Whitney Italia is definately the place you visit, fall in love with and if you are lucky get to experience the everyday life with the people, not just the beautiful tourist attractions. My friends who come stay with Bernardo's Papa and Momma who speak only 3 or 4 words of english, but are old worlk Italiano parents full of love and fuss over you like no one else. You would also want the villa until you saw the prices, the cost of actually living here is huge. Italy is great for visiting, but requires commitment to stay and accept old world customs and practices that change at a snails pace if at all. The language is one of the most beautiful languages in the romantics and one of the most difficult to learn but after 2 years I am starting to grasp it better and going to school has done wonders for me. I walked twice today once supervised and the second I rang for the nurses for 30 minutes and could hold it no more so I made my way 20 feet to the bathroom, all went well and even got myself back to bed on my own. But wont make a habit of it, but now I do have some new confidence. Take care.--Paul
Whitney that would be alot of fun, this year we are coming to the US in May for 3 weeks to see family and friends in Minnesota and Oregon and will hopfully make a two day trip to San Fransisco where I will be getting my Italian VISA stamp on my passport, making me legal. Until now I am here totally as an illegal alien and they have given me full rights of a citizen expect for the right to work, but all my medical proceedures(lap. gastr. bypass, abdominoplasties, hip replacement, medications, going to the public school system, the polizia who control alot about foreignors have advised that they are not going to escort me to an airport unless I am a major criminal or making political problems. I am very lucky. In Sept. I will have relatives visiting and then my best friends from my childhood will come again and stay in the house with Bernardo's parents, they did it two years ago and had such a great cultural experience, came at wine making time, and we took day trips to many exciting places as we are within an hours of many beautiful awesome places(Pisa, Cinque Terre, Florence, Lucca and many small mountain village and castles) almost anywhere you go in Italy is eye opening and not all need be overly crowded with themajor tourist scene, and of coarse Carrara where we live is famous for the white marble used around the world and by Micheal Angelo for his sculting in Rome and Vatican. Lots of beautiful art and architecture everywhere and delicious foods to sample. Have a wonderful day.-Paul
We make "donations" to the Seneca's on a bimonthly basis. (Liz more than me!) Don't feel too bad! I got the pics and will be loading them up in here soon! -Mike
Good Morning! Are you waking up RICH? How did you do at the casino? What a good time yesterday--blizzard and all! Your niece is sitting here in a box throwing books around the room. (But only because I took the crackers away from her--I've done all the vacuuming I want to do this weekend!) Do you have my email for the pics? Let me know and I'll PM it to you, but I think it's available under my contact info. Take care...and tell DUFFY I looked at the MySpace page! -Mike
Hi there Whitney, good Sunday to you. Sorry to misread the dates of your surgeries.
Woke up at 3am with a tummy ache that was strong, tride using the bedpan as they wont let me get up and I am bathroom shy(cant urinate or do the other unless in a closed door bathroom, I tried though and ended up getting a shot to relax my colon, and at 5am a Dr came and prescribed a shot to relax my stomach, it was not good, I called my partner who is almost an hour away panicking with fear unable to calm down, he said he would come early, I felt bad as he is here alot missing many hours from his office. at 7:15am I was advised that I would be going for ecodoplers of my stomache, soon the transport people arrived and into the back of an ambulance away I went to arrive at another building in this large hospital complex, even if it was the building next to the orthopedic ward it would have been the as "this is the Italian way". The dopplers showed my few stones, however they were not the problem, was trapped air I guess, that the best anyone has explained, I am ok now, but I trip to the normal restroom would be appreciated maybe tomorrow thats were I will be allowed to walk. I will demand it. Whitney I actually did a no no today in my panic I also got out of bed and stood up all by myslef and walk 2 or 3 steps mostly using my right leg, but nevertheless I am ready to try walking with the crutches and when I get that down home I will be going. I am so grateful to the higher power for these wonderful gifts to give me life back, actually give me a better life than I have ever known. Have wonderful day, the sun is out here today, really beautiful hearing the bells in the plaza where the leaning tower is, you are absolutely correct about Italia's being romantic, you can see and feel in almost every little village or big city, maybe one day the group will want to take a tour of Italy and France together, alot more expensive than I think our Dec. cruise would cost, but so beautiful and awesomely romantic.
All the best today,
Paul
I have determined that you are one of the nicest, sweetest people on the forum, maybe on the entire internet, potentially in the world. I just needed to say that! Oh yeah - Hi Whit!
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