Created 20-Mar-19
Modified 25-Mar-24
This is the fourth installment of our 1966 European Road Trip. It takes us from Milan to Genoa to Florence to Rome. It started out with an overnight visit to the family who sent their daughter as an overseas exchange student to stay with Nancy and her family in W. Hartford, CT. They were very excited to see us and prepared a special meal for dinner. Unfortunately, earlier that day we had inadvertently been drinking water from a spring in the Swiss Alps. In the middle of the night it hit us both at the same time. We spent the next 2 hours fighting for the one available toilet while trying not to wake our hosts. Apparently we made so much commotion that we woke them. They were under the impression that we were reacting to the meal they had fed us and were apologizing profusely. We in turn were miserable but were trying to allay their embarrassment by trying to act out that we had been drinking out of a mountain stream which was the cause of our distress. My most vivid memory happened when they handed me a thermometer which I immediately popped into my mouth. To my horror they all screamed "No, No" at which point I spit the thermometer at least a foot above my head as I lay on the bed. The good news was that I had imagined it to be a rectal thermometer when in fact it was only an armpit thermometer. In either case, pretty disgusting.
Other highlights were driving through towns along the Mediterranean sea, visiting the leaning tower of Pizza,
camping with a view of the whole city of Florence below us, a tour of the Cathederal of Santa Maria del Fiore (in Florence, completed in 1434 and the 4th largest church in the world), touring the Coliseum in Rome and then camping next to it in a beautifully lit garden.
It's also worth mentioning how fun loving and friendly we found the Italian people.
© Robert Peek Photography
