Happy Holidays! Hello 2025🎉

Another year almost in the books. Older people have always told me the older you get the faster the time goes. Now that I am one of those “older” people I find it’s totally true. Which proves to me every generation offers something we can learn from. If I need help setting up my new Ember Mug I’m going to call my daughter. (Got one for Christmas and it’s pretty awesome) If I need advice navigating these turbulent times I’m going to channel my wonderful mom who always said “this too shall pass” when something happened that I thought I would never get through. Now those things aren’t even a chapter in my story. Maybe a paragraph and soon to be just a few lines.

Just a short recap on 2024. Everyone is healthy and that’s something I don’t take for granted. Tom and Anna are doing a wonderful job taking care of my sweet grandson. Seeing them as such great parents while both working challenging jobs leaves me in awe. Keeley and Matt continue to never age. They have been married for 9 years and still look exactly like they did that day. They both stay in great shape and Keeley just completed her third marathon. Go Keeley!

I had some great trips so my motto continues to be - If not now when? January I took a quick trip to NYC to see a Broadway Show, check up on my favorite museums and eat a great bagel. February I went to spend a week on Balboa Island as a guest of my good friends Pam and Lance. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl AGAIN while I was there, and we had a little party and everyone agreed to root for them.

March was a week on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico as a guest of my friends Jill and Kevin. (A warning - if you invite me to a beautiful place to be your guest I will likely say yes!) Easter was North Carolina to see Tom, Anna and Orson. June my brother David and I took a fun trip to Alabama to see cousins we hadn’t seen in decades. We loved getting reacquainted and went on to Montgomery to see some of the important Civil Rights sites. David and I always have a great time together 🤗

July was a wonderful hiking trip with my awesome Kansas City friends to northern Minnesota. We had a blast hiking, kayaking, site seeing and playing fun games in the evenings at the AirBNB. We love you Grand Marais!

August was another trip to North Carolina for Orson’s 1st birthday. How can he be one already? Sept was a big trip to hike the Alps. I trained for months and it was as wonderful as I had hoped. Very challenging but the scenery was spectacular. Then headed to Lake Como and Milan for a great week relaxing and filling up on delicious pasta and gelato. I did a blog post about the trip so feel free to check it out.

December back to North Carolina to celebrate my birthday with Tom, Anna, Orson and Keeley - I had the best time! I already have my 2025 trips planned and I’m excited for them all.

When I’m not traveling I spend quite a bit of time volunteering at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio. I was certified to do tours at Unity Temple this year too so another one added to my repertoire. I also was a house captain for the yearly Wright Plus house walk in May. It was sold out months ahead of time and I was grateful to have Keeley’s very competent assistance. Not sure I could have done it without her🩷

My goal this year was to read 50 books and I’m happy to report I am currently reading and hope to finish number 51 by January 1st - goal achieved! So many great books and they just keep coming out. It’s always hard to pick my top 3 but here goes:

• The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

• After Annie by Anna Quindlen

• Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich

Not going to lie - I’m anxious going into 2025. The state of our nation and conflicts worldwide are deeply distressing. I’m focusing on keeping engaged in my community and surrounding myself with family and friends. Sometimes I pick a word for the year that I think will be helpful and for 2025 I’m choosing Resilience. I’m going to use this as my screensaver and a picture I took in the Alps to remind me.

Well that’s enough of my adventures and thoughts. Best wishes for a good 2025. I believe we are each responsible for our own happiness and encourage you to find things that bring you joy. I will be doing the same. Cheers🥂

Milan

The Alps hike, then Bellagio to relax, and finally a whirlwind day and a half in Milan before flying home to Chicago on a direct flight. My expectations were a bit low for Milan if I’m being honest. I had read many times that Milan was a big bustling modern city that didn’t have the history of Rome or the charm of Florence. Mainly known for fashion and banking. That may be true but I actually loved Milan and would welcome an opportunity to return and see more because a day and a half only brushed the surface of things that interest me. It had a great energy that at the end of a two week trip I appreciated.

It was easy to get from Bellagio to Milan. We took a short ferry from Bellagio to Varenna and then an hour train into Milan Central Station. Milan has a wonderful transportation system which I normally love, but at this point with a short time there I didn’t want to try and figure it out as we were each lugging a carryon, personal item and backpack. Also I had booked a hotel in a very convenient location to the main things we wanted to see so we just jumped in a taxi which was actually really very reasonable. Once we got to the hotel we walked everywhere.

We stayed at the Ariston Hotel which was a Rick Steves recommendation. It’s a recently remodeled hotel in a great location. Bonus - a very nice breakfast is included and I wanted to bring the cappuccino machine home as a souvenir. Also a nice rooftop with tables and chairs and a great view.

The highlight for me was seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper painting. It is painted on the former dining hall of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and it’s miraculous that it still exists. Leonardo worked on it from 1494 to 1498, and within 6 years deterioration had already begun. He painted it on the wall in layers as he would on a canvas instead of applying pigment to wet plaster in the usual fresco technique. In addition the church was bombed in World War II, but the wall holding the Last Supper remained standing. To minimize damage from humidity only 30 people are allowed in the room every 15 minutes. And it’s exactly 15 minutes and not a second longer.

It’s tricky to get a ticket to see it. They tickets go on sale for 3 months at a time, and you need to be ready to get online the second they open for the quarter you will be there. The tickets sell rapidly because tour companies are trying to buy them as well. The tickets are inexpensive - just 15 Euros each, but if you don’t buy directly you will pay 10 times that from a tour company. Get familiar with the purchase policy because it’s well worth it. I paid a few dollars extra to have the benefit of an English speaking guide. While we only had 15 minutes with the painting the guide spent an hour with us telling us the history which was fascinating. This is the building the painting is in and our guide giving us so much information. The photo on the right is how the painting was protected during the war - with scaffolding and sandbags

Seeing the painting brought tears to my eyes. A photograph doesn’t do it justice. For one the painting is very large. In person you can really appreciate da Vinci’s enormous talent creating depth and light on a flat surface. A 21 year restoration project (completed in 1999) peeled away 500 years of touch-ups leaving the masterpiece faint but vibrant. Our excellent guide described each apostle and how their personalities and mannerisms were captured in detail.

Another must see is the Duomo di Milano. Its sits in the center of town in the largest square and you can see it from every rooftop in town. It’s the third largest church in Europe and was built to hold 40,000 worshippers - the entire population of Milan when construction began in 1386. There are more than 2000 statues inside and another 1000 outside.

Just like many popular attractions post Covid all entries are timed and best to purchase in advance. You can also buy a combo ticket to see the inside and go up on the roof 20 stories above. Don’t miss the roof! You walk amongst the spires and have a fantastic view of the city. 330 feet above the roof is a statue of La Madonnina - a 15 foot tall gilded Virgin Mary which is a symbol of the city.

Inside the church you will see the 4th largest nave of all Christian churches stretching 500 feet from the entrance to the rose window. Notice the little red light on the cross high above the altar. This marks where a nail from the cross of Jesus is kept brought to Milan by St Helen in the 4th century when Milan was the capital of the western Roman Empire. One could spend days inside the church examining the stained glass, the statues and other important details but in a day and a half I just got to get an overview.

The outside is incredible as well. It is described as Flamboyant Gothic meaning flame-like and the church seems to flicker toward heaven with flames of stone. It’s all done in pink-white marble with five bronze doors across the front with the largest in the middle. The center door depicts the joys and sorrows of the Virgin Mary and the carvings are gorgeous. Julie and I are standing in front of the center door so you can see how large it is.

On the same large square as the Duomo is a huge equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy. He is looking at the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II - the breathtaking four-story domed shopping mall named for him. It was built during the age of Eiffel and was the first building in town to have electric lighting. There are tons of luxury shops, restaurants, arts and great people watching inside.

On one of my tours here for Frank Lloyd Wright I met a couple of nice architects from Milan. I told them I was going to Milan in September and in addition to the Last Supper and the Duomo what else should I not miss. They immediately said the Church of San Maurizio, so I put it on my list. It had a very nondescript entrance, in fact if I wasn’t looking for it I might have walked right past it. So glad I didn’t. The church is part of a ninth-century convent dating from around 1500. It’s like stepping into the Sistine Chapel of Lombardy with every inch Bernardino Luigi frescoes. Luigi was a contemporary of di Vinci but was also inspired by Michelangelo and Raphael. And it’s free! But of course I made a donation. Got to keep supporting these things or they won’t exist. Thank you Milan architect friends!

I know I visit a lot of churches when I travel but I love learning the history and architecture. Just my thing so feel free to scroll right past and find a food picture.

One more church on my list - the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio. This is one of Milan’s top religious, artistic and historic sites as this church was built on top of an early Christian martyr’s cemetery by St Ambose around AD380. Two different monastic communities shared the church and had different theologies hence the two different bell towers.

The inside was a little dark but there is a beautiful mosaic above the altar portraying Christ in the company of saints. The golden altar was taken to the Vatican during World War II to avoid destruction. The 12th century pulpit sits on top of a sarcophagus dating from the year 400. Again just not enough time to really cover all the details. I must return!

We did have some good food. I continued eating delicious salads, pastas and gelato. We stopped at a fabulous huge department store right on the square by the Duomo by the name of La Rinascente. It had wonderful merchandise and a huge floor of restaurants and lovely food items to purchase. This salad and serving of Cacio e pepe was delicious.

We walked by one of the prettiest Starbucks Roasteries too. Didn’t stop but such a pretty building.

How about some excellent people watching on Via Dante with a glass of wine - check!

If you noticed me wearing the same clothes pretty much every day in Bellagio and Milan then you are correct. The weather was a bit cooler than predicted and since the goal is to travel light, and I had to bring clothes for the hike, it was jeans pretty much everyday. We didn’t plan to have any fancy meals so as long as I had a fairly clean shirt I was happy. I’m never the best dressed but strive to not be an embarrassment either. Hoping I achieved that goal.

It was a great trip. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to fulfill another of my dreams. If travel is on your list then I encourage you to make a plan and do it. But if you are more of an armchair traveler then that’s fine too. Happy to have you come along through my blog. And now time to start planning my next adventure. Check back sometime and see where in the world is Patti🥰

Bellagio🍷

If your goal is to see how low you can get your blood pressure and heart rate down to then I highly recommend Bellagio! Also if you want a really beautiful place to sit by a gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains then I also recommend Bellagio. I had never been to the Lake Como area in northern Italy commonly just referred to as the Lakes, and when looking at where to go post hike to chill for a bit it seemed to fit the bill perfectly. There are a number of sweet lake towns on Lake Como but the general consensus seems to be if you are going to pick one to visit then Bellagio is the best choice. Other than Como it is the largest, but still really small so super easy to cover the whole town in a couple of hours. There is not much to see so your agenda will read shop, eat, walk up and down the cobbled streets, stop for gelato, sit by the water with perhaps a glass of wine and watch the boats and ferries arrive continuously throughout the day and repeat. Two days is just the right amount of time for me.

One of my favorite parts of planning a trip to Europe is figuring out the transportation from one place to another. It’s like a puzzle but with many options. A site that has been very helpful to me the last couple of trips I have taken to Europe where I was booking a number of different trains is called Trainline. It’s quite easy to use and offers many options at good prices. On this trip I was looking for a train from Geneva Switzerland with a final destination of Como Italy. I found a great option right from the Geneva airport to Zurich with a change in trains direct to Como. Perfect! Then leaving for Milan after Bellagio booked the train from Varenna right to Milan. There are no trains to Bellagio so Como was the closest we could get. Then a ferry from Como to Bellagio after a manic run from the train station to the ferry to catch the 6:38 boat. If we missed it we would have had to sit on the dock and get the 7:10 ferry. Run Julie run! After the hike in the Alps it felt like a piece of cake. Here is the train station in Zurich taken out by the tracks. The station itself was 4 stories high - huge! I love the trains in Europe. Typically so clean and nice and they usually are very dependable. Just google Trainline or try this link https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us/trains/europe. They have a great APP and then you can book trains on the fly and keep all your tickets right on your phone.

The ferry stopped at a number of little towns and people got off and on quickly. This isn’t an excursion ferry. It is a major transportation system for people to get around the lake so it’s all business. Get on or get off as quick as possible. It was dark when we got to Bellagio but you can tell immediately even in the dark and with a bit of rain that it was picture perfect and so charming. We found our hotel which was just about a half block from the ferry dock - and it really exceeded our expectations. Bellagio is expensive but I found this hotel through my best travel guru Rick Steves and compared to other hotels it is a bargain. Perfect location, reasonably priced, super clean, comfortable beds, modern amenities and a fantastic breakfast that is included. It’s the Hotel Bellagio and only has 27 rooms so book as soon as possible. We had a room on the top floor facing the water so our view was spectacular.

There is a beautiful street that runs parallel to the water with restaurants and shops and places to get a drink and sit by the water. Then there is another street parallel to that one at the top of the town with the same kinds of things on it. And then lots of cobbled streets that connect the two that you use to climb a fairly steep hill. So you walk up one street and down the next and so forth. You will get some good exercise as long as you pay attention and don’t fall down! Lots of cute shops with leather goods, jewelry, shoes, clothing, wooden carved items, food specialty stores, wine shops etc.

There is a town square at the top of town called Piazza Della Chiesa that has an 11th century church on it dedicated to St James that is worth a look. There is a really beautiful golden alterpiece inside with a domed mosaic.

We took a walk along the lakefront toward San Giovanni to visit the grounds of the Villa Melzi Gardens one afternoon. The villa itself isn’t open to see but the grounds are spectacular.

The grounds of Villa Melzi.

This is the gazebo on the grounds and we asked a nice woman to take a picture of Julie and I. Then she said something really funny about who cares if other people want us to move so they can take a picture and then swore a bit. We burst out laughing and now I love that picture!

The town is full of couples getting married. Such a picturesque location. We happened upon this beautiful couple in this intimate perfect setting and then stood there and watched the whole thing. The photographer even took our picture and then waved so I guess we are considered witnesses now.

All along the lake are beautiful flowers and benches so you can just while away the hours watching the boats arrive and seeing the clouds drift over the mountains.

We took a walk to a little town about a mile or two from Bellagio called San Giovanni. We decided it must be where all the locals live that work in Bellagio because there wasn’t a soul around but it was darling. Very quaint narrow cobbled streets and a really pretty church right on the water. There was at most one tiny restaurant with a few men sitting having coffee. They definitely looked like locals.

My plan for Bellagio included eating as much pasta, pizza and gelato as possible. Check! The food was great. Is food in Italy ever bad? No! The night we arrived I made my first ugly American faux pas. (At least the first I was aware of😂) We were starving since we had been traveling all day with no lunch so opted for the Suisse restaurant right by our hotel. They had this large cheese wheel that they appeared to be serving pasta from and it looked amazing. So I asked our waiter as I pointed to the item on the menu if that was the cheese bowl. He said Madam you are in Italy where it is not called a cheese bowl but a Parmesan wheel. Parmesan was invented in Italy so please refer to it appropriately. But he said it with a smile so I think he wasn’t offended🤞🏻I ordered it of course and it appears they put hot fettuccine in the Parmesan wheel and mix it very quickly and it turns into delicious very rich Fettuccine Alfredo. I could only eat half it was so rich and wish I had those leftovers right now!

I definitely ate my share of amazing pizza, salad, gelato and panini sandwiches for lunch. Rick Steves says the best gelato in Bellagio is up on the street at the top of town called Gelatera del Borgo so that’s where I went….twice! The pizza one night was from La Grotta. Most of the restaurants close at 2:30 after lunch and don’t open until 7PM for dinner. We had gotten a recommendation for La Grotta and got there at 6:50 and there was already a decent line to get in when they opened. We got in when they opened because it’s fairly good size inside but plan accordingly. The second pizza place was called Nando and it was good too.

One activity many do is take the ferry around the lake. You can pick a destination like Varenna and take the ferry there, spend a few hours and take it back. Or you can buy a day pass and take it all around the lake getting off and on as much as you want, and even tour a few villas that are open for a fee. We had already been on a number of ferries so opted to spend our time relaxing in Bellagio but on a beautiful day it would be a good option. Watching the ferries come in and out never got old.

Maybe sit and watch the ferries with a glass of wine!

My last view of Bellagio as we were taking the ferry to head to our next and last destination….Milan! Check back again for that post. A hint - I liked Milan way more than I thought I would!

I Hiked the Alps!

The Mount Blanc Trail or MBT to be precise. I’m still processing the experience and sometimes still can’t believe I did it! I have had the goal for a number of years and this was the year to check it off. I knew that it would be challenging and it was all that and more. Definitely an experience I will never forget and I’m so grateful to have had the chance. I did it with an adventure travel company called Mt Sobek and they have been around doing this kind of thing for decades. They surpassed my expectations - everything was super well organized, great guides, good hotels, wonderful food so all I had to provide was 100% effort every day.

I originally was going to try and post a bit each day with information and pics from that day. No way that could have happened unless I wanted to get even less sleep and we all know sleep is essential. I was up at 6:15 every morning to get ready for the hike, pack my suitcase and head to breakfast by 7AM. We were in a different hotel every night since we were hiking in France, Italy and Switzerland. Eat a good breakfast and pack your snacks for the day and be ready to leave by 7:45. Hike all day and get back around 5 or 5:30 for a quick shower and meeting at 6:45 to get the details for the hike the next day, dinner at 7 and bed. Get up and repeat.

In the 6 days we hiked we did over 65 miles and had ascents anywhere from 2300 to 4000 and equally steep descents. It seemed the hikes got more challenging each day which makes sense since we were gaining confidence. The trails were rocky, often covered with tree roots, and sometimes basically no trail at all. Just a huge rock face where you tried your best to find a toe hold and place to grab to pull yourself up. And sometimes pretty steep drop offs😱 (Just lean into the mountain they say. Uh ok?) My preparation served me well. I spent months doing all I could to prepare with 10 mile hikes, strength classes, the stair master, elliptical on hills, treadmill with an incline, and a hiking trip in July to Minnesota. We ended every day with lots of high fives and a real sense of accomplishment and also gratitude that we were alive😂 The views were spectacular every single minute.

We started and ended our hike in Chamonix France. Such a beautiful town! Night 2 in Les Contamines France, then Bourg-Saint-Maurice France, Courmayeur Italy, Champex Switzerland, Argentière France and back to Chamonix.

Here is our great hiking group of 15 plus our two guides Julian and Eric. Actually Eric is taking the picture so just Julian. At the official start of the MBT.

We hiked up to have a delicious lunch at a lake formed from a glacier.

Speaking of lunch it was so memorable and delicious every day. The guides would go early in the morning to the best boulangerie in town and get fresh bread, then delicious cheeses, meats, fruits, veggies and always some kind of dessert. Cookies or chocolate bars. Each hiker would put a part of the lunch in their day pack and then at lunch we would have a picnic and enjoy the well earned and needed food.

We hiked into Italy - no border control or passport necessary. It was super windy so the brim of my hat is totally flipped up😂

Notice the chain we are all using to pull ourselves up this part of the trail. This was on day one so I was a little freaked out about what I had gotten myself into. After that I just took everything in stride.

I found my new tiny home! So adorable up in the Alps. Julian said she’s actually a really mean lady and hates when hikers take pictures outside her house. Oops!

This was a tough ascent so we needed a victory pic.

We also hiked into Switzerland and it was very cold up there. We carried extra layers in our day packs and multiple times a day we would put things on and take them off. Add two, take off one, add three, take off two etc.

I think this was our highest ascent on the last day. Straight up for the first 4 hours. Julian said not switchbacks - Swiss backs which go straight up.

We hiked past flocks of sheep that totally ignored us. Much more interested in eating and close enough to touch.

Also cows. Wearing bells on collars that were huge! I loved hearing the sound of the bells as they moved to where the portable milking machines were waiting for them. The cows spend the summer up in the mountains and they bring the milking machines to them. They were starting to bring the cows back into the villages for the winter which is really like a cow parade through town. Notice the brown rings around the eyes of these cows. Their milk makes a delicious cheese called Beaufort. We had it at lunch one day and it was great.

One of my favorite pics❤️

Our amazing driver Ronny who met us every day with our bus and a cooler with cold local beer, wine or fruit juices. My favorite was the mango juice. So refreshing!

Our dinners were delicious. Sometimes we ate at the hotel or other nights we walked to a local restaurant in town. It was always a choice of appetizer, entree and dessert. One of my favorite meals was in Italy. I can’t remember what the appetizer was but this mushroom pasta was fantastic and an apple pie with gelato.

Another meal with a pizza appetizer and salad and fish with potatoes. Almost every night there was a fish option which was great with me.

Another fish and potatoes, pumpkin bisque soup and panna cotta for dessert.

Breakfasts were always lots of choices. Eggs, meats, cheeses, yogurt, fruit, pastries, my beloved croissants and great coffee options too. We were encouraged to eat hearty and I did my best. If you were lucky they would make you a fancy cappuccino!

I could keep posting pictures but hopefully this gives you a sample of how spectacular it was. We lucked out on weather as it never rained. Or snowed! Yes that is a possibility and actually snowed the week before our hike. We could see the fresh white stuff up high on the mountains.

This was the most physically challenging thing I have done in my life, and I really am proud of myself for accomplishing it. We can do hard things! Next up will be the exact opposite. One of the most relaxing things I have done in my life - a few days in Bellagio Italy. Check back soon🤗

Chamonix!

Wow this place is a picture postcard everywhere you look! Such a beautiful town set in the midst of these amazing Alps and a glacier right out my window. Luckily we will end the hike here and spend another night yippee!

We met up with our hiking group at the airport in Geneva and were driven the 90 miles to Chamonix France for the first night. The hike begins tomorrow morning and we will hike France, Italy and Switzerland. 15 total in our group, 2 guides and a driver that handles the luggage and many other important details. We have only known each other a few hours but everyone in the group seems very nice, fun and outgoing. And we all love to hike and are up for the challenge! 5 in the group are doctors….bonus! Hopefully we won’t need their skills. We had a couple of hours to explore this charming town before our information meeting and dinner. So many lovely shops, restaurants and hotels.

We had a fantastic dinner at a great restaurant called Rose du Pont. Wonderful food and a gorgeous interior. We had our choice of several options and I went with the grilled veggies and burrata appetizer, salmon with pesto pasta for the entree and their signature dessert - this raspberry mousse and chocolate adorable cuckoo clock. I thought it was going to be all looks and no taste and boy was I wrong. Every bite was heavenly and I had to force myself to stop before devouring every morsel.

Last picture - the sun setting on the glacier. It glowed gold!

That’s it for today! Big day tomorrow 🤗