Time for Thanks

Here it is November with Thanksgiving next week. It has become my favorite time of year. I have been back home for 4 weeks now. The trip with family to Sicilia, Italia and Switzerland now a fantastic memory.

Today, Angela & Les are in Paris celebrating their 4th anniversary. One of the advantages to being stationed overseas is the close proximity of opportunities for travel to our far away countries. Congratulations you two, love and live! Salute!

I traveled from Mt. Etna, Sicilia to Zurich Switzerland. Talk about a varied trip. I was blessed with almost a week with Angela and Les. After I was able to retrieve my luggage, Alitalia decided not to load the whole plane from Rome to Catania, go figure, must've been "reposa"! The first outing was up Mt. Etna, and since it had released some steam just weeks before, there was a fresh dusting of ash still piled off to the side of road.

Then off to Cefalu on the north coast, east of Palermo. The picture perfect Sicilian town. Warm, high 80's with 80% humidity! a tad bit warm, so after a walk around town, time to change into our bathing suits and just float in the water! Fantastic, warm, incredible, a must do on my list to check off. Clear, blue, peaceful......

Les was able to get some leave and we drove to the west side of the Island, stopping at Segesta to see this incredible greek temple. Then on to Trapani, a great dinner with salted local fish, yum and a walk around the section we were staying, the age of the buildings is so breathtaking, to think about the generations and thousand of years that they have been here.

Then the next day, the 3 of us went towards Marsala. We found the salt flats we had seen pictures of and they use Dutch windmills. We followed the coast line to Marsala and taste tested the local Marsala wines. How fun is that, I swam in the Tyrrhenian Sea and tasted Marsala in Marsala. Again the water was so beautiful and blue that the sky and the sea actually merged. Unfortunately the picture I took was on Angela's camera, I grabbed the wrong one!Off to Roma! to meet up with mom and the "sistas" and my nephew Eric. After Ang & I settled into our flat near the Vatican, we caught the metro in a thunderous downpour and went to the hotel to meet up with everyone. Lightning was fantastic, window rattling thunder and flashes of lightning. The following day, we met at Piazza Popolo. What a city!

That is Cyn, me and Chris, on the slippery lion.

Cyn, Chris, Erik, Mom and Ang on the deck of Castle San Angelo. What a view!

I got my remote working, this is the flat Ang & I shared, celebrating the sisters birthday Italiano style with wine, cheese, canoli, and laughter.

So, the story will continue, time to get back to cleaning the house, it is Friday and that is what I do. I will return to finish out this adventure, Ciao