Ah but before we get to the land of ruins and romance we still have to get to the airport on time. And before that somebody had to put in a significant amount of time planning and planning and planning every detail of this adventure in Italia.
The hardest part was coordinating the flights so we could fly out together but return at different times. In the early 1990’s I wrote down about 25 goals I hoped to achieve and one of them was to spend 3-6 months in Italy. Well as you know life takes over and here it another year in another decade so…okay it won’t be 3 months – I’ll spend one month in Italy and really try to learn some more Italian. And that’s why we are flying home at different times LOL – it’s my dream, not Peter’s.
My sister-in-law Juanita was kind enough to agree to stay in our apartment and feed out cats and move our car for alternate side parking. Luckily for us it coordinated with some NYC doctor appointments she had. So far she has reported that the luck of the Irish has been with her because the 2 times she went down to move the car, the street cleaner didn’t show up in the designated half hour you must be in your car and prepared to move it. Luck of the Irish??? She’s Spanish and Italian!!! 
Then there was the housing arrangements n Guardia San Framondi where we decided to return. It’s a small village in the mountains of Campania.
View of Guardia Sanframondi. You can clearly see the old town and parts of the new town built around it.
Last year we came as tourists, this year we live here. Also a car rental, train tickets to and from Florence ( YES we spent 3 nights in Firenze), two hotel rooms for two nights in Rome because return flights to NYC are early morning and Guardia 3 hours away! Cell phone plans, cancel newspapers in NYC and NJ, hold the mail, cover myself for real estate ( more about that later), sign permission slips for key entry to our apt for Juanita and then Jade, who is coming in for 4 days to take care of the cats and visit her mom and also our cat sitter wo will look after the fur babies for 2 days until Peter returns. Exchange currency, WHEW!
I did all this planning throughout February and early March AND THEN on March 8th, I broke my right foot 😫!
A Nor’easter was raging outside so I stayed inside and was cleaning. Vacuumed the den, left the vacuum cleaner in the doorway, picked up the brass waste basket and walked barefoot out of the room – tripped on the cord, dropped the metal can and must have have landed on my own foot and broke (not fractured) the fifth metatarsal. At this point I didn’t
really believe it was broken but I can now say I brought my boot to the boot. Does the cliche, “…the best laid plans…” come to mind?
But the next day after a hobble to City MD and brutally revealing X-Ray and a visit to an orthopedist , I added this to my pack list; 
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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