Monday, October 4, 2010






These last pictures are those we just took.
1) Stairs to the apartment
2) From our deck, clouds before a storm
3) The kitchen
4) The bathroom
5) Our car (a very ugly car, but Jim liked it)





Hi for the third time. As you may realize, the last note, the top 2 were the mountains and the bottom 3 Porta Venere.
These pictures are of Lerici. This is the little town, just down the road and we frequently just took the bus over.





Me again - The first 3 pictures are more of Porta Venera. The last 2 are of the Carrara Mountains. The white you see is not snow, but the white marble so famous for the Michelangelo sculptures





Hi everyone - from good ol' East Granby. I wanted to send you some last pictures. As I have said before, Blogspot will only allow 5 pictures at a time, so bear with me.
The first ones are of PortiVenere. I really enjoyed this town, it is very old Italian.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Hi everyone - this will be my last posting from Italy as we leave Tellaro tomorrow to go to Milan to come home. It has been a great vacation.
We have had a busy couple of days. On Wednesday we drove to Porto Venterro, a coast town across the Gulf of Poets (or if you prefer Gulfo de Poeti) from Tellaro. It is the most touristy town we have been in but very pretty. Then in the afternoon, we looked at each other, walked back to the car and drove to Carrara to see the Marble Museum. You may remember the Carrara Marble was the marble of choice for Michelangelo and the quarry has been open since that time. Then yesterday, we took a boat ride (Jim complete with plenty of ginger pills) up the coast along the Cinque Terre. It was very pretty and we had a good time.
Today we need to tie up loose ends, pack and get ready to leave. I am looking forward to my own bed.
I won't be able to get to the library to send pictures so will do so from home. We have some great ones (or I should say, Jim took some great ones) and I will send them later. (American full sized key board - looking forward to that.)
Love ya
Mag & Jim

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hi everyone - I think it is Tuesday, but not sure. The weather is a little rough ---no---a lot rough. It has been raining today. It has always been Camelot before - "Always rains after sundown" but today it is raining and windy. We took an interesting walk along the sea and watched the waves. We didn't get any good pictures 'cause the waves would't come when we had the camera ready. Just believe me, it is very impressive. We are going to cook in tonight. We have done so 5 or 6 times and that has been fun. Jim got some interesting looking pasta and we will experiment with that.
If you hear HGTV say that bathrooms and kitchens sell houses - not here. Here it is location, location, location. Our bathroom is about 3 ft by 4 ft and you can multitask while taking a shower by wathching the ships and the sea. The kitchen is only slightly larger and I certainly woudn't want to cook Thanksgiving dinner in that.
Love ya
Mag & Jim

Monday, September 27, 2010






Here is my 2nd 5 -- This is probably all I will have time for before my hour is up





Hi everyone - we are back at the Lerici library so I can send more pictures. Blogspot only allows 5 at a time, so bear with me

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Hi again on Saturday - I'm back in Tellaro on the Italian keyboard but thought I would catch you up on what we have been doing.
On Thursday we drove into LaSpezia to catch a train to the Cinque Terre. Now, Rick Steves says in his guidebook that this is an easy task -- It's not. For those of you that have not heard of the Cinque Terre, it is a national park with a walking path along the sea connecting 5 towns. It is supposedly dangerous in some spots, but we didn't go there. We finally got on the train and it was packed with a bazillion school kids out for the day along with another million or more old people (not to judge). We got there and got off for our "quiet walk" again according to Rick. It was hotter than ***** and packed with above kids. But once you let the kids get ahead of you, it was nice. Which is what we did. After a couple of hours of this we realized that what we had in Tellaro was as beautiful and decided to come home. So I sat with a glass of wine and a book and looked at my little section of the sea.
We realized that we could catch a bus almost at the foot of our stairs and go to Lerica, the next town over. Since it only costs a euro and the driver goes about twice a fast as Jim goes, it is quite fast and easy. That's where we finally were able to send pictures.
Let me tell you about Italian mosquitos --- they are the noisest bas..... critters you have ever heard. It is not bad enough they bite you and make you itch, they have to aggravate you first. But we showed who was smarter - we spray the apartment at dusk with bug spray. Of course, if we closed the door to the deck it would help but we can't do that.
We had a storm last night that, at least during the night sounded like the worst storm I have ever seen. I stayed awake and listened to it --- Jim slept through it.
We have had gelato every day and continue to meet some very interesting people, both Italian and tourists.
Love ya
Maggie & Jim















I ran out of space so I will try to do more















Hi from Larici - this is the next town over from Tellaro and we took the bus here this morning. I am in the library which is the only place with wifi. Here (I hope) are some pictures

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hi everyone
We have done some exciting things today such as grocery shop. Now, you who have a supermarket on every corner, may not think this so great. Our first challenge was to find a supermarket which we finally did. That was followed closely by trying to find the necessary supplies. Now, if you can't read the label it is a little difficult to know where to find the things you are looking for. But we succeeded on most items.
Time in Italy is very different from American time. We don't roll out of bed until 8 or 9o'clock (Jim usually gets up about 5:30 and me about 7) We, for obvious reasons, don't see a need to go the the gym or work out. (I know, Wendy, I should anyway)
The restaurants don't open until 7 or 8 at night so we find it necessary to have a mid-afternoon snack and then eat later (This from 2 people who are "early bird special professionals")
I'm not sure what day it is. We don't have a TV or newspapers. I suppose we could buy a paper, but we couldn't read it anyway, so why bother.
Basically, we read, explore, look at the sea and nap -- tough job but someone has to do it.
I'm still working on finding a computer that will allow me to do pictures.
Love to all -- Maggie & Jim

Monday, September 20, 2010

Hi all - it's Monday and I am sending this from the nearest email place. It, however, does not like my picture system so has locked me out.
It is a beautiful day, sparkling sea and sunshine. We set out by car this morning in an attempt to find a supermarket (for little things like baggies, matches, etc which they don't usually carry in the small markets in town) We got lost, but we got found again, so it is OK. Then we set out to find the walk we can see from our balcony which we found, only to learn that there is a bazillion stairs to get out. So we found it necessary to sit in the shade a have a dish of chocolate galato. (Now that is real suffering).
One thing you learn quickly is, if there are stairs down, there will eventually be stairs up and they have multiplied.
We just came out of our door and heard a couple speaking English so stopped to talk to them. They are from West Hartford. Small world.
Glad you are enjoying this, 'cause I'm having fun doing it
(Notice I've found the apostrophe)
Love ya
Maggie & Jim

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Hi All
First of all, I am typing on an Italian keyboard, which is different from mine, so no comments about typos.
We are in Tellaro (Learned it was as in "are" not "air") Got corrected on that. The apartment is everything we hoped it would be. The view is spectacular and the town lovely. Pictures will follow. We had a few hiccups getting out of Milan, in a rented car, with standard shift, on very busy streets. Another little hiccup getting into Tellaro and the very back roads but we are here.
For those of you that thought we would get fat on this trip there are stairs everywhere and if you arent doing stairs, you are doing hills. (Cant find the aprostrophe) But we are still eating well and enjoying ourselves.
More tomorrow and will try to send pictures at that time.
Love ya
Mag & Jim

Friday, September 17, 2010

It is Friday and we didn't do as much today. We went to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana Museum - the oldest museum in Milan, opened in 1618. The interesting part of that was we saw the originals of the great works of art only seen before in art appreciation books.
I haven't bought anything in Milan - looked at some shoes that had 1 inch soles and 4 inch heels for 450 Euro. Jim thought he would get a lot of laughs watching me try to walk in that. And, of course, who could forget the hand bag for 1950 Euro, which was pretty ugly.
We are off to Tollero tomorrow, so see you then












I have figured out how to post pictures, so here goes:
1) Spires on the top of the Duomo
2) You know who this is - taken at the top of the Duomo by people we met on the elevator
3 & 4) Galleria Immanualla - the fanciest shopping mall I have ever seen. There is a McDonalds across from Prada where you can buy a purse for 1950 Euro
5) The Duomo - I hear they cleaned it just for us
Good morning from Milan. It is Friday at 10 am (about 6 am your time - at least CT time)
Our trip was uneventful - just the way I like it and we were able to check right into our hotel room.
Yesterday we walked off all of the food we ate. We were introduced to the Metro and went to the Duomo area. We went to the top and I had hoped we could do and it was beautiful (It cost 6 Euro to walk up and 8 Euro to take the lift - guess what I did) There were still 70 stairs after we got up so still got my exercise. In the afternoon we took the tour of Milan which was very interesting but the highlight was Divinci's Last Supper. We met someone yesterday morning who said they were disappointed in it. I wasn't! I thought it was beautiful, considering it was finished in 1498.
I have to work on th picture thing. I'll try to do better next time
Tomorrow we pick up the car and drive to Tollero.
Bye for now --- Maggie

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Good morning everyone
Well, it's finally Tuesday, Sept 14th (I know you all know that) But this is the day we leave. Good ol' Delta sent me the boarding passes via e-mail this morning. Our friend, Steve, is going to drive us the JFK. Seems like the whole vacation is starting.
Write to you next from Milan
Maggie
PS - I got some comments about the last address I left was not complete. Sorry! You do realize I don't have a clue what I'm doing, don't you.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Hi everyone
I wanted to share a slide show about Tollero. I watch it every once in a while to keep up my excitement
http://wwwworldisround.com/articles/89203/photo29.html
We leave a week from today (9/14) from JFK in New York and land in Milan.
Love ya
Maggie

Thursday, September 2, 2010

In 2 weeks this will be out first day in Milan. We have plans on that day to take a tour of Milan with will include DiVinci's Last Supper. It will also include the Duomo and I understand we should go to the top of the dome for a wonderful view of Milan, so we plan to do that.
Many of you have heard about the apartment we have rented, but I will try to send you the address so you can see it (thanks to Bryan)
http://europeanhomerentals.com/italy/liguria/property_clio_ill413.cfm
I hope that works for you, but since it changed colors, it very well might.
I will try to keep writing and hope you enjoy it.
Maggie

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Getting ready to go

We are quickly approaching our trip. To the best of our ability, we have arranged for everything. For those of you who haven't heard (I must not have talked to you recently) we have rented an apartment in Tollero, Italy for 2 weeks. We will first fly into Milan and spend 3 days there including a tour when we will see The Last Supper.
Now that I have learned to do this, I'll try to keep this uMaggie