Great report, Melissa Joy! Thanks so much for actually doing it. It is so much fun to see the planning process unfold on the board and then read the person's report. Sounds like you did indeed have the trip of a lifetime!
Melissa Joy, I enjoyed my coffee this Sunday morning while reading your trip report. I enjoyed it very much. I loved what you wrote in your journal about Siena. Seeing the fireworks over the Arno must have been magical. I was trying to picture that scene in my head while reading your description.
I am so happy that all of your planning worked out, sounds like a vacation your and your family will reminisce about for the rest of your lives!
jgk and Pokey, thanks for responding. Yes, I did have the trip of a lifetime to Italy with my family! What a great experience it was, and well-timed, to enjoy the trip as a family with our young adult children. I dont' know how many trips we will be able to take all together, but they have all agreed to come to Costa Rica for family vacation June 2005! (My son will be 23 in June, my daughters 18 and 19.)
Pokey, I do wish I'd had even more time to write in my journal! It's the best souveneir. I wondered if I should really put a journal entry in my trip report, but I have dreams of becoming a poet, and now that I'm almost 50 I'm gonna run out of time if I don't make it happen! Don't poets splatter their soul against the world?
Dreaming of a whole week in Tuscany with hubby someday, and a blank journal...
Posts: 327 | Location: Southern California | Registered: 29 March 2004
Melissa Joy, I enjoyed reading your trip report. It reminded me of my family's first trip to Italy 2 years ago with my 3 teens. Since then, we returned to Italy again last year with the 3 kids and now they're asking when we can go again!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: gloria,
Posts: 974 | Location: San Francisco bay area | Registered: 12 May 2003
Gloria, lucky you, 2 trips to Italy with your teens, with interest in a third! Sigh...I do hope I have the privilege of returning to bella Italia someday...What did they love the best, and what do they want to experience on the third trip?
Travelling over-seas with teens is an especially eye-opening event. I never really thought about it before taking them to Italy, but now I realize travel changes you, and I think it changes who your kids become...
BGE, nice quote, especially appropriate for Italy!
Posts: 327 | Location: Southern California | Registered: 29 March 2004
Slow Travel Talk 
this Sunday morning while reading your trip report. I enjoyed it very much. I loved what you wrote in your journal about Siena. 
