So much has happened in a week that it would take more time than I have to report it all.

We left Sicily on the ferry boat Tues night/Wed. morning. We were fine in bed, but when we had to get up, rough seas made things a little questionable for Nicole and me. We finally made it up and out on deck by about 9, a half hour out of port, also meaning seas were calming. The fresh air helped, too.

Kim then drove us from Salerno (where the boat docked) to Macerata, our "home" three years ago. We walked a little inside the city (not nearly as much as we would have liked to) visited with Filiberto, the AHA program director in Macerata, had dinner with him in our favorite mom and pop restaurant in town, then went back to his house to watch a pre-season soccer match involving Juventus, Filiberto's favorite team and one of Nicole's.

Last Thursday we drove from Macerata to "our home" in Slovenia. The Skrlj famiy gives us the use of a home (it was my student Helena's grandfather's) all to ourselves. We have done a little touring since here, even driving back to Venice (actually closer to Slovenia than Florence). Kim loves Venice, and has been there more times than I have. We also visited the town of Nova Gorica where we met up with another of my former students from my Fulbright experience in 1995. She is working as a journalist for the newspaper in NG.

NG is a very interesting town. Gorizia was made part of Italy after WWII. Nova (New) was created on the Slovene side after the war. The two towns are "separated" by a low fence. There is a piazza with no fence showing the unity between the two cities (though it is officially illegal to use it as a border crossing, there are no guards or security). There was a big ceremony there in 2004 as Slovenia entered the EU. We visited a Franciscan church at the top of a very high hill as well as a Franciscan monastery.

Another very interesting trip was to Soline, a place where sea salt is still harvested as it was centuries ago. We had a tour of the salt pools (I can explain the whole process to you if you'd like), then lunch in the beautiful coastal town of Piran. We finished the day in Koper where there was a festival going on. We didn't stay very late (my fear of driving winding 2-lane roads at night) but were still able to see break dancing, soccer matches, a grafitti artist contest, etc.

Our itinerary calls for us to leave Slovenia Thursday. We must return the rental car to Milan . We have a flight to London on Friday to visit our good friends from Iowa, Tom and Linda Emmerson.

Hope to be able to update this again before we get home but I don't know if/when I'll have access before returning Aug. 3.