Monday, May 2, 2011

Places I went while in the Air Force--Italy

Italy was great. I was (obviously) US Air Force and I was working on an Italian Air Force base which meant we didn't have dormitorys which meant we were put up at a very nice local hotel. My first night people from work took me out to dinner, I had pizza. An entire pizza, but they make their pizza very very thin and with anything you want, so it's easy to eat an entire one by yourself.

I was able to take a day off and go to Venice, Pisa, and Florence. In Florence I saw the statue of David. I'll never forget it. It was so realistic it seemed as if a real man was standing there with baby powder blown on him. It was awe inspiring. The leaning tower of Pisa was a let down. Ok, so it leans. Yawn.  Venice was just how you see in movies. The canals, the architecture. I didn't get to take a gondola ride, they don't do singles and it was expensive anyways. I didn't get to go to Rome, it was six hours away. To far, we were allowed to take one-day trips only. After all, we weren't in Italy to take a vacation.

I went to an Italian beach. Women go topless and their bottoms are covered with floss. The men aren't shy either. I was laying on my stomach, a man not to far away stands up and just drops his shorts. He was changing into his suit. I'm thinking, yikes--could have gone my whole life without seeing that. Thanks.

Driving was a challenge. They don't have lanes. You pretty much make your own. Seems to work though.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was in Italy when they bombed Daharan. I was also in Italy when my mother died. She'd always had heart problems and had had triple bypass surgery. As I sat at my desk talking to the guy who was to replace me, the phone rang. The caller asked for my supervisor and would not identify himself. I put the phone to my chest and told my replacement that I'd ticked someone off and to pretend he was my supervisor. He took the phone, listened, then handed it back to me. It was my husband, he'd insisted on my supervisor because he wanted to make sure someone other than me knew. I thought I'd reconized his voice.

He said, your mom's had a heart attack.

Like I said she'd had them before, in fact she'd been sick most of my life.

I said, another one?

He said, the last one.

Italy was great, but when I think of it--that moment is all I ever remember.

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