Return, recuperation, detox, back to work

3 Aprile
My journey back to Italy was almost as long as possible, I could have made it to Australia! I set 3 alarms the night of the 30th in Denver near Wash. Park; one rang at midnight, my watch was hidden under the covers and the 3rd went off 30 minutes too late! I arose by chance at 4:51, showered and shaved and packed the car, drove to DIA to return the rental and was at my gate at 6:08, with my plane leaving at 6:45. That was the fastest part of my day. Off to Chicago, which thank goodness was not a necessary part of my trip as the consulate had come through with my Visa and sent it in time to Denver. I arrived at 8:50 or so, caught 2 CTA trains from Midway to O'Hare (which took longer than my flight from Denver), arriving about noon. My flight on British Airways was scheduled for 7:45, but I snuck onto the earlier flight at 6PM. I then flew to London, watching American Gangster and Juno and enjoying the free wine, unlike stingy American which charges for everything. I arrived on time, around 7:30 and took a shuttle bus to the infamous new Terminal 5. No lost luggage for me, just a 7 hour layover. I did try out a Gordon Ramsay restaurant called Plane Food and with just one brochure remaining, I happened to meet 2 very nice folks from LA, the Gindroz', who are travel agents and forced them to listen to my marketing spiel. If you need a personalized trip , check out their site at www.gindrozandco.com
The salmon was fine, but overpriced. On to Rome, arriving at 1810. I am not sure I can even do the math, but I think start to finish was 30 hours or so.
Bacco is bigger and was glad to see me and now my ear is clean as well. I caught up on a bit of yard work, with at least 2 days worth of work ahead, checked out the new vines-happy, but no buds yet.
I gave Raffa many gifts like Kool Aid and flavored Jello, which are unknown in Italy as are Keebler graham crackers. I passed on Jasper's gift of a slow food t shirt from KC and finally the 2 packs of camel lights which are almost 3 times more expensive here.
I got back to cooking normal food, like wild boar along with our garden's last bounty from 2007, some cauliflower and fennel. I am going to let my liver shrink for a couple of days before going to Vinitaly, but many thanks again to all the fine cooks and their wonderful wines in America: Larry and Pam, Larry and Marcia, Jasper, Norma and Milton, Sharon and my bro and sis-in law, Kim.
The pictures are of the vines at arrival, the pine tree my dad planted for me as i entered med shcool and the beginning of the pool construction.
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