Nick and I love traveling. We have been very fortunate to be able to take  one international trip and one domestic trip each year, when we can.  We had already enjoyed our trips to Morocco and New Orleans in 2025, and were not planning another.

We are long time parishioners of St. Luke  Church in Westport, Connecticut.  In the spring, our pastor, Father Kumar, told us about a pilgrimage to Italy that he had in mind for parishioners and their friends and family members who might be interested. The journey was called Italian Treasures, a Pilgrimage of Mercy and Hope,  and it would include visits to four major basilicas in Rome as well as stops in Florence, Venice,  Assisi, and more. 2025 is a Jubilee Year; Jubilee Years  typically  occur once every quarter-centennial, during  which the Holy Doors in Rome’s major basilicas are opened for pilgrims. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for us to share this experience with our pastor and others from our parish? And wouldn’t it also be wonderful  to be in Italy one more time? But the trip was scheduled in June, and having been in Rome in the summer many decades ago when the heat and humidity were nearly unbearable, we didn’t even consider going. Then the starting date of the trip was changed  from June to November. We signed up!

Two nights before our departure, I came down with a painful earache. I wouldn’t be able to fly  with an earache! And who gets earaches at my age?  We went to Urgent Care as soon as it opened the next morning.  The nurse practitioner  fixed my ear problem. I also told her about a lip condition I sometimes get called angular cheilitis, for which an antibiotic is required, and she gave me some samples of Bacitracin to take on the trip. After breathing a sigh of relief, we finished packing and got ready to meet our fellow travelers on Monday November 10 at our church at noon.