Joanna McIsaac-Kierklo in Dublin Many retirees, freed from their work obligations and looking for adventure, dream of living overseas. Edward Kierklo and Joanna McIsaac-Kierklo don’t dream. They just do. In May 2021, the couple, feeling trapped by the pandemic in their sleepy town in the Sierra Foothills east of San Francisco, decided to break out […]
Today was our final day in Italy before returning home to the States. Our mid-afternoon flight to Milan gave us time to do a little exploration, so we were up and out early. Leaving wasn’t as painful as it might have been because the sky was a leaden gray with no sun predicted. Monreale, a […]
This morning the sky was nearly identical to Crayola’s version of sky blue. The temperature was warm, and we had no plans. It became our morning to go swimming. The pool at the Hapimag resort looks out over the sea. The contrast of the turquoise pool, deep blue sea and sky blue seemed like a […]
Our big activity for the day was scheduled for 5 PM. With a full day ahead of us we headed to Termini Imerse, a city within Palermo. Much of it is industrial, but there’s also an old section that has Roman ruins and what is described as a fantastic museum. The first segment of the […]
Weather.com forecast rain for today. But what they didn’t say was whether it would be a drizzle or a downpour. I woke up to a slate gray sky and fine mist. That wouldn’t stop us from our plan to tour Palermo. While sipping my morning coffee the rain began, first gentle then steadily increasing to […]
On my previous trip to Sicily, I happened upon the town of Santo Sefano di Camastra. It was difficult to miss, it was on the main road heading towards Palermo and along every street in town there were dozens of shops selling locally made ceramics. Today we returned. As we exited the new autostrada, I […]
We were up and out early this morning, largely because we didn’t trust Ditzy, the GPS. We were scheduled for a food and walking tour of Cefalu. Giving ourselves a lot of time was a good decision because Ditzy misdirected us several times. We finally found a parking lot on our own. Ambra, our guide, […]
Kathy and I were both awake for the sunrise show—the sky morphed from pale blue to deep pink to orange. After that, we had a lazy morning–breakfast on our terrace, laundry, drawing (Kathy), writing (me) and both of us reading intermixed with short periods of dozing off. We set off through the resort property towards […]
Taxi to train station, scurry to buy tickets and find seats while toting luggage, make our way through Malpensa Airport which required taking a bus to the plane, finally climbing the stairs (with luggage) onto our flight and departing Milan. This was the first gray morning we had, so perfect for relocating to a sunnier […]
For the past four days Kathy and I have mostly spent our time exploring Milan’s historic sites. Today we did the opposite, looking at modern day Milan, even taking a glimpse into the future. We spent hours at the Trienalle Milano, described as Italy’s foremost institution for design and contemporary culture. I don’t know if […]
