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Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

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Now moving on, Covid curtailed my travels for two years and this year my wife and I have tried to make up for lost time. First, we went to Alaska and this week we have just returned from Italy.

The Italy tour was one of the best trips we have had. It started when I saw an email from  Steve Vest, publisher of Kentucky Monthly Magazine, making a “last call” for Italy. At that time we were packing our bags for Alaska, but my wife and I, along with my sister-in-law Jenny Alldred, said why not, let’s go.

After signing up for the trip we met at the Vest home with the others that were going. As we did introductions the person behind me said, “I’m from Williamsburg.” It was the 1969 Miss Whitley County and daughter of Marcella and Jake Mountjoy, Marcella Goff.

It was pleasing to know another local person was going on the trip. We enjoyed Marcy’s company as we did all the other “new friends” on the trip.

We started in Venice. Boom! What a sight. But it was just the start of things. From there we went to Bolonga, to Florence, then Siena and we ended the trip in Rome.

It was a fantastic tour. However, if you plan to make this journey don’t wait until you are 83 years old. There was a lot of walking. We averaged walking over 5 miles, plus standing each day. Eh, Italy you don’t have any benches to sit on, no none in any of the places we visited. Think of old people and get some!

But still it was very enjoyable. One of the reasons is because of Kay and Steve Vest, our hostess and host. They saw to our every need and Steve kept us laughing. With that said I recommend that you go online and subscribe to his fastastic magazine, Kentucky Monthly. He has been publishing it since 1996.

The most impressive one thing that we saw was St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It is mind boggling. But that could be said for many other sights. The Colosseum, the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and much more.

This was a trip that about wrapped up my bucket list. My wife and I have been travelling for many years and this was one of the best trips ever!