I want to tell you a story about Greece. My mother who was a fierce Italian woman whose parents’ parents hailed from Ischia Island (my Great Grandfather) and from Sicily (my Grandmother’s family) had her DNA testing done like we all did about 13 years ago. Mine came back as broadly Southern European. But my mother’s came back as 65% Greek. She was livid. All her life she had been a proud Italian proclaiming it to be the best civilization on earth known for food, culture, beauty and many other things. (I could not claim that because my other half is Scotts-Irish)
She demanded that she wasn’t Greek, the DNA testing was wrong! She was going to write to the company and complain. Of course, she never did, but she brought it up all the time. As we all know, or think we know, the Italians most likely came from Greece. And the early DNA testing wasn’t as accurate as it is today.
Thus began my curiosity about Greece. I’ve actually been to Greece one other time with my daughter Alexandra about 12 years ago. We went to Santorini, and it was beautiful, however, we were in a little bit of funk because my son, her brother, had just passed away the month before. One of my most vivid memories was taking a boat ride around the island and scattering his ashes knowing he would have wanted to visit this beautiful place.
Fast forward, my mother passed away 2 ½ years ago and at that time, I vowed to go back to Greece and have a different cultural experience. And here we are, traveling with our wonderful traveling companions and good friends, Bill and Maria Hoffman.
We start our adventure in Athens and from there to the lesser known islands in the Southern Cyclades including Sifnos, Milos and Naxos. I invite you to travel along with us and share in our experiences. If you’re like me, I love it when friends take me along on their adventures so I may live vicariously through their experiences!
PS. Yes, I’m using my blogging website from three years ago because it’s a lot of work and expense to set up a new site. I think I probably need to rename it though . . . 35 countries in 65 years and counting!