As an informal and sometimes formal travel advisor, I am forever reminding–my wife calls it bullying people–to double check everything, including passports, visas (if necessary), ticket times and dates.
have been traveling and taking small groups to Europe for 25 years, and, mistake by painful mistake, I have learned a few practical lessons on how and what to pack, how to plan itineraries and pick hotels, how to choose restaurants and have an enjoyable experience, how to allocate your time.
As we drove south out of Rockford, the blowing snow and freezing rain threatened to accompany us like bad news all the way to Texas. The snow stopped just beyond Bloomington-SubNormal, Illinois, and we made it to Rolla, Missouri without incident.
Florence, over the weekend, seemed unchanged. The hordes of ill-dressed people are still shoving each other to get into see the Baptistery, cafes and restaurants are overcrowded, and prices even higher than in previous years. After our required visit to San Marco to see the Fra Angelico frescoes and breathe the spirit of Savonarola, we make our way to Fonticine, which a half dozen websites assure us is open. They lied, but who expects anything but lies from online sources (except this one, of course). Walking back by way of the Mercato Centrale, my wife spots a restaurant she remembers....
The initial auspices for an endurable trip turned out to be justified. Most people were unmasked at O’Hare and on the plane, we left Chicago and arrived in Rome on time, and, although we arrived early at the Azeglio on Via Cavour, two blocks from Stazione Termini, the hotel had one of our rooms ready so we could stash the bags, take a walk, and eat a lunch that, while it was not offensive, was nothing to write home—or this website—about. Rome has changed in two years but the signs are not dramatic. A significant minority wear masks on the...
The trip begins on an auspicious note. Yesterday a Trump-appointed Federal judge in Florida struck down the Biden administration’s imprudent and unlawful extension of the mask mandate in airports, airplanes, etc.
I know it wasn’t that long ago that we were told it was going to be two weeks to flatten the curve, and perhaps the more pessimistic thought it would be two months, but I can’t imagine anyone speculating it would be two years before travel resumed as it was before March 2020. But here we are….
I arrived back in Paris the day before lockdown in March of this year. I had cut short a business/ski trip in Bulgaria under advice from friends, though by Monday night, as I arrived back into Paris with all the shops in the airport already closed, it looked like wisdom.
