Do not be "upset." The lovely and brilliant Bianca (otherwise known as UIG) emerged as a beacon of class and beauty at the Meet. She is a legend in many of our eyes. ^

Gentlemen never tell tales. ;)

I adore Bianca, and was sorry she didn't join us for the day in Verona. She also increased the Italian "vocabulary" of a few of us at the dinner party meet. I think the particular words we made her teach us are not for print here ;)

I guess we will never find out the translation of Dovster in Italian...

"Fantastico!"

I agree O2K----there is no comparison in legendary status between lovely Bianca and PlatBrownSl..................er, Gal........ ;)

My Italian being a little more advanced than yours, I didn't have to learn any words from Bianca but she did teach me a few phrases by the simple method of constantly repeating them.

They included:

"Your trip to the States had better not include a stop in Savannah."

"How can you eat that garbage?"

"There is no way you are spending the weekend in Lugano alone with my sister."

"You idiotic American!"

And a new one which she started using right after the Venice Meet, "the guy with the hot sauce who kept insisting I come to his room..."

I wonder if she ever arrived on-time for her flight that morning to depart from Venice...

That depends on how cute the water taxi driver was.

At least her breath should always be pleasant.

That was probably because I had very few chances to otherwise talk with Bianca during the Meet. Everytime I asked where she was, somebody said Dovster has hauled her off to parts unknown in his relentless quest to munch on a cow.

I'm too lazy this morning to go over all the earlier posts in this thread but PBG did mention in one Milepost where he saw them on one of his return flights. So I'm assuming they made it.

Cholula, I hope you realize that sentence can be understood in two ways, but to save you from the wrath of Bianca's godfather, Don Guido, I am going to presume you are talking about my search for a hamburger.

Yeah, I meant your constant search for beef while on an island surrounded by delicious seafood.
But I see that this could be taken another way if one's mind was in the gutter...;).
While we are on the topic of Venice, just a note that we bought a piece of Murano glass yesterday at our local Costco. It's a gold and green Christmas tree about a foot high and must weigh 10 pounds. Quite a beautiful piece and was about half the cost of a smaller piece of Murano glass I bought on Murano and hauled 8,000 miles back home... :cool:.

Sort of like the Tissot watch I bought in Switzerland a few years ago and then found being sold much cheaper in Tel Aviv. :(

On a happier note, my Venice trip is not 100% finished. It is a bit chilly tonight so I have donned the Air France pyjamas I won in the drawing. I should be wearing the matching slippers, but I am holding off on them for a while.

The reason: I have this thing about hotel slippers. I love them. I have never managed to buy any slippers anywhere as comfortable as those put in hotels (not, unfortunately, the Ramada in FLL).

The problem is that they are not built to last. Generally, they are in shreads after one or two months. Last week, my old pair (taken from the Turkish hotel I was at in September) died. I thus opened one of the two pairs I took from the Ai Mori. (Marco, if you are reading this thread -- please excuse me.)

Only when that pair is gone will I go for the Air France set. I figure that will be some time in January.

Meanwhile, if any of you happen go be in a hotel that has these terrycloth slippers, do not hesitate to mail them out to me!

I can see 50 people each bringing you 2 pair of hotel slippers to the Tel Aviv meet. Unfortunately I won't be one of them because I rarely stay at hotels that hand out free slippers. :(

Dovster, funny thing... after our hurricanes, the Ramada on US 1 still has a big plywood painted sign outside saying "Denny's Open". I think of you everytime I drive by. :D