new photos!

Hi again,

New photos have been uploaded at the website .

These cover the last days in Greece and the first days in Italy.

Enjoy!

the rest (settle in, this one's pretty long)

When we last left our heroine, she was negotiating the
hills of Forano with very little linguistical help...

That first day in Forano was a challenge, but the
reward was the wonderful welcome meal concocted by
Gianfranco's wife. It was pretty simple, really...
pasta, beef chunks, and meatballs along with fresh
bread and Gianfranco's homemade moonshine... I mean,
wine. The stuff is potent, but good in small doses.
The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful, and I
should have learned to get used to that.

Sunday (the 19th) was a very long, quiet day. We
didn't do a whole lot, and I quickly found myself
itching for some kind of activity. Unfortunately, all
I got was a day of watching Italian TV. Greece scores
a point for choosing to use subtitles instead of
dubbing over TV shows. Not that I watched a lot of TV
in Greece, but since it was the only thing to do in
Forano, I got bored pretty darn quick. In stride, I
took the day as an opportunity to learn about Italy's
viewing audience. From the commercials I could tell
that the most important things out there are cell
phones, bottled water, and Nivea skin care products.
And that was all before lunch. By the end of Sunday,
I was succombing to cabin fever, but Viola finally
eased my mind and told me that Gianfranco had a plan
for us to go around to some of the other villages in
the area on Monday.

Forano sits in a region called Sebina, and in Sebina
there are a good 20 or so tiny little towns, most of
which are built around either a castle or a large
church. On Monday, we traveled to about 7 of these
places, each one as quaint as the next. The drive was
an adventure in and of itself. As we left the house,
I went to buckle up only to be told by Gianfranco that
it °is not necessary to use now.° If you say so, man.
We were riding around in his tiny Fiat, so I figured
that if we did have an accident, the seatbelt simply
keep me from meeting the engine halfway. So I
practiced inconspicuously clenching my jaw and my
fists at each turn. I did okay, and thought that I
had my nerves under control until Gianfranco said,
°okay, now is a good time to put on the belt.° Gulp.

We took a good 3 hours to go around Sebina, stopping
at each little village for a quick looky-loo (which
always included some sort of hike up very steep and
narrow cobblestone paths). One of our stops was at a
small chapel built right into the side of the
mountain. The whole thing was carved out of the
granite and was no more than 20 feet long by 5 or so
wide. To get to it we had to climb a fair amount of
steps, naturally. We stopped for a quick lunch at
Gianfranco's (from here on out, he's going to be
referred to as GF) brother's home. This man, Luciano,
is a gourmet. He made the simplest meal (pasta and a
small steak) but it was so incredibly delicious. My
stomach and taste buds have definitely fallen in love
with Italy.

We finally returned home in the early part of the
afternoon after a visit to one last church that was
built (if memory serves...) around 1300. The coolest
part of it, literally and figuratively, was an area
underneath the altar. I'm not sure of its purpose,
but some of the original frescoes were still well
preserved.

Tuesday was our big travel day. The trip around Sebina
was just a warm up for a big road trip to Orvieto, a
medeival town about an hour north of Forano on the way
to Florence. Like the villages in Sebina, Orvieto is
built around a church. However, this was no little
church, but a huge cathedral with an amazing facade
complete with frescoes and relief images of ... I
don't really know... biblical stuff. :) The cathedral
itself is striped, like the Duomo in Siena (more about
that in a bit), and inside were even more frescoes,
reliefs, and beautiful stained glass. We wandered
around the inside for a while, in large part because
it was nice and cool in there and we were in the midst
of a heat wave. After a few minutes, my jaw dropped
to the rust-colored marble floor when I spotted
someone from my original Greek Islands tour. She made
the same °what the heck are you doing here?° face at
me. After all, it's a small, small world. We caught
up briefly, but she had to go as the bus was leaving
for Siena and this was only a bonus stop for them.

The entire time in Orvieto, GF kept talking about a
well, and I really wasn't sure what he meant. He
tried explaining to me that the donkeys would go down,
pick up the water and come back up. Without changing
directions. I just smiled and nodded figuring that if
it didn't make sense now, it might not ever. But
after an easy stroll around Orvieto, we came to St.
Pozzo's Well. Even as we paid admission (there's a
good racket...) I still wasn't sure where we were or
what we were doing, only that Viola and I would be the
only participants since GF brought his newspaper and
found himself a bench. But we paid, went through the
turnstile, and then began our descent. Viola pointed
through a window at the center and when I looked down,
I realized that we were walking down to the bottom of
the well. Good fun... and they make money off of
this! We walked, and walked, and walked, stopping
every so often to look up to see how far we'd come and
down to see how far we had to go. At the bottom was a
small bridge crossing over the water, which itself was
amazingly clear (once you looked past all of the
litter floating on the top). And instead of turning
around to go back up, we kept moving forward where
another tightly wrapped spiral brought us back up to
the top. The donkeys go down, pick up the water, and
come back up... all without changing directions.
Finally it made some sense. For kicks (?) I decided
to count the steps up. Only 248. The official blurb
about the well (which could have been useful before we
entered) was that it was built around 1500, is 53
meters deep and 7 meters wide, and has 248 steps in
each direction. The water, thanks to tourists, is no
longer drinkable. Although, I think that's probably a
good thing otherwise we would have shared those close
quarters with the donkeys. So ended our day in
Orvieto, and after a slightly terrifying drive on the
Autostrada (main highway) we were back to the safety
of GF's home.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were very lazy days.
Viola and I attended a potluck at her church one
evening where we got to listen to the various choirs
(including the kiddie one) before sampling the
desserts of Forano. We also spent part of a day
roaming around another random village while GF took
his wife to a doctor's appointment. And we whiled
away Friday watching a few movies with the twins (who
stayed home from school for some reason). Finally...
FINALLY it was time for me to catch my (blessedly
airconditioned) train to Rome.

The main difference (besides gender) between the city
cousin and country cousin is the city cousin's command
of English. If I had the time between school, yard
work, heartache, two part time jobs and an internship,
I would have squeezed in some Italian lessons. But I
didn't, and I was grateful that Lilly could understand
and speak English way better than GF, Viola, and (at
times) me. :) She met me at the train station and
brought me across Rome to the building where her
mother and brother live (conveniently next door to
each other). The other main difference which had the
biggest affect on how I felt during this part of the
trip, was the fact that I'd met these people before.
And even though it had been at least 10 years since we
last saw each other, I was greeted with open arms,
many kisses, and (again) a big meal. I loved it and
felt better than I had during the whole week in
Forano. Plus, I was in a city, where we could go and
do stuff.

Then: Surprise... we're going to the mountains.
Great. Why not? So about 15 hours after getting to
the Eternal City, we were packed up and on our way to
Tuscany for 6 days. But it turned out okay. Lilly
made sure that we did something out of the house every
day, and even though that always resulted in a strain
on my patience courtesy of her (devil) child, it was
wonderful. We spent a couple of days wandering around
Santa Fiora (where we stayed) and the next °big° town,
Arcidosso. On another day, we went to the hotsprings
of Bagno San Fillipe (don't quote me on that name).
Even though it was way too warm to take a dip, I loved
seeing the cascading water pool in ... uh... pools of
light light blue before continuing their way down the
mountain. Of course, it didn't smell so good, but it
was pretty.

Our big adventure was a day trip to Siena, where I
came close to strangling the young Federica. Several
times, Lilly gave her the option of staying at the
house with her grandmother, but the little booger
insisted on coming with us even though Lilly told her
that it would be hot, hilly, and very exhausting. I
kid you not, we took fifteen steps from the car and
she began whining about how tired she was. The day
went kind of downhill from there. This was when
Lilly's knowledge of English was unfortunate, as all I
wanted to do was tell the child off (it was hot, and I
was cranky too) but couldn't. Let me tell you about
this kid. I said in the last email that she was 5.
She looks about 6, but is, in fact, 4 and a half.
She's huge. Tall and pretty stocky. She would
out-eat me at most of our meals, plus she would snack
all day. She's rarely told °no° and consequently she
knows exactly how to get her way, and doesn't stop
until she gets it. Usually it doesn't take too long.
She. Drove. Me. Crazy. (Can you tell I only recently
parted company with the reincarnate of Veruca Salt??)

But, I digress. Siena was another amazing medeival
town, built around the Duomo (another striped
cathedral) and the Piazza del Campo. From what I
understand (granted, limited knowledge at this point
in the day, heat, and humidity), twice each year in
the piazza, there's a kind of medeival festival.
Siena itself is divided into different sections, each
one represented by a different animal. (Think Harry
Potter and Griffindor, Ravenswhatever, Slytherin,
etc.) At the festival, there is a horse race where
each section of town is represented. I'm not sure if
the winner gets anything more than bragging rights,
but it's a huge event nonetheless. The center of the
piazza gets jam packed with spectators for the
day-long affair. Federica said she wanted to come
back for it (it takes place this Saturday). We spent
as much time as Federica would allow walking around
Siena. And shortly after her second fall of the day,
we called it quits and headed back to Santa Fiora. I
don't know about Lilly, but I had Excedrin headache
No. 34.

Whew.

Today, we came back to Rome where I got my first real
opportunity to experience city traffic at rush hour.
Holy cow. Bats can fly around in large groups because
their echolocation prevents them from crashing into
each other. I think drivers in Rome operate in the
same fashion. I don't know why I haven't seen more
accidents. Maybe I just need to spend a bit more time
in the city. And, I truly believe that the kamikaze
fighter pilots from WWII were reincarnated and all
live in Rome and drive scooters. They're nuts. And I
thought the country roads would give me an ulcer.

So, tomorrow I will finally get a chance to explore
part of Rome. I'm starting with the Vatican, only
because I managed to talk Lilly out of worrying about
me for a day. Yes, that means I can go all by my
lonesome, and we'll catch up later for a balloon ride
(a touristy, scenic vista kind of thing) in Villa
Borghese (Rome's version of Central Park from what I
understand).

Thanks for making it through this volume. Hopefully
my internet access comes a bit more frequently. I'm
going to send more pictures off soon.

All the best to everyone!
Love,
Michele

Athens to Italy, part I

I've written this so many times in my head that I'm no
longer sure where to begin now that I've finally sat
down at a computer.

The basics:
I'm in Italy. And it's hot. But, as they say, it's
not the heat that gets you....

Since I'm such a fan of backtracking, I should pick up
where I left off: Athens. The previous night was that
great, impromptu concert with Mr. Domingo. The next
day I finally hauled myself up to the Acropolis. I'd
seen it from every angle and figured I should break
down and make the hike. Thursday was insanely hot,
but I just slathered on the Coppertone and made tracks
for the ruins. I was as amazed by the site itself as
I was by the number of people milling about. I hadn't
encountered that big a crowd on the trip, and the
combination of the numbers and the less-than-stable
terrain made the experience a bit of an effort. The
tour groups had it good. The guides explained
everything on the top, their purpose, their history,
etc. For all the groups, I couldn't find one with an
English speaking guide (because I had no qualms about
pretending to be part of a group for the free trivia).
So I kind of milled about and went 'ooh. pretty!'
every now and again.

Later that night I managed to run into a few folks
from the islands group and we decdided to continue our
anti-greek food trend and went out for sushi. It was
great on its own, but it was REALLY great because
there were no olives, feta cheese, or moussaka to be
found. After dinner, we decided to try and find an
movie theater. Hahh.. That proved to be an adventure
and a half. And a totally fruitless one at that. We
gave up after a few hours (we found one place showing
Batman Begins, but that didn't interest any of us) and
decided to meet again the next evening and head
directly for a theater that we knew of that had a sign
advertising Mr and Mrs Smith.

I woke up on Friday thinking that it would be just our
luck to show up for the movie only to find that it
wasn't showing, so I headed to the theater, found out
that, in fact, it wasn't showing for another week, and
then started a quest to find a theater that I could a)
find and b) find again when I got back with our
shrinking group. It took most of the day, but I did
it. The place was a tiny little outdoor theater in
the shadow of the Acropolis (I learned to be less
impressed by this as my time in Athens went
by...everything seems to be in the shadow of the
Acropolis). We found a happy hour before the show and
were in prime form by the time it started. When ice
cold beer is as cheap as ice cold water....

I said goodbye to Athens on Saturday, and made the
quick hop over to Rome. I had arranged to meet up
with my cousin at the airport, and I found her without
any difficulty. What surprised me, however, was that
a different cousin was standing right next to her,
both of them holding 'Michele Summa' signs. Whooops.
They talked amongst themselves for a short bit and it
was decided that I would head off to the country
first. Fine by me. I felt bad for the city-cousin,
mostly becuase her 5 year old was staring at me from
behind some big brown eyes and I couldn't explain to
her that I would be back. And so, I was off with
Gianfranco... a 75-80ish yearold, tiny man with bright
white hair. He was accompanied by his two
grandchildren Edoardo and Viola. (Viola I remembered
hearing about from my grandmother when she had visited
Italy back in 1992. Viola was probaby 3 or 4 at the
time, and my jaw dropped when I realized that the 17
year old in front of me was the chubby bambino from
Grandma's photos.) We made our way to the train
station (already familiar to me from my trip to Athens
from Paris) and left for Forano.

Forano is large by comparison to some of the other
villages in the area, but when compared to any other
city on a map, it's tiny. It's the town of origin for
the (I'm going to butcher this spelling... sorry Dad)
Pazzaglia family. Among the 11-12 Pazzaglia children
was my great grandmother (as well as her famous
sister--the woman who played the dying Italian mother
in Moonstruck). Gianfranco is one of many first
cousins in my grandmother's ginormous generation. So.
Suffice it to say (yeah, why start now?) there's a
lot of people to meet in Forano. And Gianfranco
paraded me around proudly, introducing me as 'the
niece of Billy.' A title that sort of irked me. My
uncle visits there frequently, but my parents have
been there as well. So I just made sure to follow the
introduction with the clarification that I was (more
importantly) the daughter of Donny and Joanne and the
grand daughter of Jeanette. Good enough. I can't say
how many people I was introduced to, and I couldn't
say much to them either. The language barrier threw
me for a loop. Even though I had some key phrases
memorized, and even though I did pretty good at
understanding questions and nodding or shaking my head
in response, I couldn't say much. Call it performance
anxiety.

This is still day one of the adventure, but I must
give the keyboard a break. More will follow in a few
days. Stay tuned. :)

In the meantime, photos from London, Paris, and Greece
have been posted at the website. Check them out. :)

Love,
Michele

A myth of Shaquillian proportions

As the legend goes:

Greek Reporter covering the 2004 Games:

Have you been to the Acropolis yet?

Shaq:

We've been to a lot of clubs, but I can't remember the
name of all of them.

***

My Greek island adventure ended as calmly as it began.
We did our volcano hike on Santorini, and I took lots
of photos from the middle of the caldera. We survived
the walk down the donkey trail, easily breaking my
streak of avoiding donkey-doo (it's hard to avoid when
it covers the entire sidewalk). I was wrong with the
number of steps. I said 582, but it was 588... I only
know this becuase they're labeled on the way back up.
Not that I even considered walking back up, but at one
point I did turn to look back and saw little white
numbers on each of the steps.

As volcanos go, Santorini's was neat. Lots of rocks,
big and little, up hill trails and down hill trails.
It only took about 30 minutes to reach the top, then
we had a look around before returning to our boat.
From there, we circled around the volcano island and
dropped anchor near one of Santorini's other islands
for a quick swim to a thermal spring. Nothing quite
like diving off of a boat into blue-green water and
swimming until it warmed to the temperature of a balmy
bath. We sloshed around in the mud, exfoliating with
the little chunks of volcanic rock, and trying to
one-up each other withthe amount of mud we could
slather onto ourselves. The swim back to the boat was
enough to remove the mud, and it was also enough to
shock our bodies with the colder water (what goes up
must come down). After the adventure, it was a crepe
lunch and then a rest by the pool before returning to
Oia for another sunset picnic.

The next day (Monday, I think) we caught the ferry to
Naxos which is the one "real" island we went to. It's
far less touristy than the others and is the only
Greek island with a stop light. We spent one of our
days walking around the shops, and both nights
enjoying good food and cheap drinks (one place we went
to had a nine-hour happy hour, but we only stayed for 2).

On Wednesday, we returned to Athens after a sweltering
5-hour ferry ride (we should have sat elsewhere on the
boat). Our group scattered a bit, but decided to meet
up for dinner. From dinner, we took an evening stroll
around Plaka, the district of Athens that sits at the
base of the Acropolis. Some of the crew had flights
today, and wanted one more chance for photos of the
Acropolis at night, so we wandered back up towards it.
To our surprise, the roads just below the site were
packed with cars, and really nice ones at that. The
closer we got, the more we could hear singing and
clapping coming from behind the walls of the Greek
theater (where Yanni did his "Live at the Acropolis"
thing a few years back). Lots of people were milling
about outside the gates, listening to the opera, so we
joined them for a bit, imagining the costumes and
performances that were just on the other side of the
wall. Tash (our new guide) laughed and said,
"Wouldn't it be funny if it was Pavoratti singing, and
we were just sitting here listening for free." That
got me wondering, so I took a wander around the
grounds until I found a sign listing all of the summer
performances. It wasn't Pavoratti, but it was Placido
Domingo. :) And it was fantastic.

We stayed through intermission, and had a blast
watching all of Greek stars (most with surgically
altered bodies) walk outside for a smoke and a smile
for the paparazzi. Of course we had no idea who any
of them were, but they were glammed up enough for us
to have lots of fun a la Joan and Melissa Rivers at
the Oscars.

Today I finally hauled my cookies to the top of the
Acropolis and had a look around. Absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately, and fortunately, it's in the process of
being restored, so scaffolding was as prominent as the
marble. And it was packed... PACKED... with tour
groups. The people watching was as entertaining as
the sights were interesting.

Not sure how I'm going to spend the rest of my two
days here. I'm sure I'll resume my quest for getting
lost again.

I sent a bunch of pictures home, and they will soon be
posted at www.michelesumma.com. (We knew it was only
a matter of time, right?) Thanks heaps to my Uncle
Frank for posting each of my "reports" as well as
photos from the trip and some graduation photos as
well. Peruse at your leisure. :)

Love to all,
Michele

Santorini--Greek for "buns of steel"

Forget Austria because the hills are truly alive on
Santorini. Holy cow. And I haven't even done the
volcano hike organized by our tour guides yet. That's
tomorrow (Sunday) and it starts with a casual walk
down 582 steps. We have the option of walking back up
(yeah, right), taking a donkey (too mean... the ass I
save could be my own), or riding in a little
gondola/skyride thing. I have a feeling I'll have to
put aside my growing fear of ascending over sheer
cliffs otherwise live at the port and beg someone to
bring my luggage to the boat the day after. But why
am I spending so much time writing about something I
haven't even done yet?? I don't know either.

Last you heard, I was on Paros, and I had made the
choice to stay with my group instead of hanging back.
So far (and I know I haven't been traveling THAT long)
it's been the best decision I've made. We got to Ios
after another long ferry ride, and checked into our
campsite around 5 p.m. We were supposed to spend the
afternoon on the water (our guides had arranged for us
to rent kayaks and be pulled around on tubes behind
ski boats), but we were all too wiped out for that.
My little 8euro bungalow was great. Three of us
shared it, and it was kind of like living in a sugar
bowl. Pure white on the inside (it's the Greek
island-way it seems) and completely round. We rested
up, took "disco naps" and then headed over to the
restaurant next door for our group dinner. We stayed
at a place called Far Out camping, which is basically
a daytime crash pad for all the people who go out and
live it up at night. Ios has earned its reputation as
a party island, that's for sure.

Our first night out was a blast. We started out at a
place called The Fun Pub (appropriate) and then
migrated up to the square for a little barhopping and
(for some) bar dancing. The rest of us were content
to keep our feet on the totally packed dancefloor. I
can't imagine Ios at the peak of the travel season.
It was hard enough to walk through the narrow streets
(two people walking side by side would struggle) at
this point. Matty, one of the doormen I met told me
that sometimes it takes over half an hour to walk
across the square (which is probably about 50 yards).
It was nuts, but so incredibly fun. Night #1 ended at
5 a.m., which I didn't think I could possibly top, but
I managed when I got home at 6 a.m. the next morning.
Time stops on Ios, and (as one of the older, wiser
travelers in our group) I knew enough to make the fun
out of dancing, not drinking. I'm not getting
preachy, but let's just say that on the second night,
one of the guys spent 150Eu on drinks, while I managed
to have as much fun (and remember it) with a 2Eu beer
and a few free shots. :) Still, it was fun to tell
that 6'5" aussie guy what a dork he'd been.

The days on Ios were spent belly up at the pool or on
the beach (except for the second day when we finally
got our tube ride). That afternoon was spent hanging
on for dear life. I crashed and burned a few times,
and had to bail out intentionally at one point when I
felt the bottom of my swim suit somewhere down by my
knees. Whoops. ;)

Our happy group finally disbanded on the third day in
Ios. Some had only signed on for the three island
tour (a three island tour... thank you, I'll be here
all week) and so we lost a few who were heading back
to Athens that morning. A bit later, all but six of
us headed for the ferry to Santorini. I think that
was my favorite day, not because we lost the people,
but because about 85% of our group just spent the day
sitting around talking to each other, grazing on meals
at times, reliving some memories (and being reminded
of others better left unremembered). At that point,
after too much singing and dancing, I had no voice,
but I wasn't the only one. Our guide Renee lost hers
as well (natch, we were the only ones to last until 6
a.m.). We were quite a pair.

But they left, and I think I went to bed at 10 that
night and slept straight through until 10 the next
morning. The next group arrived that day, and it was
time to start all over again. But I only lasted until
3. My lost voice evolved into a sore throat which got
pretty cozy with my already bad cough, and by the time
I got here to Santorini four days ago, I was in pretty
bad shape. So while the new group went on their
volcano hike, I went to a pharmacy to get another
bottle of the syrup I'd gotten on Mykonos (even though
it didn't do the trick). But the pharmacist heard me
cough and sent me to the doctor. Bronchitis. Yippe.
Greek drugs and a day in bed with a really good book
helped.

Santorini. I don't even really know where to begin.
When I stepped off the boat, I thought I was going to
get vertigo from looking up at the cliff wall
(rememeber the donkey option from earlier?). At the
port, it feels like being at the bottom of the grand
canyon. And all along the cliffs, almost like snow
caps, are these tiny little villages. It's beautiful.
On our second night, we set out for Oia on the
western tip of the island and watched a pretty amazing
sunset. We all stocked up on picnic supplies, and
just sat there eating and watching the sun go down and
the moon come up. It was great, but we spent a little
too much time hanging out afterwards and literally had
to do a 100-yard dash to catch the bus back. (Thanks
to our new guide, Belinda, who chased the bus down and
got the driver to stop while the rest of us raced to
catch up.) I opted for a quiet night (way too into
the book at that point) while the others went out for
a much tamer night on the town than Ios offered.

The next day (Thursday), the four of us from the
original group moved hotels when the second group
departed for their fifth island. (The group thing:
every Sunday and Thursday a tour group leaves Athens
for 2 nights on each of the 3 or 5 islands. When you
opt to stay longer, as I did on both Santorini and
Ios, you can wait for the next group to come through
or catch the ferry on your own.) Anyhoo, our
"organized" hotel was a bit pricey, so we moved into
the center of town to a place that was half the price
of the other. Location, location, location... a few
less hills to climb. Our now-foursome set out in
different directions, exploring on our own. Lots of
cool jewelry, crafts, leather, and other random art
shops. We gathered back again intime for dinner, but
it wound up being a quiet night as the rest of them
were still trying to recover from the night before.

Yesterday, we all kicked in 7Eu and rented a car for
the day and went all over the place. But not before a
hearty breakfast at Mama's Place. Whoa, Mama. Mama's
a little 70-something grandmother who actually used to
live in San Jose and work at SFO. But she's here now
and she is a kick in the pants. She's a spitfire with
a potty mouth and greeted us with a very loud "Hey you
Sexy Buns!" as we walked into her restaurant. She
cursed a blue streak in the kitchen, but cooked and
served us a huge, American-style breakfast.

From there we covered every bit of Santorini. We saw
ancient cities that were in the process of being
excavated. We went to red sand beaches and black sand
beaches, saw the island from its highest point
(willing our little car to make it up there). It was
great. Pictures will come eventually. After a day of
driving around and soaking up even more sunshine, we
landed at a little pub that served the coldest and
cheapest beer I've had so far. 1.50 for half a liter
of frrrrrrrosty Amstel. It was pretty close to
heaven. Eventually, we got back to the hotel, and
cleaned up for another night out. That was pretty
uneventful, and as I write this, my cohorts are
sleeping off the effects and probably quite hungover.
I'm about to catch a bus back to the west end of the
island to check it out and have a day to myself.
Togetherness is wearing me out. The next group
arrives tonight, and I'm looking forward to getting
some new people to spend time with.

After Santorini, it's onto Naxos for 2 nights, and
then Athens for a few days before I fly to Rome to
spend a few weeks with various family members. Time
to learn a new language. :)

Before I go (the counter is ticking down) a few
statistics:

Books read - 5 (The Dirt--Motley Crue, Citizen
Girl--Emma Kaufmann, The Butterfly House--Someone
Sucky, Valhalla Rising--that was the one I couldn't
put down--Clive Cussler, and Paradise House--Someone
Schmaltzy)

Gyros eaten - 4

Olives eaten - 64 (that's just a guess, but it's
probably not far off)

Donkey bombs successfully avoided - countless
Donkey bomb failures - NONE! (that jinxes me for the
day)

:)

Time's about up. Love to you all!
Michele

Worth about 7,000 words

Hey again,

Here are some photos of the Greek adventure thus far.
Lefkes is a little inland town that we walked through
today, and Punda Beach is another stop we made for a
few hours of fun and R&R in the sun. A Corona (or
two) would have completed that picture. I took a few
dips in the Aegean today. Nice and salty. Just
floated around without using an ounce of energy (which
is good since that's about all I've got left these
days). The pics from Mykonos are from a few days ago.
The one from Contiki shows the view from my room.

Decided to stick with the group and go to Ios tomorrow
instead of hanging out here on Paros with Leo. We get
a deal on scuba lessons and other beach activities
(more kayaking, I'm sure), and the bungalow I'll get
to stay in is half the price we're paying here (only 8
euros!). Plus, I love our group. We're having too
much fun to say goodbye just yet, but lots of us will
scatter from Ios. From Ios it's onto Santorini for a
week or so, and then onto Naxos before returning to
Athens.

:)

Michele