June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

We rise early and return to the Napoli airport for our flight to London Heathrow. Aimee has breakfast in the Lounge and a second one on the airplane. She is turning into a hobbit. Italy is mostly mountainous, with the Appenines running right down the spine. We cross into Switzerland and the Alps in full view of the Matterhorn. We enter France over Lake Geneva. The Rhone River is full of glacial till as it enters this border lake.

After a two-hour layover at Heathrow, we board our long trans-Atlantic flight to Dallas. Aimee and I share opposing seats facing each other. Aimee is able to keep an eye on me for the whole flight. It is the first time I have flown in an airplane facing backwards. Very weird.

During our layover in Dallas, I have some tasty beef brisket sandwich. I love Texas BBQ. We get to Tucson just after 8pm.

We ran into more than our fair share of bad luck on this trip; rain, thunderstorms, a Red Alert, Sirocco winds, volcano eruption, train strikes, near-miss landing, missing artifacts, and scaffolding-obscured sites. More than enough to discourage the most ardent travelers. Despite the setbacks, Aimee and I both liked the trip. We still managed to see the most important monuments and had good weather when it really counted. What we missed was minor. But I would have loved to see a cloud-free Mt. Etna actually erupting.... from a safe distance!

One of the things that probably made up for the bad luck was the good food. Despite our extensive travels, we surprisingly had many tasty items, we either haven't had or have only had infrequently. The list included Pistachio-flavored everything, Red Pesto, Caponata, Eggplant Parmigiana, Swordfish, Meloncello, and huge Ricotta-filled Cannoli. And who can't like the Sicilian penchant for eating desserts for breakfast! Thanks to my sister for ensuring we ate well.