7/18/2023 Tuesday - Fountains, Piazzas, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, Trastevere

Wow! What a day, and it’s just day two!

Morning was a walking tour to Piazzas, Spanish Steps, Fountains, Pantheon, and more. Got some euros from a travel card, threw coins into Trevi Fountain. So much beauty and history.

 

Back to hotel to change since everything was soaked. Walked about four blocks away and had a light lunch by myself. I sat outside in the shade and enjoyed some me time.

 

 

To hotel to change for the afternoon touring to Vatican, Museums, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The temperature reached 106° today. It was unbelievably hot! I stayed cool with a cooling towel around neck that I re-wet every chance I could. The awe and beauty surrounding me kept my mind off the temp. We split into two groups. Anna asked which group I wanted to be in  chose the smaller group of 11. Our tour guide was Irené. She was amazing and so fun! It was nice to be in a smaller group. She is so knowledgable it’s amazing!

 

Had about an hour and a half before our drive to a full group dinner. I cleaned up and changed once again. It was casual so I wore shorts. It was still quite warm out, 102°. To Trastevere for dinner at Meo Patacca restaurant. Some walking again on cobblestones and stopped in a church briefly on our walk. Music during dinner and so much fun at our table. I am with a bunch of New Yorkers! Two different families on this tour are from the same area in Yonkers and two individuals went to same high school but five years apart. Small world!

  

 

So glad I am on this trip!

Enjoy the pictures! I know there is a lot.

Ciao!

7/17/2023 Monday - Arrived at 7:30 am in Rome

The plane landed at 7:20 am today. I left O’Hare at 4:00 yesterday and it was a 9-hour flight. Everything went great, no issues at all. Off the plane I just followed the signs to baggage claim and went through customs first. That was a fast process I had no clue about. Luggage came super fast and I was off to find column N3 to meet my Perillo Tour Guide, Anna. I am the only solo on this 40 person tour so Anna knew I was Gina when I walked up alone. A group of six arrived before me (the Boston crew) and soon our bus brought us to the hotel. It was an hour and 20 minute drive through some narrow streets and turns. Freshened up at the hotel and they stored our luggage, the seven of us ventured out to the streets of Rome. We walked and talked and took some pictures. Back to the hotel to hang there inside and not in the heat. Rooms ready at 2:30. Throughout the afternoon, others on my tour were arriving as well. Welcome meeting at 5:15 in the hotel restaurant we’re we all meet each other and visited. I joined two sisters and one husband from New York. We went to dinner and walked off the calories before returning to hotel. We shared two of the same veal starter with fresh black truffles. I ordered salmon for secondo and then tiramisu for dessert. Everything was very light and delicious. 

 

Tomorrow is Piazzas & Fountains, Vatican Museums & St. Peter’s Basilica, then dinner at Trastevere.

Ciao!

Adventures Ahead!

I leave tomorrow for my first trip out of the United States. To say I am excited is an understatement! At 56, I am Italy bound! I have been packing and cleaning, and cleaning and packing most of this week. Thankfully, Madi and I talked yesterday about voltage, converters, and plugs. I got a travel hairdryer and straightener just yesterday from Target that are dual voltage. Whew! That would not have been good if I had blown my dryer brush and straightener at first use in Rome. Grazie, Madi! 😘😘

My goal is to blog here once a day to share my adventures. I’d love to take you all with me on this trip and this is how I’ll be able to do that!

Ciao!

P.S. Note to self: add a map to blog header graphic 😊

Change

I don't know about you but a lot of change happened in 2015 in my life. Change, it really is the only constant. Friends come and go. Jobs come and go. Businesses come and go. Unfortunately, life comes and goes too. I am approaching that number in life where I check the newspaper obituaries daily. Life is taken from people every day whether it is by a natural occurrence or by someone's choice. There are people hurting everywhere. This past year two relatives passed away. They both had dealt with medical conditions for years and years. Their spouses cared for them with all they had. Now it is time for them to focus on themselves. Life is tough no matter who you are or where you are.

A couple of my major changes this year were my new job and my daughter moved to San Diego in August. Granted I didn't move across the country but her change caused change for me. Empty nest in 2015. It makes the house quiet. Madi steps hard. So I don't hear her stomp through the house when she gets home from work. I don't walk by her bedroom and bathroom and wonder what it looks like on the other side of the closed door. I don't text her about 5:00 to see if I should cook for three people or just two. I miss her. On the flip side I am so excited for her. She is living her dream. She graduated from college, worked a year and saved money, then moved to SD. She is maturing daily. Madi is a full-time adult. She is learning every day about life renting an apartment with a roommate. She is learning about bills, taking care of her car, buying groceries, cooking, budgeting, and health insurance. Boy that last one is a tough one with the affordable care act. So many questions, so many decisions. I oftentimes will think back to my early 20's and recall my change to full-time adulthood. 

My job change this year was huge. I was in higher education for over 13 years. I was good at my job and early on I became the go-to person for many faculty, staff, and administrators.  I really loved the work I did, working with students, helping them become their own navigators of their education and future. Back in 2011 I graduated with my masters degree in counseling. My daughter had graduated from ONU in May 2014 and I felt it was time to work more in that field and to fulfill requirements that lead to licensure. I gave a gracious timeline for my departure and left in the middle of July. Can I just say that was a major, major change. I am learning what it is like to work for a government agency (without a budget in place, too). Also, chronic mental illness is a tough field. Counseling people that are struggling more often than not is tough. Many are looking for a job, for purpose, for some type of motivation. Boy, is it tough. Boy, do I miss helping those college kids to navigate their education, career, and future. A different kind of struggle that's for a sure. 

Those are just a couple of my big changes. There is a plethora of smaller changes as well as some changes I am hoping to make in 2016. I am not one to make new year's resolutions.  I am more of a planner and goal setter type. Over the past year I have simplified how I live. I have donated 16 bags of stuff that were just taking up space.  I hope to continue to simplify and I am working on becoming debt-free in three years. I still want to move south someday and return to a work environment in education.

Keep on keepin' on!

Simply,

fall potpourri

This time I don't have a big, or small for that matter, project reveal.  I just have some random things to share. Since my friend tells me that I speak in "list form" many times, I will go with a numbered list here.

Things I have done since my last post:

1.  My mower has been broken for some time now.  Because of this, I have had a high school kid mow the grass several times, and I have borrowed my neighbor's mower several times.  We noticed gas was coming out near the fuel line.  The "gina-of-all-trades" part of me went to Farm and Fleet and bought a new fuel line and installed it.  Well, the standard hose in the package was too big, so back to Farm and Fleet I went.  I brought the old hose and clamps to see if I could get the right size.  They sold me a piece of yellow tubing.  I came back home and put that on and turned on the fuel line.  That is when I realized that the old fuel line was not the problem, it was leaking at the next spot when it went into the carburetor.  I felt this was beyond my knowledge and I would take it to Farm and Fleet for the diagnosis and the cost.  They had it for about three weeks and called me with the news.  Initially he said it would be about $350 because in addition to the carburetor, it needed a tune-up and the blade needed to be sharpened.  I promptly told him that I want to know what it will cost to fix what is broken and that is all.  They called me two days later and said $190.  I picked up the mower and the quote a few days later.  Then I was speaking with a friend that tends to fix his own stuff too and he came over to take a look at the problem.  He took off the carburetor and realized the pin/needle was broken and therefore the float was not doing its job in stopping the gas flow.  Next, I brought the carburetor to Bradley Mowers to get a price on the needle/float kit and a fuel line.  Eddie said it would be about $65.  Now THAT I can handle.  He was supposed to order it last week and I have yet to hear from him.  I am hopeful that the part will be in this week and my friend can come over and get it changed out. I do like my Lawn-Boy Mower.  I will be happy to finish the season with my own mower.

2.  Last weekend I rearranged my bedroom.  That was a big undertaking!  I don't know why, but my bedroom is the dustiest room in the house so that meant moving furniture and really cleaning, like wiping the walls off too!  There are two places my bed can be and the place it used to be just covered my register. Now it is out into the center of my room from the front window.  It is growing on me so I will keep it like this for a while.  I will have to do the plastic-over-the-window-to-keep-the-drafty-cold-winter-air-out thing. I was going to change my room around after I painted and got new carpet but I don't know when that will happen.  Maybe in the spring.

3.  My next big project will be to make a headboard for my bed.  I have been without one for many years.  I sold it with the dresser and nightstand so as to keep the set together.  I have no room for large furniture in my room.  Luckily I do have a large closet that takes the full wall so I am good with clothing storage.  I did see plain closet doors in the storage attic.  The ones on my closet are mirrored.  I am considering putting the plain ones up.  There are three so maybe I will keep the front one mirrored and change out the back two. We'll see.

4.  Also when I rearranged my room I moved my desk and re-ran all of my cords.  I used the bread bag closure to label the plug in ends.  Then if I need to unplug something I am not having to follow the cord to the right plug.

5.  I have a Reebok exercise ball as my desk chair.  I like it!  It is blue and it matches my walls.

6.  Tonight I went to remove the doggie door panel to clean and adjust the doors/windows.  I cleaned out the sunroom then took the screws out of the door to remove it and I realized that it is weatherstripped to the jamb side, then weatherstripped to the other side so the slider seals into that stripping.  So after that fail I got a cardboard roll from wrapping paper to vacuum the webs and spiders out from that overlapped space that door creates since it is not closed all the way.  I taped the cardboard roll to the ShopVac and flattened it enough to slide it in between to suck all that junk out.  I am not able to clean the glass in there but at least the bugs and webs are gone.

7.  Be sure to check out the new Google search.  Enter "Bacon number Gregory Peck" or any famous person (no quotes though) and Google will return the number of connections between Kevin Bacon and the famous person.  Fun times.

8.  I was home at lunch on Thursday and the water dish was empty so after I filled it, Denim promptly got a drink and Meshach patiently waited in line.  Notice Denim is drinking out of the water dish stand I converted from an IKEA chair.  (You can see that space were the door overlaps with the fixed panel in #6 above.)

They are in line...adorable!  The boys are so good.  Here is a cute picture of Fondue and Tucker too.

It is time for ice cream folks!  I hope you are enjoying this last weekend of summer even though the evening weather is very fall-like!  I wore a hoodie last night...it was awesome!

Oh, one more thing...My son and his wife called tonight.  They will be closing on their first house at the end of October. I am very excited for them!

Ciao!