February 5, 2012

2010 Travel Year in Review

Montefollonico Italy

It’s been a busy year of traveling, both in Europe and much closer to home.  It’s always fun for me to look back on where I’ve been over the year, so I can plan where I want to go the following year. Here are the highlights from 2010: January Starting the New Year with a [...]

An Italian Retrospective

It’s with mixed feelings that I’m back in Seattle after three and a half weeks in Italy.  It’s always good to come back home, of course, but there is a part of me that was left behind, waiting patiently until I come back to claim it. The pace was both busy and leisurely, with a [...]

Climbing Mt. Etna: MJ vs. the Volcano

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One of the things that I was excited to do in Sicily was climb Mt. Etna.  At approximately 10,922 feet high, this largest active volcano in Europe was visible from the back deck of our villa.  Every morning I’d take a look at how beautiful it was, it’s very top visible in the earlier morning [...]

It’s Sicily!

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It took the better part of 24 hours, but I’m finally settled into my villa in Sicily. The day started with a 3:30 am car service pick up, which started the day’s travel with a flight to Chicago, then connecting to an overnight flight to Rome.  The group met up at the Rome airport, thankfully [...]