Italy posts being added.....

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I am adding Italy posts, back-dated to appear on the day the events occurred, rather than the date on which the post was actually posted............

I will be putting links at the bottom of each post to the next one (chronologically speaking), which will mean a lot of "update" notices for those of you who receive those.  I thank you for your patience.......

posted 5/21:

http://ineedorange.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-11-on-our-way-to-lari.html
http://ineedorange.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-11-our-visit-to-martelli-in-lari.html
http://ineedorange.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-11-still-enjoying-lari.html


posted 5/20:

http://ineedorange.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-11-breakfast-at-castello-della.html


posted 5/19:

http://ineedorange.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-10-rest-of-day.html



I decided this didn't have to be a huge long post, with the date on which I posted every single post.

I'll leave the links put up on the most recent few days I posted anything, and will leave the link to the first post. 

posted 4/20:

http://ineedorange.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-27-on-our-way-to-italy.html


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computer animation does weight!

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In the original Shrek, they got flame just right.  They got filmy fabric, blowing in the wind, just right.  Weight of a walking critter?  Not so much.

They've got that weight thing down, now.......





Check out this one,too! Wow.





Seen at CuteOverload.

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the beginning of portable readables......

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Another interesting article from SmithsoninanMag.com.

Here's a quote from the article linked below:

Seventy-five years ago, another American innovator had the same epiphany: Robert Fair de Graff realized he could change the way people read by making books radically smaller. Back then, it was surprisingly hard for ordinary Americans to get good novels and nonfiction. The country only had about 500 bookstores, all clustered in the biggest 12 cities, and hardcovers cost $2.50 (about $40 in today’s currency).

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-Revolutionary-Effect-of-the-Paperback-Book-204113211.html#ixzz2TB2WyhBB

I already knew that it was recent, in the history of writing, for ordinary people to own dozens or hundreds of books, but I hadn't realized it was as recent as "within 75 years"!

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Happy Mother's Day!

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Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

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in only one week

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I am astonished every time I see this (April 30)

Change to this (May 6) in one (1) week.

Mama Nature is one incredible old gal.

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Lego in SmithsonianMag

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There's a Lego Chair at MIT.  Of course there is.

Read more about how Lego is encouraging the development of engineers, in SmithsonianMag.

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May 2

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Today is a gorgeous day.  Sunny, blue, not too hot....

This weeping cherry, around the block and across the street, is in full bloom.

I am happy to report that Wilbur is reassuringly pokey today.  After spending nearly 48 hours being too perky, and too "up," and unable to settle, he's almost back to his normal self.

There have been times that he hasn't been able to settle, today, and times when he fussed (over what, I'm not sure). 

I did find coffee beans when I picked up after him, this morning and this afternoon, but markedly fewer than yesterday.  This is one time when we are really glad to be on the down side (of way too much up!).



My species tulips, in the myrtle.

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coffee beans are bad for your dog

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Just in case there was any doubt in your mind, coffee beans are bad for dogs.

We managed to let ours eat an unknown quantity of coffee beans yesterday.  Unfortunately, I had no idea that he'd eaten anything like the number he ate, until this morning.....   Had I known yesterday morning, we could have induced vomiting and spared all of us an ordeal.

As it was, he and I were up all night, as he was very restless.  We had two zero-dark-30 walks, and another at 8:something am, which is when I got back more than one or two beans and discovered the extent of the problem.

We went to the vet, who says he'll almost certainly be ok, but we were lucky.  He was clearly symptomatic all night, and still symptomatic this morning.  If he'd eaten more beans than it seems he ate, this could have killed him.  Do not let this happen to you.......



You can do a lot of reading, when you're up all night.  I'm close to finishing my second book since 12:30 this morning.............

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April 24

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Good grief.  Yesterday it was 70 (F), today:

It won't stick; it's in the high 30s (F) out, but still.

Sheesh.

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Tylenol side effects -- now this is really weird

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When I read the headline, I was thinking "Oh great -- something more, in addition to liver damage??"

An interesting article from Smithsonian on a side effect of Tylenol......

I take Excedrin for headaches.  Excedrin is aspirin, acetaminophen (that's what Tylenol is), and caffeine).  I often feel noticeably better after I take it.  I mean happier -- lighter mood -- not just "no more pain in my head."

I've always thought I felt better because I didn't have a headache any more, but now I'm wondering.......................

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April 18

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I finally got the formatting to stick (hooray for good old html and no clever program "helping" me format.....), and then realized that I hadn't made the wikipedia reference into a link, so here I am, doing that.....

My apologies to those of you who get notices about new or edited posts.  I can't seem to get the formatting to stick, on this post, and it's driving me nuts.  I'll try one more time.... and then I'll throw up my hands in despair and quit editing so you don't get any more notices about this one..........

I actually had to make two trips to Health Service on the 18th.  Good thing it's only a mile and a half from home!  When I called to talk to a nurse about the ear, she said it sounded to her like I should have it looked at, and suggested I get there as soon as possible (before the students ate up all the appointment time).  So I did that.

I don't usually rush out of the house, immediately after returning home from overseas, so I tried to think of what I might need....  I made sure I hadn't taken my driver's license out of my billfold, retrieved my house keys from my winter coat pocket, and even managed to remember that I wouldn't be able to pay for parking at Health Service with euros so I had better grab some dollars!

Here's my view, waiting for my turn to see a doc.

The doc apologized for keeping me waiting.  I assured her that the ability to basically walk in and see someone, anytime you need to, is such a great privilege that I would never complain about having to wait a bit!

She asked me a bunch of questions, and then looked in my ears.  She was surprised to discover I have an ear infection.  She said that she used to think that adults didn't get ear infections, because their mature physiology meant that things (Eustachian tubes, specifically, I think) were big enough to stay open and not get infected.  But now she knows adults DO get ear infections, and I'm one of them.....

She put me on azithromycin.  I took the first pill yesterday at 1:00 pm, and am clearly better now.  Yay.

(Digression -- I cautious about antibiotics.  I think we humans are all too eager to kill off microflora, without considering that a lot of those little critters are friendlies, who are helping us fight off the bad guys.  We use soap, not detergent with antibiotics, when we wash our hands, and we hardly ever use chlorine -- bleach, or scouring powder, and so on.  But when your ear is totally messed up............ 

I am eating yogurt, in the hope of replenishing the friendlies in my gut..........End of Digression.)

The 18th was crazy hot, compared to Michigan's recent weather -- high 70s, muggy, only partly cloudy.  But a major rain storm was predicted for the afternoon.

When I got home from HS, I had some toast, took my first azithromycin, and walked the dog.

He was pretty trotty (as opposed to draggy), which surprised me, given the warmth.  It's always good to see him feeling perky.

There's COLOR here!  Yay!!!

It wasn't too long after we got home that the storm began, with heavy rain and some thunder.  For all the rain we had in Italy, we never saw it rain this hard......

Then at 4:00, I went back to HS, to see the eye doc.  She said I was right to come in, dilated my eyes to have a good look, sent me for a field-of-vision test, and then said everything was fine, but I should come back in about a month for a re-check.  I was correct in my assessment of the situation -- it's exactly what happened in my right eye about two years ago:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterior_vitreous_detachment  It's usually no big deal, but it's important to get it checked because of the possibility for retinal detachment.

I am SO lucky to have access to Health Service.  It's set up for students, but staff and faculty (and retirees!) can also use it if they like.  Being able to go in and see a doc (even a specialist) on short notice (like same day!) is totally excellent.

I'd rather have been able to spend the day napping, but when you need to get seen, it's so nice to be able to do that.  My ear is clearly better now.  SO grateful to have been able to get that process underway, rather than having to wait!

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April 18 -- home again, home again

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My ears were pretty clogged when I got to Amsterdam/Schiphol (you'll recall that I have a cold....).  I'd actually visited the farmacia at the airport in Milan.  I haven't spent a lot of time in that sort of store (visited what I think is more or less the same thing in France, once).  From the window displays, I think they are about health, but are more ... alternative (homeopathy, for example) than we expect a pharmacy to be, in the USA.

I told the woman I took to be the boss at the farmacia that I had a cold, and I was looking for something to keep my ears open on an airplane.  Given what my impressions are about what farmacias do, I was hoping for maybe some capsaisin (the hot in hot peppers), which I find helps open my sinuses.....  She informed me the problem was not my ears but my sinuses, and that there was nothing she could do for me.

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy........

(and sigh and alas...........)

My ears did, in fact, clog up when we were landing in Amsterdam, even though I'd been drinking and drinking (water).

I spent some time trying to find something to get my ears open before I had to get on another plane to go home.  Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris is packed with stores like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc.  So is Schiphol, but it also has more food, and more of the kind of stores you'd find in a big airport here in the USA -- bookstores, souvenir stores, travelers' needs.

I went in a travelers' needs store, and was directed to a perfume store.  Ok.......  The perfume store told me they didn't have what I needed, but if I went farther (in the direction I needed to go, anyway), I would see a big perfume store on the left, and, across from it, a smaller perfume store, which would have what I needed.  She even told me the name of what she thought I should have, pointing to her pin on her shirt (which may have named her profession?), and telling me that she wasn't authorized to sell that sort of thing.

(THANK GOODNESS so many people speak English!  We are very lucky to speak the language spoken and understood by so many people everywhere!  !!!!!!!!!)

I found the big perfume store, and found the small perfume store, and bought something that I think is a lot like Afrin -- nasal spray that is supposed to open up the sinuses.  I had to use it right there and then in the store, so they could seal it in a special bag for me to take through security.

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy........ 

I'd not left security, so was puzzled, and would have preferred to go in a bathroom, but they showed me to a big mirror and read me the directions (which were in Dutch, of course), so I used it, watched it get sealed in the bag, paid for it, thanked them profusely, and walked on to my gate.  I was kind of hoping for a miracle, from using the stuff, and thought maybe my nose was runnier, but I couldn't tell a difference to my ears.

(Digression 1:  When you're a stranger in a strange land, a lot of the time you just do what they tell you, and just wonder "why?" in a casual way, rather than trying to find out....................
End of Digression 1.)

(Digression 2:  the outside of the little box the nasal spray came in is all Braille!  At least, I assume that's what all the raised dots are.  Isn't that an excellent idea?????
End of Digression 2.)

Well, the mystery about getting through security was revealed -- we had to go through security again before we could get on the airplane.  At least -- *I* had to go through *again* -- I guess I don't know if everyone else there had already been through, once, before that......  I didn't see security at every gate, though, so I'm guessing that they are more picky about international travelers.  Or travelers to the US.  Or something.

I was surprised when they started boarding us so early (about an hour before the flight), but it turned out they weren't really boarding us.  They were putting us through security and holding us in an enclosed area.  Ok.  Whatever.

I'd been drinking like a fish, in hopes of doing all I could to keep my ears open.  I'd filled my water bottle and drunk it, once, and had filled it again just before I got to the gate.  So I drank it (20 oz bottle!).  And went through security.  And then visited the secure bathroom in our secure area and filled it again!

In Milan the security was metal detectors for people; in Shiphol it was those hold-your-hands in the air xrays.  And I still got patted down pretty thoroughly.  I suspect that's why the second security; they don't necessarily trust everyone else's security.....

Anyway.

Got on the plane, which was blessedly uncrowded.  The plane had pairs of seats on the sides, and four or five seats in the middle, depending on where you were in the plane.  In the very back, where the body of the plane tapered toward the tail, there were four.  No one sat next to me (which was very good, as all that drinking led to a lot of trips to the bathroom).  No one sat next to the person in front of me (who had moved across the aisle from a full group of four seats), and no one sat next to the person behind me.  The guy behind me sat on the aisle, which was nice -- when the woman in front of me put her seat back (putting my little tv to close to my face for comfort), I could put my seat back without being in the space of the man behind me (which I hate to do).

I think the guys the woman in front of me moved away from may have been part of a rock band.  There were five guys who were clearly together.  Two of them had very long hair; another was heavily tattooed (.  One of the long-hairs moved into the aisle seat vacated by the woman, and spent most of the flight playing with his ipad (or similar device).  He looked at pictures of what looked like a rock band, with guys of similar sizes and shapes to the guys on the plane (we'll see if my pics of his device turn out).  He read articles that looked like they might be about rock bands.  He used an art app to wipe out the photographic face of one of the guys and drew a cartoony face on it.  He combined the video camera's image of himself with some app that distorted the image.  He laughed a lot...........

I listened to some TED talks, I checked out the movies (and watched a Cirque de Soleil movie), I tried to play a game but couldn't figure out how to manipulate anything.  I read a bit on the ipod/phone, but wasn't in the mood for what I had on there, and ended up reading the one paperback novel I'd taken with me. 

Of course I looked out the window.  I love (love, love) that I coud see where we are on my little tv.  I took advantage of the empty seat next to me, and put its tv on the "flight map channel," so I could glance at it even when I was listening to TED or watching Cirque de Soleil.  Shortly after we left, we crossed over land just before the cloud cover got too thick to see anything, and I could tell it must be the northeastern coast of England, from the map.  For a long time, over the ocean, it was only partly cloudy.  I was hoping for a glimpse of Greenland, as we came pretty close to its southern tip, but never saw it (lots of clouds at that time....).  A LOT of this sort of flight was over Canada.  I was surprised that so much of it was frozen.  Lots and lots of snowy land down there (and enough that wasn't snowy that I'm sure it was land!).

They fed us a couple of times (the spicy Thai curry was the best thing I've had on a Delta flight in a long time). 

I drank and drank and drank.  Every time the flight attendants asked what we wanted to drink, I got more water.

My ears opened up in the middle of the flight.

The nice Dutch women who sold me the nasal spray had assured me I could open the special bag and use the stuff again on the plane, and had told me I could use the stuff every 4 to 6 hours.  I was fine at four hours, so used it at just short of six, when I thought maybe I was feeling more stuffy again.

Eventually we came down into Detroit. I could tell at 35 or 40 minutes out that landing would be an issue for my ears, and I spent the last 25 or so minutes rubbing my ears, hoping to keep anything from exploding.  It never really got to be painful, but very very very clogged.

Sitting in the back of the plane was convenient to a bathroom, but it meant that A LOT of people were ahead of me in the customs line.  I was glad I'd used the bathroom on the plane not too long before we started to land.

It was interesting to go through customs with impaired hearing.  I could hear them, but it was as though there was a (double-glazed!) window between us, or something.

I opened each conversation with "I have a cold; my ears are clogged; if it seems like I can't hear you, that would be because maybe I can't!"  I told the first guy that I had almonds, purchased in the USA, which I had carried around with me and brought back.  He said it wasn't a problem where ever their origin was; they were ok to bring in.

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.......  They say "no seeds" on the customs declaration form.............

Whatever.

I also told him about the nasal spray and the special bag and all that.  He said that "they always seal stuff in that special bag" and that as long as it wasn't prescription and I only bought one it was ok.  He didn't look at anything, just decided I was on the up and up, I guess.

I collected my checked bag, and had to talk to another customs agent.  She asked me how long I'd been in Italy, and sent me on through.

I called my better half, and we discovered that he'd JUST driven past "International Arrivals."   He swung back around, we loaded up, and headed home.  He'd brought the dog (as opposed to abandoning him at home).  Willard was glad to see me, and thought he'd like to get out of the crate.  Um.  Not at the airport.  I told him we'd go home, and then he could get out.

And so we did.

My left ear (which was worse yesterday) is still clogged.  In a bit, I'll go downstairs and make myself some hot water, with lemon extract and crushed hot pepper.....

I managed to sleep until 5:00 this morning -- which would be 11:00, Italian time.  Not bad; and I believe I was asleep before 11:00, last night.  Maybe before 10:00.

Two days ago I got a new enormous floater, in my left eye, to match the one I got in my right eye a couple of years ago.  Sigh.  I will go see they eye doc today, to make sure all is ok in my eye, and may have someone look at my ear, too, if it's still clogged.  It doesn't hurt (though it thinks about hurting, when I bend over), but if I am near some docs, I will get someone to have a glance.

So that is that.

I did a bunch of triaging of pics while I was in Italy, but no post-processing.  I'll begin with that soon; probably today.  Then I'll begin to flood the blog with back-dated posts (so they appear on the day they happened, rather than the day I make them), full of pics and talk.

Good morning!

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April 17

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Here I am in Amsterdam. Good old Schipol (sp?) -- one hour of free wifi.....

My plane for Detroit leaves in about an hour and ten minutes.

Time to go filll my water bottle again!!!

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New-dangled technology

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My newest self-improvement project is to do things that are new and/or scary more often.

April 16, 2013, is being excellent for that.

I put up my first blog post from the iPod, I read my first blog post (of someone's else's) on the iPod, and I checked in for my first flight tomorrow from the iPod. (Can't check in for the second flight for a few minutes yet....)

Not to mention figuring out how to use the Milan subway, and actually using it!

Yay.

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PS

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1) I definitely have a cold. My throat is kinda sore, and I am blowing my nose more than usual. I had what I think was the worst sneezy fit of my life at the fancy shopping place. I wonder if I encountered something I am seriously allergic to -- I just kept sneezing and sneezing. You would have been proud of me, dear.

2) "skald" is ipodish for "salad"

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April 16

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Note to self -- never, EVER, ***EVER*** print maps with most of the street names not showing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ever.

Period.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was a Very Bad navigation day.

We got up this morning and ate the entirely forgetable breakfast included in the cost of the hotel.

Then we walked to the train station so my daughter could catch transportation to the airport where she was to meet the people she will spend the next week with.

It seemed weird for her to get on a bus and me to walk away.........

I went into the train station and got a map. I followed along quite nicely until I got distracted by a park, and then things went south. Have I mentioned that it was totally overcast????

Without my buddy, the sun, to help me, I got totally turned around, and with a LOT of street names on the map too small to read I walked in circles for a lot longer than I wished!!!!!

Eventually I found the Duomo.

Whew.

I bought a sandwich and a coffee, used their bathroom, sat for a bit, and then did some exploring.

I went into the Duomo. It is by far the biggest church I've seen on this trip. The outside is heavily embellished with carved marble. If is dark inside, but there is a lot of stained glass.

On the other side of the piazza is some very ritzy shopping. I mean like a Mercedes dealership.

I took a lot of pics of the fancy old building housing all the glitz and glamour, bought two postcards, and called that enough excitement for one day.

My tourist-info map has a subway map on the back, and I could see a straight shot from the Duomo to my hotel. I figure I could figure that out, and it was a piece of cake until I got off at my stop and could not figure out exactly where I was.

Between the way the map I printed at home (to show how to get to the hotel ) NOT showing all the ways to come out of the subway , and it missing an awful lot of street names, I was walking in circles YET AGAIN......

I kept seeing things I recognized, but could not reconcile them with what I could see on the map.

Sigh and argh.

I finally asked someone, who told me "keep going; second left," and, hallelujah, there was the hotel.

All that wandering was not in vain -- I found a big grocery and got yogurt, skald, and bread for supper.

Then I spent an hour typing this post with one finger, so you all could know I was ok.

I have decided to take a taxi to the airport tomorrow. I have all the gifts we were given by the people we visited, and they are heavy.

Luckily I fly out of the close airport -- my daughter had to go to the other one, which is much farther from the hotel!

Time for a yogurt and a break.

Buona sera!

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April 15

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This morning was our last morning in Florence.  My sore throat was sorer, when I woke up, alas.  Our train to Milan was at 1:00 pm (the European habit of using a 24 hour clock is so much more sensible than pm and am!  Just like meters are much more sensible than yards.....).  Anyway -- our train left at 1:00, or 13.00, so we didn't have to bounce out of bed at the crack of dawn.  Or struggle out -- which would have been more likely!

We got up, had yogurt, took showers, checked email.  My daughter wrote a bunch of postcards (I mailed my last ones from Florence last night on our way to dinner).

It's looking like I'll check a bag to come home -- something I basically never do.  We have acquired some jam and some honey, and I bet I'm not supposed to carry those on the plane.....  I decided that if I was checking my bag, I'd be happier if I had a strap to go around it, so all the stress wasn't on the zipper....  And I wanted some more cash, in case I decided to take a cab to the airport, say, rather than wrestling with all the stuff and figuring out how/where to catch the bus....  It's a short ride, as I understand it, so if I can leave right from the hotel, I may just do that.   

We managed to get all of our desired errands run, including finding some breakfast -- I had a pannacotta (sp?) with some kind of preserves and a strawberry on top, and a caffe latte.  At least, I think that's what it was.  It was a glass of hot milk, with a tiny cup of coffee poured in, and a dash of cream.  I was informed yesterday that if I was going to stir the foamed milk into my capucchino, as I had been doing, that there was no point in getting a capucchino at all, since the whole point of a capucchino is how hard they work to keep the foamed milk on top (and maybe make designs j nit).  Oh. 

So I had a latte this morning.  I think.

My daughter had a capucchino and a croisant-like pastry with cream filling.

My throat was less sore after all that than it was when I got up, but it's still sore now.  Yesterday evening it was sore on the right side, and today it's been sore on the left side.  Maybe tomorrow it won't hurt at all.............  Cross your fingers for me?

After breakfast we found an ATM, and RIGHT next to it was a luggage store.  They had straps, and they were having a sale -- if you bought something, the next thing was half off.  So I bought a cute luggage tag.  My idea of a fun souvenir.......  (As always, pics later.....)

We got some mozzarella/tomato/arugula sandwiches to eat on the train, and took one last walk through the market.

We went back to the apt, and made sure we had everything all packed up (and any dishes we'd used washed and put away).  The guy was supposed to show at 12:30.  When he was 5 min late -- we were about to call him and say "Hey, we have a 1:00 train to catch!" when he showed up. 

He looked around and pronounced everything looked ok.  He asked us if we'd had any problems.  The long skinny lighter thing for lighting the stove was out of fuel, I think, which wasn't an issue after good ol' ZaZa (restaurant) gave us some matches.  Otherwise, no issues.

(Digression -- of our three apartments, one had a self-igniting stove.  From IKEA.  Both of the other stoves had to be lit by hand.  I wonder what the percentage is, in Italy, of gas stoves that need to be lit by hand......
End of Digression.)

We hustled off to the station and caught our train.  We weren't able to sit together, but we survived somehow, and both got off at Milano Centrale (which was the last stop for that train).  It was the fast train.  There were little tv screens over the aisle, telling where we were, how fast we were going, how easy it would be to rent a car at our destination, etc.  I took a pic of the screen showing that we were going 292 kilometers per hour.......

I was, alas, on the sunny side of the train, and was seriously dehydrated and hot when we got here.  We walked to the hotel, which was farther than I wished, and I filled and drank my 20 oz water bottle right down.  It has taken me a couple of hours to feel more normal, after feeling quite fragile and not wanting to do anything except sit and drink more water when we got here.....

Since my daughter joins her buyer's tour tomorrow, she wanted to grab her one opportunity tonight to go downtown and see Milan's cathedral and main square.  It's about a 40-minute walk, and I was afraid that if I went I would just be a drag on her ability to do it.

So she went and I stayed here in the room. 

She found a restaurant in her book that looked promising, and is only a 10-minute walk from here.  The plan is that she'll be back by 8:00 (or 20.00), and we'll go eat.  At this point, I am feeling like eating is a possibility.  The restaurant in question has risotto -- comfort food for sure......

Before I forget -- I am leaving the netbook on which I have been blogging with my daughter (who will be in Italy for more than two more weeks).  So I'll have no way to blog tomorrow.  Supposedly I can use the ipod/phone for that, but I don't know how and am not sure I'll feel like arguing with it.

So don't be surprised not to hear from me until Thursday.  I leave here on Wednesday, and get home on Wednesday, but can't imagine I'll have the oomph to do any blogging until Thursday.

Buona sera!

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April 14

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The 14th was our "take it easy" day.  No getting up early, no rushing around to see things.  We went inside the baptistry.  The Duomo is so fancy outside -- and surprisingly plain inside.  The baptistry is much plainer outside, and the dome is very heavily decorated.  Mosaic, with much gold -- similar to St. Mark's in Venice.

Then we did a bit of shopping.  A pair of socks, some pillowcases, a couple of dish towels.....

Lunch was very yummy pannini at a highly recommended place called 'ino.

We walked across the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), which is lined with gold shops, but has nice views from the middle, if you squash your way through the tourists to get there to see them.... 

We walked around a bit on the other side of the river.  Walked by the Pitti Palace.  Accidentally found the Champs Elysees of Florence, with all of the super-ritzy stores -- Tiffany, Prado, Pucci, Gucci, Burberry, Chanel, whatever.  You can spend $1500 euro on a belt.  Good grief.

We went back to our apt for a rest and rehydration, and then met one of my daughter's swimming friends and his wife for dinner.  It was supposed to be a wonderful place.  We thought it was ok, but not terrific.

It was late by the time we got back to the apt.

I'm afraid I'm getting a cold.  My throat was sore last night, and is worse this morning.

Today we shift to Milan, and Wednesday I fly home........

Buon giorno!


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