Europe 2.0: FAQs

 

Greetings from Laredo! We've been here longer than expected, as Omicron blasted onto the scene during our arrival prior to Thanksgiving. Poor Emily didn't realize she was being cousin-Eddie'd when we arrived here to visit for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays!

She's been a real trooper accommodating us all of this time, especially with many weeks of being uncertain whether our March cruise plans would be a go. We're cautiously optimistic that this round is going to work. However, after the trauma and drama that was the collapse of all of our plans in March 2020, we've been hesitant to commit to anything more than basic planning. But, with our cruise departure approaching (that is, as long as we show up COVID negative), we've had to forge ahead and hope for the best. Now, every day is super busy with research and planning! General FAQs about our plans are further down the post.

My life feels very déjà vu right now. The past two months I've been doing exactly what I was doing two years ago at this time:

Making travel arrangements and studying cruise ports and tourist activities

While I preferred our 2020 itinerary, which ended in Genoa and included stops in Bermuda and the Azores, as well as a sail into New York past the Statue of Liberty, I am still very excited about our "Spain Passage," as the cruise is called. The best part is that my cousin Gerlyn is joining us for this leg of the trip! (I wrote a previous blog about how I came to know Gerlyn through my genealogy pursuits.) We have been enjoying texting, emailing, and video chatting the past few months about our plans.

I am really looking forward to those 7 sea days, as well as Spanish tapas and wine!

Getting and learning new phones

Two years have gone by, so it was time to upgrade the phones again. This is why I love Google Fi ... My new phone cost: -$26. John's new phone cost: -$30. (Yes, they are paying us to buy their phone!) We did have to spend $30 on new phone cases.

Putting affairs in order

There is always life and financial stuff to do. For example, I did our taxes and assisted Emily with hers. Around the new year I also usually do a financial summary of our current assets. I had started it but hadn't finished, and last week I thought, "I need to finish that up." One last item was entering the value of our savings bonds. Alert! Where are the savings bonds? I vaguely remembered having left them with Emily when she moved here, but I couldn't find them in any of the expected places. Not a huge deal, because they can be cashed with just the serial numbers, which I did have. However, it just isn't like me to misplace something like that. 

Now, I can predict what you might be thinking: Aren't paper savings bonds sort of old-fashioned? Well, yes, they are. I had purchased 7 of the bonds in 1990 and 1991 when I started my first professional job. I wasn't eligible for the company 401K immediately, but they had a plan where employees could purchase bonds through payroll deduction, so that's what I did. The two additional bonds were from recognition awards I received at the company in 1993. I've never turned the bonds in, even though they reached face value several years ago because they were still earning a decent interest. As well, since I online bank, cashing in bonds is a big hassle, so it just wasn't a priority. Forging ahead, I started entering the numbers into the calculator and a little code came up saying that my bonds weren't earning interest any longer, because they had reached their 30-year limit. What?! How can 30 years have passed already? Those bonds aren't just old-fashioned, they are old, like me! 

Later in the day, I had a brainstorm as to where the bonds might be. I found them! Good, because now I felt like I should take the time to cash them, given their current status. Setting up an electronic account seemed like a real slog, but John found the instructions for mailing them in to cash. This involved a trip to the UPS store for notarization (complicated by my name change since the time the bonds were purchased) and special shipping. This whole bond issue literally took an entire day. I don't have time for that, LOL! Well, hopefully, it will all work out and the electronic deposit will be made some time within the next few months.

I also had another mini-crisis: We forgot that John needed his international driver's license. This is obtained at AAA, the closest location being in Austin, several hours away. So, we had to arrange to do it by mail, which involved expedited processing and shipping, as well as another trip to Walgreen's for passport-type photos. We're still awaiting its arrival, cutting it close!

Learning a language

Last round, I was learning Spanish, as we felt like Alicante, Spain was our first choice. Now having 'lost' two years of doing 'on the ground' research, John and I both feel like we are better served by choosing Italy (which was in our original top 3), as John now has citizenship. We are starting with Sicily, and hope we find a spot we like. If not, on to Puglia. So, this round I've been focused on learning Italian (which I have also studied in the past). Learning Italian is also an important component of gaining my citizenship through marriage, as I have to pass a B1 level language exam. It is slow-going, especially since I have no one to regularly practice with, but I feel I'll make better progress once we are there.

Duolingo stats for last year. I also completed the Great Courses Italian course and utilize additional sources for listening practice. And, of course, I have my workbook. Vorrei che le mie reali competenze linguistiche in italiano corrispondessero a quanto ho lavorato, Duolingo e oltre! (I wish that my actual Italian language skills matched how hard I've been working, Duolingo and beyond.) I still had to use Google translate for half of that sentence (although it is not an easy sentence). Onward! 

Conducting a big Impellizzeri genealogy project

Two years ago, I was indexing and researching Impellizzeri records to find the brothers of John's grandfather and their descendants. That was a successful endeavor, in that we have met several Italian cousins and hope to meet them in person. 

The siblings of Giovanni Impellizzeri and their spouses

This time around, I've been trying to extend the direct Impellizzeri line as far back as possible. In the last couple of months, I have placed over 170 records into our family tree as part of this project! I'm back to the 1600s, and I'll have a blog post about this project in the future. 

Marriage record of oldest identified ancestors in the Impellizzeri direct line, Nunzio Pellizzeri and Onofria di Carlo, 12 July 1631, Sant'Ippolito, Palermo, Sicily

Purchasing last minute items

Most interesting purchase ... We may get the opportunity to visit the administrative offices in Alcamo. Our friend Francesco, helping with these arrangements, said to bring American candy for the clerks. I personally don't think American candy is all that great, compared to other countries, but if that's what they want ... I decided on a mixed bag of minis. More importantly, I put in an order of delicious Frank's Chocolates to bring along, as well. I worked with Frank's wife Kim many years ago at MichCon, so I enjoy supporting his business. However, that's not hard to do, because his candy is delicious! 

Something else is going to have to go to make room for this! Francesco is crazy about Reese's, so I'm bringing him some of Frank's buckeyes. That's another level altogether!

Doing suitcase pack dry runs and ... Downsizing, downsizing, downsizing

One thing we've learned is that we aren't capable of hauling as much luggage as we have around airports or on trains, for example. So, we had to get rid of a carry-on and also go down a size on our larger suitcase, which is not manageable (and also has a tendency to go over 50 pounds, a problem at airports - actually 44 pounds in Europe, so really a problem!).

Downsizing never ends!

We're also finally getting a chance to put the Biaggi bag into action. Just having to figure out how to squeeze it in somewhere folded up so it doesn't count as another piece of baggage on our transfer from Laredo to FLL. This is one of the reasons I hate flying.

Some general FAQs that we are often asked:

When are you leaving?

We leave Laredo on March 9, flying to Fort Lauderdale via Houston. Like it was in Santa Barbara, it's virtually impossible to fly direct anywhere from Laredo. I'm not thrilled about getting on two different planes, but it was pretty much our only option. I built in a couple of extra days in FLL to allow for flight problems. As well, we have to take COVID test on March 10 in order to be approved for the cruise ship. If we 'fail,' all the plans are shattered again. It is very stressful. Send good vibes!

Just COVID supplies! I agree with someone who posted that airlines should now allow 5 more pounds in luggage to accommodate for all of this extra stuff. We have 2 at home tests, 4 rapid tests for online proctoring (for travel entry requirements) and 3 kinds of masks. Guidelines are constantly changing and extremely confusing! You just have to hope and trust that you have everything you need.

While in Fort Lauderdale, we hope to meet up with our dear friend Joan, who happens to be in south Florida at that time. Fortunate! Our cruise departs on March 12 and arrives in Barcelona on March 26. We plan to spend 3 nights in Barcelona and then transfer by train to Madrid, where we will stay 4 nights. We will fly from Madrid to Palermo, while Gerlyn flies back to California.

When will you be in Italy?

We are scheduled to arrive in Palermo the afternoon of April 2.

Italy is GMT+1 time zone, so 6 hours difference from Eastern, 7 hours difference from Central, and 9 hours difference from Pacific. Here is a tool for converting time zones.

Are you going to find a place to live?

Our goal upon arrival is to begin checking out towns we have identified in Sicily as potential places to live. In order to benefit from the tax advantages, the town we choose must have a population less than 20,000. Sadly, because of the size requirement, we cannot consider either of John's immediate ancestral hometowns, Alcamo and Augusta, although we definitely plan to visit those.

We also want our town to be coastal. We've identified about 50 towns that fit these criteria, so now we are narrowing that list down by whether there is a train station to try and reduce the number to investigate. We've been watching videos of the various places to get a sense of them, to prioritize which we would like to further investigate when 'on the ground.' Right now, we have about 4-5 that look promising, with much more research to do.

Our plan upon arrival is to stay in an Airbnb for a month in Palermo, centrally located, and near a train station. Amazingly, the place we were going to use in 2020 was available, so we chose that selection.

We'll be near the famous La Vucciria market, where one can obtain the Sicilian specialty stigghiola, as well as other street foods. 

We'll use this spot as a home base, using hotels when we want to stay overnight or longer at our target destinations. (After two years of dragging all of our belongings along every time we change places, we are tired!)

Beyond that, we don't have a specific plan at this point.

What is the best way to contact you?

While we are able to text internationally for free, we realize that many others cannot. So, if you cannot (and especially if you're in the habit of texting with us), I'd suggest using Facebook Messenger or email. John has also downloaded WhatsApp to his phone, but this is new to us, so learning curve. 

If you need any of our contact information, please reach out.

If for some reason you need to send us something physical, please send it to Emily's address, and we will retrieve it from her when we see her in person, most likely this summer and /or fall. Emily may have the opportunity to travel to Madrid in the summer to play at a guitar festival with TAMIU's guitar ensemble. 

TAMIU guitar ensemble Christmas concert.

She has also had a paper selected for presentation at an international conference in England in September. In fact, 2022 has been a great year for her career so far. In addition to those activities, she will be presenting a paper at two regional conferences this March and has an article under consideration for publication in a journal. Also, - really great news! - Emily was invited to stay another year at TAMIU and just signed her contract. We are so happy for and proud of her!

What are you doing with Marina?

When we were going to leave in 2020, Emily wasn't certain that she wanted a car, so we left Marina on our friend's farm. (And, of course, we ended up retrieving her much sooner than expected.) Emily lives in a place now where she needs a car (despite still not wanting one), so Marina is staying with Emily. One of the primary reasons we moved our address to Texas was to get all of us on the same insurance, at least for the time being. 

Since Emily doesn't like driving, and hasn't been driving for several years, we wondered how smoothly the transition would go. However, she got right into the groove (although she still has no interest in the expressway) and gladly accepted my key. (I am now officially keyless!) Except for days when we need a vehicle, Emily has been commuting to work and doing various errands. We've heard her refer to it as 'my car,' so looks like that transition is complete.

John giving Emily a lesson in changing the air filter.

Marina used to be a low-mileage vehicle, but we put on about 30,000 miles over these past two years! 

2021 Travel

At nine years old, Marina is now approaching the 100,000 mile mark. (I guess in the big scheme of things, she would still be considered low-mileage.) Over the past year, we've spiffed her up with new shoes, joint replacement, and a blood transfusion, in addition to her regularly scheduled spa treatments. So we feel confident, being a Honda, that she can go another 100,000!

Two years ago, John was so excited to make the interactive map of our journey and then devastated a couple of months later to have to draw a big red X through it. Here is the new one for Europe 2.0. As I said, déjà vu. Wish us buona fortuna!