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| San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy (Source) |
But there are other places I've been, places I've lived, that still call to me.
San Gimignano is one of those places. From the top of the hill, just outside the old walls, you look out over Tuscany, one of the most beautiful places on this planet we call home.
I could live there, if I had to.
Germany is much the same, we lived there for over seven years and I always felt comfortable there. (Being able to speak the language helps!)
Two assignments and going to college there, made me love Colorado. Though it's far from the ocean I love, it's magnificent mountains were incredible to see, day after day. You never got sick of them.
As for cities, I'm not a huge fan, but London and Paris impressed me like no other cities. It's probably the history that attracts me. I could literally spend weeks in the museums in those two cities.
The only American cities I have any love for are Denver and Sandy Eggo. (I dunno, does Alexandria, VA count? Love that town!) For many reasons, I just like it there. Or perhaps it's my memories of those places that I like. I know that Denver has changed a lot since I've been there.
Virginia and Maryland are two places I could live, without really being forced to. They're both lovely and I have ties there, family ties.
But for now, I'll tolerate the cold winters and the hot summers (and the weird politics) of New England. It's in my blood, always will be.
But truth be told, wherever my family is, I'm home.
What are your favorite places?
We were stationed at Camp Darby and had our brass bed made in San Gimignano. During our first visit we discovered Vernaccia di San Gimignano and it broke my heart when we could not find it here in the States … that is, until we came across Total Wine.
ReplyDeleteSan Gimignano is one of those places you visit and never want to leave, much like Lucca. Living in Italy gave us the opportunity to explore one of the richest cultural countries and we found so many wonderful places in Tuscany.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I loved my all too short visit to Italy.
DeleteOur philosophy has always been “Home is where the Air Force sends you”. We loved our time in Italy and roamed Europe during many good years. We spent 10 years between assignments in Tuscany and Aviano, had a kid there, and still managed to visit different countries.
DeleteI loved visiting Paris and would have happily lived there, even with the snotty attitudes of Parisians - J'adore Paris! We visited one Thanksgiving weekend and by the time we left I was picking up French (crazy how the brain works). And Oktoberfest in Munich - absolutely nothing like it! Even with the low pay and the hubs’ low rank during the 70’s, we made the most of our time there - made some good friends, ate wonderful food, drank a lot of wine, and felt sorry for those barracks rats who refused to venture off base.
So now we call Central Florida “home” which is fine by me. We still visit different places whenever possible and I still sometimes catch myself looking for PCS orders.
I was lucky, the Air Force sent me to a lot of great places.
DeleteLoved Lucca and San Gimignano; Lucca especially. "...so many wonderful.places in Tuscany." She
DeleteBG
👍
DeleteI've noticed that people (some at least) move back to where they grew up when they get older, I guess you could call it "home". I went back to Hawaii & it was not the place I grew up (1960-1966) any more. I will admit that it could be me & the way I see it.
ReplyDeleteNorthern California is where I figured I'd settle down but from the outside looking in California is not someplace I'd like to be anymore and when I visit I'm not as comfortable as I was.
Today I'm in Clearwater Florida and I enjoy it, so I'd guess I'd have to call this a "favorite place".
When I was a kid my dad worked for Standard Oil and we moved a lot, 10 different schools to get through the 12th grade. I don't have some place that I call "home", I've got times when I was in good place but I was just there. Then the Coast Guard and we moved a lot there too. Many good times/places but it's where I was doing what I did.
After my CG time was up one of my kids asked me "if you could live anywhere you wanted where would that be?". He was disappointed with my answer of "I can and we're right here".
In 2012 we got rid of everything, bought and RV and hit the road. Over the next few years there were many changes and a lot of different places, I looked at every different place with the "is this it?" question, a few struck a chord with me but none felt right enough to stop.
I spent some time in north Georgia but had no desire to stay, some nice places in Washington state (I was stationed there twice and moved there from Minnesota in 2003) but it didn't seem to hold me.
I do envy those people who grew up in one spot, went thru school with the same kids and have no doubts what 'home' is when asked. I like it here in Florida, I'd have to say that this is a favorite place because I'm here and we do have a choice.
I enjoyed Florida when my sister-in-law and her family were stationed there. Got to visit a couple of times.
DeleteI left the UK in 78 and have lived in Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela and the good old USA. I know people who have never been out of the place they were born and feel a certain envy for them, but given the choice would do again what I did.
DeleteWent back quite frequently to Blighty until the parents died. Haven’t been back for the last ten years and couldn’t see myself living there again, the place changed and I didn’t.. Now we live in Spain
I know folks like that, I don't envy them. I traveled the world and if I had to do it over again, I'd do it again.
DeleteGrew up in the Twin Ports on the shores of Gitche Gumee and lived for a few years in Chicago. Moved back to Minnesota and now live two blocks from a lake, lake water seems have been always nearby. Tiger muskies, largemouths and northern pike.....oh my!
ReplyDeleteThose big lakes are an attraction.
DeleteI was in Minnesota (Bemidji) for 6 years, finally had enough of the sub zero(f) cold.
DeleteYeah, bit too brisk in the winter!
DeleteAs a resident of Colorado, I can tell you Colorado is still great, as long as you're a long way from Denver.
ReplyDeleteOr even just a short way from Denver. I came here on a college summer vacation in 1973, Stayed until '79. Did the New England thing and then Georgia. Jumped at the chance to return to Colorado in '91 and never looked back. This is home.
DeleteWhat is it about politicians that spoils everything?
DeleteSpent nearly four years in Fort Collins, loved it.
DeleteYou would be challenged to recognize Fort Collins today. Or, indeed, the entirety of the Front Range.
DeleteThese days, were I inspired to move, I’d stay in Colorado, but likely look for somewhere in/near the San Luis Valley, or some less-crowded area of the Western Slope….
Daughter went back a couple of years ago, yup, pretty unrecognizable.
DeleteI'm with Colorado Comment; the Fort is nothing but a boulder-wannabe. Thomas Wolfe was right; in most instances "You can't go home again", not unless the population doesn't exceed low five-digits. The Front Range is largely lost. There are large numbers of soros-bought judges in CO now -even in El Paso county.
DeleteThe vagrants have destroyed large swaths of Sandy Eggo; squatters camps in the overpasses and the infrastructure has further deteriorated each time we go.
" what is it about politicians... " they're politicians. It's not just them, however; it's most academics and the rest of the left's useful idiots.
Boat Guy
Never been to Boulder, never wanted to.
DeleteThe Flatirons are pretty. Like every place overrun by the left; boulder is an excellent argument for a neutron bomb
DeleteBG
Or wall it up and let them inflict their nonsense on each other, and no one else.
DeleteNah...The countryside's lovely; just need the gates/soros/schwab population reduction to affect the people who think like them, given the jab, it might happen
DeleteBG
True.
DeleteHaving been replanted back in my home area a few years ago I don't foresee another move. For one thing it's too much trouble. After being spoiled by many moves at the Navy's expense moving at my own and the terrible service and experience of that move I don't think I'll put MiLady and me thru that again. IF, I had to chose another location one of the few places I think I'd even consider is Pensacola, FL. Loved living there years ago. Mild climate, better politics than most, and all the facilities to improve my military retirement. PLUS, I can see the Blues fly most weeks.
ReplyDeleteLove Pensacola.
DeleteMy home is where my parent's lived and I came up to (literally) all my life, The Ranch. I truly believe I could literally relocate here and not need to go anywhere else for the rest of my days (certainly in this larger area, where my family came over 150 years ago, I had ancestors that did just that).
ReplyDeleteOther locations? The California Redwoods (from Fortuna up the coast to Oregon) are sure beautiful, although one has to like overcast and rain and live with the...unusual political systems and beliefs there. Southwestern Montana, where my grandparents had a cabin and we spent Summers, is also splendid (in the Summer - Winter, perhaps not so much). I have not lived in the Near Abroad enough to know if I would care to live overseas - probably yes, just not enough background.
Not so much New Home - lots of things are more to my liking, but the anywhere that the weather effectively discourages me from being outside 6 months of the year is not ideal.
Indeed, home is where the family is (or secondarily, where the dojo is).
Agree!
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. Target-rich environment, this post is.
ReplyDeletePlaces I'd like to visit, and places I'd like to live are two partially intersecting sets. First for the "live" set has to be Antigua Guatemala. If you've ever visited the place, you'll know what I mean. It's also high on the "visit again" list. Nacogdoches, TX is high on the "live" list, East Texas is beautiful, and the politics and taxes there are conducive to long-term living.
Many of the other "I'd like to live there" places have big negatives IMHO, politics, taxes, crime (which all usually flow from politics...), places like Denver, Brussels BE, Berlin GE (had to resist typing FRG), Madrid ESP, London UK. They're also too expensive, usually for the same reason as crime, etc., politics. However, I really hope to get back to the UK sometime before CMSgt Reaper finds me. London is a fascinating place. Need to visit the Imperial War Museum, did not get to while on Uncle's payroll.
Florennes, BE is on the list, but with taxes in the EU being high, just barely on the list. Florennes is a charming village in Wallonia, with nice folks, and excellent (EXCELLENT!) food. It's also not too far away from the Abbaye de Scourmont, and Chimay Biere :-)
Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, UK, is on the bottom of the list too, mainly due to UK taxes and metastasizing government, IMHO. I think it's one of the most beautiful towns in the UK, well, at least it was in 1983.
Rome, NY would be high on the list, but for taxes, and to a certain extent, 6 months of lake effect snow. Can't beat the Adirondacks in the fall for absolute beauty, and Rome is only a 30 minute drive from the foothills.
In the meantime, Houston will do.
Hey COTT!!! I was a broadcast engineer in Houston in the 90's. KLVL, KHCB, KRTS, KTRU, KTMD 48. Worked for a site management company too. Used to be called Spectrum Site Management. That was a really horrible place to live, but work is there for the asking.
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. As ZZ Top wrote long ago, it's "Heaven, Hell, or Houston".
DeleteWell, the part of Houston I live in is pretty good. Southwest side, yeah, not so nice, but over by League City, it's pretty good.
You must have worked at KTMD when they still had the transmitter site near Alvin, the former KUHT facility.
COTT, it still is the FRG.
DeleteYes sir. The crippled I-beam tower. 4 Townsend transmitters and a handful of water moccasins.
DeleteHeh.
DeleteMy other half says. "Of all the places you've schlepped me over the years, the Ole US of A beats all o' 'em by a country mile; there ain't no better bathroom facilities nowhere in the world." Can't argue with logic: not her logic, anyhoo.
ReplyDeleteRight now we're sitting fer 'bout 365 in the middle of the Gulf off the western shore of Florida. The only problem is Goose Season, which just began. Y' can hear 'em honking as they beat their way down I-75 from the snowier climes. Three more months n' the major part of the swarm/flock will take off North around Palm Sunday - aah, peace n' quiet again.
We see geese here year-round. Some live here, some come here from the Far North.
DeleteFavorite Places?
ReplyDelete1) Places I lived.
A) Hands down (and believe it or not) Big Spring TX is my favorite place I lived growing up. We'd moved at least once every two years prior to that. Dad got stationed there when I started 4th grade. I graduated HS there, so had time to actually make friends and keep them. It was only acquaintances prior to.
B) Okinawa Japan. Flying the F-15, what more can I say?
C) The 'Burg TX. Weather's great, politics are tolerable. People are pretty friendly. Closest neighbor is a half mile away. Getting California-ized, but that battle isn't over. "Don't make this town like the one you left because you didn't like the politics." being the current defense.
2) Places I vacation.
A) Big Bend National Park. Lots of Land, very few visitors, great views. Don't need my BP meds when I'm there.
B) Big Island, Hawaii. Ditto
C) Alaska. Ditto.
D) Australia. Ditto. (Anyplace but Sydney, and Sydney is top of my Big Cities I can still tolerate list.
3) Places I haven't visited yet, but plan to
A) Canada. Summertime, of course, no cities
B) Chile. Nice winter getaway. No cities.
C) Sweden/Norway. Nice Summertime getaway. Fjords. No cities
Given that, I think you can perceive a pattern.
Been to Canada, Quebec to be precise. Would love to visit BC.
DeleteA 47 hour drive to BC... https://goo.gl/maps/ErpFycZQ7a5c6gmi7
DeleteHop, skip, and a jump.
DeleteSan Diego is easy to love. Now if we could only remove it from being under the state government it would be perfect! There are plenty of other places that I love, but not enough to move. I suppose that's what retirement is for, visiting those other locales and absorbing what makes them great.
ReplyDeleteThat would be ideal.
DeleteTuna, many parts of California are inhabited by sane and sensible people who just want to be left alone and live their lives. Perhaps some day, sanity will return.
DeleteOne can hope!
DeleteExcept for the snowbirds, I find east central Florida to be quite enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteSeasonal visitors can ruin a place.
DeleteEspecially when they move permanently upon retirement and bring their politics with them!
DeleteYup.
DeleteI have a few favorite places. There is a farm outside Willow, OK. I'd live there forever if I could. It's just as I remember from when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteBuck Mountain, NM has a great tower site at the top. Looking south, you can see the ski trails on Ski Apache. It's beautiful there.
South of San Angelo, TX is Christoval. There was a quiet little tower site there. I used to sit and listen to the wind in the wires after work. Very pretty, sunsets were amazing, and it was as dark as the inside of a black cow at midnight.
The tower site near Rotan, TX was the best of all. It was on a mesa, near water. You could see for miles to the south. I'd live there if I could.
There were a few other sites in Montana that were pretty in the summer. And the one by Colorado Springs is too hot to hang out in. Loiter time was on the order of seconds due to the RF environment.
I'd consider living on Hwy 70 north of Sweetwater. That rough country and red dirt just sings to me. And it looks a lot like Willow and Rotan.
Crusty Old TV Tech here.
DeleteI swear, this is my last post on this thread.
You reminded me of one more. Valliant, OK, in McCurtain County. Spent some time there as a boy one summer with relatives, peaceful and bucolic. Barefoot wanderings with neighbor boys, dust and dogs and all the wonderful sights and smells of summers long ago.
They grew more than alfalfa or corn in Willow, OK back in the 60's...
http://www.siloworld.net/CONST/Atlas/ATF/577SMS/GDA/gd___a__photos.htm
Atlas LF 577-11 was there, lots of pictures on that link.
STxAR - Sounds nice!
DeleteDrove through Oklahoma once upon a time, liked the look of it. Had a boss in Germany who was from there, she spoke highly of it.
DeleteSarge, I have had the opportunity to drive through Oklahoma several times. It is actually quite beautiful; I cannot understand why it has such a bad reputation.
DeleteThe people. Lots of inbred. My folks were first generation there in SW OK. Grandma came over in a covered wagon. I have an unfinished painting she started of that trek. Grandpa came from Childress area. They met when he rode his horse through the dog run of the school she was teaching at. The B-52s from Tinker would rattle the windows on the Willow farmhouse when they were doing low level runs. Sometimes they broke out windows doing that. Those smoke trails..... and thunder..... I miss that.
DeleteI spent a couple summers in McCurtain. Some real decent folks there, if you don't mind sulfur water. I figure God put it in the water to offend all the ticks in the woods. Instant bug repellent. Worked for the girls too, unless you rubbed a little toothpaste back on your teeth after rinsing.
The F. W. Woolworth Co. moved us every two years until I was close to Junior High. All on the West Coast (the real one). After USAF (Itazuke and Victorville) we planted ourselves in Santa Cruz. Close to parents for the kid’s sake (grandparents), beautiful place and commutable to SFO, where I took off on a regular basis. Nearly fifty years there watching a neat little beach town suffer from the effects of something called UCSC. We had been visiting North Florida (Live Oak) since the sixties and Miss Jeanie’s kin near about. Liquidated everything in CA and dug into the sand of a place called Ormond-by-the-Sea. All the good stuff of Daytona, everything but the masses. We’ve got a Publix across the street and a beach in our front yard. I like it here.
ReplyDeleteWe just got back from a month in Santa Cruz, kids and grandkids, enjoyed it immensely, but wouldn’t want to deal with that sort of stuff anymore (drugs, etc.).
As things slow down with age, this is my go-to spot. We’re happy and content. New friends and things to do. If I had to live anywhere else, I would choose, curiously, Jerusalem. But we’ll be living there soon anyway if the world keeps acting so Biblically.
Looks that way at times, doesn't it?
DeleteI grew up in WI. Still my favorite place. Moved away 2 yrs ago to be closer to the kids and grandkids. Miss it dearly.
ReplyDeleteI was stationed at K-BAY on Oahu. Really loved Hawaii.
Been in 43 out of 50 states. The mountains were my favorite. Loved Northern CA. But Cali changed for the worse.
Currently in Southern MO. It's ok.
Really the only reason I'd move is to be nearer the kids and grandkids.
DeleteBut I would really miss New England.
We live where we live so that the progeny are within reach. We have a refuge in one of the prettiest places on God's earth that will remain unmentioned.
DeleteBG
Nothing beats that.
DeleteProbably live in the best spot - the little town in MN where I grew up. Other choices would be in in the Red River Valley (I lived for 40 some years in GF ND). There is something so beautiful about flat level farmland stretching horizon to horizon, beautiful in summer, and austere and stern as a Lutheran church service in winter. Then central and north-central MT in the breaks of the Missouri - no mountains, but buttes as far as you can see. A dry harsh land, but so beautiful in its emptiness.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how I'd handle the flatlands like that.
DeleteOn the banks of the Mighty Coosa, just across from the Talladega side!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the weather like in that part of Alabama?
Delete