Ciao Italia

Family, Friends and Fans,

We are now in Italy, and the trip went very well. The dogs were awesome and Tjojs, my queen, was a super trooper. When Tjojs and I moved over from Sweden to USA I promised her it would be her last move. You can imagine me asking her three years later, "Eh Tjojs, how about meeting some new Italian friends?"

But she made it, and she is an eleven-year-old fury lady.

Olivia, 23 months old, is already so loved by the friendly Italians in our hotel, in restaurants and stores. They lift her up and cover her face with kisses while saying, "belissemo" They are so "children friendly" and going out to eat at a resturant is easy; the chef or waitress or owner are carrying her around entertaining her.

After four days here, Olivia can already say, "Ciao", "Grazie" and "Pizza". I guess she will be the one in the family translating to us "oldies"

The garbage has been a problem here for a long time. No cans, so you throw it in the ditch. It looks terrible of course--not smelly though--and one positive thing about this is there is food for all the homeless dogs that are roaming around.

Traffic, there appears to be no law and what traffic lights there are, are either ignored or broken--first man out in the intersection is the brave one. If you bump another car you don't stop, no use the police will maybe show up a couple of hours later. But, they have a cool attitude, it is calm and even friendly. You can see which driver that is International, he is red in his face and his lips are constanly moving.....the Italian he doesn't put down too much of energy in getting upset.

The food is awesome and the service is great. I am in heaven regarding the coffee. Italy, with passion and taste, I love this country already. Amore!