Best Laid Plans!

It has been fun. I put a weather app on my phone and added the weather of Rome and Fiuggi along with my location (Pasadena, MD). Every now and then I check on it. For a while the weather in Rome was always 5 degrees cooler and Fiuggi 10 degrees cooler (it is in the mountains) than here.

Today I checked it out. It is 41 degrees here 62 in Rome and 52 in Fiuggi. It looks like the forecast for this weekend is in the 60's here, in the 70's in Rome and in the 60's in Fiuggi.

 I thought I had this all figured out so I would know exactly what to pack.

It's the "best laid plans of mice and men" as they would say.

Suitcase is packed!

It's 10 days away and my suitcase is packed....I've been watching the weather in Rome and Fiuggi. Rome has typically been 5 degrees cooler than here and Fiuggi has been 10 degrees cooler.

The challenge is packing light because I am a clothes horse when it comes to packing. Well you know I might decide I don't want to wear that particular outfit or it might get cold or warm or whatever. I always have an excuse and end up with 2 outfits per day. But I have restricted myself to 1 outfit per day that's it. So if it's cold or hot well I guess I'll have to deal with it.

I remember the last time I was in Italy that everyone was dressed up. Even if they had jeans on, everything else on them was dressy so I'm leaving home blue jeans and tennis shoes. I hope I don't regret leaving those tennis shoes home since Fiuggi is on a mountaintop!

Googled what not to wear in Italy. I had no idea that Purple was insulting and bad luck. I had to go remove an item out of the suitcase.

I was thinking today that I'm so glad I didn't buy purple luggage. Recently my husband and I bought new luggage and I said to him we should purchase something other than black because every time we fly and try to find our luggage it blends in with everyone elses. So this time I bought a dark teal luggage but we almost bought purple....I would have been tossed out of the Rome airport! LOL

Say Hi to Marco

So my genealogist who lives in Sora, Italy has arranged for the town's only taxi driver to pick us up in Rome and take us to Fiuggi and then then back a few days later. Ann sent me a photo of Marco so I will recognize him when he picks us up.  Marco doesn't speak much English...this should be interesting. I downloaded a translator app on my phone so I can talk into it and it can translate and speak back Italian.  I'm hoping we'll end up where we want to be! LOL

 I wonder if I should send her a photo of us?

Resurrecting the Travel Blog

Mom and Dad

So I haven't had a major trip/adventure since 2008. Right after my trip to Italy and cruise my father had a brain bleed. After that, I was terrified to go too far from home. Well a lot has happened since that time. My Mother passed away in December 2012...three days after Christmas. We buried her right after New Years 2013. Then Dad passed away June 2013.


 I find myself having the time to travel again. I have really missed travelling. Glenn and I had been going on cruises every other year until Dad's health issues. This year we will also be going on our first cruise in 6 years!

Me and Jackie at the Vatican in 2008

 But before that cruise in June, Jackie (My daughter), her husband Jay and I are travelling to Rome again.  Today marks 1 month before we leave.

This time it's on our own to the canonization of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII. We are
also going to take a couple of days to visit Fiuggi where my grandparents were born & married. I'm so excited about that.

The last Rome trip  we went on a Pilgrimmage with "The God Squad" and members of my church and 2 other churches in the Archidiocese. We had a free day and we wanted to Fiuggi but Father Brian insisted we stay with the group. In retrospect it was probably a good thing because in the meantime I hired a genealogist who was able to tell me the streets my grandparents were born on and the church they were baptized and married in. So it will be more meaningful for me.

The God Squad, Frs. Stephen, DeAscanis and Fr. Brian

I'm so excited but a little nervous too. The last time we were with a tour group and everything was so easy. This time we are on our own with millions of people there for the canonization....yikes. I picked a crazy time to go but I so loved Pope John Paul II that I can't imagine not going if I have the means to do it. Well anyway, watch this space as we get closer to April 25th .

In the meantime, if you'd like to look at our photos from the last trip visit:  http://public.fotki.com/HeyLucy1/travel/2008/italy-08/

Goin to Alabama with a banjo on my knee....

...well not really but I AM going to Alabama to Huntsville actually to visit a friend of mine. We've been friends since High School. She's been all over the world (she was in the Army) and now lives in Alabama. I miss that she's not here.

I'm so glad that I have an opportunity to go visit with her. Her dog is dying and I think that God is sending me there at this time to help her through it. She's been there for years and it's just now that I am going....another one of those God-incidences of life.

It's so cold here I sure hope it's warmer there. So off I go into the wild blue yonder! :)

Red Hat Hula

Dressed in our purple (or under 50 - Lavendar) and flowers in our hair, our red hat club, the Brush Babes & Buds held their first Annual Hula. One of our club member's daughter has been doing hula for 20 years. She came to teach us to hula to 2 songs.




As we were in the middle of the hula, between songs, we heard the sounds of bag pipes. Turns out it was for a wedding across the street at the church. It was a little strange to be doing the hula to Hawaiian music and Bag Pipes!


It was a lot of fun. I'm very left handed so I usually end up starting on the left side rather than the right which means I end up running into everyone...it added a great bit of humor to the dance. Another one of those Lucy Episodes I live in.

Anyway, it was such a hit, that we decided to do it every year.

Weird Dreams

Here's one for you.

I'm in a house. My husband is sleeping in the recycliner watching tv (like real life). And I'm laying in a hammock trying to do some leg raises because I want to look like someone who walked by who looked beautiful.

So a personal trainer pops up and is helping me with the leg raises. Do you know how hard it is to do leg raises in a hammock with another person in it with you...I do now!

Anyway, my friend Denise walks in and sits at the kitchen bar (I don't have one at my house..not sure where it came from) with her friend. And she's really really tan. I'm giving her a hard time about getting too much sun and she'll get skin cancer. So Denise & her Denise's friend start trying on clothes. The TV turns into a mirror. The clothes they have on are horrible. Don't match.....florals with hats with polka dots.

The friend of Denise has a really strong perfume on and it makes me and Charmaine start coughing (we both have breathing issues in real life) and I say to Denise we have to leave someone's perfume is making us choke ...................and then the phone rings. Thank God it wasn't real.