Italia!

Some of you know that we spent two weeks and lots of dough in Italy 2 summers ago. We had been planning the trip with our best friends, the Hawkins, for a few years to celebrate 5 years of marriage. It coincided with the 8^th and 9^th weeks of my pregnancy with Grayson- in other words PRIME morning (all day) sickness time. I spent most everyday in the hotel room sleeping and puking while Joe, Sara, and Allen went sightseeing. Don’t worry, I wanted them to; I was so sick I didn’t want to see anybody. Anyhow, last week Joe and I got to redo our trip to Italy.

Now don’t get any big ideas about the one-salary Dickersons globetrotting on their own dollar. Nope. Joe attended a conference in Riva del Garda and I was able to tag-a-long because of airline miles. Garda is the largest lake in Italy and a part of the Italian lakes region (you might have heard of Lake Como because George Clooney has a house there). And did I mention the lake sits on the southernmost range of the Alps? Oh yes, it does. And it is GORGEOUS; the best of both worlds for mountain people and beach people. One fun thing about it is that Americans rarely vacation here so you really get the full “foreign” experience. It is more of an Italian/German destination with a few Englishmen thrown in. The English part is especially lucky for us language wise. (Although I think we do get on quite well with our very limited Italian language skills.)

In Riva we spent time with some fellow Washingtonians attending the conference: Dale, Donna, and Erin. We ate most meals together, did a few excursions and shared a lot of laughs. These 3 have known each other for 7 years or something since they lived in California (Dale and Donna are married and practically second parents to Erin).

After 6 days in Riva we moved on to Venice, home of gondoliers, water taxis and scary masks. We were thrilled to have this opportunity, because during our last trip we did Florence, Pisa, and Rome. In our minds Venice was the last city in Italy to check off our list. (Sorry, Milan).

Like it or not, I plan on doing several Italy posts to make up for not blogging for 2 weeks. Among the subjects of these posts: food, fashion, excursions, Alessandro, Venice and International Incidents.

Ciao! Or if you're feeling formal, Arrivederci!