Mostly, I’m doing this for my own amusement because I’m curious.

We left Anthony on Thursday, September 24 to drive to the Crowne Plaza Dallas Market Center (Love Field) hotel for P-Con, which we attended all weekend. This drive was 358 miles long.

On Monday, September 28, we flew from Dallas (DFW) to New York (JFK), which was 1391 miles.

We had a nine hour layover there to catch the same flight as the tour heading to Milan (MXP), and we arrived there at about noon on Tuesday on 3995 mile long flight.

From there, we drove 86 miles with the tour group to Turin where we stayed at the Hotel Victoria.

Then on Friday, October 2, we shifted to the Hilton Garden Inn, Milan North, which was 95 miles.

On Sunday, October 4, we drove 30 miles to the Hotel Barchetta Excelsior in Como. While in Como, we up and back to Bellagio on the lake. This cruise was 38 miles.

From there, on October 6th, we briefly went to Verona, which was 125 miles.

Continuing on, we ended up the day in Venice at the Hilton Molino Stucky. The drive to the Venezia Tronchetto was 75 miles and then about a mile on the water taxi.

On October 8th, we visited some glassblowers on Murano. This was 6 miles via water taxi back and forth.

Then on October 9th, another 2 miles on water taxi to the railroad station. Then we took the train to Florence, which was 171 miles plus 4 more miles in a cab to the Hotel Ville Sull’Arno.

On October 13th, we retraced our steps back to the station, so 4 more “interesting” Italian cab miles. Then we had 173 more train miles with another 3 more cab miles to the Palazzo Dama.

Then we started the way home on October 17th with a cab ride to Fiuminico Airport. That’s 18 miles to get on a plane for a flight of 5663 miles.

Later on October 17th (31 hour day!), we drove from DFW to the Courtyard by Marriott in Carrollton, which was 16 miles.

From there, we drove 347 miles to home.

For those counting at home, that’s:

• 11,049 miles by airplane

• 711 miles of driving

• 414 miles by bus

• 47 miles in water taxis

• 29 miles in cabs

That’s a total of 12250 miles or nigh unto the diameter of the Earth!

Plus we walked a ton, which I will now total.

• 9/25: 4420 steps, 2.23 miles

• 9/26: 2454 steps, 1.20 miles

• 9/27: 2186 steps, 1.06 miles

• 9/28: 8012 steps, 3.79 miles

• 9/29: 2231 steps, 1.06 miles

• 9/30: 8921 steps, 4.23 miles

• 10/1: 6337 steps, 2.97 miles

• 10/2: 4663 steps, 2.23 miles

• 10/3: 12645 steps, 5.93 miles

• 10/4: 2586 steps, 1.21 miles

• 10/5: 5437 steps, 2.50 miles

• 10/6: 5734 steps, 2.67 miles

• 10/7: 10388 steps, 4.87 miles

• 10/8: 7091 steps, 3.32 miles

• 10/9: 3594 steps, 1.70 miles

• 10/10: 11793 steps, 5.59 miles

• 10/11: 8955 steps, 4.21 miles

• 10/12: 10475 steps, 4.95 miles

• 10/13: 8146 steps, 3.92 miles

• 10/14: 9615 steps, 4.61 miles

• 10/15: 11776 steps, 5.61 miles

• 10/16: 11134 steps, 5.25 miles

• 10/17: 4494 steps, 2.12 miles

• 10/18: 3294 steps, 1.64 miles

That totals 166,381 steps for 78.87 miles in 24 days of walking around.

No wonder we were tired some days!

So there’s the time and space. Thanks for indulging me in my curiosity!

This was our last day in full day in Italy. For the first time, we used the taxi toget us to our starting point and then from our final thing of the day. Just as well because we walked around 11,000 steps again today and we’re beat.

We started the day walking past the Circus Maximus. Sadly, there was some sort of festival happening that meant we couldn’t really see it. Still, it was cool just to walk its length to get a feel of the races.

Next to that is the Roman Forum. I had no idea just how big it is. We didn’t go in though we had tickets, but we did walk around much of the exterior.

We did, however, go into the Colosseum and best of all, onto the floor. I have some great pictures from there. And a really fun movie I made myself.

It was amazing. So glad I could get to do that. It really was a bucket list moment.

Then we headed to the Irish bar for Guinness. I mean, what else is more appropriate? Actually, we went there because the owner had been gracious to us earlier in the morning to allow the wife to use the loo and we weren’t yet customers. That’s abig thing here in Italy so it was a nice deed we rewarded by buying beer.

That was actually our pit stop on the way to the Torre Argentina. This is actually on one of the best places we visited in my mind. First, t’s a proper ancient site. It’s got temples, artifacts, the whole deal. There aren’t that many people. It’s also inexpensive.

Best of all, it’s got cats! It’s a cat sanctuary. How cool is that!

Yes, I got cat pictures coming.

Now we’re back in the hotel catching our breath for the exciting and joyful 31 hour day tomorrow. The flight is 12 hours, but at least it’s direct from FCO to DFW. No layovers. Theoretically, at some point tomorrow evening, we’ll be at a hotel in Carrollton, a northern suburb of the Metroplex.

I’ve loved this trip, but Brigadoon needs to end at some point or another.

Anyway, this is probably my last post until next week at some point. Fly to Texas tomorrow. Drive to Anthony on Sunday. Monday, I have a book to edit so it can get published on November 13th. After that, I’ll be writing but also going through the pictures with more posts.

Oh, and lest I forget, the podcast starts again on Tuesday with and more to come!

For now, Arrivederci!

By the way, I blogged about the whole trip, though I didn’t send them all out by email. Just check my feed for the last 3 weeks and you’ll see my thoughts on P-Con and what we saw in Italy.

Anyway, it was also another 11,000 plus step day, or about 5 plus miles. I’m not gonna lie, it’s getting harder and harder to do this because though we’re in better shape, we’ve not allowed our bodies a chance to recover. I’ll post our step and mileage count next week and it’s been pretty good. Maybe not as much as the walk through Wales, but pretty good.

Tomorrow may be the biggest day yet, with all we want to do, but might as well go out with a bang.

Today was pretty awesome, though. We walked over to the Vatican and went through their museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.

O. M. G.

We did a whirlwind tour through the museum, thanks to a tour guide that went at lightspeed. It was still amazing, and I’ll tell you more when I do my follow up pages including pictures after I get home.

I got to see Etruscan writing in the flesh! How cool is that?

Then to the Sistine Chapel, which is more glorious than you’ve seen in pictures. Speaking of which, we weren’t allowed to take any. The other item of note is that it’s smaller than I expected so when they choose a pope, the cardinals per square foot ratio is humongous!

Then on to St. Peter’s, which is astounding. Just astounding. I do have pictures there, including a bunch of the floor and ceiling. So incredibly majestic. Awe-inspiring. Regal. Worth seeing, no doubt.

I should mention before I go that Giant Killer Kaiju comes out on the 23rd and after that, on November 13th, my first boy’s adventure book comes out. We’ll talk about that more later.

But for now, dinner and then getting ready for a final roam around Rome!

I’m writing this from the pool area of the Palazzo Dama, which is beautiful. It’s a little loud, thanks to all the traffic, but otherwise delightful.

And it’s been a delightful day. Perhaps I should say wonderful, as in full of wonders.

First, the cloud and its silver lining. Pope Leo had surgery for lung cancer. Cancer sucks, and I’d use different words if I didn’t self-censor my blog. Best wishes to him.

That also meant he couldn’t officiate Mass today, which is a bummer since we attended. That also meant fewer people attended, which is just as well because there were a lot of people in St. Peter’s Square.

It would’ve been nice to see the Pope officiate a Mass, but it was full of wonders anyway. The music, the singing, the ceremony, it was all something to see.

I’ll post pictures and hopefully, the link to the Mass booklet when I get home.

We have wandered back to the hotel now. I’m catching up here. She’s catching up on other stuff. We’re taking some time to breathe. We have 2 full days left here and we’ve got a tour of the Vatican, Colosseum, Pantheon, and more on the schedule.

I’m going to miss being in Italy, but I’m looking forward to seeing JJ. It’s been too long since I heard, “Opa!”

The big plan for yesterday was simply to get to Rome and hotel, the Palazzo Dama. Which we did!

It was, in general, a smooth trip. Taxi to the train station. Wait for train. Get on train. Find ride from train station to hotel. Collapse for nap. Some hurry up and wait. Some going at 248 km/hour. The usual.

OK, I think I did good on choosing the hotel. Now, I freely admit I splurged and it’s way out of our price range, but I dealt with that by using all the credit card advantages at hand. We’re paying less than the price of one full night while staying here for four. Use your points, kids.

Or rather, use your credit cards up to the point where you can pay them off in full, then let your points accrue. And if they offer bonuses and you can take advantage of them without doing anything you wouldn’t otherwise, do it! We got $750 paid for this hotel plus some other bennies just for doing that. And that’s the tip of the iceberg really.

Anyhoodle, you don’t need to hear me brag. However, I’m going to do more. This place is amazing. The Palazzo Dama was built in the 1700s. The original family still owns the property. It’s very upscale, to the point where I’m looking around like that meme of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. You mean I get what?

It’s a good place to conclude our time in Italy.

But we still have a few days left and we had a great time after we napped. I led us out earlier than I should, though, forcing us to stop for spritzes a couple of times. Oh, the horror!

The problem was that we had a reservation at a particular place for 9:30pm. Yes, 9:30pm. It’s a really neat place that Mark Stallings found. Yep, travel 6000 miles and I still have to put up with Mark! Life is terrible!

We had a great time. He and his wife are celebrating their anniversary and have spent the last month in Italy. It was a happy coincidence they were in Rome at the same time and we could meet for dinner. It was delightful, including some of the best food we’ve had so far.

But before we could do all that, the wife and I had to make it to 9:30. We’ve been going to bed relatively early. Our hotel was only about a mile and a half from the restaurant, so we roamed. I tried to find a fabric store, but failed. I did find a bookstore but we didn’t buy anything. We’ve bought a bunch of stuff already.

We had spritzes and coffees and nibblies. We went through grocery stores. We went through touristy stores. We dawdled. We took a few “why not” turns. We moseyed. We even sauntered!

And still we ended up waiting outside the restaurant for 20 minutes.

Totally worth it. It was great to hear what they had done on their trip plus to hear all the stuff Mark’s been doing writing wise.

We should march on Rome more often!

First, I’ll make a couple of posts today because it’s been a few days and I have to catch up.

Day 18 was our last day in Florence. We started the day by walking to the main part of town where we had coffee at Della Artigiane again, thanks to the suggestion of Jonna. Neat place. Needs more space.

That gave us time to recover before going to the Galileo museum. They have telescopes there! Who knew? You can see for miles a… Yeah, whatever, you knew where I was going with this thanks to the title of the post.

There’s so much stuff there about the history of science. It’s really kind of a shame just to visit. I want to wallow in all that. Study each item, experiment with it all, see how it translates to the next one in the line.

They have Edison’s first phonograph! But more than that, I was entranced by the tools for measuring, well, everything. Compasses, sextants, barometers, thermometers, and so on and so on.

And that doesn’t even touch the astrolabes, early machines to produce electricity, maps galore, and more.

Such a cool place.

After that, we walked up to this touristy pizza place right outside the Uffizi. I picked it because it’s under these vaulted marble ceilings. Was actually a pretty good choice. The pizza was pretty good and we could buy a bottle of wine to go. With that bottle and leftover pizza, we had dinner in our room at the Ville Sull’Arno.

Then we read and relaxed until we fell asleep. There’d be more adventures in the morning.

We went to the Uffizi Gallery today and it is amazing. I knew it was, but seeing it in person is something else.

But it’s huge.

Like, “Hey, sumo, you be here 4 years, you go now” huge. We saw da Vincis, Michaelangelos, and Raphaels (but missed the Donatellos, more on that later). There were Caravaggios and Botticellis and van Dycks and Rubens and Rembrandts, oh my! Tons of ancient Greek and Roman statuary. And the floors and ceiling were amazing too!

Such a cool place. Today, me and Venus hung out and I have the pics to show it happened. I got to see Judith slaying Holofernes, another picture I’d seen innumerable times on line but never in person. It was that kind of a day.

But it’s huge. Soooo huge. Like, Mr. “Wafer-thin Mint” Creosote huge.

If I ever go back, I’m gonna take the elevator. The path starts with climbing up to at least the fifth floor equivalent and we had to take a break halfway because neither of us had a choice and we’re in good walking shape at this point.

We saw what we could but missed a bunch.

Afterward, we had gelato, because gelato. Then we went meandering toward the Accademia to see David, where I had tickets. This path led us to the Duomo in Florence which is even more awe-inspiring than the one in Milan. Stupendously big.

However, we never went in to see David. The lines were just too much, even with tickets, and toooooo many people.

At least the riot we stumbled into wasn’t too riotous.

Anyway, after that, we roamed about a bit, going hither and yon, having a spritz here and a spritz there before coming back to the hotel for a nap and dinner.

And that was our day. Overwhelming beauty.

Tomorrow, we roam some more!

I didn’t post yesterday because we didn’t really do anything except go from the hotel to the Venice train station where we got on the train to Florence and then took a taxi to the hotel here.

We’re staying at the Ville sull’Arno, which is a ridiculously cool place. It’s literally next to the Arno River and I’m typing this will looking at it flow by. The bar and restaurant are that rare combination where the expense matches the quality and quantity. So often, I’ve found expensive places get that way by promotion more than execution, but this isn’t what we’ve found here.

It’s an old building. Not sure how old, but it has to be centuries, though it’s been extensively renovated. In wonderful news, though the renovations are recent, the style they chose matched the vibe of the decor instead of forcing modern white, black, square, and boring.

I hate that, by the way. I don’t hate all that much, but I hate modern architecture.

In fact, this is probably the time I should mention something that’s been boiling in me for much of this trip. I don’t understand how anyone could look at the glory and beauty of the Palazza Ducale, St. Mark’s, the cathedrals of Europe (frankly any old church in Europe whether Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, and whatever else along these lines you want to include and yet, despite having seen all that, thinks modernist and post-modernist art, architecture, music, and everything else is better.

I mean, how? I totally get tastes are different. One might prefer the Scandinavian stave church to a medieval cathedral or a Japanese palace. Perfectly fine, and you can extend that to all sorts of different cultural norms. The Alhambra is beautiful, as is the Taj Mahal, and so much more.

But to go from any of that to modernist and post-modernist crap? I hates it, my precious. It’s like the new addition to the Louvre, or the new entrance of the ROM, and so many other instances where we’ve put glass, steel, and hate where stone, intricacy, and beauty should be.

Screw all that. Make beautiful things. I can’t do much when it comes to art and architecture or fashion, but I certainly try to make beautiful, intricate, cool, and enjoyable stories. You may not like my style, but that’s always my aim.

Whoops, I just put a quarter into myself.

Not whoops, really. I was always gonna say all that, I just didn’t know when. It’s just so annoying when I see modern stuff here. You have all these great examples but you make something that’s different just because? I hates it!!!!

Anyway, we had a delightful dinner last night and this afternoon we’re having a proper English tea in Italy, because why not.

This morning, though, we went walking. Our hotel is about 2.5km from the Ponte Vecchio. We walked up one side of the river, crossed the Arno there, and then came back to a couple of places suggested to us, a gelateria and a coffee shop.

After that, we went to this hole in the wall proscutteria, which is a fancy world for place that sells cold cuts. Our most common lunch is an antipasti board with various meats, cheeses, breads, veggies, and fruits. This place had an excellent version of that, plus it had fun music!

When we walked in, they were playing stuff in Italian, but then it shifted to Jolene from Dolly Parton, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, which is one of only 2 U2 songs I like, then Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill. Good stuff. Then it went back to Italian stuff.

OK, I’ve been silly on this trip. I’ll stop for a moment so you can recover from the shock. Anyway, we were passing a record store and I said something like, “Can’t go there, I won’t understand them all because they’re in Italian.” Of note, the two albums I noted in the window were from Abba and Taylor Swift.

With that in mind, I can continue talking about the restaurant’s music because this is the part that’s interesting, especially to St. Louis Blues fans. Can you guess what song came on? Those around for the Stanley Cup run will. Yep, it was Gloria, but it was in Italian! It’s like they made it just for those on The Hill.

After that we meandered back to the villa and napped before coming down to tea.

We did a lot for a day when we didn’t really do much, but tomorrow, we’re going to the Uffizi and maybe the Accademia if we have time.

Excellent. I’ll have all the more reason to despite modernism and post-modernism.

See y’all tomorrow!

Today was the last day of the Country Heritage tour that started this whole excursion.

I’ll get to all the fun stuff we did today in a bit, but I want to thank Jenn Stefoni and the Country Heritage Tours crews for their amazing work. These sorts of tours are pricey, there’s no doubt, but that’s fine—if they do their job and these guys did.

We stayed at great hotels. The only one that wasn’t to our taste was the Hilton in Milan, and that was because it was normal, high quality U.S. level of hotel. The Hotel Victoria in Turin was Old World and that was our favorite. The Hotel Barchetta Excelsior in Como was 60s/70s Old World in a fantastic spot. The Hilton Molino Stucky is the best of what Hilton can be. That’s a great set of choices and all of them provided tasty breakfasts, excellent dinners, and good wines. What more could we ask for.

Every day was some new adventure guided by Jenn. I won’t go into them here, but she never stopped looking for fun things to do. She had all of our transportation arranged and it was smooth as silk.

Basically, for the last 10 days, Jenn made our lives wonderful. I can’t recommend Country Heritage Tours enough.

OK, on to today. Did I mention Jenn never stopped looking for fun things to do? I said something about wanting to go into St. Mark’s Basilica here in Venice but I’d been too slow to get tickets. Jenn made it happen, and with a tour guide.

St. Mark’s is something else. Byzantine, Medieval, Renaissance all melded into something awe-inspiring. Believe me, you want to go there. If not, you’ll want to see my pictures. My only disappointment was not getting St. Mark’s bacon. If you know the story how they smuggled St. Mark’s body to Venice, you’ll be laughing. If you don’t, look it up, then you’ll be laughing.

If I raised pigs, I totally would start a company called St. Mark’s Bacon.

Anyhoodle, after that was a small bite to eat and then off to the Correr Museum. This is kind of an odd museum in that it has so many different things from the 8th century BC to Napoleonic. There’s a cool section on Venetian naval history and the Arsenal here.

But I need to digress. If you follow me on TwiX, you’ll have seen my post about the ITS Amerigo Vespucci along with the ITS Francesco Morosini which were both docked next to each other yesterday here at Venice.

Now, I thought it was cool that I could see an Italian frigate (whatever they call her, she’s a frigate). She’s the kind of ship we could use about 40 of in the U.S. Navy, about 4400 tons, a 5in gun, an Otero 76mm, two CIWS, and a some other guns, plus 2 triple torpedo launchers, 16 AA VLS, and 4 ASMs.

But it was even more special when I found out who Francesco Morosini was, and I only did so at the Correr museum because they have an entire room devoted to him. He was one of Venice’s great ship captains. How cool is that?

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the Correr and have a bunch of pictures of that too. The wife teased me that my picture taking finger would be tired. I said, “Too late.”

After that, we went to Murano to watch glass blowing at a particular glass-blowing company. It was soooo cool, but hot of course, since they heat the glass to 1200C.

I wish we could’ve see the glass-blowing museum they have over there, but it’s just one of the many things I wish I could’ve seen in Venice. We’ll come back again someday if we can.

We returned, at that point, to Giudecco to relax before our farewell dinner. The edge of our table was literally less than a yard to the lagoon. So beautiful.

We met some great people on this trip, saw some amazing things, went to some beautiful places, ate great food, drank delicious wine, and are so glad we got to do this trip—

But wait, there’s more!

Tomorrow, we head off to Florence. We’re going to do a number of the touristy things, but also recover from the Country Heritage pace. A vacation from our vacation.

But I’ll tell you all about it next time.

Before I go, though, I should mention Giant Killer Kaiju comes out on October 23rd! RAWRRRRR!!!

And also, Shattered Spear, my first boys adventure novel set in 10th-century England, comes out on November 13th.

What a great time for me! See you all next wee with more fun times!

We had a fantastic day in Venice! Heck, it was fantastic before we even crossed over onto San Marcos Island because I spotted the ITS Amerigo Vespucci ahead of us. Tall ships are beautiful, especially tall ships that serve as naval training vessels.

More on that later.

Anyway, we start the day with a guided tour of Venice, starting of course with the Piazza San Marcos. Look, St. Mark’s Square is freaking amazing. There’s the basilica, the Palazza Ducale, the tower, and the clock face. You’ll see pictures. Totally awesome.

Then we wound our way through the city. I have pictures of the Rialto Bridge along with all sorts of other cool stuff. We ended this tour at Fortuny Museum.

This museum was half awesome, half meh because they had a modernist exhibit to join with Fortuny’s really cool stuff. Fortuny specialized in light, but did so with paint, fabric, stone, theater, photography, and I think more. He was a true genius, coming up with a way to block print using silk, not wood. Fascinating stuff.

From there, the wife and I went and had lunch after wandering through the warrens. Seriously, since land is at a premium and horses weren’t allowed on the main islands, these streets are usually less than 6 feet wide. In D&D terms, that’s one 5x5 square. Really cool!

Then we went to the Palazza Ducale, the Doge’s Palace.

O.

M.

G.

There will be pictures. It’s astounding. Incredibly beautiful, with painting, sculpture, woodworking, fabrics, weapons, and more. Honestly, I cannot do justice to this building, it’s truly amazing.

It’s also huge! You go up about 5 flights of stairs, go through room after room, and it keeps going. The armorial exhibit was like 6 rooms filled with stuff. Swords, glaives, crossbows, guns, armor, shields, barding, and more. Just wow.

Did I mention OMG?

And on top of that all, from a window I could see the Amerigo Vespucci but what I hadn’t noticed before was P431 Francesco Morosini, which should be called a frigate but is called an offshore patrol vessel. Look, 4400 tons is a frigate, dammit! It’s a Fincantieri designed ship, which is especially interesting since we passed a Fincantieri shipyard on our way into Venice. They do cruise ships at that one, but I’m always interested in shipyards.

Behind the Francesco Morosini was the A5326 Etna, lead ship of the Etna-class replenishment oilers. That’s pretty cool too.

I have pictures of all that, of course.

After leaving the Ducal Palace, though, we were done. We gathered loot at the gift store and came home to relax before dinner, a bottle of valpolicella, and now an early night.

Tomorrow has some fun things planned, so stay tuned!

Have a great night everyone!

We left Como this morning. I could’ve stayed by the lake for a while, to be honest, but we live by the tyranny of the tour.

Our first stop was Verona, where we had about two hours to see what we could, which wasn’t enough. What we did see was cool, though. We crossed into the old part of the city and almost immediately saw the Porta Borsari, one of the Roman gates. Kinda crazy to walk through a gate over two thousand years old.

From there, we went to the Verona Colosseum, which is in pretty good shape. These days, it holds about 15,000 people for operas and concerts. That was really cool.

Then we had lunch and went to the Piazza Erbe. That’s a really neat square and we didn’t do it justice, but I have some cool pictures.

That’s about it for Verona, though I must admit I took a wrong turn. I don’t do that often, so I should admit it when it happens.

Back on the bus, we headed to Venice. Got our first water taxi ride and we’re in the Hilton Molino Stucky. Let me just say, it’s gorgeous, especially it’s ceilings. Many are old 8x8 or so beams that have been refinished. I love them.

For now, though, we’ve eaten dinner, had our bottle of wine, had a drink at the rooftop bar, and are ready for bed. Catch you all tomorrow!

I’m writing this from my hotel balcony at the Hotel Barchetta Excelsior while drinking a fine valpolicella. Did I mention I’m looking out at the lake? And all the houses looking down on the lake, all twinkling on their respective mountainsides?

Como, and the lake it’s next to is gorgeous. It’s the first place in Italy I really want to live in. Maybe not Como proper, maybe just one of the surrounding villages, but somewhere on this lake.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Yesterday started with us leaving Milan and going to silk museum here in Como. This was really cool, with all sorts of exhibits on how to get silk and then also all these older tools and looms to create the fabric. And then there was the section on dying, and block printing, and screen printing, and cylinder printing, and… well, you get the idea.

They also added a new exhibit that has a bunch of things made with silk, and while I don’t like high fashion, these examples were very interesting.

I’ve been joking with about this trip. She’s been saying she hates me because we get to go and she doesn’t, and I’ve been giving her hell back. However, I really wanted her at this exhibit because watching her geek out about the fashion would’ve been worth the price of admission.

Anyway, after the museum, we came to our hotel. Country Heritage Tours paid extra to make sure we all had lakeview rooms and I’m ecstatic they did. We overlook the Palazzo Cavour and then the lake and again I just can’t describe how beautiful the view is. I have taken pictures, and we I get around to picture posts, you’ll see what I mean.

We also discovered Larrie the Lariosour! Check out this link https://larrielakecomo.com/en/. Larrie is this delightful Loch Ness Monster-like creature, half-myth, half-commercial greed, and 7 feet of cuteness.

It took me about 3 milliseconds to decide to buy a stuffed Larrie for JJ. 2 of those milliseconds involved picking blue over green.

Anyhoodle, I’m gonna have fun playing that song for JJ when I get home because what’s better than a stuffed lariosaur? A stuffed lariosaur with a theme song!

After that we went back to our room to relax. Well, after buying this bottle of valpolicello. And some gelato.

We’ve been reliably informed that we’re to have a gelato a day while in Italy and we’ve tried to keep up!

We got up at 5 to go to mass at the local cathedral which was a block away. It, too, was gorgeous, even if I barely understood bits of the Italian. I did understand the Latin, though, so there’s that.

Then, yesterday evening, the tour company bought us all dinner. OK, fine, we paid for it as part of the trip, but you know what I mean. It was delicious as basically all of our meals here in Italy have been. We had a meat and cheese plate that was only good, not great, but that’s basically the worst of our eating options so far. Thank goodness we’re getting our steps in.

Today was a relaxing morning. We had nothing scheduled until 1pm, when we got on a boat and sailed up the lake. We saw some amazing villas, including George Clooney’s, and a bunch of places everyone agreed they would deign to live in if they had to.

My favorite part was the grotto at Nesso, which has this lovely waterfall. I’ll have pictures later.

Then we ended at Bellagio, where we had a caprese and a gelato. Doing our best to keep up with the gelatos—oh, hold on, I need to refill my glass. Anyway…

The boat trip was approximately 4 hours long and totally enjoyable. I like being on the water, though I find the rocking of the boat akin to rocking me in a cradle, so making me captain would be unwise as I’m likely to sleep on the job.

Tonight we had a delightful dinner, some wine, a delightful dessert, some drinks, and now I’m blogging, with some wine.

My liver is wondering what the hell happened this past week.

And now? Time to drink more wine!

Today, we roamed around the Milan city center. This started brilliantly at the Castello Sforzesco. It’s a beautiful medieval fortress which is still in pretty good shape, having been maintained and modernized over the centuries. Now it also includes nine small museums, though we didn’t get to see them.

I took a ton of pictures here… and I’m not going to show you any right now. Taking pictures on my phone is great, but transferring them to the pad is a nuisance. There will be some major pictures posts when I get back though.

Anyway, from there we started roaming about the city center. We went to La Scala, the major opera house, and it’s gorgeous. Down the way from that is the hotel Verdi lived in until he died. That was pretty cool too.

But the first of my frustrations now happened. Our tour guide took us through the fashion district. There are some interesting courtyards in there and a neat medieval street, but mostly it was shops that we didn’t stop at, all of which were shops I wouldn’t have stopped at even if we could. I really don’t care about Cartier or Prada, but we dutifully marched something like 2 miles up and down these roads.

Sigh. Side note: about 6 miles walked today so we got our steps in.

Anyway, from there we went through the Galleria. This could be a neat place, but it was so packed it tripped both my wife and I’s defensive mechanisms. Plus, we were beat and needed a break.

Fortunately, that led to what should have been a highlight of the trip, the Duomo. It was, partially, but was a big frustration too.

OK, I got special access tickets that included the terraces. What I didn’t realize is that meant I had to go to the terraces in order to see the inside. The problem is the terraces are the top of the building on the outside which are nerve-wracking enough, being 100 plus feet up, but to get down you have to climb up another 50 feet of stairs before coming back down.

Yeah, no.

So we escaped by taking another set of stairs down that put us outside. We were assured we could still get in the Duomo. In fact, I was told repeatedly we had access to everything.

But the only other way in was a hugemongous line that even though we had special access tickets that were supposed to let us jump the line, the guard didn’t honor it. Then another guard said that if we went the way we first entered, we could skip the elevator ride up to the terrace and cut inside. Then the other guard at that entrance said no, there’s no actual way to do that. You have to go up the elevator, there’s no way around at that entrance.

That’s frustrating that I paid for a ticket and didn’t get fair value. However, I’m actually livid about it.

Here’s why. The wife saw people with special access tickets escorted to the front of the line. Why them and not us? Then we found out another part of our tour group went in the same entrance we had, said they couldn’t go up the elevator, and then the guy running the elevator let them in the way the other guard said didn’t exist.

Gee, thanks very much.

So, yeah, I got a ton of cool photos from the terrace part I did go through, but never got to the inside and now I never will thanks to guards who didn’t know their jobs.

After that, we made our way back to the bus with a stop for a gelato. Once on the bus, we went to a quilt store.

Quilting is not as big a thing over here, so an actual quilt store isn’t as common and this one was really cool. Even I thought it was cool. It also had an orange cat who demanded petsies, so I might have been influenced.

Anyway, tomorrow is off to Lake Como where we’ll see a silk factory. That promises to be really fun.

Y’all have a great night.

Today started in Turin, where we left the hotel for new adventures. And boy, what adventures we had.

We first went to the Liberty Fabrics of London Italian factory where they showed us how they make 4.5million meters per year.

That’s 4500 kilometers! That’s over 2800 miles!

Liberty Fabrics has been around for 150 years, and you have likely seen their work. If you have Ziggy Stardust, otherwise known as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars, then you’ve definitely seen their work. David Bowie is on the cover and is wearing a jumpsuit in their fabric.

Others wearing their stuff include the Beatles, Twiggy, and Queen Elizabeth.

Anyway, it was fascinating. They have two basic processes, digital and conventional. The digital is essentially a fabric inkjet printer with huge vats of colored ink. The convential uses these cylinders in sequence, generally 10, sometimes 12, and each cylinder is a pattern and a color.

Basically, they showed us how plain fabric becomes these intricate designs. Really cool!!

Then they gave out a bundle of fat quarters. The wife liked that.

But that was just the opening act. From there we drove to the Mercato Centrale of Milan, where made pasta! And then we ate pasta!

There’s a culinary school that basically had us make pasta and ravioli, and then we ate it all, along with a gelato. During the times when we weren’t doing anything, they forced us to drink prosecco. Forced us, I say!

After that, we got to the hotel and relaxed.

What a good day!

But now it’s time to sleep. Tomorrow, we see Milan, especially the Duomo, and shop!

Have a great day!

It’s been a fun and exhausting last few days as we have roamed around Turin on Days 6 & 7 of our trip. Here’s a picture of the shroud, which we just happened to run across, like you do.

To be fair, it’s not the real Shroud of Turin, but an exact copy at the Real Eglise Turino. In other words, it’s the shroud they show off to protect the real one.

Bonus points to anyone who knows why this makes me think of Leonard Nimoy.

Anyway…

Yesterday started with a trip to a trim and cord manufacturer, Massio. They started in the 1600s and are still going, now with tools from the late 1800s and early 1900s. They have amazing looms, and yes I have pictures.

They also make cords for decorations, like ones that hold up chandeliers or get added to Napoleonic-era uniforms or modern dress uniforms. Their list of clients is impressive and includes the Italian Navy, the Bolshoi, and a host of royalty.

They showed how they make stuff, including looms that use punch cards for intricate trim designs. Another example was making a green and gold cord. Neat stuff.

After the trim factory, we went to Central Market of Turin. If you’ve never seen an Old World market square, then it’s hard to describe their swirling chaos.

It’s also here where we had lunch. The wife and I opted for pizza, a diavolo for me and a neapolitano for her. Then we had gelato.

After that we went to the Piazza Castello where we moseyed over to the Massio trim store. It was an impressive selection. My wife actually stepped out, though, because we saw a yarn store as we walked. She got yarn. I found a cafe and got a prosecco. Good choices on both of our parts.

After that was a nap and dinner. I suspect “nap and dinner” will be a consistent phrase, as I’m typing this up after doing just that, but I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.

So then came today. We started by roaming around Turin, seeing some cool things here and there. Then we got to the Real Eglise.

This place was amazing. A Baroque masterpiece with all the possible trimmings one might want. Glorious. Beautiful. These sorts of churches make it easy to believe in God, and it could have been even better on a sunny day.

And then we went to the room that held the Shroud of Turin. Yes, it could be a medieval fake, but it’s majestic in its own right. Again, easy to see Jesus in its presence, it’s just that powerful.

After that, we wandered through various lovely areas before ending up at the Barrata Milano, which is an old cafe here. It was delightful. I had a bicerin, which is a shot of espresso with a bunch of chocolate and whipped cream. Tasty!!!

From there we went to the Egyptian Museum, which is actually the second largest such museum in the world. Neat exhibits, especially the ones on textiles and tunics. Plus so much more.

That’s a great day, but we weren’t done. We went to Perayta, which is an old top shelf chocolatier. We got to tour their factory and then make our own chocolate plus have a tasting including one made special for Ferrari.

And then there’s some client named Elon…

Elon and I get the same chocolate!!!

Oh, and did I mention we got to decorate our own slab o’ chocolate? I may take a picture of that. I may eat it first. We’ll see.

Tonight was a nap then dinner, then hanging out. Tomorrow we’re off to Milan.

See you there!

My intention is to take pictures of each label so I can remember what I tried.

And so you can play the home game 😎

The wine was part of the welcome dinner of the tour group here at the Hotel Victoria. They offered a dry, red which I liked 4~, and this Chardonnay I really enjoyed.

Dinner was delicious, by the way. I think I'm gonna gain some weight back.

Ah, well.

Tonight is recovery and preparing so not much to say. We got here with all our luggage. Go us!

Tomorrow is a textile museum, which sounds fun, and maybe time to visit the National Museum of Artiglieria (Artillery). I hope I can squeeze that in, but we'll see.

For now, though, sleep.

We made it to Milan and here are the Alps to prove it.

Now for luggage, customs, and a nap. Catch you on the flip side 😀

She, of course, claimed the window seat.

The remainder of P-Con went pretty well. I had another panel as guest on the topic of what happens after the hero throws the ring or beats the big bad guy. I enjoyed it, in part because we went far afield.

Then I had two panels to moderate on Sunday: Music & Worldbuilding and then served as emcee for Les Johnson to talk about all the changes with space travel. Fun stuff!

After that was hanging around, but we called it an early night, in part because we got up at 4:30. I was aware this time existed, but I didn't want to see them.

Ah, well, we got to DFW early, which was just as well because finding the right parking building proved challenging, especially for me, especially at that semi-mythical time of 5:30.

But we're in JFK airport at the Capitol One Lounge.

They have a cheese monger in the lounge!

Anyway, now we wait until 9pm for the flight to Milan.

Guess I'll just have to throw myself on some cheese…

But first, pictures of Madeline having fun! Here she is meeting the inimitable Ian McMurtrie of .

The LitRPG panel was early in the day and the moderator and another panelist didn’t make it. That turned out to be brilliant! That meant it was just Ben Yalow and myself.

Ben is a real interesting guy. He’s always dapper, always with a bow tie. He’s been part of SF/F fandom since basically there was such a thing. He’s been going to conventions for decades, having helped probably with something like 70 (or maybe more) cons over the years.

That makes him a fantastic primary source of the early days, especially since he can quite literally say things like, “Jack Chalker and I were chatting, and I suggested…” This panel basically devolved into the two of us talking about earlier SF/F, of which I’ve read a goodly amount, though not in his league.

Still, I can hold my own, especially on some topics like Randall Garrett, one of my favorite short story authors. In the context of early LitRPG, Garrett’s Lord D’Arcy earns a spot in my mind. I also brought up the Deities & Demigods, with all the stats for Elric, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Cthulhu, and more. This was the first time I can recall specifically assigning stats to book characters. I also talked about Quag Keep by Andre Norton and other stuff.

But really, we just talked about cool SF/F, including, for example, Jack Chalker. I even got to bring up the Hornblower books.

Lots of fun, even if it wasn’t really on topic.

The next panel talked of tips to join a shared universe. This got off the rails too, and to be honest, didn’t have a great crowd that could take advantage of it. Still, there were a number of great points from the co-panelists: Fred Hughes, Jesse Barrett, and Jim Curtis.

After that, the wife and I lounged for a while. Opening ceremonies went of the rails in a fun way and then it was time to go to my reading.

Kacey Ezell is just a fun person. Smart, funny, uplifting. A great person to share a reading with.

She read from both her Shadow Card Guardian and Blood in the Sand novels. These are fun, exciting, action-packed LitRPG romps.

I read the first chapter of Shattered Spear, my upcoming boys book from which comes out on November 13th. Then, because Kacey’s second passage including kissing, I had to read the second chapter of the sequel to Shattered Spear, which includes a 13-year-old boy trying to understand girls.

Fun stuff.

After that was CHEESE!

We had some great cheeses in our fridge that we wanted to eat before we left, so we brought it out to share. We had a mimolette, a Stilton, a manchego, a blue-cheese infused cheddar, and one other soft cheese I can’t remember right now. That was a tasty dinner, especially with folks gathered around to share.

Then we had CAKE!!!

And went up to the con suite after the bar closed. I ended the evening chatting with Kelly Grayson, which is always fun… and weird.

What a good day.

Today, I’ve got up, eaten breakfast, taken a nap, a second shower, and chatted with folks.

At 5pm, I get to talk about what happens after the adventure ends. Then probably more cheese, drinks, and whimsy.

My job doesn’t suck.

We made it to P-Con! It was an annoying trip, with 3 different parking lots thanks to construction on I-35 plus another parking lot on a highway before we even got to the interstate.

Nevertheless, we’re here and I’m busy inundating the wife with all the names of people she’s meeting. I told her there’ll be a test later, but she didn’t approve of the idea.

Anyway, today I have 3 panels. One on LitRPG inspirations, one on shared universes, and then I have a reading in the evening. After that, we’re sharing all the cheese we needed to eat before flying to Italy.

By the way, meet Madeline!

JJ has insisted we bring Madeline along since we can’t bring JJ with us. Expect to see lots of photos of Madeline.

Lots of photos.

Right now, though, it’s time for BBQ!

Have fun!