Bill and Noël’s Excellent Adventure

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

In just a few hours, Noël and I will be boarding our flight to Rome. After a four-month hiatus, it’s time for me to write something again.

My sister, Noël’s Aunt Judy, was the inspiration for this trip, and it’s turned into quite the family outing. All eleven of us are somehow connected to the Lavezzi name. At times the webconferences we’ve used to coordinate the trip have covered four time zones. We’re traveling in six groups, on six different schedules. To keep it simple, here’s a brief summary of the itinerary Noël and I will follow.

  • We leave for Rome today and arrive about 11:00 AM local time tomorrow. (That’s 5:00 AM back home.)
  • On Tuesday, September 17, we start our journey north by driving our three-car convoy through Florence to Cicagna.
  • On Thursday, September 19, we head to Bettola, the home of Costantino Lavezzi (born 1813) and Rosa Raggio (born 1816), who were my great-great-grandfather and great-great grandmother and the common link among those of us making this trip.
  • On Friday, September 20, we have scheduled a side trip to Parma to meet the “big cheese”: Parmigiano Reggiano.
  • On Saturday, September 21, we head for Genoa.
  • On Tuesday, September 24, we leave Genoa for Rome.
  • On Wednesday, September 25, we return from Rome to Cleveland.

Cicagna and Bettola will not be familiar locations to most American readers, but I am assured that they are relatively large compared to some of the places we will visit up north!

This is my first trip away from North America; experienced travelers tell me to expect to do plenty of improvisation. So I’m planning to post observations here. There’s a good chance that I won’t have an internet connection every day, so I can’t predict how regular these will be; but you’re welcome to follow along if you like.

And along the way, I’ll be mindful of the observation of explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928): “Adventure is just bad planning.” I’m hoping he was just being ironic.