italy

Rome

May 13th, 2007 by alephnaught

Rome

Its Mothers Day in Rome; more importantly, its Aviva’s birthday (her second birthday celebrated overseas I might add). Aviva almost slept through the alarm clock. We’re waiting a bit to have breakfast because, well, things just don’t run on time in Italy generally. So we went down and ate – one of the proprietors came […]

Rome

May 12th, 2007 by alephnaught

Rome

Aviva woke up early, really early (like 4AM), so I woke up early too. We got organized, which is always a nice thing. I realized I forgot the special cable for my new camera (I knew I’d do that), and I couldn’t get the zip USB cable to work with Aviva’s camera (funny, it powers […]

Departure for Rome

May 11th, 2007 by alephnaught

Departure for Rome

We bought the tickets and used miles for upgrades back when I had Platinum status with Northwest Airlines. Unfortunately, we had to fly through Detroit and Paris to reach Rome, but at least we have business class seats except for the jog between Paris and Rome. Our flight from Chicago left on time, we got […]

Flying to Milan

October 6th, 2005 by alephnaught

Flying to Milan

We ate breakfast and lunch at the hotel, with a little more shopping in the middle – I accidently broke Aviva’s sunglasses and so we went out looking for another pair. The hotel is very nice – I’d recommend it easily. We took a cab to the airport – its a long long way from […]

Monreale

October 5th, 2005 by alephnaught

Monreale

Today we got going slowly, did a small amount of shopping near the hotel, including finally getting Aviva a European current heating pad, and then took a cab up to Monreale. We arrived outside the Duomo in the main square in Monreale; Monreale is a small town on a hill about 8 kilometres outside of […]

Palermo

October 4th, 2005 by alephnaught

Palermo

Today we walked to a sporting goods shop to see if I could get a Palermo football jersey – they didn’t have XXL. The, it was over to the Liberte area to shop a little, then caught the City Sightseeing bus to ride around Palermo for an hour or so. We got off near the […]

Palermo – gruesome and amazing

October 3rd, 2005 by alephnaught

Palermo – gruesome and amazing

We rented a cab for the morning. We started out at the Catacombe dei Cappuccini, which has the mummified remains of over 800 Palermitans, including children; the last is a two year old girl in 1912. This was really eerie; the remains, sometimes with some flesh attached, are clothed and standing up or laying down, […]

Palermo

October 2nd, 2005 by alephnaught

Palermo

We woke at 7A and ate breakfast and showered and planned our day. We had planned to take a bus tour to Erice, Trapani and Segesta, but we’re just tired of sitting in buses and cars so we canceled. Instead, we took a cab over to the Palazzo Abbezia in the Kalsa, or old Arabic, […]

Arrival in Palermo

October 1st, 2005 by alephnaught

Arrival in Palermo

We got up and ate breakfast and then walked around outside the hotel a little. I wish Aviva had taken a dip in the pool – the view from the pool is incredible. We originally planned to take a train, but someone I respect at work as well as one of the tour guides on […]

Ragusa and Noto

September 30th, 2005 by alephnaught

Ragusa and Noto

We got up really early, 5:30, again so we could do an organized tour. This time it was just Aviva and I with a driver, a guide, and a Mercedes. We drove over 2 hours to Ragusa, stopping first at a little placed called Castello di Donnafugata. This wasn’t really a castle, but instead a […]