The tower looks...........crooked

Oh, I can't even begin to think how long it's been since I've written a chapter in the blog book. Its been awhile. It would take ages to relay to you my life these last few weeks. Sufficient to say that the highs in my life have been as extreme as the lows. I'll relate the highs, because that's better.

Jeannette and I just got back from 3 weeks in Italy! That was fun! I'll talk about that.  It was a good time to visit the southern part, ie Rome, but the northern part was still on the cold and rainy side of things. The rain was very welcome though (It hasn't rained in India for quite some time now. At least since I've been here anyway). We had planned slightly ahead for this rainy weather and packed raincoats. Or should I say, I packed rain coats. Jeannette conveniently left her's in Washington. So she borrowed my spare one. Which, it turns out, is the only one that actually keeps the water out. The coat that I used pretended to bead up and keep out the water, but it was actually working in cahoots with the rain. What was really going on is that it was simply funneled to the inside of my coat where it could soak into my dry clothes. Nice little set up they had going on.

Our trip started out by flying out of Hyderabad nice and early to London, where we caught a connecting flight to Rome. The day before we left I had gone into town and exchanged a pile of money in Euro's, using the convenient local Mafia to give me a terrific exchange rate. We then took our smaller pile of money home, divided it up, and stored it in our own little hiding places for use on the trip. I hid my stash so well that when we arrived at the airport to fly out the next day, I couldn't find it. Practically tore my bag apart looking for it and almost canceled our trip when I finally realized that I left it in the apartment. That was not a good start to the trip. Wasn't sure if I could pull money out with my India bank card, but I was relieved to find out that I could. Would have been a short trip if I couldn't have!

Jeannette and I decided for this trip to try some new and experimental things:

1. carry just enough stuff to fit into one medium size backpack;
2. stay in B&B's, not hotels;
3. travel by train and by foot, not rental car;
4. have no real itinerary, but rather make day to day arrangements as we went;

Turns out that my backpack really wasn't that light, but it worked pretty good. We stayed in B&B's when we could and that turned out pretty well, with mixed results of course. We rented a scooter in Pisa for 3 days, so we could zip around in the country for awhile. Our B&B in Pisa was about 10km from town, on the coast, so we thought that it would just be easier to get around too. Worked great 2 of the 3 days. One day it rained too hard for us to venture out. So instead, we just hung out inside and read our books. The traveling without itinerary was fun, because we didn't stress ourselves out with time constraints and deadlines. We didn't even have return tickets to India when we left, because we weren't sure what city we were going to finish up our vacation in! But having a little structure is good and kept us from getting bored and lazy. Our trip plans, the ones we actually had, were modified just before leaving Rome. We were originally planning on taking the train through France and up to Holland. That changed once we found out how much the train tickets were going to cost! I guess that's one thing that we should have checked on before starting our vacation. So we just made the decision to stay in Italy and city hop. Rome, Florence, Pisa, lots of little towns, Venice, Verona, Geneva, and Milan. Those are the main cities. I guess you could say that we backpacked across the country of Italy!

One thing to do for all vacations, though. Check the holiday schedule and see if you are visiting during a major holiday. I knew that Easter Sunday was going to be a big one for Rome, but I forgot that the weekend before, the one we went on, was Palm Sunday and probably the second biggest weekend for Rome. It was packed! Not really something that I wanted to deal with and I got crabby with all those people. If I wanted to be crushed by a mass of people I would have just stayed in India!

So I will highlight the highs and lows of our trip. Highs first:

1. clean air, clean county, green grass, and rain;
2. seeing my Sister and Brother-in-Law in Rome;
3. the B&B in Florence and Pisa;
4. visiting the ruins and sites in Rome;
5. eating some of the most delicious food in some cute alley;
6. terrific train and bus systems;
7. relaxing with a good book;
8. not having people stare at you;
9. driving a scooter through the Italy countryside;
10. Gondola ride in Venice;
11. climbing up to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The not so good parts of the trip:

1. toe blisters;
2. crowds of people and waiting in lines;
3. the B&B in Geneva;
4. being tired and crabby; 
5. leaving to come back to India.

But wait, the adventure doesn't end there. For the flight back into Hyderabad we chose Qatar Airlines, because they have conveniently scheduled an airplane from Milan – Doha – Hyderabad. Very convenient. But for some reason right before we were ready to push out of the gate, the pilots started talking and went on about “ATC says, blah blah blah, can't go, blah blah blah, sorry for the delay, blah blah blah.” One hour and thirty minutes later we finally leave Milan.  Then they didn't hold our seats on the Hyderabad flight from Doha.  So although we made the connection time, barely, they didn't have seats for us. But what they did have was a free hotel room and excellent breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffets for us.  So we waited until the following day and subsequent next flight. Not too bad. It was pretty hot in Doha, so we didn't venture out far or for very long. It was an unexpected, but fun detour.

So, would I or will I ever return to Italy. If given the chance in a few years, yes. It is a lovely place to visit. I loved my time there. Next time,  I probably won't stay for more than two weeks though. Towards the end of the three weeks I started to get slightly tired of it all.  Traveling is hard work.  Plus, Italian food is great, but it tends to be the same and it's hard to find other types of food to eat while there. It's expensive to vacation there too. Not as bad as Australia, but close. However, I would recommend it without a moments notice though. Get out and see the world.