Barbialla Nuova

We met up with our friend Steve and his girlfriend Nasch in Florence. And then headed to our farm retreat in Tuscanny. It was a week of exploring the local towns, taking walks, sleeping, cooking, sitting next to the fire and playing with the farm animals. It was heavenly. Hope to return again some day.

Brentina East

Florence

View of the Duomo from our room

A local artist and street signs

Cinque Terre

Vernazza

Corniglia

The Italians love their padlocks

Villa dell'Amore

He's only 2. He doesn't know how to spell his name yet.

Riomaggiore

Getting cozy in our apartment in Corniglia

Rome

Trevi Fountain

The Forum

A yummy shop

The Spanish Steps

'Calliope' the muse of epic poetry in the Vatican Museum

The Sistine Chapel

Rome by night

On the Road!

The day was spent working on Independence, well Mike that is. I was having myself another epic blog day. There was some scraping and painting some spots on the bottom hull where the anti-fouling got eaten away. Then I washed off the decks with hopes of getting the last of the salt water off to help preserve her just a bit better. And then there was packing for tomorrow. In the morning we are catching a bus to Rome and will be traveling for the next few weeks. Then we will return to Independence at the end of the month for a couple of days to finalize putting her away before flying home to Seattle on November 1st. We won’t be traveling with our laptop so there most likely won’t be much blogging done while we are gone. Well, maybe if there is something really fun to tell! But will let you know when we make it back to Independence and are on our way home. Have a great October!

Haul Out

We turned on Independence’s engine for the last time and motored her over to be hauled out. It is just so sad to see her back in the cradle, in a parking lot again so soon. We have a lot of mixed emotions going on. I think they are mostly just sad and, but do have to admit some feelings of defeat. This week there was some thought about why didn’t we push on, why did we give up so fast. But we can’t look at it like that. We have to follow what our hearts, minds and bodies are telling us to do. And they are telling us that it’s time to go home. Most likely, Independence will still be here and have hopefully braved the elements well. She should be ready to go right back in the water if we want to continue the way west towards home. Or maybe she will get passed to new owners who admire her as much as we do and will continue to have adventures and write their own stories. Only time will tell.