m a long way from a Graeter’s fix in Lucca, IT. I was hoping to find an Italian Count looking to share travel adventures, but so far I have only found gelato, and quite frankly that may be sufficient! Gelato is sort of an art form… Continue reading Holy Gelato!

      What an experience – Tuscan Cooking Class from Extra Virgin in Lucca. Our host Guiseppe greeted us in town and we began a tour of the best establishments for bread, olive oil, wine, fruit, vegetables with a few extra tips like pointing out the best pizza place in town.  We gathered our… Continue reading Tuscan Cooking Class

We had the perfect visit to a vineyard in Montecarlo, Italy about 15 KM outside of Lucca. Thanks to Ken’s Trip Advisor investigation, we landed on the perfect spot to learn about the Italian wine making process. It was a small vineyard that produces about 40K bottles a year, 60% White and 40% Red.  It… Continue reading The Vineyard at Montecarlo since 1362!

Greetings from Lucca, Italy, my home for the next 3 weeks.  The place we rented through VRBO is interesting. The picture is of the living room, huge area with 2 story tall ceilings. We speculate it was previously a monastery and we have an entire wing. The bedroom configuration was not what we expected as… Continue reading Lucca – The Walled City

The trek from Corniglia to Vernazza didn’t go exactly as planned. It started off blissful enough, with a lovely stroll through the vineyards and olive trees. The views of the water and colorful towns were just as awesome as advertised, but then the changes in elevation and rugged stone steps became grueling. I could hear… Continue reading Is that a Wild Boar I hear?

Man Up Marine – Not the words you might expect to hear on a vacation to Cinque Terra but late last night Greg Hightower yelled them to me as I cried out, “I hit the wall”.  I hit the wall after 45 minutes of climbing up to the top of the mountain.  By the way… Continue reading Man Up Marine

  Well about 6 hours ago I crossed over from Employed to Retired status and what an awesome place to do it – Italy.   I flew TAP (Air Portugal) and somehow paying only $130 thanks to rewards points, makes the long flight all that more bearable. Well that and noise canceling headphones, compression socks… Continue reading Ahhhhhhh Italy

Thanks for joining me on what I hope is an exciting adventure! An inspirational quote from Mark Twain to start my blog: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.… Continue reading The Journey Begins