Blog
Adventure time
On every long voyage (and many smaller ones), there’s a moment when the best-laid plans go awry, itineraries get disrupted, Mother Nature wreaks havoc, and/or logistics get log-jammed. That’s when a trip becomes an “adventure”. You can’t predict when you’re going to...
The (many) ups and (few) downs of life on the road
As we enter week #6 — the final stretch — of our European journey, we have settled into a rhythm of almost perpetual motion. We have gotten good at packing up quickly and leaving each AirBnb clean as we move on to the next — 11 stops in total. My pre-trip planning has...
A History of Our Trip (so far) in Seven Swims
We are more than halfway through our trip so far — four-sevenths to be precise. Much of our focus, of course, has been exploring the cities and towns, streets and trails of Italy… and now France. But the promise of leaping into the water in September and October —...
Tuscan Time
Okay, even as I’ve nagged the rest of the family to post to our blog, I’ve been laggardly… Over a week since my last note and we’ve seen so much since Venice! I could blame it on slow wifi. (I won’t even try to post a photo, given the snail-like upload speed here.)...
On the road again…
We had a busy final few days in Bologna. I watched the last two days of the European/Africa qualifiers… which ended in disappointment for the Italian hosts, when their team dropped a one-run game to Spain (followed by a bench-clearing brawl) and then lost a final...
Game on!
Bologna is the “business” part of our trip — 5 days of baseball, for a potential article or book about the the internationalization of the sport. The World Baseball Softball Confederation have organized the Europe/Africa Olympic qualifiers, split between stadiums in...
The many pleasures of Florence
The joys of Florence! A busy few days — and very slow wifi — have kept us all from blogging. On Saturday morning, we left Rome and caught a 11:45am high-speed train to Florence, the landscapes of central Italy zipping past at us at 250 km/h, to arrive in the city’s...
Day 4: Vatican City
A trip to Vatican City Our last day in Rome started slowly as we slept in (sort of — not all of us slept) with plans (and tickets) to visit Vatican City, to see St. Peter’s Basilica, the Museums and especially the Sistine Chapel. First, we stretched our bared legs —...
Day 3: A day trip outside of Rome
Ostia Antica We got moving slowly on day 2 in Rome, only leaving the apartment after noon, after a restless sleep for just about everyone, nudging a little closer to re-aligning our sleep cycles. The plan: a day trip out of the city to the Romain ruins of Ostia Antica...
Day 2: A big day in Rome
Day 2 I’d booked us morning tickets to the Colosseum for our first full day in Rome. Walk off the jet lag! See one of the city’s most famous monuments! Our AIrBnB — a quiet first floor apartment in an 18th-century building in the heart of the city — was just 10...