Tuesday, March 18, 2014
It's been a long time, but I am determined to document everything for my sake. Those of you who follow, put on your seat belts....
I'm pretty sure the last time I wrote was when I was very sick with a wicked cold and the weather was dreary and I was cooped up in the hotel, practically 24/7. Well, my banking situation at home after all the hacking and trying to breach my WF accounts, I decided I had to go home and straighten everything out. No payments were being made, I was getting all kinds of "late" warnings, and you can imagine the rest. TEP even threatened to cut off my service! It was pretty traumatic and nothing to do from here, Florence. The time difference is ungodly and hard to manage long phone calls and being put on hold, etc.etc.etc. So, I bought a ticket and flew to Phoenix for the month of February. After all, it would be less expensive to fly home than to pay another month's rent. So, off I go. I landed in Phoenix so that my girlfriend Jody could lend me a car to get around in.... I sold my car before I left. Then, I had to go to San Diego to pick up some things my friend, Paco, had taken when he returned. While in the hotel, I'm pretty sure something bit me on my left left, close to the ankle. I started to itch a lot, but by the time I got to Tucson, I knew something was really wrong. I had these huge, marble-sized, lumps, full of yucky stuff, and pain, pain, pain.... I decided to go to the corner clinic, and they told me to go straight to an emergency room. So, I drove myself to the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital and was admitted. I was in the hospital 10 days with a series of bodily malfunctions due to the bite. Apparently, because no one would really tell me, a brown recluse spider bit me and created real chaos in my body. My liver function shut down, and when they finally stabilized it, my kidney functions shut down to 10%. It was pretty scary, and I was being pumped with so many antibiotics that my body just couldn't handle it. My potassium levels were dangerous, and the kidneys couldn't handle them. I was on a "renal diet" for 10 days.... if you don't think that's bad stuff, you better think again. Finally, after many many pokes of my veins, my kidneys began to function, 14%, 20% and when I was given the clearance to leave, I was at 48%. So, after I straightened everything out with the banks and the hospital I flew back to Milano to meet my friend, Ramon. I actually missed him in Milano but met up with him in Florence and we went off to Napoli. We had, of course, the bestest pizza, and did some sightseeing in Capri and around Napoli. Then we went to Rome, specifially Frascati, and did the sights there. I had to leave him in Rome and go to Milano to meet my girlfriend, Carmen, who is staying here until it's time to go home on March 29, and that will be the end of the aventura italiana for Cecilia.
In Frascati, we were wined and dined by my friends from Venezuela who own a fabulous restaurant and we managed to have some of the best meals ever! We did the "musts", the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Square, etc., etc., etc.... Ramon was great to be with, and he was soooo helpful with luggage and trains and so forth. He's a true gentleman and a really good friend. I'm lucky to have him in my life.
So, then I go off to Milano again to meet my friend, Carmen on the 13th. We had opera tickets to the Teatro alla Scala for the 14th and we enjoyed a very unique and interesting opera, La Spousa delle Zar, a classic opera, but performed in modern times. I am still not sure whether it was some sort of masterpiece or not. But, it was great singing and, after all, it was LA SCALA.... OMG! We took the train to Firenze and that's where we are right now. Yesterday, we went to the market and shopped away and had a great time. Today, we went to see the David and other works by Michaelangelo. There are no words to describe his genius, but he was VERY bad tempered, and a sort of bully. ????
Tomorrow, we're off to the Uffizi galleries to see Renaissance art, and Boticelli's Birth of Venus, a very famous painting. Then on Thursday, we're off to Napoli.... the trip ends with 6 nights in Rome at the very plush Marriott Grande Flora on the Via Veneto...... thank God for those points on the credit cards!
I will continue to write and put up some pictures very soon..... thanks to all and your good wishes and interest in all this. Even though I am not 100%, I am lucky to have come out of all this pretty unscathed, except for diminished energy.... which I am working on.... plugging on. Except for February, I have been here 5 months and they have been definitely memorable. I am sooo glad to have done this. At some point, I never thought I could pull it off! Bravo, Cecilia
More later.... and more pictures....
Cecilia
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