One winter day, Nick returned home after breakfast with his friends, who call themselves “The Grouchy Photographers.”  He was filled with excitement about a trip one of the members of the group had taken to Morocco. I could tell  right away that Nick wanted us to  do the same trip to Morocco as his friend had done. As for me, I wanted to go back to Italy, the country in which my ancestors originated. We needed a compromise, someplace that would be new yet similar to some of our former travels. We began to think about Greece.

I like going to countries in which I can understand some of the language. The only Greek I remembered from my years of teaching immigrant children in Astoria, Queens, long ago,  is that the word for “yes” is pronounced “neh,”  which sounds like “no” in English, and the word for “no” is “ohi,” which sounds like “okay.” Then  a new Greek restaurant, called  Mykonos Kouzina, opened in the next town,  and Connecticut Magazine called it one of the best new restaurants of the year. We went there for lunch and agreed that the food was delicious.

Ancestry.com had told me that I have more Italian DNA than the typical residents of Italy! They have revised this evaluation, telling me that my ethnicity is 5% Greek and 26% of the Aegean Islands. It made sense to me that centuries ago, Greek sailors could have arrived in either  Palermo or Ancona, the birthplaces of my paternal ancestors.  As for Nick, we knew that Greece figured into his ancestry, and we learned that the Aegean Islands did, too. So by exploring Greece, we would be getting in touch with our ethnicities. Greece? Neh!

We have enjoyed the Rick Steves Tours that we have taken before, so we were very pleased that there were  two spots available to Greece in the spring. We booked them!

My blog and Nick’s  photos will follow daily. Please let us know if you prefer not to receive the blog and/or the photos.