– 6 Sites in 6 Days; 3830 Kilometres –

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I’ve been a traveler all my life. Circled the globe 4 or 5 times before my 40^th birthday and lived in half a dozen countries. Been through all 50 states; most of them twice, and a handful visited more times than I can count. I’ve been more places with Mileage Club Rewards than most of my friends have visited at all. But I NEVER met a group of travel hammers like the Polish Tour Bus crowd I’ve been running with lately.

When Ela first invited me to join them on a trip, I thought “Oh, here we go… a bunch of old folks limping through museums and cafeterias.” But I was wrong – oh, so wrong!

No Rest; No Retirement

My first trip with Wojtek’s bus tour group started at three o’clock in the morning. Why? Because they didn’t want to waste daylight traveling; every hour at our destination was put to good use. After six hours in the bus, we arrived in Zakopane and started hiking immediately. No rest; not then, not now, not for this group.

Our trip last week to Italy started at four o’clock Monday afternoon. Same logic – why waste daylight traveling? There were sites to see! And traveling to southern Europe by bus took as much time as a trans-Atlantic flight, so an afternoon departure made sense. We arrived in Venice at nine o’clock the next morning, spent half a day walking around the city, then loaded back up for the drive to Gatteo Mare.

Just to be clear, the group assembled for the Italy trip wasn’t made up entirely of retirees. There was a representative sample of Strzelin on board. A couple of young people… including an Influencer who wore ‘date night’ make-up and the latest fashion everywhere we went. There were a handful of young urban professionals (a desk jockey shaped like a pear and his princess wife… you know the kind; “Special People” but happy to join the bus tour). Several couples like Ela and I; retired but still active. And a gaggle of old people who partied non-stop… especially the two grandpas who shared the tour with their wives back in Strzelin via cell phone.

There was a total of fifty Poles packed into a Mercedes tour bus that rolled through six sites in six days without complaining.

Long Road to Italy

It wasn’t easy. The first leg (from Strzelin, Poland to Venice, Italy) took 16 hours. Wojtek stopped every couple hours but never for more than 30 minutes. And the ride home was longer than that; we left Gatteo Mare at 8 a.m. and arrived home 18 hours later. We stopped in Austria to eat a late lunch, but it was a marathon endured only by the hardiest travelers.

And hardy travelers they were! Ela giggled when I shared a cranky opinion about our hotel the first night on the road. I learned from a week-long study that a “3-star hotel” in Italy is not the same as a “3-star hotel” in Poland. Sadly, it was not even close. Affordable accommodation in Poland is clean, functional, and generous with breakfast. In Italy, it was one step up from a hostel. But the group didn’t seem to care; it was only for sleeping. We were up and out of there every day no later than 7 a.m.

“We can rest when we get home!” Ela teased.

Cultured Hard Cases     

Part of it is cultural; most of my Polish companions grew up in hard times. They remember 1989 and the ten years that followed; ‘belt-tightening’ conditions with which few Americans can relate. Their transition from Communist State to Republic of Poland came at a heavy price. Capitalism without capital; they lived through a decade of lean years. Being able to travel freely in a comfortable bus with money to spend is a privilege and enjoyed as such. Our tour bus group is not hard to please.

And tour, we did! A different destination each day; Venice, Assisi, Rome, the Vatican, Monte Cassino, and San Marino. Each of them offered a unique experience. Of course, I was familiar with Rome and the Vatican; it was more than cool to walk through famous places I’d only seen on the Internet. But the lesser known targets of the tour left the greatest impressions on me.

Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino was a spontaneous addition to the agenda. It was not part of our tour plan, but we passed a vote to visit. We went to pay our respects at the Polish war cemetery located at the top of the mountain that is home to the Benedictine Order. The hard-hitting memorial at Monte Cassino holds the graves of 1,072 Poles who died storming the mountain in May 1944 during the a battle at the end of WWII. It was a necessary victory to break the German’s Winter Line and advance to Rome. Like most great war victories, it cost thousands of lives.

The Polish memorial at Monte Cassino bears two inscriptions. The first reads “Passer-by, go tell Poland that we have perished obedient to her service.” The other on a gatepost near the entrance translates from Polish:

“For our freedom and yours
We soldiers of Poland gave
Our soul to God
Our life to the soil of Italy
Our hearts to Poland.”

San Marino

This microstate exists in the middle of the Italian nation and claims to be the oldest republic in the world. It’s constitution (written in 1600) is the oldest constitutional document still in effect. But that’s not what left an impression with me… I loved it’s atmosphere. Shops and quaint restaurants lined the narrow cobblestone alleyways that twisted up, down, and around medieval buildings. And a Steampunk Convention convened for the weekend we visited and made our timing seem perfect. Our afternoon in San Marino proved to be unforgettable.

But nothing on the week-long tour affected me as much as the day we spent wandering around Assisi.

Assisi: Adventure Home

One the coolest parts of traveling is finding a place where I feel at home. It’s happened a few times in my life; I walk around a town that feels familiar and find myself considering the possibility of moving there. Not just considering, but imagining… almost planning a change of residence.

“What would it take? Is it possible? What would I need to do to make it happen?”

That’s how most of my adventures begin. A great idea or flight of fancy that doesn’t immediately discharge itself as ridiculous. Something scarcely believable… not probable, but possible. And that happened in Assisi.

Home to St. Francis, Assisi IS a UNESCO World Heritage site. Framed by the hills and forests of Umbria, it is picture perfect. And real! The shops along the medieval streets offer some of the best chocolates in the region. The soft pliable leather products for which Italy is famous are featured in half-a-dozen little stores. But the atmosphere is what captured our hearts. I imagine an adventure for the two of us in Assisi.

The Magic Bus

Every day ended the way it began; on board the magic tour bus. Few people imagine that a basic form of transportation could provide such excitement, but I’ve learned from my Polish friends…

Our bus tour should have a Mileage Club. I’ll travel with Wojtek anywhere.

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