The Rebroadcast of Show # 123 Delayed Indefinitely

Due to problems with the studio equipment, the rebroadcast of Alan's Italy Show # 123 - My Favorite Bridges could not be produced last evening. Due to my impending cataract surgery, Part 2, the date for the next attempt at a live broadcast is uncertain at this time. I will will keep you posted.

Coming to Grips with Cataract Surgery

I don't recall when my parents had their cataract surgery. I don't recall how it went, if they were afraid, anxious, or really any thoughts they may have had. I don't recall what they were like afterwards. To me it was something that older people had, and I did not need to be concerned about it for many years to come. In retrospect I wish I had paid closer attention to the whole thing. In general I wish I had paid closer attention to the aging process that my parents experienced. After all my mother lived to be about 93 1/2 and my father 89 1/2. They had a lot of things to deal with, but I paid little attention. All I remember was my father saying to me, "Alan, don't get old," and my mother repeating the Bette Davis quote, "getting old is not for sissies," which I still quote a lot. I like to say, "if getting old is not for sissies, then what do sissies, like me, do?"

So as I got older, I knew things were going to happen. I actually had Melanoma at age 51. My father had skin cancer, I recall, but not Melanoma. That was my first surgery, and as I recall I was pretty scared. I still have the 8 inch long scar with clear remnants of the 15 stitches. I loved the doctor, Matthew Harris, who did the surgery at NYU Medical Center, and my Dermatologist, Alan Schecter, who still treats me. Then there was surgery to remove the kidney stone in 2011. That was the worst week of my life, and I never wish to repeat it. I have had minor dermatological procedures over the year, perhaps as many as two dozen or more.

About 4 years ago, when my vision began to deteriorate and I was told I had cataracts, I knew the time was coming soon for that surgery. Then my ophthalmologist, Dr. Gary Povill, retired and handed me off to the person who did his surgery, Dr. Roger Husted. I liked him immediately, but was still quite apprehensive about the coming procedure. Last September, when I could not even read the top line with my right eye and barely the 20-40 line with my "good" eye, the left, Dr. Husted told me I was ready for cataract surgery. Knowing I would need time for the whole thing, I scheduled it for after my teaching ended, choosing the two dates myself back last fall even before I asked the doctor's scheduler, June 14 and June 28.

Then I began the research, speaking with dozens of people who had it, and reading everything I could find on the Internet. I was assured that it was a complicated, but successful procedure in a large number of cases. Most people said, "ah, it's a piece of cake." Nonetheless I was very anxious, as I am for many things in life (including doing a TV show!). I started with the drops the Friday before and continue to this day, 72 hours after the first surgery. I drove to the surgical center, and my wife drove me home. I was sedated, as I requested (some people do not have that (for them getting older will be "sissy-free")). I was quite relaxed, but felt the doctor doing a lot of stuff and heard him speaking (his voice was reassuring). The surgery seemed to take longer than I recall reading, but I knew he was implanting a special Toric Lens to which I paid extra to correct my astigmatism. I went home, took off the patch on my right eye and immediately realized that I had gone from not being able to make out face features on people ten feet from me at the YMCA without my glasses to being able to see brilliantly with the surgical eye without glasses. The next day the doctor's assistant told me I had 20-30 vision in that eye without glasses. I still had who knows what in the left eye without glasses. I thought I would be quite cool by having my glasses adjusted so that the right lens was removed and replaced with a clear lens; it didn't work for me, so now here is my situation.

I walk around with a good right eye and a bad left left eye, but am managing. I drove yesterday very well as I am legally allowed (in NY State 20-40 in one eye). I cannot see short distance, as I was told would happen, so I wear a pair of drug store reading glasses with a patch over the bad eye, and that is what I am doing now as I write this blog. It is uncomfortable. I await my next surgery on Tuesday, June 28, still anxious, but eager to get the whole thing over with. I do not wear glasses anymore for distance. I will be going to a party tonight being seen by friends for the first time in 63 years without glasses. This interim two-week period when I can see well with one eye, and do the reading/writing thing as I indicated is hard for me, but I have no choice and the days pass. I will keep you posted.

Boy Did I Goof

I'm very sorry, but show # 123 was just removed from Youtube. The mistake I made with the work of Ghirlandaio in the Museum of San Marco's Book Store/Gift Show was so egregious that in my utter humiliation and embarrassment, I have decided to either have that segment edited out of the DVD of the show or do the entire show over again. I sounded like an utter doofus. Here is the actual story:

In 1486 the Monastery of San Marco commissioned Domenico Ghirlandaio to do a fresco in their facility. That is how the fresco got there. It was not a bookstore/gift shop in 1486 (DUHHHHHHH), and if I were to hazard a guess, and of course my credibility index has probably just fallen to new lows, I would say that the location back then was the Refectory. I come to this conclusion because his other two Cenacolos (Ognissanti and Badia a Pasignano) were located in the area where the monks dined known as a Refectory.

My apologies. I have no excuse other than jet lag and perhaps my anxiety over my impending cataract surgery which is quite high right now. I will keep you informed about the solution and when show # 123 returns. Too bad, because I actually liked the show.

My Favorite Bridges and a Whole Lot More

This week I labored with several different ideas to put together for my first broadcast off the "new season." My original idea was to simply do the Favorite Bridges Show that was planned before we left for Italy. Then after a memorable 12 day trip, I decided that perhaps I should focus on trip taking in general and the specific trip we just took. Then while in Florence I decided that maybe I should take photos of some unique experiences I was having in a city that I have seen extensively since 1992. The upshot was a show which combined all three concepts. Thus I start out thanking our friends for making our trip amazing, then I talk about my unique experiences accompanied by about a dozen photos I took during a solo day strolling about in Florence, and the concluding with the Bridges. The result was a quick (seemingly, even though the show was over 50 minutes long), lively, fun show which not covered a lot of ground, but kept me very much engaged during my current period of jet lag from my trip home, anxiety over my impending cataract surgery, and general tiredness. There were, however, two mistakes. First I queried why Ghirlandaio's painting of the San Marco Cenacolo was placed at San Marco, when in actuality it is a fresco commissioned during the 15 th century for the monastery. Second I was may have mistaken about the America Vespucci Bridge in Florence in a photo showing the westernmost bridges. No excuses. Just for me, same old, same old.

Jet lag is becoming worse each year we travel. Waking up at 4 AM in the morning (10AM Italy time), ready for bed no later than 9 PM (3 AM the next morning Italy time), and getting hungry at strange times. When I get out of bed at say 9 AM, it is really 3 PM and I would have already had breakfast and lunch......and on and on. Other bodily issues such as constipation, grogginess all the time, disorientation, and lethargy. Put that together with the prospect of cataract surgery, which admittedly I have heard is no big deal from dozens of people, I was really quite out of it this week. I was resolved not to do a show. Then mid-week I felt that in order to take my mind off the surgery scheduled for next Tuesday, I would have to keep very busy. Therefore I went to the YMCA twice since returning, put together a show, wrote a blog (Friends, Food, and Fabulous Views), did a wash, went to the local dump, went shopping, went to the bank, registered at the hospital, wrote several emails to my friends in Italy, and watched a lot of TV. It all helps.

The future for Alan's Italy is very much in doubt. I have no idea what my vision will be like after Tuesday. Will I be able to drive? Read? Watch TV? Put together another show? Everything is up in the air and will remain so until I can get a handle on my condition. Even if the surgery goes smoothly and I can see 20 - 20 long distance I will need new reading glasses for close up work like doing prep for a new show and I will have to wait until after surgery number 2 on my left eye and then some, so maybe not for weeks. I will try to keep my dedicated followers up to date.

Friends, Food, and Fantastic Views

 Pardon my immodesty, but I really do know how to plan a vacation in Italy that can be everything I wanted.

We flew into Rome and took a taxi to Siena, our first sleepover. What a feeling getting off the plane and having the Alessandro Brigante Taxi Service waiting at the exit. Fabrizio was there waiting with a sign, we boarded his car, and off we went on the 3 hour trip to Siena. What a nice guy stopping for us when the need arose and driving flawlessly while we relaxed in the back seat sleeping and watching the scenery dropping us off right at the front door of our hotel, Palazzo Ravizza, in Siena. The price of $360 euro was well worth it for us - no driving for me (ahhhhh) and no finding my way around Italy and into a big city. The hotel was spectacular with a garden in the rear with magnificent views of Tuscany. Both our rooms ( we had to switch due to a prearranged conflict in room occupancy) had views of Tuscany and were spotless and beautiful. Siena is a nice town, but we proved conclusively once and for all, not one of our favorite places. Florence has better food, better museums, and of course, no fault to Siena, our dearest friends. So we could see the countryside without my driving, Lidia and Luca came down to meet us and take us to Volterra and Monteriggioni (3rd time for me, 2nd for Laura) and the val d'orcin region with lunch at San Quirico d'Orcia, both wonderful days with loving and fabulous friends. Had ok food except for the Osteria Nonna Gina in Siena which was amazing. Saw the Campo and Duomo which are great famous locations and the Pinacoteca (art museum) which has Sienese art, not my favorite kind of art, but interesting anyway. We befriended a member of staff at the hotel, Francesco, who gave us a superb 20 minute interview while seated in the back garden.

After four nights it was taxi again to Florence door to door and again a wonderful experience. Same room at Croce di Malta we have had for quite a while now with balcony overlooking back garden. Lunch at La Grotta di Leo, our favorite lunch place with excellent pizza, and dinner at La Spada with great food. We dined with Lidia for practically every meal. We had Bistecca Fiorentina two nights in a row!!!! Best steak ever. One day Lidia took us with her wonderful friends (and now our friends as well) to see the newly restored Cenacolo (Last Supper) by my favorite artist, Domenico Ghirlandaio, located at the Monastery at Badia a Pasignano, where we were the year before. Then they took us to a small town in the area, San Donato, a great small town I never heard of. The moral to this story is, let your friends take you wherever they want! Then we went back to Sabrina and Giulio's house for lunch cooked by Giulio and had several hours of our fun and great food. They told us of the best pizza place in Florence, Santarpia which did indeed have great pizza. We bid farewell to them. While in Florence we visited the Pitti Palace Galleria Palatina for the great works by Raphael. Slight mistake here - not nearly enough time in Florence. Once again met our friend Prof Roger Crum who brought with him to Florence 54 students and 6 faculty members. We dined with him and brought him back to our hotel Croce di Malta to show him the 360 degree view from the roof which was opened just for me. Once again bumped into one of the owners, Simone who greeted me warmly. Bought some leather products in Lidia's store including a new wallet, 3 belts, and a new side bag for me.

We took the train to Orvieto, a lovely town in Umbria, much nicer for us anyway than Siena. Dinner with Franco and Nina. Then next morning  Nina drove us back with her to Civita di Bagnoregio where she works with Franco at his fabulous restaurant Trattoria Antica Forno. Civita is a 2800 year old Etruscan town accessible only via a long walkway which is at several points virtually a 45 degree angle up to the town perched high above the Alto Lazio valley with Lubriano on the eastern side. We walked around the town again filled with several times the number of people we usually see, then dined at Antina Forno. Laura went into the kitchen to video Franco cooking what turned out to be close to 70 meals (pasta mostly) and learning some new things about Italian cooking. We now have about 20 minutes of his cooking brilliance on video. We then watched the twice yearly donkey race patterned after the famous Palio of Siena. What a hoot with immovable donkeys "strolling" around the town square, a fraction the size of the Campo in Siena. Franco then drove us back to Civita for our last evening in Italy. We strolled the eerie, dark, and empty backstreets of Orvieto before trying to get some sleep as we were awakened at 4:30 AM next day for the taxi back to Rome Airport.

A memorable and exciting trip to Italy which will be elaborated upon during about 8 - 10 shows over the next year. I will probably miss Friday evening's show as I prepare myself mentally for my double cataract surgery coming up first next week and then two weeks later. Not certain when my next show will be.