Dishers.com

In Dec 2024/Jan 2025 we did something we thought we’d probably never do. We moved.

After 25 years of living out in the country we traded land for interior space. Seems crazy right? Leaving 16 acres of country-living behind us. I don’t know how many people have looked at my cross-eyed and said “You did what? Why would you do that? Why would you leave this?”. Well, I’ll tell you why.

We have lived out in the country for 25 years. But like the previous owners that also lived there for 25 years. Times and seasons changed.

Our farm home out in the country was a fantastic place to raise our 5 kids. I wouldn’t change that for anything. The oldest moved there with us when he was 9, the youngest moved out with us when he was 17. The previous owners, the Daniels, also raised 5 kids there.

We’ve had plenty of fun; built a barn, was fortunate enough to have our horses on our property vs boarding. Hosted many a fall festival, 4th of July, and Hen fests, graduation and birthday parties (mostly outside). We’ve had plenty of animals over the years, built a shooting range, ridden dirtbikes, and overall lived some of our best life there.

Oh, and we did all of that with 1 and a half baths, go figure.

While we’ve loved our old farm house who’d bones date back to before 1857, and while we’ve updated plenty of it over the years, it was time for something newer. The house, for a farm house, wan’t really small, almost 3,000 square feet. It was still a farm house, full of chopped up rooms. There was no great room, and no finished basement. All significant entertainment was outside, which if fine 8 months out of the year. As our family has grown, most of our kids have significant others. We have grand children, 5, at the time I’m writing this. Things were starting to get a little tight. Entertaining outside was always easy, but inside was starting to be difficult.

So where we are back in a neighborhood, one with an HOA no less. If you know us, you know an HOA was one of the primary drivers for us moving to the country, but here we are.

I wish my mom could have seen it, I think she’d approve.

We traded massive outside space for massive inside space, yet still kept the ability to entertain outside as well. With a bigger better inground (over our redneck inground/above ground), as well as a hottub to boot. A fantastic basement with pool table and shuffleboard, as well as a bar area and media room. The kids and especially the grandkids all approve.

It took us a long time to find it. Literally 3 years. In fact our closing date was litterally 3 years to the date we met our agent when we looked at our first home. When it’s right, it’s right.

So the days of tinering with old tractors, having big gardens, ripping up the yard with dirtbikes, fireworks, and potato launchers are behind us. Sadly, I no longer have my own private shooting range.

But the future looks bright, the home is fantastic, and we have great neighbors, and a 2 mile walking trail literally right outside our front door.

Here’s to another 25 years!

If you you’ve read posts here before you know we love to travel and more importantly love to scuba dive. This year we did something a little different. This year we celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary with a 16 day trip to Italy. We share our aniversary date with some friends, and they too were crossing a mile stone (20 years), so we put a trip together.

If you know me, I have a bit of a reputation for ‘unfiltered feedback’. Italy is one of those dream vacation destinations. There’s so much amazing stuff in one little country. Mountains to the north, fantastic mountain towns on the sea in the south. And oh, so much history. It’s impossible to see it all in 16 days. We also like to avoid crowds and ‘touristy’ places when ever possible. So there’s no Rome in this trip, no downtown Florence, or Naples outside of transiting through it., though we did hit Venice. Our friends have been Italy a few times so while leaned on their prior expertise as we coordinated in planning. It was also their trip too so there were locations they absolutely wanted to hit. I’m going to break this down into two posts. This one that’s commentary about the trip, do’s and don’ts if you’re going to Italy to visit any of the places we visited, and a post that reviews the places we stayed and some restaraunts.

We learned a lot on this trip. Prior to it, I had many conversations with co-workers, friends, and even some family that had visited Italy. We were amped up and geared up for fantastic sights, and food. “Oh the food”, we were told, every meal is fantastic, you can’t go wrong in Italy. The food is so fresh, so simple, made simple ingredients, and is otherworldly. Well… that’s not always the case.

We had a grand plan; start in the north east, in Venice, a few days there, then head west to Stresa, on Lago Maggiore. Spend a few days there, then head south toward the Amalfi coast. We chose a farm resort stay south of Florence, north of Chianti (Salvadonica, specifcally). We planned high end stays in Venice, a high end hotel in Stressa. A medium to upper end stay at Salvadonica. Lastly we chose a VRBO experience in Massa Lubrense, south of Sorento. It also wasn’t a ‘budget stay’, and we chose this location for access to things in and around the Amalfi coast we wanted to see and experience.

On the heals of our epic 16 day trip to Italy I felt it prudent to review the places we stayed and ate. There was a lot that was epic, there was also a lot about this trip that was sub-optimal.

Air Travel : Air Canada Grade: C-

We chose to travel via Air Canada. I’m usually Delta loyal, but we had a ton of Chase Sapphire travel points. To get maximum value, we chose Air Canada. I didn’t make this choice lightly. I called a few Canadian friends and they assured me Air Canada, while generally shitty domestically was pretty good Internationally. They were also pretty direct flights. Well, one hoppers for us from Cincinnati, we weren’t getting into Italy direct no matter who we flew. We booked our outbound from Cincinnati -> Toronto -> Venice. Our return flight from Naples -> Montreal -> Cincinnati. We also went business class to get lie flat seats for the long haul portions and club access for the longer layovers.

All was well until 2 weeks before the trip Air Canada’s flight attendants went on strike, putting a trip that we’d spent 9 mont planning in jeopardy. Air Canada wasn’t helpful, in the least and while everything ultimately worked out, it was very dicey and stressful. In fact I had to buy fully refundable Delta tickets as a backup plan. Fortunately I didn’t need them.

On the way out, we initially had a 2 hour layover in Toronto. Our outbound flight was a little late. We landed then only had 30 minutes to make the next gate. The Toronto airport is HUGE. We hustled to the gate and got there with 10 mins to spare. But there was no plane. It took then an hour to get the plan (which spent the night there), to the gate. And that airport gate area was unbelievably crowded so we stood around for well over an hour, there was not enough seating.

The long haul flight was fine. ~7.5 hours to Venice, over night. The plane was 25 years old and the lie flat seating was dated and uncomfortable. The mechanics of the seat itself barely worked. I will give Air Canada an A++ for the food, it was fantastic.

On the return flight we had a newer plane (10 years old). with the same pods. Well used, and barely functional. Inflight entertainment and screen was fine, but the food on the return flight was not great. It sounds odd to be complaining about airplane food, but in business class, spending nearly $8k on tickets, you do expect better. The service by the flight attendants on both long haul flights was fantastic.

We had a 4 hour layover in Montreal. We went straight to the club above gate 73. What a joke of a club. Dirty, and the worker bees literally gave zero F*’s. I waited nearly 20 minutes for them to bring clean glasses to the limited buffet. Food was terrible, but the beer, once I got a glass was OK.

It is highly unlikely that I will ever fly Air Canada again.

Venice:

Rental Car: Hertz Grade: B-

We rented a car from Hertz, pickup could not have been easier. Car was fairly new (Audi A3), with 5k Kilometers. But I experenced a low oil light and had to stop, check the oil and buy two quarts. Returning it was a PITA. Signage wasn’t clear on where to park, they took forever to check the vehicle back in, but they did give me a credit for the oil I put in even though I couldn’t find the reciept.

Accomidations: Castelo di Roncade Grade:B
https://www.castellodironcade.com/en/

We wanted a Castle like experience, that wasn’t part of the plan for the 14 days we’re spending with our friends so we opted to graft it on to the beginning of the trip.

B+ for value, D for bed, and room accomidations. We booked a Jr. Suite, which wasn’t all that large, but large enough. The furniture in the castle was all terrible. The bed was terrible and the sofa in the living room area was unsittable. It’s advertised as “period furniture”. They need to upgrade the furniture. It’s a castle so there is no lift and our room was a the top of 3 flights of stairs. It is what it is. The room itself was fine, and the grounds were fantastic. Breakfast was included in our package and it was a typical European breakfast but very well done. We also had a fantastic wine tasting event at this hotel/castle as it’s also a functioning winery.

If they upgraded the furniture, I’d stay here again.

Accomidations: Ruzzini Palace Grade: B
https://www.ruzzinipalace.com/

Travel-Transfer: Trenitalia: Grade: B

Accomidations: Hotel La Palma (in Stresa)
https://www.hlapalma.it/en/

Accomidations: Salvadonica Grade: C-
https://www.salvadonica.com/en/

Accomidations: VRBO in Massa Luprense Grade: A