The Wigleys in Cinque Terre: A weblog and photo gallery

A travel night/day. I only sleep about an hour on the flight to Amsterdam. We arrive at 6 am which is 11 pm. Customs goes quickly and it finally hits me we're in a very diffenrent world when we board the Alitalia jet and the flight attentand says "bon giorno" to me. We arrive in Milan about 90 minutes later and when we find out our plane is delayed about an hour, we stroll about the airport, get our first experience with Italian and an ATM machine: "Mi scusi, dove bancomat?"

Continue reading "Day 2: Amsterdam to Milan to Genoa to Vernazza" »

Posted by Griff Wigley at 03:17 PM | Permalink

Sixty seconds into the flight from MSP airport, our plane flies over south Minneapolis and there, just north and a little west of Lake Nokomis, is St. Joe's Home for Children.

In early May, 1971, after a job interview on the first floor with a social worker named Tom Behr, I took a brief tour of the 3rd floor unit called Meagher Hall where I'd work if I got the job. At the end of the hallway was a linen closet, and there, on her knees rearranging its contents, was a woman named Robbie. Thirty four years and four months later, she's in the window seat next to me as we make our way to Italy for a two week vacation.

Continue reading "Day 1: Departing" »

Posted by Griff Wigley at 08:12 PM | Permalink

My wife Robbie and I are heading to Italy for vacation on Tuesday. We plan to spend our entire two weeks in the Cinque Terre region. (The best photos we've found are here.)

According to Rick Steves: "The Cinque Terre... is a series of villages clinging to a remote stretch of the Riviera coastline. Each town is a variation on the same theme: a pastel jumble of homes crouching in a gully like crusty sea creatures in a tide pool, undisturbed by traffic or modern development."

Continue reading "Arrivederci! Off to Italy's Cinque Terre" »

Posted by Griff Wigley at 03:02 PM | Permalink