Pat and Irene's World Tour

Saturday, April 30, 2016

2015 - 2016 Landlords - Updated April 30, 2016

2015

9/26-9/30/15 - Pompano Wyndham Sea Gardens, 615 North Ocean Blvd., Pompano Beach, FL

9/30-11/30/15 - Vista Del Mar condo, Salinas, Ecuador, Paul Franklin & Jaime Ortiz

11/12-19/15 - La Peregrina, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands

11/30-2/2/15 - Malecon de la Marina #932, Lima, Miraflores, Peru, Leo Baumer

9/30-11/10/15 - Salinas, Ecuador, Malecon De La Marina # 932, Paul Franklin

2016

11/30/15-2/2/16 - Lima, Miraflores, Peru, Leo Baumer

2/2-2/6/16 - Irene's GCA biopsy at Broward Hospital, left Ecuador early JoAnn & Brian's House, Lighthouse Point, FL

2/6-2/13/16 - Dr. Joe's Palm Beach House, 400 Sea Spray, Palm Beach, FL, VRBO

2/13-2/15/16 - Ruairi & Stacey's Wedding Marriott Ocean Point 71 South Ocean Avenue Palm Beach Shores, FL

2/15-3/8/16 - 890 Ashford Avenue Condo San Juan, 00907 Puerto Rico, HomeAway, Stefan and Maria

3/9/16 - Malardrottingen Yacht , Riddarholmen Gamla Stan 111 28 Stockholm, Sweden, booking.com

3/10-3/17/16 Madrid, Spain Maria and Juan Alonzo apartment, Home Away

3/17-3/31/16 Torremolinos, Spain Hotel Isobel

3/22-4/1/16 (10 days) Bologna, Italy , Roberto and Reneta Ferranti apartment

4/1-4/16 /16 Rimini, Italy. Marina studio apartment Stefano Sirri, AirB&B

4/16/16 Rome, Italy Hotel Degli Aranci Via Barnaba Oriani,11 Rome 00197, IT

4/17-4/31/16 Split, Croatia The Mia Apt. Mirjana Sinovcic, HomeAway

5/1-6/1/16 - Amsterdam Canal District Apt. near Leidesplein Pieter Van Lennup and Denise, HomeAway

6/1/16 - South Florida for Pat's wedding. Brentwood Pompano Beach Paradise, Flipkey

7/9-7/30/16 - Galway, Ireland Rose Kennedy apartment

7/30-8/28/16 - Kinsale,Ireland, Pisces Apartment 2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms, Irene Jones, Flipkey

8/29/16 - OPEN FOR DUBLIN, AMSTERDAM OR CHICAGO

Monday, April 4, 2016

Antonio's Pizzaria with Joe Mazzuca

Text from Joe Mazzuca:

"We will go to this place tonight for great pizza. A little more Naples style. Plus the town it's in is sweet.

I made reservations at 9. We can go get an appertivo before and walk around the center of Rimini. See you guys around 6:30/6:45ish."

https://www.tripadvisor.it/Restaurant_Review-g1315192-d3219194-Reviews-Pizzeria_da_Antonio-Santarcangelo_di_Romagna_Province_of_Rimini_Emilia_Romagna.html

Friday, April 1, 2016

We're in Rimini, Italy

Arrived Rimini 4/1 @ 2 PM. 60 degrees and partly cloudy.

Rimini is famous for being a jet set hot spot on the Adriatic. The famous Grand Hotel is still the premier location in season. Right now Rimini is quiet. In about a week things will really start picking up.

We have a small studio designed to make things easy. A huge terrace with extra space helps. Our living area (which is 550') is a bit tight. The design is very clever but ... No more studios.

We have walked about 40 miles of this beautiful ancient resort city dating back before the Romans. The homes are beautiful. The people are friendly and curious to know why American's are visiting since they don't see many. After 10 days, the weather is cooler but the tourists thicker. Heavy on the Italian tourist. Brits, Swiss and Germans will arrive soon. We have done a fair amount of the restaurant scene. So far it falls far short of the fabulous Bologna fare. Maybe that isn't fair because most of the world falls far short of Bologna cuisine.

A good friend of our family, Joe Mazzuca, plays baseball for San Marino which is 20 miles away. Joe was kind enough to invite us to a typical local Italian night out. We ate in Piazza Cavour and had appertivos (think tapas) that come with the beer and wine. Excellent!

From there we headed to Santarcangelo, a small town about 12 miles NW of Rimini, for a truly delicious pizza experience at Antonio's Pizzeria.

We asked Joe to help us negotiate a prescription refill and a shipment of gifts to Chicago
so he once again drove from San Marino to spend time with us getting things done. A big bonus was Joe taking us to lunch at Casina Del Bosco which has the best roast beef sandwich this side of J Alexander's. The Piadina sandwich is wildly popular in Italy now and can be found in dozens of small sandwich shops. It was great to have the very successful eleven year veteran of the Italian League take us to the primo Piadina maker. Don't miss it when in Rimini. We will see Joe again when visiting San Marino in a few days, then again for his home opener the night before we leave.

Rimini has a fabulous Gate to the City which is convenient to the Central Shopping District. There is a Roman Coliseum ruin over 2200 years old. The port is busy and houses a lot of commercial boats as well as a massive fleet of pleasure boats in all the canals and Marina. Not many yachts to speak of as its still in the 60s.

We really like it here. There's great walking for miles along the Adriatic and along the Marina Boardwalk. The area we are in is centrally located so that we can head out in several different directions. Milan, Venice, Ravenna, Bologna, Florence and Ancona are all within 1-2 hours by train or car. Split, Dobrovnik, Radar and Korcula, Croatia are a ferry ride across the Adriatic.

The hotels are very reasonable. A nice 3 or 4 star accommodation with a balcony on the beach will run about $100 per night in high season. The Grand Hotel about $250 -$650. We do love the food. It's Italy!

O'Connor overall retirement score is 96.75 Top 15!

Link to our Marina studio apartment:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1553041?eluid=1&euid=e9ce9da5-0002-4ded-243f-17aa6e736c16