Cheri and I are sitting in Newark airport waiting for the flight to Brussels and then on to Florence, Italy. We will be visiting Florence, Rome, Venice, Cinqueterra (5 villages), Stockholm, Sweden and then home. (all on free points BTW)

Our NH home sold and we have been packing like crazy for the past three weeks. Had a $4000 yard sale and still filled a 24' box truck, a 16' trailer and a 10' trailer!!!

When we return from this trip we will have one day to pack the remainder of living necessities and then close on the sale the next day. We then hop in the Barth and head to Sevierville, TN to view the property we have made an offer on, but don't know if the bank will accept (even at full price of listing)!! Of course, we have never seen the property, never been to Sevierville, but at least can say we've been to Tennessee.

Then off to Florida where we tackle the flooded house we own there and get my pregnant daughter into the house she bought yet has never seen.

Danny better have the Margaritas ready when we arrive at the Hillsborough gathering, we will be completely fragged by then!

Good luck and safe travels to you both!! Jane and I will be doing a similar trip next summer. Looking forward to hearing about it all.

Congrats on selling the MH house, I know that has been a struggle, flooded houses are no laughing matter either but like all other things in life, there are the +s as well. Wish I could join you all for that Margarita!!

Lenny and Judy heading to Gatlinburg this fall and we live about 140 mi from Sevierville. Jim and Tere are around the corner too. We can have a GTG going like that
If you do not like Sevierville come up to the Big South Fork Natl Rec. area, nice cabins, rugged terrain and plenty black bears. tons of horsetrails and hunting. Give us a call if you got time. enjoy la dolce vita!

Greetings from Rome. Cheri and I are waking up to a city view from high atop the Rome Cavaleri hotel. Even our Barths can't rival this place in amenities.

We have kept a sharp eye out for RVs here and there are more than anywhere else I've been in Europe. Naturally they are small, about the size of a VW Camper, but there are many varieties new and old. The campgrounds we have spied are just plain weird looking. A lot of concrete and parking spaces. Not very inviting. Perhaps Cracker Barrel will invade Europe as McDonalds has!

Italy has much bigger roads than France, England or Switzerland. You could easily drive a 34' or less Barth here and they drive on the "correct" side of the road, like us! I wouldn't attempt the inner cities, although buses do. I think there are bus paths that will accommodate, but the uninitiated would probably find trouble quickly.

I fell in love with a Mercedes Coach i saw transporting a group of sight seers. I chatted with the driver who spoke good English and he raved about it. I'm sure it's a big money chassis, but it sure looked nice.

We're off to Venice this afternoon. Probably won't see many Barths there

Well I'll be damned! I did see an RV in Venice after all! Not a Barth, but considering this is a city with no streets, still a very lucky sighting. You must look closely



Don't mind the camera date, I never set it!

quote:

Lenny and Judy heading to Gatlinburg this fall and we live about 140 mi from Sevierville. Jim and Tere are around the corner too. We can have a GTG going like that Smiler
If you do not like Sevierville come up to the Big South Fork Natl Rec. area, nice cabins, rugged terrain and plenty black bears. tons of horsetrails and hunting. Give us a call if you got time. enjoy la dolce vita!

We're not sure what days we'll be there, but plan to spend a day or two in the area looking at the property we made an offer on and others as a backup. I'll definitely give a shout if we have time or need some advice. Thanks!

Corey,

We rode in a couple of the MB coaches while we were in Italy, they are sweet.

Sherrie and I have been to Venice a couple of times, one of my favorite cities.

I wish I could think of the names of some of the great places we ate. We were with artist friends who go all the time and knew the best spots. I think one of the places in Vencie was Il Dona Onesto, or something like that. I can't remember the name of our favorite pizza place but I can tell you how to get there. If you're standing facing the door of the Accademia Museum, walk around the left side and go all the way to the water at the other end, go to the right and walk down to a place with a seating area extending out over the water on your left, the main part of the restaurant is on the right. A great little place with a super veiw.

For drinking a beer, we like to go to the Piazza Formosa and get a litre beer from the little place in the middle. You can sit outside, it's more of a locals piazza than the better known ones.

Caio,
Wm.

Thanks William, I'll be looking for both places. It sure helps to know the lay of the land food wise here, yesterday I paid $30 US for two beers due to my lack of local food knowledge.

When you order Pizza just remember pepperoni are green peppers, nobody knows pepperoni the sausage. I miss real woodfire baked pizza, it tastes so much better. We used to go camping in Italy, remember "ferragosto" (not sure about spelling), when everyones vacation started (mid August) and siesta (banks close at lunchtime and do not reopen until 4pm). The campgrounds usually were big open fields or wooded areas with no hookups or designated spaces, you just claimed your space. The Italians would set up "wagoncircles", all tables in the middle and around 10pm have a loud festive family dinner. The showers were coin operated.
Maybe the roads seem wider since the cars are smaller I remember folding the mirrors in to go down a one way street between houses (cobblestone streets too)

I quickly learned the pepperoni quandary. Spiced salami got me close, like a giant pepperoni. We did get one great wood fired pizza though, in Rome. The campgrounds we have seen from the road do not look very appealing. We Americans are spoiled with our pizza, our roads, our campgrounds, our fuel prices, and much more. On the other hand, the public transportation here pouts ours to shame.

We stuck to margerita pizza, it's a simple basil pie that's super good.

Rome had good pizza too, Sorrento is another great place for food. We had dinner on a deck over the water there with an incredible view of the bay of Naples at sunset the night before we made the Amalfi drive.

As for the roads.. when we got there the first time one of my professors warned us that Italians will drive on anything that doesn't have stairs.
We've been walking on plenty of streets where we had to step into a doorway to let a car go by.

Have Fun,
Wm.