We are on another trip to Europe and we're old hands at this...forget the "old", and just say we're experienced, very well experienced, at travel in Europe.   This trip will be shorter, Ruth has less time off.  The funny thing is this trip is planned, not to the minute, but planned, very planned.   Every accomodation, every train, every car rental....I even have reservations for every train.   We're going to breakup the long SF>Paris flight by stopping for a few days in New York, revisiting the old stomping grounds - Balthazar, ICP, Union Square Cafe, the Metropolitan Museum, MOMA, Italian Wine Merchants   So everything is planned...and I'm thinking back to our first trip, when we didn't know a thing, or where to go, or how to make reservations, or which neighborhoods to stay...clueless.   And there is a certain charm in winging it...forty years ago I did that for six full years back and forth between New Zealand and Nepal, every day a new adventure, never knowing where I'd go or stay or eat.   And at that age I loved, I craved, that adventure.   But now with less time and energy, it makes a lot more sense to be planned...but this trip is ridiculously planned! we're going fewer places, more intensive at each stop.  Five days each in Paris, St Paul de Vence (Provence) and Venezia, then a full week in a stone cottage in Umbria.  We know each of these, but this time we're doing things we've missed on previous trips....a full opera/ballet at La Fenice in Venezia, to the top of the Eiffel Tower, living/exploring back-backroads, vineyards, small farms, etc in Umbria.   So we have a well-planned trip and barring an Italian or French train strike, we'll have a flawless, "restful" vacation....the "rest" is for Ruth, I'm going for the "full".

This is our first shot at the blog thing...my intention is to let the pictures do the talking, but we'll both comment as needed or whatever.   There's little doubt in my mind that the pictures will carry a lot more interest than my verbal diarrhea.   Friends from Kodiak narrated their New Zealand blog with haiku....the perfect cure - fewer words, more meaning.   We may try a little haiku too....a poem for those that know 'em.   Oh god...here we go.