Clary's Travel Digression

Here's the 15 day forecast for Milano - http://www.accuweather.com/adcbin/public/intlocal_index.asp?metric=0

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Well there was snow on the hills last night, and we've just come up from Rome to Florence on the stopping train - appreciably chillier than Rome. I have a terrible cold so everything is filtered and not fully appreciated...

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Oh no... terrible cold? I'm beginning to wonder if anyone is feeling well this season.

Has anyone ever spent time being so sick you were absolutely flat on your back while traveling? It is such a crappy feeling... as though the whole world is having fun all around you while you are lying in bed with the curtains closed not even wanting to see the view. Horrible.

Hope you're feeling better already, Clary. I've been wondering about your take on the tsunami disaster... having been in the general area and knowing the lay of the land. Certainly any thoughts I've ever had of vacationing there are sadly clouded by (what must surely be silly) fears of a repeat.

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I get internally enraged if I get sick on a trip, since I take so few trips and savor the ones I do so entirely.

John got the flu and then a residual toothache on our first trip to Italy. It annoyed me, surely a stupid reaction, and I tried hard to cover it. Luckily that trip was a month (first vacation over four days in more than a decade) and he got better.

If I have a trip coming up, I avoid people with colds like the plague... (what a kind hearted soul I am.)

Trouble is, I think one can get sick from the recirculating air in planes, or maybe the stress of long flights, someone sneezing right at you in the subway, and so on. Grrrrr.

This is all trivial of course, relative to the quake & tsunami -
much of our everyday worries are suddenly smaller.

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I'll be interested in your time in Rome with a Cold, as opposed to Room with a View, Clary.

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Clary, I share your "pettiness." There are few things as terrible as sickness on a long-awaited and expensive vacation (one of them was my coming down with chicken pox DURING my first wedding (an elaborate one in a catholic church with flowers everywhere and a small orchestra in Mexico City, 1956). The honeymoom was a bust. I was madder than my wife. Hmmm, I should ask her about that.

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Well, JLN -- I imagine it was easier on her because she wouldn't have been itchy with the pox.

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Piffka, I only remember the fever--and a bit of neurotic guilt.

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I am laughing, now, all these years later, but with sympathy.

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Plenty of liquid and rest. Fresh orange juice does it for me. Take care.

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JLNobody wrote:

Clary, I share your "pettiness." There are few things as terrible as sickness on a long-awaited and expensive vacation (one of them was my coming down with chicken pox DURING my first wedding (an elaborate one in a catholic church with flowers everywhere and a small orchestra in Mexico City, 1956). The honeymoom was a bust. I was madder than my wife. Hmmm, I should ask her about that.

I guess having a mere cold in Italy pales into insignificance with that one!! Feeling a bit better, and appreciating the sun which is bright in Florence, the cathedral and surrounding buildings lit by glorious light, the muddy Arno visible from this very computer (no webcam so sorry, can't share it) - glorious hot chocolate and latte macchiato and such like drinks making me feel better, il figlio very attentive and not annoyed with me, also happy to go exploring by himself, and ascending the campanile (which even if well I would not like to do!
Charming small 2* hotel, but prices are high these days, 70 Euros a night for a double of mean proportions and skimpy breakfast - only last year it seems that Italy was cheap!
Tomorrow we take a specatacular train ride to Sierre, French Switzerland, where my boy was at hotel college, and where we are landing on one of his friends for a couple of nights in the ski resort of Montana. Snowy New year!
Hoping everyone is well and keeps healthy in the coming year - health really is the sine qua non of wellbeing!!! Very Happy

Ciao tutti!

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Clary wrote:

Well there was snow on the hills last night, and we've just come up from Rome to Florence on the stopping train - appreciably chillier than Rome. I have a terrible cold so everything is filtered and not fully appreciated...

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, Clare. Sad

How disappointing for you.

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Ah but as La Rochefoucauld said, there is always something in the misfortunes of others that secretly pleases us! Your little devil of envy gave me the evils!!!

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But I can be envious & still be on your side, Clare! Razz

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Only joking, Olga!

And as for the tsunamis, they could happen anywhere at anytime, and now is the time to book your holiday in Sri Lanka or Thailand so that you can help them rebuild their tourist economies. Thailand suffered hugely because of SARS and Phuket was nearly empty when I went last year - now people have been chased off again, and it is so sad, the people are good, hardworking and honest in the main, and they provide great service in their various hotels and resorts. We condemn terrorists who kill thousands, but are the Christians and other religious people condemning this 'act of God'? Another reason for not believing in an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving being. And look at the humanity that has rushed in to help; man is so superior to the god he created.

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Oh, I know! Very Happy

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I know that too, Clary.

Good to hear things are better.

We in turn had a pelting rain through the night...

on the good side, I am not at all sick (yet, heh).

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Clary wrote:

Only joking, Olga!

And as for the tsunamis, they could happen anywhere at anytime, and now is the time to book your holiday in Sri Lanka or Thailand so that you can help them rebuild their tourist economies. Thailand suffered hugely because of SARS and Phuket was nearly empty when I went last year - now people have been chased off again, and it is so sad, the people are good, hardworking and honest in the main, and they provide great service in their various hotels and resorts. We condemn terrorists who kill thousands, but are the Christians and other religious people condemning this 'act of God'? Another reason for not believing in an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving being. And look at the humanity that has rushed in to help; man is so superior to the god he created.

Good idea to book a trip there... don't know how it would be done, though. Which hotels are left standing? It must seem so strange there... I imagine some poor soul looking out towards the ocean -- it is once again calm and beautiful, the sun is shining and warm... everything so inviting. Yet if that same poor soul turns around and faces the death & devastation behind him, it must seem like hell.

The disaster reminds me of the labors of Hercules. However can mere mortals clear out the mess?

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No doubt, disasters promote a broader perspective.

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I remember devastation in Bangladesh years ago.... on top of the original incidents and the devastation from them, then comes pestilence, famine, and more layers of the impossible.

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Clary's Travel Digression

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