Friday, April 19, 2013

Mary Anne Benedetto Celebrates Boomer Lit Friday



Welcome Boomer Readers and Authors,

Join in the fun-Boomer authors participating in Boomer Lit Friday offer excerpts from a variety of boomer-related books. Blog hopping will give you just enough of a taste of these books to either whet your appetite for more, or perhaps silently decline. Come along with us and visit for awhile! Jump to http://www.boomerlitfriday.blogspot.com to sample the goodies. Please don’t hesitate to comment, and we’d love it if you would "Like" the Boomer Lit Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BoomerLit. 

Today I am once again featuring a few lines from From Italy with Love & Limoncello. This is a true story--a travel memoir about four boomer women embarking on an unguided tour of Italy. The girls have finally connected in the Rome airport and are, at last, on their merry way by train to Florence.


We had to laugh because our luggage was located just behind our seating area, and each time the train rounded a slight curve in the track, all suitcases rolled to one side of the train. At the next curve, they all rolled back to the other side of the train. It just seemed comical to see our luggage traveling back and forth. I was amazed that with a load of sixty-six pounds, mine could even roll at all. Statistically speaking, it was heavier than the weight of the average nine year old child!

All was peaceful until the conductor arrived to see our tickets. Laura's ticket had absolutely vanished. She frantically searched her handbag, her carry-on--even her McDonald's bag. The ticket was nowhere to be found. Did she drop it when we were juggling luggage? Calmly, Marianne left her seat to assist in the search. 

The conductor, very annoyed, said to Marianne, "YOU talk to her!" Marianne looked through every possible nook and cranny. We reasoned that she must have had her ticket when she boarded because she readily found the seat number that matched her ticket. It had to be here somewhere! 

Suddenly, all was well once again as Laura reached into the pocket of the seat in front of her, where she had placed the ticket for safe keeping. "This is what I always do on Amtrak," she said. 

It's so easy to become disoriented with insufficient sleep and being deposited into the center of a foreign land! Eventually, the conductor with the stern expression returned to see if there was still an issue with Laura's ticket. He grinned from ear to ear to learn that the elusive item had been located.


Thanks so much for stopping by. We hope that you will travel with us throughout our Italian adventure! A visit to http://www.awriterspresence.com will present you with links to all formats of the books from which excerpts have been featured on this particular blog during Boomer Lit Fridays. 

And while you are “Liking” Facebook pages, I would be honored if you would “Like” my author/speaker page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Anne-Benedetto-Author-Speaker/223368327805649.

Huge blessings for a fabulous weekend!

Mary Anne


5 comments:

  1. The nightmare of the lost ticket...glad to know it was resolved!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good writing and an upsetting but common situation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can identify. Too little sleep, too much confusion - it's a wonder travelers function at all.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That sounds like exactly what I'd do -- put my ticket in a safe place and then forget where that safe place is! I imagine the conductor was relieved because a lost ticket would probably involve lots of paperwork on his part. I'm so glad it all worked out with a happy ending.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I felt the frustration. I've been there. Good excerpt.

    ReplyDelete