With our bags packed we were ready go to Florence on Tuesday, 2/24 for a 23 hour door to door trip. We will be in Florence for 12 weeks. Yes, we are very blessed and no, we are not watching what is happening in the stock market. We are staying at the Palazzo Antellesi, where we stayed last year, with La Contessa, but in a different apartment. The Mimi apartment is on the top floor with a terrace overlooking the Piazza Santa Croce but we will only be in this apartment for the first 6 weeks then move to another apartment because Mimi was already booked for April. The living room and dinning room have French doors that go out onto the terrace. The bedrooms and kitchen have views of the Tuscan hills to the south of town. The apartment is flooded with light. Although the apartment is a 2 bedroom, the second bed is about 6 inches wider than a twin. It really is only suitable for one person, or a very young skinny couple. So, be fore warned that if you want to visit us you should wait till April, unless you come alone.
We had a bit of melodrama prior to departure. About 3 weeks before leaving I learned that the bump on the side of my nose was basal squamous cancer. Well, that sucks. It was a real rush to have surgery in time for the trip. First, I had to wait a week for insurance authorization. Now, you’d think that for the outrageous sum of my health insurance premiums that my doctor’s suspicion that it was cancer would be enough! After authorization came the biopsy. Then we had to wait for the biopsy report, then we had to schedule the Mohs surgery done by the Dermatologist followed immediately by reconstruction of the right side of my nose by a Plastic surgeon. My plastic surgeon and his wife love to travel to Italy and he rushed everything through so that I had the surgeries 6 days before departure. The day before departure he checked my sutures and pronounced me ready to go. I am having the stitches removed here in Florence. You will hear all about it. Traveling with nasal packing, a yellow/red eye and bandage from the bridge of my nose to my cheek is a true delight. I told Arnie that everyone will think I was the victim of domestic violence. Actually, I look like my nose was malled by a Pit Bull, and I feel like the dog won the fight. But, the melodrama is over and we are in Florence to enjoy ourselves.
The flight was uneventful, other than the length. We flew from San Diego to New York to Brussels to Florence. La Contessa invited us to her apartment for drinks on our first night. We were joined by 2 other American couples; one couple we met last year who live in Santa Fe, the Gossens, and a couple from Conneticuit. Then we went to dinner with the Gossens and crashed at about 9:30. One big down side of nasa packing is that I can’t really taste much. My poached chicken stuffed with juilliened vegetables on a bed of artichoke puree looked pretty. Arnie loved his pasta carbonara. One sure sign that I am "off my game" is that I haven't yet taken my camera out of the apartment. You know that will change soon.
The weather in Florence is a brisk 54 during the day and a very cold 34 at night. We brought plenty of warm clothes and, hey, we are in Florence, so I don’t care if it is a bit nippy.
New toys
I bought 2 new toys in anticipation of the trip; a MacBook computer and a flip camcorder. I’m adjusting to both. I bought the computer the day before the medical melodrama and the Mac people transferred all of my files from my other computer. I managed to fit in 3 free workshops that taught me the BARE basics: turn on here; turn off here; here is where we put your stuff. The flip camcorder arrived about the same time as the computer and is just adorable. It is the size of a cell phone and the USB port flips out of the side and attaches to the computer to down load the movies. The Mac has a movie editing program that easily uploads movies to YouTube. Now I not only have a blog, I have a YouTube account! I might even figure out what FaceBook is all about one day.
I still have a lot to learn about film making. For one, I learned that slow is better than fast. The first movie I took caused extreme dizziness while watching. You will be subjected to my learning curve, if you so choose.
In addition to learning how to use my new toys I will be taking another language program. My goal is to be able to read the headlines of a newspaper without a 15 minute mental translation in my head for each headline. Maybe this year I can get that mental translation down to 7 1/2 minutes?
Mazza family of Calabria circa early 1970's
Another goal of this trip is to meet my very distant cousin who we learned lives in Florence. You may recall that last year we went “off-line” when we left Florence for Calabria, Sicily and Paris. I continued to type the blog entries and vowed to upload them when we got home, but life took over. Anyway, I found my father’s first cousin (tall guy in the middle, above) and the Mazza extended family in Calabria. Dad’s second cousin has a daughter who lives in Florence. Once I am presentable I will be getting in touch with her.
We are planning day or brief overnight adventures that will be weather dependent. Our list includes Venice, Turin, Parma, Cinque-Terra, Urbino, Panzano (the home of the crazy butcher) and where ever our fancy takes us. Croatia is on our wish list but it looks like that deserves longer than a few days so it may wait till next time. Paying for an apartment in Florence and a hotel room in Croatia doesn’t seem like a good option this year.
The rest of the time we will enjoy living in Florence. Life just doesn’t get much better.
Link to Mimi apartment pictures http://flickr.com/gp/susanarnietravel/1k147j
We had a bit of melodrama prior to departure. About 3 weeks before leaving I learned that the bump on the side of my nose was basal squamous cancer. Well, that sucks. It was a real rush to have surgery in time for the trip. First, I had to wait a week for insurance authorization. Now, you’d think that for the outrageous sum of my health insurance premiums that my doctor’s suspicion that it was cancer would be enough! After authorization came the biopsy. Then we had to wait for the biopsy report, then we had to schedule the Mohs surgery done by the Dermatologist followed immediately by reconstruction of the right side of my nose by a Plastic surgeon. My plastic surgeon and his wife love to travel to Italy and he rushed everything through so that I had the surgeries 6 days before departure. The day before departure he checked my sutures and pronounced me ready to go. I am having the stitches removed here in Florence. You will hear all about it. Traveling with nasal packing, a yellow/red eye and bandage from the bridge of my nose to my cheek is a true delight. I told Arnie that everyone will think I was the victim of domestic violence. Actually, I look like my nose was malled by a Pit Bull, and I feel like the dog won the fight. But, the melodrama is over and we are in Florence to enjoy ourselves.
The flight was uneventful, other than the length. We flew from San Diego to New York to Brussels to Florence. La Contessa invited us to her apartment for drinks on our first night. We were joined by 2 other American couples; one couple we met last year who live in Santa Fe, the Gossens, and a couple from Conneticuit. Then we went to dinner with the Gossens and crashed at about 9:30. One big down side of nasa packing is that I can’t really taste much. My poached chicken stuffed with juilliened vegetables on a bed of artichoke puree looked pretty. Arnie loved his pasta carbonara. One sure sign that I am "off my game" is that I haven't yet taken my camera out of the apartment. You know that will change soon.
The weather in Florence is a brisk 54 during the day and a very cold 34 at night. We brought plenty of warm clothes and, hey, we are in Florence, so I don’t care if it is a bit nippy.
New toys I bought 2 new toys in anticipation of the trip; a MacBook computer and a flip camcorder. I’m adjusting to both. I bought the computer the day before the medical melodrama and the Mac people transferred all of my files from my other computer. I managed to fit in 3 free workshops that taught me the BARE basics: turn on here; turn off here; here is where we put your stuff. The flip camcorder arrived about the same time as the computer and is just adorable. It is the size of a cell phone and the USB port flips out of the side and attaches to the computer to down load the movies. The Mac has a movie editing program that easily uploads movies to YouTube. Now I not only have a blog, I have a YouTube account! I might even figure out what FaceBook is all about one day.
I still have a lot to learn about film making. For one, I learned that slow is better than fast. The first movie I took caused extreme dizziness while watching. You will be subjected to my learning curve, if you so choose.
In addition to learning how to use my new toys I will be taking another language program. My goal is to be able to read the headlines of a newspaper without a 15 minute mental translation in my head for each headline. Maybe this year I can get that mental translation down to 7 1/2 minutes?
Mazza family of Calabria circa early 1970'sAnother goal of this trip is to meet my very distant cousin who we learned lives in Florence. You may recall that last year we went “off-line” when we left Florence for Calabria, Sicily and Paris. I continued to type the blog entries and vowed to upload them when we got home, but life took over. Anyway, I found my father’s first cousin (tall guy in the middle, above) and the Mazza extended family in Calabria. Dad’s second cousin has a daughter who lives in Florence. Once I am presentable I will be getting in touch with her.
We are planning day or brief overnight adventures that will be weather dependent. Our list includes Venice, Turin, Parma, Cinque-Terra, Urbino, Panzano (the home of the crazy butcher) and where ever our fancy takes us. Croatia is on our wish list but it looks like that deserves longer than a few days so it may wait till next time. Paying for an apartment in Florence and a hotel room in Croatia doesn’t seem like a good option this year.
The rest of the time we will enjoy living in Florence. Life just doesn’t get much better.
Link to Mimi apartment pictures http://flickr.com/gp/susanarnietravel/1k147j
