10.1.8 - It Begins

And so it begins again dear hearts

and innocent bystanders...

After last years Whirlwind China adventure the real drama began… Chuckie’s ensuing Cancer treatment followed by a painful and tedious recovery [so far so good].

• In March we flew up to North Carolina to drive Greg, Cristina and baby David down and move them into Casa d'Chaos along with two dogs and a fish.
• After their house sold, we flew back up and drove the furniture down and put it into storage…
• AND THEN…there was the "early" arrival in July of our latest Grand-Son Jonathan. ["Papa" Calls him Charlie]
• But More Importantly...

THE NOWAT ARE BACK!!!

Yep, those traveling Wackos are off again. Chuckie opted to celebrate his birthday in Italy but couldn't get the villa in Tuscany or wine tours for the dates he wanted. After agonizing a few months... [While the dollar weakened] he could only come up with a 12 day Mediterranean Cruise. Ok… not the most creative of choices, but it includes Greece and Turkey. Of course the "Ever Frugal" Chuckie [read that “Cheap Bastard”]  couldn't get a "deal" on a really EXOTIC cruise but his good buddy Bruce at Carnival Cruise lines got him a GREAT DEAL on a balcony suite aboard Carnival's Freedom and Chuckie juggled the SkyMiles to match what will hereafter be referred to as:

MedCruise 2008

http://nowat-medcruise2008.blogspot.com/

Sooooo… instead of a spiffy Alfa Romeo or a KungFu limo driver to log a bunch of miles, the obligatory U-turns and a Wacky story or two, while paying absurd lodging prices, this time they’ll use a floating hotel to sport them around several Mediterranean ports with a side trip in Florence to replace the Italian Leather hat lost on the turnpike….[don’t ask]….and back to Rome.
Since NOWAT has been converted to a Blog you will only get a NOWAT ***ALERT*** announcing a new post. The Blog should make it easier to upload daily photos and you can add your own comments which may, or may not get posted depending on the Dragon Lady's mood. You don’t have to wait for the alert. Anytime you're ready to catch up on the latest adventure of Chucky and the ever patient Dragon Lady, just logon to the blog site.

Ok... so here's the deal, we fly to Rome October 23rd arriving on the 24th, grab a room downtown and hop a train the next day to the port of Civitavecchia about 70 miles away for the following 12 day itinerary on the Carnival Freedom.

10/25 Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
10/26 Naples, Italy
10/27 Fun Day At Sea
10/28 Marmaris, Turkey
10/29 Izmir
10/30 Istanbul
10/31 Fun Day At Sea [& Chuckie's Birthday!]
11/1 Athens
11/2 Katakolon
11/3 Fun Day At Sea
11/4 Livorno, Italy [Firenze and New Hat!!!]
11/5 Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
11/6 Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
[previous links to the ports have been de-activated so you'll just have to research them yourself]

Then we'll spend a couple of days running around Rome or where-ever trying to catch up on things we may have missed or looking for a tchotchke she forgot to buy or a restaurant we heard about somewhere along the way before we head back on 11/8

Now its off to the library for some new Italian Language CD’s to refresh the lingo.

Stay tuned for the NOWAT ***ALERT*** and here’s the weblink again to put into your browser’s bookmarks for easy access.
http://nowat-medcruise2008.blogspot.com/

Ciao 4 Now,

Chuck and the impatient to get packing

Dragon Lady

[Wait… who’s she kidding… Chucky does all the packing!]