[morzh]

Joe,

I only thought they sell Georgia peaches, never heard of Georgia Melons being sold worldwide, but I will sure find some nice meloni and say hello to them for you.

David,

Yes, in fact this trip does go through Florence, which will be my 3rd time in there. First time me and my wife were literally running through it, trying to 1) see your namesake original, 2) go to Uffizzi (spent whopping 40 minutes!), 3) go to Piza, prop up the tower and 4) make it back to the cruise ship.
This was then, in 2009, when I told myself "never more".
So the 2nd time in 2019 I took my son to Italy, and Florence was the 3rd town, and we had 3 days there. So that time we were able to spend more time with David, buy the gift statue, go to Uffizzi and spend 5 hrs there (st ill not enough but this is as much as I can endure), eat a bistecca alla fiorentina for two (if you remember the size of this T-bone, 3 lbs or so - my son said he was hungry after that and ordered a serving of some pasta afterwards...a 15 yo), leasurely walk about the town just looking about.

This time I literally am repeating the same exact itinerary, Milano-Venezia-Firenze-Roma, since I consider that one of the classic routes and now that it is the first time my daughter (same age now, 15) will be there, I decided this will be good for her to see. And I will refresh a 7 y.o. memory. Even the hotel in Venice is the same (some others went up so much I booked elsewhere).

I am doing preliminary packing, making a list. Charged my camera (I have to have it, though this time it is a smaller Canon SX50, not my 5D Mark II; BTW it has a whoping zoom, equivalent of 1,200mm, and it is all optical. 24x), checked my secure pickpocket-proof shorts (highly recommend, "Clothing Arts"; took them there the last time, then ordered long cargo pants from them for what I thought would be another travel in the winter, but that did not happen), printed everything, checked the passport, some stupid things like a written permission to travel with daughter from my wife, just in case some overzealous official decides to get suspicious; the Euro Zone registration is still not in effect so not required (rechecked that). Now is about to actually start making that list.

I haven't flown since then, which means no flight has been taken during the Pandemic. So, will have to re-acquaint myself with the airportsm which I hated even then.
And I learned my lessons as to connecting flights through Georgia, which I had in 2017 coming from Germany, so, same as before, it is a direct flight from/to Newark.

Oh, and I went down to workshop and cleaned that workbench. Just in case, so I do not get remember as an untidy repairman should something happen.
My wife got instructed on all my passwords, file locations, etc etc, so...at least I put a reasonable effort into it.


My only BIG question, and it is about Florence: back then me and my son were able to polish off that Bistecca alla Fiorentina, but my daughter, while a steak lover, will not eat more than 6oz. And I cannot possibly eat 2-1/2 lbs of rare beef. So, I really want her to try it, but given the price and the enormous waste it will become, I am not sure we will go for it this time.
Oh well. Italy is full of culinary wonders. I am sure we will find what to eat instead.