Our Vacation in Italy to Celebrate George's Retirement at 55 Years of Age

In 1998, while working for Qualcomm, George and Marguerite decided to take a tour of Italy. Well at Christmas 1998 George got laid off from Qualcomm. So he decided to make this tour his retirement tour and devote his energies to making Marguerite happy so she would stick with her job and get a wonderful UCSD Medical Center pension. It also happened that Marguerite was going to have some fabulous trips come about so being retired George could join her. Since financially life was good, this became our plan and George started this website with the technical aid of his friend Scott Lydiard.

Update: if Marguerite could stick it out to 60 years of age life would be good in our retirement. Thanks to a grant from the NIH and Dr. Tony Catanzaro, Marguerite got a part-time job at UCSD Medical Center until she was 66 years old. This provided us with even more trips and even a "more better" financial retirement. George did not want to take as many trips as Marguerite, so many of the trips involved Marguerite going with her sister or friends and George staying home with the dogs.

Marguerite in the Vatican

Marguerite got sick when we arrived in Rome. So George toured the city by himself since Marguerite had been to Rome many times. However on the second day Marguerite joined George for a tour of the Vatican.

Entrance to Blue Grotto on Isle of Capri

This was the ship that took us to the boats that took us into the Blue Grotto. Very narrow opening to get into the Grotto which gives it the color. La Jolla has the same caves but the entrances are larger and the Pacific is not as blue-green as the Mediterranean.

Marguerite Walking Up Stairs to Anacapri

To walk from sea level to Anacapri (town at top of island) would be some task. We had a good walk but then got on a bus and it took us the rest of the way. We were told we can thank the American GIs for the good roads on Capri. During WWII this island was an R&R center for the troops. Of course during the Roman times the Emperors used to vacation on the island.

George & Juliet

George is grabbing Juliet's right whatever. As you can see in the picture it is very polished because legend says if one grabs it they will have good luck. This is in front of Juliet's home in Verona, Italy.

Marguerite in Front of Leaning Tower of Pisa

We were here while they were still working on the tower trying to keep it from falling. We could not go up in the tower but we went up in the neighboring church small tower.

Marguerite Overlooking Florence

We spent many days here touring and Marguerite shopping. A nice city but not as nice as the next one.

Venetian Sunset

We arrived in Venice late and got a boat ride to our hotel. Venice is very unique in the world and very nice. Even had a McDonalds off of St. Mark's Square. If I went back to Italy, this is one place I would like to spend more time.......