Another great night of sleep. This hotel may be out in the middle of nowhere but it's quiet, cool and spacious. I couldn't ask for more. except maybe a REAL breakfast. I didn't even bother walking across the dog turd minefield for Chinese breakfast. Instead I had my last Sam's Cola that I had brought from home and kept cold in my room's refrigerator and ate some trail mix. As usual we got an early start. We were on the road by 8:00 am. We would be spending the night along the beautiful, rugged Amalfi Coast near Sorrento. I say "near Sorrento" because we ARE on an EF trip. In order to put together a super cheap price they often put us up on the outskirts of the primo attractions (or in the case of Rome, ... read more

Today's goal was to reach Rome. We were up early once again and again the breakfast sucked. No wonder I'm eating these big lunches everyday. We would be spending the next two nights just outside Rome at the ATA Domina Hotel. On the way to Rome we opted for a side excursion to visit Assisi. This is one of the prettiest abbeys in Europe. It takes up most of the top of the hill and seems to dwarf the town. ... read more

What a great night's sleep I had! I actually had to pull out the blanket from the armoire as it became freezing cold in my room. I wasn't about to mess with the thermostat and maybe knock out the a/c. I sleep best when I'm a little chilly anyway. We had to get up early (7:00 am) because we were leaving early in order to drive clear across the country to Florence. Normally it would take a little over 3 hours to drive straight through but remember that the bus driver has to get a break every two hours. I met Gail and her Mom in the breakfast room. Gail is quite thrilled with these breakfasts since she normally eats cold cereal at home. Gail's mother was hoping for some bananas at least but the only ... read more

After arriving in Milan we boarded Salvatore's bus which took us to Treviso by way of Verona. Because of the restrictive rules about taking buses into Italian cities Salvatore had to drop us off just outside the touristy part of town. We spent about two hours checking out the old buildings and trying to cool off in air conditioned shops. There seemed to be a lot of very well-dressed locals wandering the streets. Everything seemed so expensive no matter where we looked. That night we stayed at the Hotel Oasi in Treviso. A very nice, clean hotel. Too bad they didn't turn on the a/c until the next day. For dinner we walked down the street to the Spaghetti Club for a great pasta dinner. The single beer I had at dinner plus my jetlag put ... read more

Gail has worked all year for this moment. And I'm happy to just tag along. From the beginning of the school year last August Gail has been setting up this class trip for students at her school. She has advertised, mailed-out all kinds of memos, helped organize fund-raisers, conducted meetings and co-coordinated everything with EF Tours all on her own time. At times I thought she just might lose it and say the hell with the whole thing, but now that it's time to leave she'll actually get some time to relax. She will still have to deal with teenagers whining about roommates or lost Ipods but that stuff will almost be a pleasure compared to all the months of false starts, cancellations and arguments she found herself in the middle of. We will be flying ... read more

No sooner do I finish documenting our Christmas vacation then it's time to get ready for the next trip. In less than a month we'll be doing one of Gail's student trips. This time we will be visiting Italy and Greece. In the past I would have started reading about our destinations months ahead of time. But I have become a bit jaded after taking ten previous EF tours. EF does such a complete job of organizing things and the tour directors keep us so busy that it is hardly necessary for me to familiarize myself with where we'll be going. I'm not saying that every second is regimented or that we get no free time, but you just never know when and where you'll be at any given time. We could spend an entire day ... read more