Remembering Zoe… Again…

Thank you Priscilla. Zoe was a very special person and is greatly missed, but we are fortunate to be able to still read all of her posts which are still relevant and enjoyable.

Such fun reads. Thanks for reposting

Ric and I miss her so! We had the good fortune to see her in Rome several times when we lived there. She even was our cat sitter one Christmas!

Thank you Priscilla. It is important to remember good people. She was a kind and gracious woman, and wrote about her travels in ways that inspired others.

It’s a special day when I re-read Zoe’s trip reports. Especially grateful to her and you for helping us plan our 2020 visit to Sicily in her memory. Thank you Priscilla for remembering dear Zoe… Again.
She is sorely missed.

I just missed being on the forum at the same time as her. Glad to be able to still read her wisdom.
It does bring to mind other very regular forum posters who are not heard from. Swan, Norma, etc. does anyone know if they are still around?

Thank you so much, Priscilla. Dear Zoe meant a lot to me but I know she meant even more to you.

What a wonderful lady she was, and how good of you to bring her back to thought. Bless you.

To old Friends .....

(doffing hat and raising a metaphorical glass of Italian wine)

Priscilla,
Thank you for honoring our fellow RS traveler, Zoe. Hard to believe it has been 5 years. I remember when you traveled to Sicily in 2018 and dedicated your trip in memory to Zoe. She really was an extraordinary traveler and so very generous in sharing her travel knowledge.

Wishing you and everyone else on the forum a Happy and Peaceful New Year!

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

Rachele,
Yes, we’re very fortunate to have Zoe’s travel memoirs. And we can re-read them as often as we wish!

SA,
Honestly, I almost did not repost, but now I’m glad I did, and I do hope her writings will continue to inspire others.

Laurel,
I know Nigel’s comment is for you too:

Dear Zoe meant a lot to me but I know she meant even more to you.

Lola,
Thanks for your kind words.

Janis,
I do hope you return to Sicily and follow her steps.

Tammy,
I also wonder about the regular forum posters who have not posted in quite a while.
I hope they are okay and just taking a break from the forum.

Nigel,
Thank you… Your words brought tears to my eyes. We’re blessed to have known Zoe.

Christine,

Thank you!

She really was an extraordinary traveler and so very generous in sharing her travel knowledge.

May Zoe’s travel memoirs continue to inspire others!

How special it is that we can get attached to people we only know through their online presence.

Safe travels through the Cosmos, Zoe.

I think I amused Zoe--the city boy from Chicago always searching for out-of-the-way places, but wanting to make sure of the creature comforts as well...

Zoe really helped me overcome that fear--when distilled it's all about staying in the moment, and embracing it when Plan A turns into Plan C. She stressed, more implied, that to handle these situations well one must have done the advance logistical recon (always with historical nuggets!) and analyze the options available.

And she had a writer's eye for detail. How people walk. How guarded they might be initially, and how wonderful it is when that blossoms into an openness one rarely experiences in this country. What happens when there is a 100% language barrier, as oft happens in the burghs Zoe visited and I experienced as well. Of course, her advantage was that she actually knew the language, unlike my pidgin version.

That's what you remember. RS may have mantra-ized it, but Zoe lived it. We're crossing our fingers, hoping for an October trip, partially inspired by Zoe in that we're beginning in Siracusa/Ortigia, then north by train ending in Rome, with stops along the way in Taormina & Salerno. Thanks, Priscilla, for posting!!

Good! I found my absolute favorite piece of prose from Zoe, speaking of her geneological home of Benevento:

"...For me, this was a very personal trip. I spent an inordinate and perhaps impolite amount of time looking at the faces of people who looked like me. Some of them looked back in the same way. I walked down the street, overhearing conversations in the local dialect, and understood every word. I remembered my father's voice, and unconsciously took on his posture while walking, hands folded behind my back. It's a good way to walk in a city where the wind blows almost constantly...."

I also loved the quote Jay mentioned. But my favorite is her story of a stranger boosting her up onto the train by giving a shove on her behind. I don't have time to find the exact quote - maybe someone else has it.

Janet, I love that quote from Zoe, where someone boosted her from her “nether regions “ onto the pendolino train . I think it was in Tarquinius where I had a similar problem boarding.

Thank you for posting these. I met Zoe in 2017 in Rome, and we had a lovely time swapping travel tales. She was so kind to follow up and make sure we knew about a transit strike as we departed.

Thank you Jay for that quote. It reminds me of my father who was through there during the war. When he was given an award (like many WWII British soldiers) to return to the field of battle somewhere they had served he, a British Commando, chose Italy, chose Naples. He flew in and rented a car at Naples airport - age 81 - and drove into the inland areas he had had to battle through and then went north to the Po.

He loved the village Italians who had been so helpful as he and his mates infiltrated the German lines.

I wouldn't have thought of that today if it were not for you, Jay and beloved Zoe.

Thanks, Nigel, and fact is so many of those pitched battles at that time were in and around the Salerno/Naples area, inland in Campania to Zoe's geneological roots in Benevento. My family's a little farther south in Sant' Arsenio (55 km SE of Salerno), still in Campania, and their local cemetery still looked kinda bombed out, maybe from WW I as well. But I had been looking for the surnames Mangieri, Pica and Tierno, and they were all over the gravestones or crypts.

I had the same feelings in Sant' Arsenio as Zoe did in Benevento when we visited in 2015. Long story short--our research plans had fallen through, so we just walked the mainly deserted mountain village, stopping here & there to ask questions or just simply wander. My ancestors had walked those streets in the mid-1800's, certainly before that too, and I had to be satisfied grooving on that. May return in October--I always felt that experience left unfinished business for me.

Periscope: Exactly!

It’s comforting to read all your comments about Zoe and how she inspired you, thank you one and all.

I love Zoe’s reply on an old post:

The only must-sees are the places you feel you must see, so travel and
be happy wherever you go (10/12/12)