May 8 - 11, 2026 - Florence

Florence - May 8 - 11, 2026

Florence is also very beautiful and magnificent. We visited Uffizi.  70% of the artworks in the Uffizi are about Mary, Madonna, or Jesus.  There are also works by famous artists during the Renaissance (15th, 16th Century) such as Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.  At Accademia Gallery, we met David. David is much taller and bigger than what I used to see in the pictures. The Leonardo Da Vinci Interactive Museum visit was added to our trip along the way. The museum is full of prototypes of Da Vinci's designs. It was so cool and fun to visit the museum. Da Vinci was very genius indeed. I also love the unforgettable view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo. It is a MUST visit when going to Florence.

We had a nice dinner at "Il Santa Maria Ristorante Steakhouse". Ducky ordered Chianti steak 8.5 euro per 100 grams. They picked a gigantic 1.2 kilograms for us. This meal costed 225 euros. LoL  It was delicious and not to chewy for me.  We enjoyed the meal and the experience. The leftover fed us as the following day lunch.

May 5, 2026 - Amalfi

Amalfi - May 5, 2026

Amalfi is a coastal town in the Salerno district, take a high-speed train from Rome to Salerno for about an hour, and then take a boat to Amalfi and Positano.

Amalfi builds houses on overlapping hills. It looks very beautiful. Here people grow gigantic lemons with very thick skins, and lemon skins are used to make cups of Lemon Sorbet ice cream. One order for 15 euro!!! The lemons are used to make limoncello as well. We really enjoyed the beautiful coastal, the boat rides, seafood with pasta, ravioli, lemon sorbet, limoncello, and the visit to the ancient sites there. 

"The most famous and dominant church on the Amalfi Coast is the Amalfi Cathedral, known locally as the Duomo di Amalfi or Cattedrale di Sant'Andrea (Cathedral of Saint Andrew).
The Basilica of the Crucifix (Basilica del Crocifisso): This is the oldest part of the complex, dating back to the 9th century. Built on the ruins of an even older 6th-century early Christian church, it now serves as the Diocesan Museum and houses beautiful historic treasures.

The Cathedral of St. Andrew: Built right next to the older basilica in 987, this main church features a stunning, dramatic 19th-century Norman-Arab-Byzantine facade with brilliant gold mosaics."

May 4 - 8, 2026 - Rome

Rome - May 4 - 8, 2026

Rome is very beautiful. Walking everywhere is like being in Roman times. The old buildings have statues, columns, and beautiful balconies from BC to the present.  In Rome, we vsited the Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican Museum, and St. Peter's Square. In Rome, putting on high heels is quite a challenge. The heels can easily get stuck in between the 12 cm x 12 cm stones used to pave the walkways. These iconic paved ways also are not friendly for luggage wheels.

"The iconic cobblestones that pave the streets of Rome are called sampietrini (sometimes spelled sanpietrini).

The Origin of the Name: They are named after St. Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro), because the stones were first used there in the late 16th century to make it easier for heavy papal carriages to roll through the square smoothly.

The Material: They are hand-cut, pyramid-shaped blocks made from black basalt, a volcanic rock. Most of it was historically quarried from the volcanic areas near the Alban Hills just southeast of Rome.

How They Are Laid: Unlike modern paving, traditional sampietrini aren't cemented down. Instead, artisans wedge them tightly into a loose bed of sand and river gravel. This allows the ground to "breathe," flex, and absorb water during heavy rains."

 

May 3, 2026 - Istanbul

Istanbul - May 3, 2026

We used stopover program offered by the Turkish Airlines. I picked the Grand Yavuz hotel in Sultanahmet, known as the heart of old Constantinople.  Walking inside and around the Bazaar was a joyful experience. There are gold shops, sweets and spices shops, Turkish lamp shops, all kind of shops. Buying ice cream here was very fun. The seller played tricks with the ice cream and its cone. Every time I thought I got a hold to the cone, then, it disappeared. We laughed a lot and I got hungry when finally got a hold on to it. Buying fresh little short of coffee here was very fun too. The seller heated the coffee using sand. Pistachio coffee was delicious. Turkish delights and Turkish teas were very delicious too. The shops around the Bazaar are like the shops over Pahurat in Thailand. They sold both retail and wholesale goods. The shoe district was the whole strip of shoes shops. We visited the ancient site of Basilica Cistern and The Blue Mosque, which are very beautiful. Women must also have a hair covering. Hotel rooms use perfume with very strong scent. Ducky had to open the window to get rid of the smell. It was good that it gradually faded. Turkish people seem to drink tea regularly. The tea vendor will walk to deliver the tea and deliver the snacks using a tray. The used teacup and snack dishes are brought back to wash. No need for disposable cups or plates or plastic bags. I like the idea.

Life in the year 2025

January
Jasmine turned 20. I continued to purge and give away my stuff. 

February
I continued to pack and move stuff to Sunrise house.

March

Still continued to pack and move stuff to Sunrise house. Jasmine visited with Jordan. 

April

Ducky helped to move Jasmine's bedroom suite to Sunrise.
So, I officially moved into Sunrise on April 12, 2025. I hired Joyce Teitelman, Berkshire Hathaway to sell my house. He got deployed in Kentucky on April 24.

May

My house got offerred and we negotiated back and forth. Ducky came back from Kentucky on May 23. We flew to Niagara Falls between Saturday May 24 to Tuesday May 27 over the Memorial Day long weekend. I really enjoyed the trip. I hoped to write about the trip in a different post. 

June

Ducky flew to Forth Worth, Texas between June 4 to July 3. The Marietta house closing date was June 11. I was just happen to finally get the house to close. The house really needed lots of renovation. The little storage barn was all warn out. The fact that the repiping both inside and outside was done gave a soothing mind for the buyer though. 

July

Ducky came back home on July 3. Amber and Kevin invited us to their July 4th get-together. It was the first time I met Jill, Chad's wife there. We had a pontoon boat ride. Kevin was the driver and we had a joyful time swimming in the lake. From the lake, we could spot our house as well. Jasmine went to see Gran and over July 4th weekend and Kelsey helped to take her to ER due to bad bellyache found out to be 15-19 cm ovarian cyst on the right ovarizn. Ducky went to visit Jessie and joined the hippy fair in Portland, Oregon from July 9 to July 15. 

August
Jasmine came to visit us in summer. Jasmine came out to us and had a very long discussion about being a trans son. I was kind of shocked. It was more like a blurred mind and did not know what to think and how to respond to the situation. Now, we called Jasmine "J". 

September
Ducky and I went to Japan Fest on September 20. It was organized at Gas South Convention Center, Duluth Georgia. We enjoyed Taiko, the LinQ (Love in Qushu), the idol group, and the Takoyaki there. 

October
Jessie visited from October 29 to November 3.  We drove to St. Augustine on October 31 to November 1. There we met Jessie’s cousin and her husband. They had not seen each other for at least 10 years I would say. St. Augustine was very pretty. It was founded in 1565 by Spanish settlers and It is the oldest European-established settlement in the USA. So, we really enjoyed several Spanish architectural buildings. We visited Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, Lightner Museum (outside), Flagler College (very beautiful), and Castillo de San Marcos fort.

November
Ducky and I visited Savannah from November 4 to 7.  I loved the beauty of Spanish moss there.  I enjoyed walking at the squares and driving under the tunnel of Spanish moss draping from the gigantic oak trees. We did ghost pubs tour, visited Forsyth park, dined at the Olde Pink House, and the Pirate House.  We walked along East River street where we also stopped by JW Marriott decorated with humongous geodes, couple of dinosaurs and lots of Christmas trees. I got to see the huge Chinese cargo ship up close for the first time and I was very impressed by how immense it was. We drove inside Victorian style Bonaventure Cemetery and saw Little Gracie statue.  We watched Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil filmed at the Mercer House in Savannah, we also stopped by and looked at the house from the outside.

December
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  We just relaxed in December