Category: Travel - A Cottage by the Sea

Flunking silence, solitude and simplicity

4/4/2022

I flunked silence, solitude, and simplicity on my way home on Friday. The flight from Florence went well, as did my trek through the CDG Paris airport. The 1:30 PM flight to Boston was a little delayed, but no problem. As we neared Ireland the pilot announced that due to a little mechanical problem we would be turning back to CDG, but no problem. Fine with me. We were told that Air France personnel would meet the plane and help us rebook our flight, but no problem. That was at 6 PM. Then the problem began.
Five plus hours later, at 11:30 PM, along with two young women who had taken me under their wing, we were in a taxi to an airport hotel twenty minutes away (it’s a HUGE airport). The following day, after comfy but rather unrestful sleep, a full breakfast with my new friends, and a taxi back to the terminal, we boarded the 1:30 flight and made it to Boston 15 minutes early. No problem. Clearly Air France flunked.

A picture tells a thousand words.

A picture tells a thousand words.

That being noted, I flunked keeping the silence, solitude, and simplicity that l long for and want to create in my life. At times during the five hour wait in line, I spoke up with annoyance and impatience, forgetting my calm, my zen, my loving spirit. In my defense, however, along with my travel companions, I also remembered my gratitudes. Everyone of us was able to stop being self-involved, to recall the Ukrainians, either fleeing or hiding from death guns and bombs.

Off to Florence

3/20/2022

I’m at Logan Airport. Easy bus ride without a sign of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. One person ahead of me going through security. Vino Volo opened this past Monday. I’m enjoying a glass of wine and some Italian meatballs and baguette slices. Travel is picking up. I am ready. I’m going. Air France to Paris and then on to Italy. I’ll arrive at the Florence airport tomorrow morning at 8:45, take the tram in the Centro, walk to my rental apartment, get the key, walk to Piazza della Signoria, and meet my friend Virginia at Michelangelo’s David. After our lunch together I will begin my solitary time walking around with God, writing, visiting churches and museums, and just….being.

Easy trip home

12/20/2021

I’m home. Easy travel--Florence, CDG Airport, Boston--except for the bumper-to -bumper traffic from Logan Airport to home. Everyone was on the road. I wonder what it will be like this weekend with omicrom seemingly taking over our lives? I never was concerned that I wouldn’t make it home, but I glad I came when I did. Nothing is for certain and Covid news is changing minute by minute.
The airline emailed me that I had to have a covid test the day before I flew. At a pharmacy in Florence it took no more than 15 minutes to receive the test and a print out indicating I tested negative. And then, that was the last I heard about it; I was NEVER asked to show the paper. Going through customs was the easiest ever. The good news was that most likely everyone on the plane was covid free!!

Travel to Italy in 2021

9/30/2021

I’ve often said that if I were homeless I’d live in an airport. The ease of this trip is affirming that choice. We got off on time from Boston and arrive a half hour early in Paris— benefited from the headwinds and because there are fewer flights these days for air traffic control to manage.

Terminal E at Logan Airport looked like a ghost town. No waiting in line to check in or to pass through security. The security folk were serious but relaxed—they chatted with us as they did their job. Only a tiny bar and pizza place was available at this international terminal. Folks were spread out, waiting for one of the five or six evening flights to Europe.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the people on the flight were flying for the first time in over a year and a half (My last flight was in September 2019 to Florence). The new Air France jet was huge, with three seats along the window side and four in the middle. Covid safe! — one passenger for every three seat. We were spread out, one traveler per row, giving us pace to lie down to sleep and rest our legs. Service was prompt; no lines for the lavatory.
Charles de Gaul airport was busier. After all, I was in Europe! People were going places—within the EU, around the world. As I sat waiting for my flight to Rome, I felt I was stepping back into life—something I can’t do alone. I need all these other people leading their lives, checking their phones, going wherever they need to go, wearing their masks, showing their Covid vaccine card.
Now that I am in Florence, I am feeling that the U.S. is somewhere else, isolated, doing its thing, some trying to clean up the mess, others trying to rewrite its history, while the rest of the world is moving forward together.

Traveling light

9/27/2021

Traveling light; ready to go; documents in order, including the results of my my negative Covid test. I wasn’t expect anything different. I feel healthy and excited.
Yesterday at church my friends were very enthusiastic about my trip. My response, “Well someone has to travel; it might as well be me! I have the sense that my trip offers others the hope that good things are possible. People count on me to be positive. I don’t want to disappoint, so off I go. In 24 hours I’ll be in Florence!

Documents for travel to Italy in Covid times

9/22/2021

I’m getting my documents and other paperwork ready for next Monday’s flight to Italy. There are the pre-covid ones—passport and alerting my credit card banks that I will be away—so they don’t think my cards have been stolen and put a stop on them.
Then there are the new ones for the covid era we now live it. 1) The essential one is the card given to me when I received the two jabs of my Covid vaccine, which in Europe is referred to as the Green Card. 2) EU-PFL Document, required for air travel to Europe. It gives my flight information, including seat numbers! 3) A Covid test 72 hours before my arrival at my final destination. I’ve scheduled my test for 3:50PM Saturday afternoon at CVS; should get the results on my phone in 48 hours.
If you are traveling to Europe soon, check out these requirement. Keep current; regulations are changing all the time.
Now for the non-document preparations. Packing and sorting out the right computer plugs.

Off to Italy--9/21

9/18/2021

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve been sitting quietly with plans to go to Italy. To go, or not to go, that was the question. I made the reservations in July for the simple reason is that if I didn’t make them, the trip would never happen. Duh! I know it is meant to be. Here’s why. ( Italy 9/27-10/11)
   In filling out a Passenger Locator Form for travel to Europe, I discovered that my Alitalia flights (partnered with Delta) had been cancelled, and that I hadn’t been notified. The only reason I found this out is because the form asked for the seat numbers of my flight: so I checked my reservation … no flight.
It took 25 minutes to reach a live Delta representative on the phone and then an hour with a very patient the representative to sort it all out. I settled on the best alternative to the original direct Boston-Rome flight that had been cancelled. UGH, now a layover. Much to decide, with no more than a minute to process. Should I fly to Atlanta to avoid a layover in Europe? No! Is an hour and a half layover at JFK from Boston enough time to board an international flight? No! Is a six and a half hour layover at JFK too long? Yes.
   I finally decided on Paris, where at least I can buy a croissant with really butter. I fly at 5:15 PM instead of 9:45PM, and will get to Rome at 11:25AM, about the same time as my original non-stop flight— time enough to take a train to Florence supper at the Piazza della Signoria.
   With all of this change of plans, the trip is still meant to be. A plus to all of this is the awesome view flying over the Alps. I have a window seat.

Be your own person

8/31/2021

There is power in solitude—not just physically and in terms of aloneness and silence—but in solitude of being one’s own person… Beverly Lanzetta
I came across this quote in the August 2021 newsletter of Raven’s Bread—in its mention of Lanzetta new book, The Monk Within: Embracing a Sacred Way of Life.

Hmm, being one’s own person! We like to think we are. Anyone of us ‘obsessed’ with solitude, can take some ownership in that. We introverts (actually I am right on the fulcrum of the introvert/extrovert continuum) must have a sense of being our own person, or else we’d be finding all kinds of excuses to spend more time with others. We don’t only wish we had the nerve to do things differently, we do them.
For example, I don’t just love the idea of travel alone, I do it. At the moment I am working on plans to go to Italy. I am vaccinated and I can wear a mask in Florence as easily as I can in Massachusetts. In myriad ways, Covid is calling us to be our own person. The challenge is not to infringe on another’s right to be their own person.

Solitude memories during the pandemic

11/25/2020

Take by my dad during our trip. NOT a picture of me.

I am feeling deeply content with my solitude these days. The pandemic has taken away the need for a calendar, and I love that. Oh, I have things to do and people to keep up with, but most of these lend themselves to solitude. And so, I’ve been thinking about how I loved those cottage days, with weekday after weekday to be filled by my whim.
But a new memory has appeared, of me, age 19 riding a bike along a country road in Norway. My parents, sister, and I were staying at an inn somewhere in the countryside and my parents had agreed that I could rent a bike and take a ride by myself. Looking back, this may be my first memory as a ‘adult’ of taking off independently. For years my parents had let me bike all over town, both alone and with friends, so that wasn’t new, but biking alone in a foreign country was. I remember talking with my parents about it and then encouraging myself to actually get on the bike and take off. I recall biking on a flat road along a lake and after a half hour or so deciding I’d better turn back so no one would worry about me. I, however, was not worried or afraid, and that freedom has remained with me throughout all my solitary travel.
What brought this memory forth, this memory which is now so visceral? I’ve been reading The Storm Sister, the second in a series by Lucinda Riley, about a young woman who searches for her roots in Norway. This has led me to start rereading (slowly, one chapter a day) Astrid & Veronika, by my absolute favorite author, Linda Olsson, about two women, one young, one old, each living alone in rural Sweden, who develop a friendship. Why these books? I come back full circle for this love of solitude.

Museum of Russian Icons: a travel alternative

3/2/2020

My decision to cancel my trip to Italy hasn’t wavered. The best deal I have from the airline is to pay a $175.00 cancellation fee (instead of the usual $300). I’m still pondering whether to take it or wait to see if they cancel the flight entirely. .
Meanwhile, as I hold onto vacation mode, alternative plans are brewing. As a start, I took a day last week to visit the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA. A jewel of place, with its art work, ambience, and free parking. With very few visitors, I felt like I was walking around alone in a beautiful sanctuary.
Friday, my flight date, I’m meeting my daughter before she picks up her son for college spring break. I’m considering a three night retreat and/or a few nights in Maine. Stay tuned.