PICS: Train Station in Livorno, the port city for our Tuscany trip.Me in front of My Dad's Drafting School in Lucca, Italy (Tuscan Region)
Old Church in Lucca.....Notice the gold Virgin Mary on the church
Lucca's Best Billboard (Horse Included...hehe)
My Cousins from the Tuscan Region waving at me while I boarded the Carnival Liberty.
October 22, 2006
745AM
Good Morning!! I’ve been up for just over an hour now....started getting woken up around 6am because they were already disembarking passengers who had early morning flights! Couldn’t help but hear the pages for different "groups", etc.
So, bit the bullet, which will serve me well tomorrow when I think I need to be at the airport by 6am, so leaving Roma around 530am if I recall? I made arrangements before the trip almost two weeks ago, twelve days ago.
Well, I survived!!! It was a really enjoyable trip....glad I could take you with me.....sometimes I had nightmares, sometimes I was happy to be alone, sometimes not. Overall, got lots of special memories, met a few new friends, and just really "got away", which was the important part. They have wake~up call service on the ship, in the staterooms, and I just cracked myself up. Used it a few times, but I was already up and showering when the phone would ring, so never had or got the chance to answer it. Well, just got my wake~up call a few minutes ago, and I cracked myself up. I answered "Hello" and it was saying, "This is your wake~up call."....FUNNY PART IS: Haven’t answered a phone in soooo long, that I forgot what it was like!!!!
I left a generous tip for my Room Attendants!! They were simply awesome!
Yesterday spent the day with a few of my precious cousins from the Tuscan Region in Italy. OMG, it was the best day I had from my trip. What a way to end it, too.
Got to see where Papa went to Drafting School in a city called Lucca...which incidentally is also where Puccini, composer of operas: Madame Butterfly, Turandot and La Boheme, was born. It was a small town, and large, all in one. The part I visited were the walled parts. I trammed into town in Livorno....bussed to the Train Station, Trained to Pisa, then another train to Lucca and then my cousins picked me up in Lucca ~ at the front of the train station.
I could barely stop fidgeting while on the last train, I was so excited. Besides for spending the time with my cousins, it was a very emotional day....just seeing the history of where Papa went to Drafting School ~ the same building and all, after how many years??? Well, at least 40!
So, you can imagine....and it being in another country than where I was born and where we both live now...I wished he could have been there to share it with me....and seen the look on his face......Priceless. He did hook me up with my cousins, by giving me their numbers, which was perfect....didn’t know if I was ready to do something that would reveal my family history to me....I know that probably sounds strange, but I do need to gauge what I allow in.....to continually give me the sense of control that I need....since losing my Mother in such a tragic way...funny, how many things and reasons for why I am the way I am in life, can point to just that one incident. I miss her! And Bella, too....
I told my cousins, Gloria and Alberto, that Bella was gone and they had seen her last July, so after talking about it for a while.....I think they realized how special she was to me.....and of course, were sympathetic and at the same time didn’t know what to say, which was totally fine.
I’m surprised that they haven’t gotten me off the ship yet, it’s almost 8am....I’m sure my number Blue 33 is coming soon. I’m going to sweep the room one last time, to be sure that I’m not leaving anything.
Guess what? It’s a sunny day in Civitavecchia, which means Roma will also be Sunny for my last day (in the sun)...hehe
