I have had a good time traveling over the last 3 months. It is interesting to get away and see other places. Trips to Ottawa and San Francisco twice have given me the opportunity to see some other places that you hear about on the news. I will be traveling to Philadelphia next weekend for another course and I will be traveling to Washington DC while I am there. I have really enjoyed the traveling and the courses I have taken have been worth the effort and will definitely help with what I am doing at work (I had to say that in case someone from work was reading this…hahaha). Anyways, the traveling has gotten me to thinking about more traveling with Patti. We are going to Las Vegas and San Francisco this summer which will be fun but I am starting to get the urge to do some traveling to far away places.

After some discussions we have decided that we would like to make our first big trip to Northern Italy. Places like Milano (Milan), Turino (Turin), Venezia (Venice), Genova (Genoa), Firenze (Florence), Pisa, Bologna. The Swiss/Italian Alps, including Italy’s world-famous lakes of Maggiore, Lugano, and Como. Not to mention Italian food and wine. Maybe something like Risotto alla Milanese or Spaghetti alla Carbonara with a nice Chianti. The area has tons of things to do and is more in line to what we like to do than Southern Italy or Rome. We like the mountains and lakes; the hiking; the visiting of old architecture; and is there many places better than this area of the world for art? You can drive to Bern or Zurich Switzerland from this area through the Alps. Did I mention the Italian food and wine? There is the Mediterranean Sea (Pisa) on one side and the Adriatic Sea (Venice) on the other side. Even Monaco is only a couple of hours drive from Milan or Turin. Did I mention the Italian food and wine? The other thing that makes Northern Italy look good to us is that it doesn’t get overly hot and neither of us are people who enjoy the heat. In fact, we hate the heat. It is getting way to hot when it starts to get over 25°. It also means we have to go at the right time of year too as the dead of summer can be very hot. We also like the mountains…any mountains. The immense size of the mountains has a calming and refreshing feel to us. And the cost to go to Milan from Canada is not very expensive at all. Anyway, it is our plan to go there in 2007 or 2008 for 2 or 3 weeks and have a grand time.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” - Saint Augustine (Apostle of the English) (d. 604) sent to England 596, converted King Ethelbert, 1st archbishop of Canterbury

My question to everyone this month is if you could travel anywhere you wanted, where would you travel and why? Pretend that money is not an issue and let me know where you would go. Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail though the contact tab at the top. It would be interesting to see where everyone would like to go and why.

[travel Northern Italy Alps Italian food Italian wine]