We are “this close” to retirement. And to celebrate, we are taking our first cruise together to “tour” the Greek Islands. Seabourn’s marketing has been very good at targeting us with fancy brochures featuring their world wide cruises. We will be taking their Istanbul to Venice cruise next year (this year’s cruise was booked). The itinerary includes Santorini, Patmos, Rhodes, Athens, Monemvasia, Dubrovnik, and eight other destinations. I have always wanted to visit the Greek Islands and Athens, home to the birth of Western Democracy. What makes this special is neither Ellen nor I have been to Turkey or Greece; we will share this adventure and its memories together.

Both Ellen and I love the Italian culture and antiquities. The cruise arrives in Venice, how wonderful. We will read about Venitian history and explore Venice then take a train to Florence and get lost in the Renaissance for a few days or a week.

We are looking into lodging with VRBO, homeAway, and AirBnB. AirBnB has a better selection, but most properties expect payment up front and have very unfavorable cancellation policies. What I hope to do is find a “target” property through AirBnB then use another source to find that property with better terms.

I am very excited to be starting our voyage in Istanbul/Constantinople, the crossroads of Asia and Europe. No city in the western world has comparable history. The Turkish food I’ve sampled in the US is remarkable. It will be fun to see the similarities and differences with true Turkish cuisine.

I had planned to tack on a four week land tour of Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Rome. We would be too far into summer after Florence to make that feasible. Both the heat and the crouds would be our undoing. Therefore, we will be taking a second trip to Italy in the Fall of 2015 to visit the Italian Riveria, Tuscany, and Rome. Again VRBO or homeAway will be our “friends”. I would love to take the cog railway from Chamonix through the Italian Alps and on to Cinque Terre by train, but that may have to wait. Paris, the south of France, and the French Riveria await.

I love the idea of renting a home/villa/farm house for a few months in Italy and using that as home base to make day or overnight excursions. This could work for Fall 2015. For spring 2015 we will have limited time in both Venice and Florence making a “home base” moot.

And thus, our adventure begins. But first with a whale watching trip to Baja with friends in March 2015. More about that to follow.