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The sweet crunchy wonton looking baked good was very yummy…what exactly it was we purchased from the bakery this morning…I don’t know but Giff and I were eating it quickly to see who would get the last bite. Giff won…it’s not fair…his mouth is bigger.
The weekly market was going on today and was right behind our hotel in the pedestrian only zone. We walked through the crowds picking out munchies for the road. We found some cheeses, fruits and veggies and bread. The market was huge spreading down many different streets…we walked through a lot of it but not all.
With our snacks in hand we checked out of the hotel and were back in the car. We were heading to Genova today which means we will officially be sleeping in Italy tonight.
We took some of the back roads out of the city and found ourselves surrounded by fields of lavender. The flowers were in bloom and the countryside was dotted with purple. We pulled over to take pictures of course and stopped in a little town called, Grignan. The town was small and cute up on a hill with a cathedral at the top. We sat out on a patio enclosed by stone walls and green ivy for a cup of tea and snack. The tea pots were heavy stone and had high quality tea leaves from China accompanied by little cookies and candy. After our tea break we walked through the town to the top where we saw sweeping views of the countryside. The little cobblestone streets were quaint and the buildings with their colored shutters were picturesque.
Back in the car, we pulled over again to take pictures of the huge lavender field with the mountaintop town we had just left in the background. Ironically, we had bought a postcard in town of this exact same scene.
We saw our drive to Genova was a long one so we got back on the freeway. We enjoyed our market foods in the car as the scenery into Italy started to change from lavender fields to olive groves and gorgeous views of the coast. We were still on the toll roads but were going in and out of tunnels through the mountains with the ocean on our right.
It was pretty late when we checked into our hotel in Genova. The hotel was an older building with the kind of elevator you see in old movies. We got settled in, opened a bottle of wine and watched an American made movie in Italian before going to bed.
Published by Giff Kabat
I grew up in Ohio as a kid, so of course I went to college at “THE” Ohio State University. I graduated in 2001 with a major in business finance. A month after graduation, I moved out to California with my college girlfriend (whom I married in 2005)…and started my career in sales (industrial sales for 5 years…then moved into medical laser sales for 4 years).
In 2009 I was 31 years old. I had a great job, a new house, and a beautiful wife. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better…my wife and I found out we were going to have a baby. Everything was going according to plan…and I couldn’t have scripted a better life for myself.
Then in the same year…everything changed. My wife, Brandey, called me when I was on my way to work and told me over the phone, something I never thought could be possible in a million years. My beautiful 30-year old pregnant wife was just told that she had breast cancer. At that moment, everything stopped all at once. I immediately went to her…and learned of our new plan…which began with her needing surgery immediately…and the rest we would find out later.
The day we returned from the hospital after Brandey’s surgery…my father died. He had been battling an aggressive cancer of his own…and although he was the one person I wanted to speak with about Brandey having cancer…I never told him. My sister, Brooke, had just gotten married a few months ago, and although he was weak, he was able to walk his little girl down the aisle of her wedding. On the night before my sister’s wedding, Brandey and I told him that we were pregnant and about to make him a grandfather. It made no sense to tell him that everything had changed for us…so he died in peace knowing everything was “the way it should be” for his only 2 children.
2010 was the worst year of my life. We had lost our baby…and for 12 months I watched my wife fight cancer with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and drug therapy. It was a difficult year for us…but we made it. When you go through something like this in life, you learn a lot about yourself and the people around you. I was amazed at the strength and courage of my wife…and how many good people there are in this world. I will be forever grateful for the ones who never ceased to amaze me with their kindness during this hard time. Family, friends, and sometimes complete strangers…helped us make it through this. I am, and will always be especially grateful to my mother, who was with my dad at the very end, when I couldn’t be there, and when things were at their worst. She has been so supportive throughout all of this, and without her everything would have been so much harder for me.
It’s 2011 now…and the plan we have for our life this year…is to make it the best year of our lives. Brandey is officially in remission from breast cancer and she has a 95% chance the cancer will never come back. Besides the love that I have for my wife and family, the loves of my life are food, wine, and adventure travel. My wife and I love traveling to new places, seeing natural wonders, and meeting new people from different parts of the world. So for the next 400 days…we’ve decided to travel the world…and celebrate our lives. There are so many things I took for granted in life that I will never take for granted again. My father worked for over 30 years at the same job with the same company…rarely took time off…and died at 64 years old right after his retirement. For me, this trip is a combination of a tribute to him, along with wanting to spend the time of my life with the “love of my life.”
* The only thing I will miss while we are gone is our family and friends (who we hope will meet us somewhere throughout our trip) and especially our 3 little kitties we left with my mom in Ohio to catsit for the next 400 days. I will also miss watching “American Football” over the weekend…but I’ll do my best to check the scores in the middle of the night.
GIFF
View all posts by Giff Kabat
Spinning Around The World 