Three days from today, we will be on a plane. Wanna know where we are headed? Here’s a clue:

That’s right — our long-overdue and twice-cancelled month in Europe is actually happening this time. For those of you who don’t remember, Mom and I were headed to Italy in early March of 2020 to spend two months in Tuscany. Of course, you can guess how those plans turned out.

Then last spring, we had planned to go to Italy for THREE months — Rome, Siena, Florence, Lucca, etc. But thanks to the fact that EVERYONE WITH A PASSPORT was also heading to the US from Europe, and the airline and hospitality businesses were still trying to recover from two really bad years thanks to COVID, we had to cancel that trip, as well.

But this time it’s for real.

Mom and I have rented an apartment in a residential neighborhood in the 14th Arrondissement, far from the popular tourist attractions and smack-dab in the middle of the “real” Paris. On the positive side, we will be well-away from any demonstrations at government buildings. On the minus side, there is still an issue with garbage pick-ups as I type this, so we’ll probably have to deal with that.

But hey, it’s Paris, right?

Three days and counting.