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Hi all,
Yes, we are home now. Having Italy withdraws for sure.

Our trip and flight home was good. No delays and people at the airports were nice. One British Air rep was especially helpful. David and I did not have seats together on the return. After boarding the plane and asking someone people to move, we were separated by 10 rows. The British air agent from the counter boarded the plane and found me. He was able to move us to the other side of the plane, together! At first I did not think too much about sitting with strangers for 9 hours. But thankfully, I did not have to do it. It would have been lonely. The day was full of standing in LINES. Sometime, I will have to calculate the number of lines we stood in that day. Much patience was required.

As we traveled, both the outbound and return, I saw people going through some strict security checks. I did not notice any of the full body scanners that have made the news lately. However, I did see both men and women getting physical "pat downs". This horrified me and I had it in the back of my mind that they must look suspiscious or did something to warrant the extra check. I thought to myself, I would not be able to handle a stranger running their hands over me. WELLLLLL, they got me. British air randomly selects 5 % of passengers for a personal search. Guess who got lucky? Ok, this search was at the GATE, not in the security area. So in front of the passengers on my flight, I was rubbed down my a lovely English women. I think I was in shock. She asked me if I had anything in my pockets, I said No. So boy, was she surprised when she ran her hand over my butt, that I had something in my back jean pocket. I told her it was a toothbrush. She pulled out the toothbrush and looked at it like it was an alien probe. Alas, satisfied that it was just an instrument of modern dentistry, she let me go. I continued to feel violated all day. Before the check, an Italian man in line told us that he had some special Sicilian meat pastries in his bag, that he was taking to his family in Florida. Good thing he did not get randomly searched. They would have trashed his stash.

Bad news about the lovely ebay deal that I got on my camera. This little camera was awesome. Took great pictures and downloaded them quickly to the lap top. Well, on Friday night we were driving through Lake Mary. David was trying to take a picture (on his I phone) of the Christmas lights on the Lake Mary sign, while moving. So I volunteered my new Ebay (Nikon) camera. Well I still did not get a picture off quiet enough. So I wrapped up the camera in the awesome neophrene case that I bought for it. AND, probably put it in my lap...... Well, moments later, David decided to stop at the grocery store. We jumped out and went in for some treats. On Saturday, I started looking for the camera. Only today, did David remind me that we stopped at the store after the picture taking episode. I called the store and they do not have it in lost and found. SO, long story short....My new camera is GONE. I am so sad and David is irritated. Thankfully, we did not really take any pictures on the last day.

On our last night in Florence, we had a nice romantic dinner at a little place on Santa Trinita Piazza. The food was great and most of the time we were the only people in the restaurant. We miss the great food and the exercise that we got on vacation. It was so fun to walk around the city, also, trying new restaurants was great.

We are settling back into Life, Work and the U.S. Thank you so much for following our adventure. We enjoyed sharing it with you.

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Comments

[Marcia Webb]

[e-mail]
Hi Guys, All your blogs were very interseting and some were funny. Em you do have a way with a story. On T.V. the other day we saw a program about homes in Florence and how much they cost. It was very interesting and they showed alot of the same places you bloged about. Have a great day. Mom