Back!

The 12 hour flight from Florence via Frankfurt landed at 5:30 at LAX on Sunday. We got to my daughter's house a mere thirty minutes from LAX and crashed. It looks like it's going to take me awhile to get over the jet-lag, sore muscles from walking about 20 miles, blisters and other traveling maladies. Sounds awful doesn't it? That's the downside of traveling. The upside is that we had a marvelous time with adventures galore. Met a lot of great people along the way and once I download the 1500+ photos the memories will begin. Right now everything is a blur; seven days isn't nearly enough time to see what we did. Pisa, Cinque Terr, Portofino, Amalfi and Positano, Pompei, Rome, Orvieto, and a little of Florence.

These photos were taken in Orvieto in the Umbria area in route to Florence. This is one town we'd love to spend more time in. We arrived on Saturday around 11am and parked quite a distance from the center much to my dismay! Swollen feet with more blisters than I care to think about. The pain was worth the long walk! There were photo opportunities about every foot or so.

I'm never sure whether it's my lousy eye-sight or the hilly streets, but most of the photos seem to be crooked. It must be the slant of the ground at least that's my story. Besides, Italy is mostly built on hills and cliffs. What's with that? The entire country slants unevenly, so much so that I never felt balanced.

Little touches of whimsy everywhere.

We wandered into a restaurant around 1pm and when we came out the entire village had closed it's doors. When we arrived the streets were crowded with open shops, side-walk vendors, tourists, and locals sharing stories. We hadn't received the memo with the siesta schedule so it's a good thing we had purchased the souvenirs before lunch.

Quote: A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tzu