Mark got some frustrating work news yesterday evening (#$*!* Government) and that distracted him, to the point that he was up from 1 to 3 working, including two phone calls to the US using Hotel David’s free call service. I am happy to report that I slept through all of this (didn’t even find out about it officially until the morning) yet despite all of that, we were up before 7 to get packed, go do a couple of last minute things in Florence and then catch the train to Rome. We were showered and packed by 8 and went up for breakfast. The Hotel David has a very nice continental breakfast with both a dining room inside and a covered terrace outside. We have opted for the terrace every morning as we did today. Mark ... read more

Got up today ready to roll. We had an all day tour today—in the morning to the Acadamia where the David (the REAL David) is located and in the afternoon to the Uffizi Gallery, the collection of the Medici and Hapsburg families that is called the premier collection of Italian Renaissance art. Just so you’ll understand the tone of today’s blog, here’s what we learned: Beth and Mark should NOT, emphasize NOT, take big company commercial organized tours. Translation: any tour which accommodates more that 16 to 20 people is not for us. The reason I had booked this all day tour was because I read online that you need advanced tickets to get into the Academia and the Uffizi. When I Googled that, this came up and I couldn’t see another way to ... read more

Mark got up this morning, looked out the window and said, “It looks like the picture on the Contadina tomato paste can.” True that! Lovely! We had joked with Paola and Simonetta last night about “ish” Breakfast, they said, was at 8:30 “ish.” We took the “ish” a little too literally and didn’t wander downstairs until after nine. We apologized and they said, “You’re on holiday. No worries for you.” Breakfast in Italy, Simonetta said, is always sweet. Today’s breakfast was bread and homemade jams (apricot, quince, plum and fig) and a lovely tart with a peach jam in it. It was the perfect start to a lovely day. It turns out that the sisters do one-day lessons as well as lessons for people who are staying at the farm. There was supposed to be another ... read more

We left Williamsburg at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Had to stop of Chick-fil-A, of course. No unsweetened iced tea for three weeks—and we get back on a Sunday when they’re CLOSED!!! Things to talk to God about when I get to heaven. But I digress. Trip to Glen Allen was uneventful, loaded our three suitcases (two roll-on bags and one larger bag mostly full of toiletries and sunscreen), one carry-on and two briefcases in the back of DiL Erika’s jeep and she whisked us to the airport. For a girl who didn’t know Richmond 1½ years ago, she drives like a pro now! Got checked in with no issues, consolidated our five carry-on items down to four (US Air is strict about such things) and then looked for lunch. Decided that Vito’s was appropriate. Not ... read more

The last weather report: some patches of blue sky. Did it really wait until we were packed for us to get blue sky? But then I remembered that we had had blue sky two days ago. We saw a t-shirt in one of the shops that said, "It only rained twice the week I was in Ireland: first for three days, then for four." Mark got a t-shirt that says, "The Four Season in Ireland" and it has 4 squares on it. In each square there is a sheep under an umbrella with various amounts of wind and rain evidenced by the state of the umbrella. In all frames it is raining. Pretty much sums it up! We had breakfast at the hotel and then got on the shuttle to Dublin Airport. I heard them telling ... read more