Our Photos

---

Our flight was relatively uneventful given the hurricane of fuss over the volcano in Iceland.

The plane did detour to a more Southern route to avoid the smoke and ash and we encountered some fairly stiff turbulence as we entered the European airspace.

But we arrived in Milan only about 20 minutes late.

It began with Facebook.

I was FB friended by Giuseppe Nucatola, the son of Salvatore Nucatola, a distant cousin whom we were fortunate enough to meet in 2005 in my grandfather's town of birth, Palermo. Giuseppe and his wife Laura live north of Trieste. They said, "We hope you will come and visit us someday." If you know me, you know that my passion is Nucatola genealogy and meeting members of the extended Nucatola family. When people suggest that we visit them, with Nick's help, I will be there as soon as I can. The soonest we could visit Giuseppe and Laura was during my spring break this April.

In a recent note from our longtime friends Agnès and Jose Maria, they said that we should tell them where we were spending our vacation in 2010 and they would meet us there. Nick suggested Lake Como. Could we combine a visit with both couples in Lake Come and Trieste, making various stops along the way? It seemed like a great idea to us.

Many airports were being closed because of atmospheric ash from the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. Ours was one of the last planes to leave JFK for Malpensa Airport in Milan. And Agnès was on one of the last planes to leave Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris before it was closed.

We looked forward with excitement to arriving in Milan.