Venice

I just realized that I'm running out of adjectives to describe each of these amazing places! Venice is, quite honestly, the most unique stop we made on our trip! It is built on 118 islets within a lagoon. It actually began as a small fishing village in the 5th century, AD. Throughout the centuries Venice became prosperous and became a target for pirates. This led to the building of castles and the creation of the Venetian Army. Venice continued to grow and prosper and it's unique design lured artists and musicians including Vivaldi, Verdi and Wagner. Another "famous" Venetian was Casanova who supported himself by writing, gambling and seducing women. He was imprisoned and later escaped from the prisons which were attached to the Doge's Palace via the "Bridge of Sighs." It was named because people could literally hear the prisoners "sigh" as they were led across the bridge and spotted their last look at their beautiful city of Venice.



St. Mark's square is the meeting place for anyone who comes to Venice. This large square is surrounded by St. Mark's Cathedral, The Doge's Palace, The Clock Tower and lots and lots and lots of shopping!!

The other extremely odd thing about St. Mark's square is the thousands and thousands of pigeons that "hangout" in the square. People were actually buying bird seed from a vendor so they could feed these disgusting birds. Of course, being that they ARE disgusting birds, they don't just walk around and politely eat. They jump on people, on their heads, their arms and just basically hang all over them! I'm sorry, but I just don't understand the lure of spending money to have dirty birds dance on my body!



One last thing about "________" (fill in your own adjective) Venice is the historical and beautiful gondola boats! They are very beautiful and it was very fun going on one of these famous romantic symbols!


Goofy picture, huh?

Thanks for reading!
Annette

A long and eventful day in the port of Naples!

Did you know that Sophia Loren grew up in the slums of Naples? Did you also know that the great tenor Carusa was also from Naples? There is quite a bit of history in the city of Naples. But, it's actually mostly famous for some unique "attractions" just outside of the city. One of these is a beautiful, picturesque region called the Amalfi Coast. It is one of the most scenic areas in the Mediterranean. Sorrento is a seaside resort that is home of the legendary sirens who tried to lure Odysseus onto the rocks. We walked along the narrow and steep streets of Sorrento and stopped at a small restaurant to enjoy a cup of coffee and some delicious pastry.




Another famous city in the area is Positano, where John Steinbeck lived. Our day tour included having a delicious lunch at a very fancy hotel. We even had champagne on the balcony, with a view of the bay.



I have to admit that even though I was excited to go to the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento and Positano, I was really, really excited to go to our next stop which was Pompeii! Did you know that Pompeii and another local town, Herculaneum were both recovering from an earthquake in 63 AD when disaster struck again with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD? The 20 feet of ash that covered Pompeii did provide a safe "tomb" until archaeologists discovered the site in 1748. It is amazing to see the well preserved wall paintings, store fronts, forum baths and beautiful mosaics that adorned the floors of the town's upper class.





This picture shows a "fast food" store. The big clay pots held stew or other meals so that someone coming through town could grab a quick meal.


These pictures show impressions that were made by pouring liquid plaster into the hollows left by the disintegrated bodies. These "bodies" show us what the people of Pompeii were doing in their final moments.




This was such an amazing and exhausting day! My poor, dear, sweet husband got the raw end of the deal, though. It was almost impossible to roll my Inogen around the streets of Pompeii and he ended up carrying it most of the time! So, when we got back to the boat, we both took a much needed nap. In fact, we didn't even bother going to the dining room for dinner and ordered room service instead!


Thanks for reading!
Annette

Back to the Mediterranean!

Our next stop was Florence and Pisa. Pisa was absolutely amazing! The "Leaning Tower of Pisa" is actually just one of three impressive buildings in the "Field of Miracles." The plan of the residents of Pisa was to create their own Holy City. The bell tower (the leaning tower), a baptistery and a cathedral were unfortunately built on the unstable soil of this former port city. According to our tour guide, after the first three levels were complete, the tower began to "tilt." Instead of trying to fix it or tear it down and rebuild on more stable land, the builder of the the tower, Bonanno Pisano, left town! He didn't return until shortly before his death. He is buried at the base of the tower.



The Baptistery was modeled after the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.



Florence is a magnificent city! The Italians call it "Firenze," which means the flowering city. The Medici family was a very rich family that had a real love of art. They commissioned work from such artists as Michelangelo, Donatello (not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) and the poet Dante. Probably the most famous work of art in Florence is Michelangelo's David. But, Rod and I fell in love with the church of Santa Croce that holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo!




I must say that with all of the beautiful art in Florence, Rod and I decided that our favorite "piece of art" was the delicious ice cream that we had at this restaurant!!



Thanks for reading!
Annette

Thank you everyone, I"m feeling better! :)

Well, I figured out yesterday afternoon why I was having so much trouble bouncing back from the stupid colonoscopy X's 2! I was laying around feeling so "PH-y" and kept getting more and more frustrated. I pulled up my website on Addison's Disease and was reading a section on the importance of increasing steroids during surgeries and had an "A-HA!" moment! I remembered hearing the GI doc saying to give me another 50 of IV steroids after the procedure. When I got up yesterday morning and looked at the list of instructions that the hospital sent home and it said to just take my regular dose of steroids. HELLO!!! It's very, very important to titrate down after a large dose of steroids until you get back to the prescribed dose. So, I called my beloved Dr. Husband and asked him about it and he told me that I was exactly right and to take some extra steroids! I did and within 30 minutes I was feeling better!! It's been a little bit up and down today as I try to figure out exactly how much to take, but I'm definitely feeling better!!

Anyway, I just wanted to share and to thank you again for all of your well wishes and very, very corny and crappy jokes!!

Much love
Annette

I'm home, and quite honestly, I feel rotten

I don't know if it was being in the hospital since Monday, having it take FOUR HOURS for the discharge paperwork, the fact that I had to drink and "you-know-what" for basically three days, having two colonoscopies or getting zapped with a whole bunch of extra steroids along with IV fluids for three days (equals lots of water retention) because of the Addison's Disease, but I feel rotten. The good news among all of this whining is that I only had one very small polyp and it's history.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all for being here and to let you know I'm home.

much love
annette

I can't take this waiting game...so... back to the trip!

OK, it's 10:00 a.m. and I'm not scheduled for "colonoscopy..take 2" until 2:30. I'm driving myself nuts so I decided to be productive and take my mind back to a happier time....Nice, France!!
Rod and I like to think of our experience with our first "port stop" of Villenfranche, France as a learning experience. We had to take these cute little boats called "tenders" from the ship to the town of Villenfranche.

From there we were told it would be very easy to buy a couple of train tickets that would take us to Nice and Monaco. I should have know that we were in trouble when I told Rod it would be a waste of money to get a cab for the walk from the dock to the train station. We walked and walked and walked and then we walked up stairs, lots of stairs. Then after we bought the tickets we had to go back down stairs and then back up stairs to get to the correct side of the tracks (keep your comments to yourself). We decided to go to Nice first. We enjoyed the train ride and arrived safely in Nice. We agreed that we really wanted to go to the Matisse Museum and did have to get a cab for that trip. It was a nice museum and it was filled with drawings, paintings and sculptures by Matisse. The museum is located in the middle of a beautiful park which made the visit that much nicer.



We left the park to grab a cab deciding we wanted to get back on the train to go to Monaco. We couldn't find a cab....anywhere. We even started walking towards areas that looked more "cab-like" but found no cabs. We spotted a hospital and walked there thinking we could easily find a cab. There were no cabs and no one who "spoke English and/or were willing to help us." So, we started walking. We walked for about an hour and 1/2 until we saw a bus stop. Rod said we should get on it, no matter where it was going! So we did.


Luckily we had a nice driver who helped us get to the next bus stop where we got on another bus to go to the train station. Needless to say, we decided to skip Monaco and head back to the boat. From then on, we made sure we either part of a tour group or we were incredibly prepared!
This is a picture that a couple from our boat took of us right before we got back on the ship. Boy! The two of us look like we need a vacation!!

Still in the hospital...feel free to start the jokes....

The gallon of disgusting stuff wasn't strong enough for my "system" evidently because when I woke up from sedation, I was told that I was going to have to stay another night and drink some different kind of disgusting stuff. They did do the upper GI part and things looked good (at least I think that's what they said...I hope I wasn't dreaming that part....).
So, I have already had tonight's "cocktail" and I've been "busy" since I drank it 2 hours ago. I have to have another "cocktail" tomorrow morning at 5:00 and then hopefully have the procedure done early and be able to go home.
I heard the weather was nice today and I am seriously bummed (sorry, pun intended) that I missed it. Butt (:)) I've heard on the tv that it's going to be nice again tomorrow. So, hopefully I can get out of this joint and at least crack (:)) the car window on the way home and get some fresh air!!
Thanks for reading.
annette