From Cornfields to La Cosa Nostra

The travel plans for this year were supposed to be different.  Originally I had wanted to continue the adventure started last year and travel to someplace strange and unfamiliar.  I wanted to push boundaries.  That all changed when my parents asked me to travel with them to Italy.  Three weeks of travel starting in the North and ending in the South with stops along the way to visit friends and family; mostly elderly friends and family, since in my mother’s words “we might not get to see them again”.  And that’s how this trip became informally known as “The Death Tour”, which should be noted is quite different from a “Tour of Death” which would imply that there would be some killing along the way.  Highly unlikely since we are a generally peaceful bunch.

This trip would allow me to experience Italy in a way that I hadn’t before.  Traveling with my parents would make me less of a tourist and more of an observer.  A product of my parents' home country looking to see and learn.

I share my experience with all of you.