10 comments

  1. Tempting airfare , but what are the hassles at the other end? Quarantine, proof of vax? Covid test within so many hours?
    Was it Milan where the Covid outbreak started in Italy with its large Chinese population?
    I will wait.

    1. Hassles at the other end, good question.
      I understand that Austria has some assortment of restrictions to entry, but I don’t know the specifics. As for where Covid started in Italy, I believe you are correct that it was around Milan.

  2. What, I’ve been someplace Kim hasn’t? We stopped there for a few hours on our tour of Italy in 2010. The tour director promised that anyone she saw going into McDonalds wouldn’t be allowed back on the bus.

    Personally, I found it a little too “city” for my tastes, I preferred Florence.

    Mark D

  3. Before planning any European trip it might help to check recent photos of the city in question, and not years old promo shots.

  4. now for the fine print: Those tickets are for the middle seat and the rest of the plane is chartered by Rosie O’Donnell and Amy Schumer types, they’re out of liquor and this week did not include bath day

    JQ

  5. Not until they get over this masks on airplanes crapola. I’m rejecting a week of free lodging in Maui over Christmas because I will not wear a damned mask for as long as it will take to fly there and back. Nope, nope nope.

    1. What sort of masks are required? How do they define an acceptable mask? I am beginning to see full-face transparent plastic masks in the land of Nan (I’m too close to Gerald Waxman and not far enough away from the Leftists, Newsom, Pelosi, Feinstein and Alex Padilla).

  7. When 40% of the TSA workforce, and 25% of the air traffic controllers and airline personnel are fired on or before December 8th, I wouldn’t plan on trying to fly anywhere unless you like exercises in futility.

  8. Kim, go, for the love of God, go, you’re not getting any younger.

    As for the comments about covid hassles, they are very minor. On October 2 we flew from YYC to AMS then on to FLR, stayed for 10 days, rented a car, drove to Civitavecchia, caught the Norwegian Getaway and just pulled into Dubrovnik harbor, where are our shore excursions are all pre-approved. 3 countries so far and zero real problems. The real problem was the time I wasted rounding up all the bullshit paper.

    We were all ready at AMS to show them our vaxx proofs, but Herr Flick the border guard gave me the contemptuous finger flick of bureaucrats everywhere to show he had no intention of looking at them. The border guards at Florence airport were ferocious in their absence. It was, after all, 11 PM and surely no covid would enter Italy at such an outrageous hour.

    Florence was wonderful with nearly everyone skirting the masking rules and often outright ignoring them. Masks en masse with the noses poking out really do look silly. The restos and bars simply asked if we had a green pass or similar and in perhaps 2 episodes out of 30 or 40 actually looked at what we had.

    The cruise ship is about 60% Americans and they mostly mask until they get one drink in them, then pfui on that shite. We out and out refuse to wear them at all in the gym. There is a substantial group of Floridians here waging a fine propaganda and guerrilla warfare on masks. You’d be proud.

    We have all adopted the ruse of wandering about without masks holding a glass or cup – unmasking is allowed to eat or drink doncha know. The crew only ask us to put the mask on if they absolutely must. The ship has a good quality music dance troupe and at the show last night I noticed that when the lights went off, so did many masks.

    Besides, the minor acts of rebellion are fun in themselves.

    So go already.

    If you wind up in Florence I highly recommend this place for location, comfort, cleanliness and a hostess who speaks English well and gives you her phone number for problems or general help:
    https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/30768347?source_impression_id=p3_1634386520_ARGkobRCCxeTH9wL

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