Bookchick Leaving Soon!
 

Hi Everyone!
I am so excited because I am leaving soon to visit my god-daughter in Exeter, UK and then I will fly off to my beloved Italy until early October. (Just spending a few days with the god-daughter to make sure she settles in to school over there okay. Also, we will have an early celebration of her 21st birthday!)

This is time I've returned to Italy since early 2003, when I was diagnosed with leukemia, and dealing with my mom's illness, and then we lost my dad so suddenly last year. The UK was a terrific place for me to visit friends this past January, and I loved going there, but this time I really feel that I am going "home". (To both places, because I have a pretty good grasp of greater London, where I'll be landing and taking the train to Exeter.)

Thanks again to all of you Fodorites for the good wishes and all the recs on where to eat! I'm planning on trying some new restaurants in Rome, as well as patronizing a couple of "old favorites".

Best to All,
BC

BC, have a great trip. You deserve it after all your terrible troubles. I admire the way you have bounced back and approach the future with such grace and positive spirit.

Hey BC, Good for you. I hope you have a terrific time--you deserve it.

Hopefully the UK weather will brighten up for your visit, it's so dreadfully grey today!

Have fun, and if you'd like any advice for the UK, please feel free to ask.

MK is right its pretty awful in Dublin as well, hopefully it will pick up by the time you get here. Glad to hear you are doing well, I knew your were ill but I felt it wasn't my place to ask. Good on you pet!

It will brighten up considerably once our dear BookChick arrives ((#))

Honey, I hope every day is perfect for you and that you feel wonderful throughout your holiday!
I do hope that we will hear from you, just once in a while, a note to make us all green with envy!
Give yourself a big hug and lotsa love from Scarlett & Pup and the Yankee who wants to know if we can come with you next time :D

Bookchick, have a fabulous trip! If anyone deserves it, you do. :)

Have a wonderful trip, bookchick, and mangia bene!

Bookchick. I hardly know what to say. It sounds like you have had some really tough years and hopefully that is all behind you now. I love that you are starting to travel again! Your post has brightend my day. You are a reminder of how we should celebrate each day. Hope you have a great trip and we will all be with you in spirit!

Bookchick,
Your exuberance shines through from your side of the screen to mine.((#))

Best wishes for a marvelous trip. >:D<

This news is so great. It is obviously true that good things eventually happen to good people. I know from your posts how you love Rome--we do too and haven't been there for a couple of years now. Please sit in a favorite piazza and have a glass of wine for us!

Best wishes to your god-daughter and to you for a wonderful and rewarding trip!

Have a wonderful time!

Hi Bookchick! I have a wonderful, stupendous, rip-roaring, joyously frollicking time!

Buon Viaggio, BC! I hope (and am sure) you will have a wonderful time. As Degas said, you deserve it.

Just last night, I discovered a book called <i>Elements of Italy</i>, by Lisa St. Aubin de Ter&aacute;n.
In it, she writes...
_________________________

My love affair with Italy began when I was a child of eight and first read Byron's letters. I can almost say with Browning: &quot;<i>Open my heart and you will see, engraved inside of it, 'Italy'</i>&quot;

This is a country full of passion and a country which foreigners feel passionate about. Stendahl concluded: &quot;<i>The charm of Italy is akin to that of being in love.</i>&quot;

I am often asked why I have chosen to live in Italy (I have been here for seventeen years now), and my answers include the Italians' love of art, the beauty of both landscape and architecture, and the people's love of life and generosity of spirit.

Something happens in Italy: people cross into new emotional fields. In Rome it is easier to see how a poet like Goethe couild find &quot;<i>all the dreams of my youth I now behold realised before me</i>&quot; than to explain how Edward Gibbon with his temper &quot;<i>not very susceptible of enthusiasm</i>&quot; was so swept off his feet. A lyrical, rhapsodical radiance seems to envelop the coolest and most rational of human beings.
___________________________

I suspect you share Browning's sentiment.

Ciao!

Bookchick, as a fellow sufferer (chronic), I wish you good thoughts for a wonderful trip!

BC--- best wishes for a wonderful trip!! Check in once in a while :-D

All the more reason to have a truly special trip!

Well done you! Joy and ease and pleasure to you! And WOW to Capo's post.

Bookchick,

I am so glad to hear about your return to Italy. You are one of the &quot;true class&quot; people on this board and it is fantastic that after all you've gone through you get to see Italy again!

Have a WONDERFUL time!

Another WOW to Capo's post. The quotes so beautiful and appropos I have tears in my eyes, because I agree!