My two months come to a end ..regrets and looking forward to home

I always enjoy our trips in Europe but like you I really miss my dog when it’s time to come home!

I really have a lot of respect for you Jim.
I go to Italy at least once every year for about 2-3 weeks at the time, and of course I generally enjoy every minute of it.
But I don't know how you can take 2 months at the time.
I don't think I could stay that long. If I stayed there that long, I know I would kill at least one member of my family there eventually.
But maybe that's what your secret is.
You have no family there.

Mio amico Roberto...a little bit of the backstory?

As a counterpart to his comments, I may understand a little bit. I was the first of my generation of a large Boston-based Italian family to travel to Italy, and even the generation ahead of me avoided Italy like the plague when visiting Europe. I always wondered why, until I started to do research for my geneological trip in 2015 to where my great-great grandparents were born, in Sant' Arsenio, an hour SE of Salerno, up in the foothills.

Seems that during World War II, my grandmother, who didn't have much herself in a ghetto-like Boston suburb, would send care packages and sometimes money back to Italian relatives, who were getting the crap bombed out of them by both Allied and Nazi forces. After the war ended, my grandmother felt she had to concentrate on her family, and stopped with the packages about the same time that the Italian relatives began demanding more. And a rift formed, a chasm really, that probably my living relatives--whom I never met while there, we were only there for 4 hours, another story-- don't even remember anymore.

Italian grudges die hard, such is life...

So sadly true, Jay. I am still hoping to repair burned bridges from 100+ years ago.

Glad you had another great trip, Jim! Will you be back next year, or on to other countries?

Jim,

It's nice to hear that you had such a wonderful time in Italy.

I've also found that two months is about my limit and at the end of that time, I'm ready to come home and settle into my favourite chair. Last time I was able to take a two month trip, I also missed my faithful canine companion.

Time to start planning your next trip!

I'll likely be back next year, same months Sept-Oct. My wife runs a artists retreat during that time. Never get bored with Italy!

Wish I were an artist, Jim!

At two months I get my second wind and can rally for a third month to five weeks (extra days out of Schengen rule zone).

Even spending two months at a time the last several years here, I've barely scratched the surface. Heck, I've yet to be south of Rome! But I sure know how to drive like an Italian (fast, and know where the Autovelox are)