"I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead"... Jimmy Buffett

If you've read any of our other blogs, you know that I write these for my grandchildren.  Both Sonja and I know that we are in the 4th quarter of our lives and long after we're gone, I want our grandchildren to know that we had a wonderful life and that they should too.  We want them to be adventurous, to explore, to take calculated risks and see as much as they can.  

Italy has always been on our back burner because we think that the secret to travel success is to not do what everyone else is doing.  And everyone else is going to Italy.  But when the Ryder Cup was set for Rome in 2023, we figured why not?  There's a reason everyone goes to Italy and as much as we dislike tourist crowds, this seemed to be the right time.  Then when my brother Joe let me know that the Solheim cup was the week before, in Spain...  well, dang, it's a no-brainer.  

So, we're headed to Italy with a few days in Spain and then back to Italy.  We'll be gone for three weeks.  Our expected itinerary is below. 

This will also be the first excursion since my first hip surgery.  After South Africa, I underwent surgery to repair two torn tendons in my hip.  After eight weeks on crutches and four months of physical therapy I should be able to handle the 10-15 kilometers of walking each day.  That's not guaranteed because when we get back, I'm scheduled for the same surgery on my other hip.  Like they say "go big or go home".  If I'm doing one hip, I might as well do two.

What We're Doing and Where We're Going

You know how much we love those long-assed flights and this trip is no exception.  10 hours to Amsterdam and then a couple more hours to Venice.  We're getting pretty good at managing long haul flights.  I'm real good at getting us seats with extra leg room (exit row or bulkhead), we bring things to eat and keep us entertained.  But thank God for melatonin.  My long haul best friend.

Venice

We're going to spend three days in Venice with only a few pre-planned stops/tours.  Most of our time will be spent simply getting lost in Venice.  Because of the huge crowds in the tourist areas, we're planning on getting up real early and seeing them before the rest of the tourists get moving.  We'll also go late.  We have dinner reservations on the Grand Canal and have also booked a Cicchetti Tour.  Similar to Spanish Tapas, Cicchetti is small bites of who knows what.

A short train ride later, we'll be in....

Florence

Florence is the birthplace of the Renaissance.  Famous for art, Da Vinci, Michelangelo and the most famous sculpture of all time, "The David."  We're going to do a few more tours here, hopefully eat some great food and also there's a surprise in store for Sonja. 

On our last day in Florence, we have to get up very early to catch a train to Pisa before boarding a flight to Malaga, Spain.

Solheim Cup

We have tickets for two days of the Solheim Cup, the ultimate tournament in women's golf.  The best of the USA versus the best of Europe.  It's going to be a ton of fun.  As an added bonus, we're in the Andalucía area of Spain which we fell in love with when we were there in 2020.  You can get some of the finest octopus you'll ever eat in your life in Andalucía.  (Notice I said "you'll" eat... I wouldn't touch it).

Rome

Oh, hell yes we're doing the touristy things in Rome.  We're going to the Colosseum, the Forum, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel...  and, oh yeah, we're going to two days at the Ryder Cup!

To all our golfing buddies, we hope you're tremendously jealous.  But the way we look at it, we've both worked 50 years to be able to do this and we're enjoying every minute of it.

I'll post updates to this blog every few days while we're traveling.  We hope you can share in our travels as we hope you share yours with us.

Take care...  Bill & Sonja