hesitant

ok, so i have been concocting travel scenarios for weeks......trying to come up with the best possible one-week trip to Italy in October...the current contender .....fly into Venice then train to Florence then on to Siena with an overnight stop continuing on to Rome....possibly paying as little as 10 Euros each if we can figure out how to buy the tickets on-line....and then flying home from Rome with a single stop in Charlotte....sounds fabulous and ambitious and doable...so why have i not booked the particulars like airfare and hotels?......the notion of travel where i do not know the language is frightening......and ridiculously so, given the likelihood that there will be somebody who can understand the italian words i intend to learn between now and then....more the more likely explanation is my lingering limp....which is knida the point about planning a trip so far away...something to get fit for and to train for....have i so little confidence that this ankle will get better that i would forgoe a trip rather than face?

golly neds

ok, so.....my go-to phrase for the frustrations of getting around with a stiff and sometimes painful ankle is golly neds.....no memory of any of my close kin using the same expletive....despite the knowledge that this phrase is something someone's granny would say and certainly not a term used by the hip kids.....heavy sigh....hard to contemplate the majore trips i have in mind for our retirement.....the 4-day hike across new zealand's south island and the pilgrimage to santiago des compostella from the pyrenees across northern spain......on the other hand, my mood was lightened this week by my spouses's suggestion that i start planning a trip to 'train' for...someplace that will involve some walking for one that could encorporate frequent stops for meals/snacks/beverages/general gawking.....gentle readers, i do not need much of an excuse for a trip, and immediately settled on venice as the perfect place for a trip sometime this fall....seems doable even for someone with a gimpy leg, and plenty of opportunity for stops in cafes......have ordered an assortment of guidebooks and an italian phrase book....enjoying the investigation of potential flights, b&b's, itineraries....the glass is back to half-full rather than half empty....