Firenze or Bust!

The chronicles of our trip to Firenze, Italia....

Friday, June 10
Well it's Friday and after some last minute errands and packing it was time to head out to the airport. I'll get this out of the way now...I hate flying! My anxiety levels were already rising earlier in the week in anticipation of the 6-7hr flight. To make matters worse, we were stuck for about an hour in Friday afternoon Philly traffic. We finally get to the airport and are waiting to board our plane. Security was very smooth compared to when I flew 3 years ago right after 9/11. Finally we are called to board our plane and while standing in line I'm practically run over by an ever so friendly Frenchman. Being the polite people that they are, he of course acknowledged running in to me and offered an apology. NOT! I however, let him know my displeasure!

We've now boarded the plane and are settling in only to find out we're going to be delayed an hour because of increased air traffic over NYC. Ugghhh, I'm thinking I'm never going to get off this plane. All week I was wondering what in the world I was going to do for 6-7hrs cooped up on a plane. We took our I-pod, & the usual reading material. Well I didn't have to worry. Air France had plenty for us to do. This is about the only thing I can compliment the French on. Each seat had it's own interactive TV. Each passenger could watch any movie they wanted of four or five offered at any time, watch the news, cartoons, play games or listen to music. They even had a camera mounted on the plane so you could see take off's, landings, and what you're flying over once in the air. Definitely a step up from domestic flying. Everyone slept on the plane except for me. I even took my anxiety meds the Dr gave me, but it just chilled me out..not enough to help me sleep :( They definitely kept us well fed too. Everytime you turned around they were offering drinks, snacks & meals. It is now Saturday morning and we land in Paris, France.

Saturday, June 11
We're herded off the plane like cattle onto two waiting buses. They drove us for what seemed like an eternity, around the entire terminal to the opposite side. This literally took about ten minutes. I must say the outside of their airport is very unkempt and dirty. We leave the bus and enter the terminal to be greeted by a lovely rotten garbage, sour milk stench. Ahhh, the fragrances of France! Just how every country should greet it's tourists. We're now on a layover waiting for our connecting flight to Florence. On a walk that seemed to last forever, and what seemed like it was totally at the opposite end of where the bus had dropped us off, we found our gate. As we approach, we notice that something is not right. There is a crowd of people with a portion of the airport roped off with French Military personnel guarding the area with guns drawn. Great, I've survived the flight and now that my two feet are firmly planted on the ground, I'm going to die!! We then find out that there was a piece of luggage sitting by itself and they were searching that portion of the terminal for a bomb. It just turned out to be some dumbasses luggage that they walked away from. Was it intentional...don't know, and as far as we know they never found the owner.

Our 1.5hr flight to Florence was uneventful. The mountains in Italy make ours here in Pa look like small hills. Very beautiful and some still snowcovered. We land in Florence and make our way to the baggage area. We wait, and wait, and wait. Thinking that our luggage is lost and other passengers getting increasingly irate, we're told that there are not enough staff on that day to unload all the planes. We wait about an hour for our luggage. Meanwhile during our wait, we're standing next to this man that is increasingly familiar. Remember the actor on Home Improvement, Al Borland and now the host of Family Feud? We didn't think it was him, but no one had the courage to go up to him and ask. Finally, he spoke to his wife in his unmistakable voice and we knew it was Richard Karn. To be continued.....

Ciao!

Well, we've returned from our trip to Italy. All I can say is that it is an amazing country and beautiful in many ways. As Dean has eluded to before, it is easy to see what is wrong with our country when you're in Europe living their lifestyle. And we were able to determine this after only 8 days rather than 2 years. If it was feasible, we would move there in a heartbeat. They value their history. If it's old, they fix it up and preserve it...they don't tear it down to put up the biggest and newest building on the block. They value their foods and cherish the history behind them. They take pride in the dishes they make. I saw one McDonalds the entire time there and it was empty. They value their daily lives...they take afternoon "siestas", and majority of stores close at 7pm. They hang out in the town squares on the weekends socializing with family & friends and walk the streets until 2-3am without fear of being shot, mugged or kidnapped.

Sadly, I'm not as proud to be an American as I used to be....
Melissa & I are unpacking and slowly reorganizing our lives. As I get some more time, I will chronicle our trip so that you can get a feel for our experiences and life in Italy. Have a great day and stay tuned for more Italy updates :)

ROAD TRIP!!!!

A few days & counting until our trip to Italy. We will be taking in the sights of Florence and Venice. Any advice/tips you may have for these cities is encouraged. Upon our return, I will update all on our jaunt across the pond.....
Firenze Weather

Foreshadowing 2005

I received this quote from a friend. Looks like Eisenhower could be the "Nostradamus" of his era!? Very appropriate when looking at the issues our government is currently addressing...

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954

(Footnote for those who believe that this quote is too perfect to be true: Eisenhower Presidential Papers, Document #1147; November 8, 1954. The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV, Part VI, Chapter 13: "A new phase of political experience.")

Some things to think about.......

" I believe that, for the rest of the world contemporary America is an almost symbolic concentration of all the good and the bad of our civilization - ranging from the fantastic development of science and technology generating more welfare and the profundity of civil liberty and strength of democratic institutions, to the blind cult of perpetual economic growth and never-ending consumption, no matter how detrimental to the environment, the dictates of materialism, consumerism and advertising, the voiding of human uniqueness and its replacement by the uniformity of the round-the-clock noise of TV banality.

Who thinks today about future generations? Who is concerned about what people will eat, drink, breathe in one hundred years, where they will get energy when there are twice as many people living on this planet as today? Only an idealist, a dreamer, a genuinely spiritual person who, they say, is not modern enough.

These dreamers, who are often at the margin of society, will find their way to the place they belong, among the politicians, only if the very spirit of politics changes towards deeper responsibility for the world. "

Václav Havel, 1997

I really enjoyed this quote that was posted on the Social Critic website. I think it sums up a lot of what we've been trying to say over on Dorman's Blog. Who is Václav Havel ?