Italy, 2024

 

Seven years ago, on our fiftieth wedding anniversary, we decided that for our fifty-fifth, we would invite our children and grandchildren to join us on Star Flyer for a celebration.

In 2023, we gathered in Venice only to have Covid strike two of the fourteen of us, cancelling the trip.

Daunted only briefly, we rescheduled for what seemed to be the only possible time that would work. However, it turned out that our son-in-law had a previous commitment to lead student travel, so he wouldn't be able to participate.

In January I realized that my deteriorating left knee would make it impossible for me to go. So I bit the bullet and got it replaced, completing the physical therapy, and being discharged by the surgeon on April 24. On May 7, the pain in my right heel struck and I've been in the orthopedic boot since the 15th of that month. The cane has been my companion.

I was persuaded to accompany my family on the grounds that limited participation was preferable to no participation, and that proved to be true. Nevertheless, my experience was extremely limited. I'm not able to post the usual detailed explanations and photographs of our travel. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed a week with twelve of my favorite thirteen people.

Before boarding Star Flyer in Rome, Joe and I spent two days in Barcelona where he explored the Gaudi and I sewed and read. The week on Star Flyer took us to ports along the Amalfi coast and the kids had a wealth of adventures. I read a lot and made tremendous progress on the Bessie quilt.

Returning to Rome after that week, Joe and some of the others went on a quick overnight to Istanbul to see Hagia Sophia and I stayed in a delightful hotel in Rome while they did that. Joe came back to Rome and we were set to fly home on Monday; however, our flight was canceled, affording us one more night in Rome. Tuesday provided a hair-raising experience in London as we changed planes at Heathrow, coming literally seconds from missing the flight.

We're glad to be home and we had some very good times (some of us more than others). The trip was too bittersweet for me to go into more detail. However, here is a nice picture of the shower at my Rome hotel.