These stories are so moving! I cannot travel right now, but I miss Italy so very much. My family, Irish immigrants to North America, has never understood my fascination with Italy. But I know everyone who posted here "gets it". The warmth, the camraderie, the sincerity, the appreciation of self-expression---these are all the attributes that make me love the Italian people so very much. Thank you, iamkane, what a great thread!

BC

The Italian Language Police will get me on that misspelling: la famiglia!. I shouldn't be typing at night after being up since 5:30 a.m.

topping...

Alas, i_am_kane, I am sorry to have to tell you that my brother's website (traveljack) that had the link to the story of our trip in '97 is no longer available. I saw him just this past weekend and asked him about it. However, a short portion of that chronicle is online at this link:

http://www.donardpublishing.com/storylist2.html

He entered a chapter of it in a short story contest and that's where it's posted. (It's story # 90.) If you look at his site, which is www.traveljack.net, you'll see some lovely pictures of Italy, as he is quite an amateur photographer.

Enjoy!

TO: JanT, thank you for replying. I'll be sure to log on to those two sites tomorrow.

It's getting late. Goodnight

Hey again,

Got your message about the travel chronicle, i_am_kane. As my sister JanT reported, the Italian site that had posted it is now defunct after almost four years - too bad, it was fun to be able to point folks to it. But I do have the text available if you'd like to see it.

There are actually two volumes, the first being from the 1997 'roots' trip (that's the one that was posted online, and from which I pulled the short story that Jan mentioned). The second volume is from the May 2000 trip that I took with my lady who (unwittingly) contributed to the text.

After a nice tour of Rome, we drove to northern Calabria and stayed at an agriturismo for a week, then to Positano, Capri, and back to Rome. While in Calabria we made daytrips to Civita, Oriolo, Stilo, and Matera. I ended up with about 100 pages of text, then added around 200 photos. The general direction of that text was more like a book, in that I included chapters on prepping and such, and I made it into a 'he said, she said' interplay, ultimately a survival guide for international travel with your spouse or partner.

Both chonicles were fun to do. I'd be happy to share them in any way or form, so if you're interested just send me a request by email and I'll respond straightaway. My contact email is available through my site:

www.traveljack.net

Look forward to more fodor-ing - it's great to share, and to realize that so many people care so deeply about the Old Country.

Now, where's my ticket...?

In the Mail.:)

Loved your pictures, especially the one of the Roman door. Thanks for sharing.

Which limo driver did you use and which restaurant were in in Capri? Thanks for info we are leaving Sept 4!!

TravelJack...I sent a messge to your e-mail address.