Pat's Peeps in Florence, Italy

Speaker 1 0:00

Pat's Peeps 240. This is a very special podcast. I must say because we're in beautiful Florence, Italy, Hi everybody, We've got a whole group here.

Speaker 2 0:09

We've got new people here tonight.

Speaker 1 0:11

Ron and Debbie are part of our conservative tours group, pat's Peeps group, and so cool, I mean. I want you to think about this On Pat's Peeps, 240, 240 episodes. And it was two trips to Italy ago with conservative tours that I made the announcement on the coach that I was even going to start Pat's Peeps. And so here we are, 240 episodes later. I'm very proud of that. I'm super excited to be hanging out with a great group of people. But I just want you to imagine for one second like you go to beautiful Florence, italy. Now you can either imagine what Florence is like or you can just, if you've been here, you know what it's like. It's just gorgeous. And what night? I don't even know what night this is, I don't really care, let's, just because I don't want to know Whatever whatever night it is because that's part of vacation.

Speaker 1 0:56

I don't even know what night it is. We are at the listen to the background.

Speaker 2 1:06

You can hear the we're at the.

Speaker 1 1:06

Lavenderia easy wash laundromat in Florence. Now, many of you would probably find a much better place to hang out, but you know what? We've been here for how many days, ron and Deb.

Speaker 4 1:15

Six, seven days. You know, at some point we started on the 3rd. This is day 9. I'm sorry, it is the 9th, so that would be six days. Okay, so for me I've been on the 3rd. This is day 9. Day 9. So that would be. I'm sorry, it is the 9th, so that would be six days, okay, so but for me. I've been on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean for more than two weeks now, Right. And my clothes are starting to smell.

Speaker 1 1:34

Right, well, we didn't want to say anything, but that bus was getting rained yeah it's bad.

Speaker 1 1:39

It's bad. So Also here, besides Ron and Deb, is, of course, ryan Harris, who's on our podcast many, many times. He's a mainstay on the podcast. Come over here. And Danny Boy, of course, is here too and, as you heard, the excitement is in the air. You can feel it in the air. Ryan's doing his laundry, and this is how exciting we are. Hey, I just want to start. So today we were in Siena, we were in tuscany, and it's amazing just to think that I'm back here again going to the same places and it's just as it's even better the second time. Can I just ask you, ron and there, deb, what, what, what are your thoughts on the the tour so far? What do you think of the vacation?

Speaker 4 2:21

great, it's wonderful uh, what's amazing is seeing some sites and some buildings and stuff that were there before the white men came to America.

Speaker 1 2:31

That's right.

Speaker 4 2:32

That just blows me away.

Speaker 1 2:33

Medieval towns, medieval places like that I mean. So medieval, debbie Brian, here we get into San Gimignano, or San Gimignano we get into the city and one of the first things we see is like a torture museum, like medieval torture museum, like this really is an old town? I'm pretty sure this is, and so, ryan, you went into the medieval torture museum in Siena today.

Speaker 4 2:59

Is that right?

Speaker 1 3:00

No, it was San Gimignano. So these towns, just to give you an idea, I mean I don't even know, maybe you guys can describe it better. I mean, you walk down these beautiful narrow streets, you know big stone streets, and see these, as you said, ron, these buildings that have been around forever, and you just feel that history. So, ryan, ryan, what did you see in this museum today? This medieval torture? How much detail, well, this is. You know, use your own discretion, that's right.

Speaker 4 3:35

No, I mean everything's like you know the obvious, like whips with spikes and, oh my god, like right, that's right away the first one, the first things you see. And metal chastity belts put on women, uh, and then you know other devices that stretch and it's hard to imagine and harm the human body, and then on the top floor, uh, there are a couple for children. That one really stood out to me.

Speaker 4 4:03

One that looks like a hobby horse, only it has a donkey's head on it and a spiked saddle. So a naughty child not only has to sit on the jackass hobby horse with the spiked saddle, but then there's a hat with the jackass ears to really humiliate the child even further. So I mean, it was just all bad.

Laundry Day: European Bathroom Adventures

Speaker 1 4:25

You know I'm going to because that is brutal and that's hard to listen to, so I'm going to go to a little bit lighter form. A little bit lighter form of torture, and this torture for me is personally what I witness, and maybe I'm wrong, being a male, I don't know, but I personally Smelling my dirty clothes.

Speaker 4 4:42

Is that torture too? Yeah, it's pretty rank.

Speaker 1 4:44

I'll tell you what I'm glad they're in the speed cycle right now. But I mean one thing I've got to say because some of the places not all, it's very unfair, seemingly, to women. You're going to a bathroom here. Now, for those of you who have not been to Europe and such many of these bathrooms, there's no toilet seat. You know, if you look at your toilet at home, you've got your toilet seat. You lift the toilet up, you know, and do your thing, the proper gentleman, if you're a proper gentleman right, but there's no toilet seat.

Speaker 1 5:16

I didn't take the seat and I'm like how are these ladies forced to sit on a toilet with no toilet seat? You?

Speaker 3 5:25

fall in and your butt's already wet and you're trying to hold on to whatever you can hold on to, oh my God. And I came out of the bathroom and I said, ron, was your toilet seat broken off? There was no toilet seat in there. He goes, nope, I didn't have a toilet seat either. And there's nothing. There's no bars, no, nothing to hold on to.

Speaker 1 5:47

So you know, know, you're just like hovering that's a good word to say you're just kind of just over it. And then I noticed to like today is the first time I've run into it, but I think it was in Germany where I was running into the fact that a lot of these bathrooms have motion detector lights. So you're in there on the bathroom and then the lights go out and you're like what's going on here?

Speaker 4 6:01

Me too, in that right mid and the light went out as soon as I said.

Speaker 3 6:08

oh, come on, you know, because I got frustrated, it came back on, it's just a recipe for disaster If someone's bound to turn around.

Speaker 1 6:17

You're just hoping you're still on target for a minute but, you're like why can't the lights come on?

Speaker 2 6:20

And then you gotta pay.

Speaker 1 6:22

It costs a euro, so you have to make sure you keep a pocket full of coins.

Speaker 4 6:26

I just imagine, you know.

Speaker 1 6:29

First of all, you have to be in the toilet seat, and you're in there doing this, just trying to get the lights to work. And then there's this other thing. I don't know, if we're rolling on in depth, what you guys think about the half shower doors. Have you experienced this in?

Speaker 2 6:41

your hotel.

Speaker 1 6:43

Yeah, that's weird.

Speaker 4 6:44

I've been trying to figure out. Well, how does it close the whole way out? It does not, no, uh-uh. You basically have to aim the shower head towards the wall and hope for the best. In fact, I was telling the boys just today I had left mine so that it would be aimed towards the wall, so that when I turn it on it would be fine, toward the wall so that when I turn it on it would be fine.

Speaker 4 7:11

Well, at some point the housekeeping decided to reorient it and I went in to hang up a shirt. I like to run a little hot water, get some steam and steam wrinkles out of a shirt and I turned the thing on and it just soaked my t-shirt, my head t-shirt, my head. I was just on the whole floor and here I was proud the day before I got the one-third shower door didn't get a drop of water on the floor.

Speaker 4 7:31

I did great. Then I go in there, get a shower, while standing in the middle of the bathroom rather than in the tub.

Speaker 1 7:39

Have you guys figured out a system with this yet?

Speaker 4 7:40

Nope, no you can't figure it out, huh Well the first one.

Speaker 3 7:43

The first one, the first hotel we were at yeah, that was easy because it was a handheld job. This one has a rain-type shower.

Speaker 2 7:50

I don't know.

Speaker 4 7:51

Oh you got a rain-type shower.

Speaker 1 7:54

Yeah.

Speaker 3 7:54

And then a wand with all kinds of holes on it. What's?

Speaker 4 7:59

that, for what are you talking about? We're going back to Ryan's torture chamber thing.

Speaker 3 8:05

Actually we do have a balcony, the one I got I had a window.

Speaker 4 8:12

The other thing about my room I'm going to be like your friend in Germany complaining about the room. It's a beautiful room, it's very nice. I'm just disappointed because we got spoiled with the balcony at the last place. We don't have that. Mine also gets the afternoon sun, so it's hot as blazes in there, and as soon as I open the window either the flies start coming in or I risk the pigeons entering my room. So you know I can't win.

Speaker 3 8:38

And no air conditioner.

Speaker 4 8:39

No air conditioner Because it's not April 30th or whatever it is.

Speaker 3 8:43

Not the right time of the year.

Speaker 1 8:44

You just reminded me of that. In Ireland they have no air conditioning in any hotel room. They don't put it out because it's usually raining. But it's Ireland, yeah, they don't have no air conditioning anywhere in Ireland.

American Cemetery: Emotional Tributes

Speaker 1 8:56

You know, one of the things that happened today is we were, you know, I was, as I said, you know, it's kind of a return trip for me, coming to Florence and Siena and San Gimignano and Tuscany and these places. But then there was one other place and as we were leaving this morning, the hotel room from Florence and I was on our coach and I'm thinking about this other place that we had gone. That really stood out to me. And the next thing, you know, our bus driver, niccolo, was pulling into it and what it is, it's the American Soldier Cemetery in Florence. Now, for those of you who may not know, or probably maybe you do know, there's a cemetery where so many young American lives were lost liberating Italy from Mussolini, world War II. And you go out there and you see these crosses and I will post some of them and I've posted them before. But just going out there and seeing, and you know, you think about it, these are 18, 19,. You know, we're blessed to be in our upper 30s now.

Speaker 2 10:15

And everybody here come on.

Speaker 1 10:18

It's like who what?

Speaker 4 10:20

Average age 21.

Speaker 1 10:22

No, but no. I mean, these guys are 18, 19, 20 young men and that's when their lives ended, you know, and there they rest, for all of us to go visit them and see. You know, these are heroes, and so our liaison today, this was the highlight of my day, other than you know, hanging out with this wonderful group, pat's Peeps group. The highlight of my day as we pulled into this cemetery, this American cemetery in Florence, our liaison Marco. He started to tell us a story right about his was it his? Grandparents?

Speaker 2 11:01

Yes.

Speaker 1 11:02

Do you remember where the 12-year-old was shot by the Nazis?

Speaker 3 11:05

for fun, they were playing volleyball on the beach and they said I believe it was a plane came down and strafed the beach and shot everybody on the beach For the heck of it, 12-year-olds, and apparently was he.

Speaker 1 11:20

Was that a relative of his? I didn't quite hear.

Speaker 3 11:23

I think it was a cousin or it was somebody. It was a relative of his. I didn't quite hear. I think it was a cousin or it was somebody. It was a relative.

Speaker 1 11:27

So someone in his family Now think about that, these Nazis, you know, coming down over a beach where kids are playing volleyball and shooting 12-year-olds and little kids. And as he was talking about this and he was also talking about some of his, I think, his grandfather or something he began to really get emotional, as you can imagine, and it was a very touching moment. When he got so emotional. And I sit at the front of this coach because I need to do social media and shoot out the front window of the coach so I can post for conservative tours and such. So I'm sitting right behind Marco and when he got emotional like that, usually I let the people to my left get out first.

Speaker 1 12:09

I try to be courteous, let the other people out first, but right away I jumped out and I wanted to go out there and shake his hand or give him a little hug and tell him hey, man. And so I go out there and I gave him a little hug and I said, hey, I'm so sorry, god bless your family. And he was so emotional and he he said, and it really touched me and made me think when he said, he said in the midst of crying, essentially god bless americans. And then he goes god bless americans. He gave me a squeeze and I went wow, you know, that makes me so proud to be an american and to remember these guys who lost their lives, and I just thought that was a touching moment.

Speaker 3 12:52

It was touching for me too. I was by the time I got out of the bus. I was crying as well, and and it was so heartfelt when he said America saved us, they gave us our freedom. And he was so appreciative. And there was so much emotion from him and it was. I was just standing there looking at, was there 10,000 crosses.

Speaker 2 13:15

Is that how many? He says yeah, and then?

Speaker 3 13:19

there was over a thousand missing in action, names on the wall besides those crosses and it was hard to imagine that that many young men fought for another country, that we gave these men to this country to fight for it. And Markle really understands and I remember him saying that something about his grandma being in, was she in a camp or something and they were starving her.

Speaker 3 13:51

I was way in the back of the bus and they gave her some type of chocolate. And when she eats that type of chocolate and I don't even think it's good chocolate, but she'll say that's the best chocolate I ever had because that was some of the food that they would give them because they starved those that that they had imprisoned.

Speaker 3 14:14

So everything was bad. And then here, marco it yeah, he couldn't even talk, he, he broke down in the middle of talking and you could tell it was purely coming from the heart and he named his son after his grandfather.

Speaker 1 14:30

Yes, Leonardo, yes yes, that's right, that was amazing. You know you hear that, and come on in Shelly's joining us. Shelly, hi, shelly, stylin' Stylin', as always, you know how long will this take?

Speaker 3 14:49

I want to bring my unmentionables in. Oh, is that right?

Speaker 4 14:53

Stop with the unmentionables.

Speaker 1 14:55

Don't mention them.

Speaker 2 14:56

Well, one thing about the unmentionables just so you know Is he really doing this? He's doing his laundry 100%.

Speaker 1 15:03

You know what they said. They closed down at 10 pm. Dan told me this right.

Speaker 2 15:13

Yeah, down at 10 pm, dan told me this right, yeah, well, this is what I heard. So what did you? I heard that if your laundry, wasn't done they closed the hard close at 10 am or 10 pm, even if your laundry is in there or not. But someone told me, if your laundry.

Speaker 1 15:19

If your skivvies, your stir dry in there, ryan dry in Ryan hey, okay, yeah that's. I guess that's the rule here. That's the rule. The rest of the laundry they don't want to sit around making laundry conditions.

Speaker 1 15:33

At the lavenderia. But to finish that thought it's just, it's amazing, you know, because so many of us seem to take it for granted. But we have. Yeah, so many people now have no idea of the history and we simply take it for granted. Either we live in this country, we don't realize how great we have it in America. You know, and people bad mouthed this they have no idea, and all these people gave their lives so they can even say those kind of things, even criticize their own country. You know, so that's, you know, it's the same thing in Normandy. You know, so that's, you know, it's the same thing in Normandy.

Exploring Siena and Tuscan Towns

Speaker 1 16:12

You know, when I went to France, we went to the D-Day beaches. I don't know if you've been there or not, but on the D-Day beaches in France they'll have these little shops there, like in Omaha Beach, all the beaches, utah and they just love Americans. When you walk into those stores little souvenir shops or what have you it's almost a tribute to America. They're just so thankful for Americans, and that's one thing that I do love about these trips as well. You think about all the beautiful sights, the great food, the wine, whatever, but there's those things as well. Okay, let's go back to something a little less serious like food and wine. Have you liked the food and wine? We had a big dinner tonight. You like? The dinner today was okay.

Speaker 2 16:59

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 16:59

Yeah, just too much. It's too much, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 17:03

This is the first day we had three meals. We were at breakfast and then, when we were at three meals, we had breakfast and then, when we were at uh I forget where already. The second place, san diego. We had pasta, and then we had dinner. Oh lord, it was a lot of starch, a lot of potatoes what have you enjoyed?

Speaker 1 17:29

what kind of what have you? Uh, what's?

Speaker 2 17:31

the best food you've had here so pasta and the pasta pasta, yeah, I'd love that yeah and I like the fact that it's I

Speaker 3 17:40

learned something, though it is I like to cook and I always heard people say pasta, make it al dente. It's like you want to feel the tooth, you want to kind of have a little bit of bite into it. Well, when we started having pasta here, I said is this really what al dente is? Because to me I'd say this isn't cooked enough. But then the next place we went it was exactly the same and I said I guess this is what al dente is and it's, I mean, a whole wall. Cook it where you know there's a little bit of a chew to it. This is pretty chewy, so yeah.

Speaker 3 18:16

I learned that and we're a perfect match because she loves to cook.

Speaker 1 18:20

I love to eat it.

Speaker 4 18:21

Is that right? We're working a guy out for it.

Speaker 1 18:25

That's right there. Yeah, that works out just about right.

Speaker 3 18:28

I had some risotto like like mushroom risotto today it was really good.

Speaker 1 18:33

We went to Siena today. So Siena is a very unusual place. I mean just great history. How would we describe it, dan? It's like they have these districts Essentially, it's you know these districts. They call them tribes.

Speaker 3 18:53

Tribes.

Speaker 1 18:53

Yeah, like there's the what there's? The snail tribe, snail, yeah, the turtle Turtles, panther, the geese Geese, yeah. And so it's this incredibly old medieval town with very narrow streets, and in the middle of San Gimignano there is a plaza, or Siena, excuse me, siena there's a big plaza and around this huge plaza, which is just basically a big open space, I guess, for lack of a better way to describe it you know there's really fine restaurants and things sitting around there, so you can just enjoy yourself there and look at the plaza. But one of the cool things about it, they have these horse races in Siena, right? Yes?

Speaker 4 19:37

It's just amazing, and you know, if anybody wants to see what one of those looks like in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.

Speaker 2 19:45

Under the Tuscan.

Speaker 4 19:46

Sky. There's a little short portion of it that shows the horse race, so it shows all the people there. It's a wonder they don't get run over by the horses. Wait, they show that under the Tuscan sky, under the Tuscan sky yeah, there's a little short portion of it, of the horse race, yeah.

Speaker 1 20:05

Who's the actress in that? Diane? No, not Diane Keaton. Diane Ladd Diane.

Speaker 2 20:11

Ladd. Yes, who is Diane Ladd? Is it Diane Ladd that was in that movie, or did I get that?

Speaker 1 20:16

wrong? No, I have no idea Where's Ken Dogg when I need him. Is it Diane Ladd? No, who is it? Did I get that right? Who is it?

Speaker 3 20:35

Is she in Under the Tinted? That is? Oh my god, I had never been to Italy, at that point I go had the biggest crush on her.

Speaker 1 20:42

I remember thinking I'm moving to Italy.

Speaker 4 20:43

Cheryl was a Diane Lane.

Speaker 2 20:44

Diane Lane.

Speaker 4 20:44

Oh my god, I I even know she was, and I just that's a good looking girl right there. He beat her up.

Speaker 1 20:50

Oh my God, I didn't even know who she was. I have the biggest crush on her. It made me want to move to Tuscany and meet her or someone like that. You've got to write a book.

Speaker 4 21:04

You have to write a book. She reviewed books in the movies.

Speaker 1 21:09

I didn't even know what I was talking about before that you got me thinking about that.

Speaker 3 21:11

Horse racing.

Speaker 1 21:12

Oh the horse racing. So that's in that movie. Okay, I already wanted to re-watch that because of her. Now I want to re-watch it because I forgot that was in the movie.

Speaker 4 21:23

That corner that the guy sits, where the horses sometimes fall.

Speaker 1 21:27

I know it shows a horse falling on that corner, so they race down these streets. Dan goes. How do these horses go down a street without slipping and falling? I mean, how do they do that?

Speaker 2 21:45

That's what you were saying. I was Pretty much that's a hard surface on a hard surface, that's not going to work in a race.

Speaker 1 21:51

And then they said that if it didn't matter, where did she go?

Food, Wine, and Italian Culture

Speaker 3 21:56

I think I chased her away. Oh, it didn't matter if the horse, if the jockey fell off the horse.

Speaker 4 22:03

The horse could still win.

Speaker 1 22:04

The horse could still win.

Speaker 4 22:05

Yeah, it was by herself.

Speaker 3 22:13

Well, did you hear how they did it? They brought tons of sand in.

Speaker 2 22:15

Horses couldn't run without breaking their legs on stone, yeah, so could you imagine all the work it takes to bring all the sand in? Well, that's okay. That's why they did it.

Speaker 4 22:27

Well that's why.

Speaker 1 22:28

That's why why they didn't hurt themselves. They weren't going on that slick stone like that. They were on that sand.

Speaker 4 22:33

Okay, that was cool by the way, pat, we've changed the subject. Pat, pat, pat, pat, did you forget your converter for the power here in Italy at the?

Speaker 1 22:43

hotel, yes, I did. The last hotel, I did. And my battery charger, ah well, which was plugged into the converter.

Speaker 4 22:50

At least you can charge your phone, because now you have a new converter that I found across the street from the hotel so you can plug something in there and plug in your phone. Really, of course, that was very nice, ryan. That was really nice. It had to be done. Wow, I went over there looking a very nice drink. That was really nice, had to be done.

Speaker 4 23:09

Wow, I went over there looking for a cold drink. It's the only thing they don't sell in that store. You need a new metal spoon, you need a mop, you need some glasses for your drinking glasses. They got all that and electronic stuff like crazy. Not one bottle of water in this store. But they have the power adapter and that's a universal. I don't know how they're operated, but it's got US, UK, Australia, so you can turn that thing.

Speaker 1 23:37

Wow, that was very nice of you. Well, it needed to be done. Thank you, like I had to, strike while the iron was hot. Thank you, Ryan.

Speaker 4 23:42

All right.

Speaker 1 23:42

I want to say that about. That's another thing about about and we did mention this, I think, on a previous podcast, but I'll mention it on Pat's Peeps 240, is that this group takes care of each other. If someone needs something, you know they go out of their way to do something nice for you, and I just think that says a lot about this group of people.

Speaker 4 24:02

Oh, I know what I wanted to ask. Devin and Ron Is this your first conservative tourist trip? Yes, it's our first Ever. So now you've talked about what you thought of the trip. What do you think about the way Ken puts it together?

Speaker 3 24:16

It's fabulous Ken does a great job of putting this together.

Speaker 2 24:21

We were a little bit reluctant.

Speaker 3 24:23

I mean, we're seniors and my kids were like I don't know if you guys should head off to Europe by yourself. You don't know the language, you've never been there, so we were a little bit reluctant. But listening to you for such a long time and talking about all the trips and how much fun it is, I used to work at a hospital and I would drive home at night and I would listen to you my whole trip home and every single time I'd listen to you. I'd'd say I want to go on one of those trips. Well, he wasn't in the car with me because I was commuting and right before we booked the trip he was in the car with me and I had told him a little bit about you and that came on the radio and I said word, what do you think? Let's go on on that trip. Let's give it a try.

Speaker 3 25:10

Yep, and so we called Ken and, oh my goodness, he answered all of our questions. He told us that 50 or 60 percent of the people go book another trip and then it's kind of like family and that's what we noticed at the airport, everybody was hugging each other. And we were like, well, where are you from? And we, actually, we live in Wilton and we met somebody that lives in Rancho Murrieta, which is right five miles from us and they go to our same church and so there's so many people that know each other.

Speaker 3 25:45

We got lost a little bit trying to make our way home yesterday and we saw some other people in our group and they said, oh, let's get our boat out, let's kind of figure out where we need to go.

Speaker 2 25:55

Jim and Laura yeah.

Speaker 3 25:56

And so we man it. Just we have felt so taken care of. There's nothing that you have to do. All the trips are planned for you, all the excursions that you want to go on, and there's a schedule. And and Marco is amazing, he makes us laugh every day and all the different history that we learn. You know, I had no idea I was going to learn so much and I've been doing a Facebook post almost every day and all the people on my page go wow, thank you for all the history and all the information you know. So I thought, well, I'm going to pay it forward. I mean, I'm just jaw dropped when I listened to all the different things. And then I put it on my page and I'm getting good feedback from other people saying, wow, this is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 26:46

I'm going to. I want to go on your page and look at what you're posting. Let's see what everyone's doing.

Speaker 4 26:50

Yeah, we all have to add each other on Facebook as well. And, if I might, because you know Ken doesn't pay me. Pat and I worked together for years at KFBK, but I don't work there anymore. He's not a sponsor of anything I do. But I would say, have you mentioned conservative tours specifically in your Facebook post? Okay, that's great, because that's you know, all that does is make more of these things happen, and the other thing I want to say and unfortunately, Ken hasn't spent a lot of time with us on this tour because he's got three groups going at once.

Speaker 4 27:22

But if you ever have an opportunity to be on one of these things where Ken is with you, his knowledge of all of these areas as it relates to World War II is encyclopedic. It is Like Pat and I, you have to have notes or you print out a story you want to talk about and I have scripts. As a news reporter, ken does all that stuff off the top of his head.

Speaker 3 27:45

Ron would love it. He's a high school history teacher.

Speaker 1 27:48

He's retired now. Once a history teacher always a history teacher.

Speaker 1 27:53

By the way, if anyone listening right now thinks you know that actually does sound pretty good, I wonder where they're going next. That sounds like something I'd like to do. We're going to Sicily this October, late October. We'll be there at the very end of October and through November the 5th I believe it is. For whatever reason, I don't have my name on the Concert of Tours website right now, which I'm going to have to address that. But you'll see it, I'll be the one that doesn't have a name on there, for whatever reason.

Speaker 2 28:22

All the other hosts do.

Speaker 1 28:25

But I also want to say, deb, because I'm not going to let this conversation end without telling you how much I appreciate you telling me that you listen to my show on your way home from work. And you could be listening to anything out there, you could be listening to music, you could be listening to whatever, and you listen to my show. I am so thankful, on top of that and I'm sure that you certainly listen to your kids and their advice that you listen to their advice. And then you hear my girls like, yeah, I think we're going to go, come on now, that's what I want to hear.

Speaker 4 29:04

I thank you for that.

First-timers' Experiences with Conservative Tours

Speaker 3 29:05

We were like, how do we get a hold of Conservative Tours and see what's in the future?

Speaker 4 29:10

Because we thought, well, we'll try this Conservatitvetourscom and so we're excited to figure out what's the next.

Speaker 3 29:15

What's the next place to pick up? Well, cicely's in.

Speaker 4 29:17

October He'll do another one of the Normandy D-Day trips. I still haven't been on that one, so maybe we'll end up on that one together. Let's see He'll do. He keeps doing the Amalfi Coast Southern Italy tour. That one is beautiful because that's the first one I went on with Pat. And, by the way, if anybody is wondering, that sound you hear in the background is my clothes tumbling in the dry.

Speaker 1 29:41

We're at the Laundromat in Florence, Italy.

Speaker 4 29:43

Just a reminder of that Beach 240. No unmentionables in there, though it's just shirts, I promise.

Speaker 1 29:48

Right, well, listen.

Speaker 4 29:53

Ryan, you got like a half hour before they shut this bad boy down.

Speaker 1 29:55

Here's another cool thing, by the way, too, Ron and Deb. So you're listening to my show this time and here we are together doing a podcast which you've never listened to, my podcast. I'm just going to say that you said that, Not that you don't want to.

Speaker 3 30:11

I didn't even know you had a podcast, really, other than I listened to your radio show, and I do think you've mentioned it a couple times.

Speaker 1 30:18

Like five times an hour. But, if you didn't hear it I'll understand. But at least five to six times an hour At some point.

Speaker 4 30:27

Deb has to concentrate on driving.

Speaker 1 30:29

Well, I don't think she wrecks just because she's listening to my show. If I say Pat speaks, what?

Speaker 4 30:35

I've gotten in a couple of wrecks listening to your show. Well, I sure you have actually.

Speaker 3 30:41

And it was funny because I didn't even know what you looked like.

Speaker 3 30:44

So I went online and we found your picture and then I told Ron and I said oh, we've got to find him. We really got to find him and tell him how cool it is that, because of you, we're here. If I had not been listening to you and heard about all the trips that you go on and you're so animated when you talk about them, about how much fun you've had and all the different things you get to go to, I mean that just I thought man, how could we go wrong?

Speaker 1 31:11

Thank you, and when you say all the things you get to go to, that's the part that it kind of blows me away. I start to think about it. For instance, on this trip here in Florence, saw David Michelangelo's David Okay, it's the second time I've seen it Trevi Fountain, you know, in Rome I've seen it. But then you start talking about Germany and you start about the Eagle's Nest, which is a very controversial thing. But the American Allied Forces took over the Eagle's Nest, which is a home given to Hitler by Mussolini, and initially when I thought, well, gee, do I want to go there? I was reluctant. And then someone said no, why would you be reluctant? This shows what the Allied Forces did. They took this thing home and said you're out and we're going to make this what it is supposed to be.

Speaker 1 31:58

Okay, seeing the Eiffel Tower in France, as I mentioned, the D-Day beaches, notre Dame, I could go down this whole list of things. That is just such a blessing. I never thought, not only did I ever think I'd get to see, but I never thought I'd be able to travel with such a great group of people and see it with other people. So thank you, and it's cool because it's not.

Speaker 3 32:25

When you think of vacation and group vacations, you think there's going to be a lot of people and you're going to crowded places and you're going to maybe have a guided tour or not. But it's just when we went to Pisa and we went to that church and we listened to Roberto telling us all about it. I mean, I walked into that church and I was in awe at how many years ago that thing was built and how they did everything that they did. So, being able to go to all the different places, hear people that have lived here and know the history and giving it back to us in smaller groups and answering questions, that's the kind of vacation I want to do. Good, good, good good.

Reflecting on Travel Experiences and Closing

Speaker 1 33:14

One of the things I will always as I've said to a few people too is I've been fortunate enough to again come over here a few times to the conservative tours with this Pat's Peaks groups, and so I've seen a lot of different places, as Ryan was saying. You know I've been to a multi-coast, so it kind of gives you an opportunity to find maybe a place that you like and you go. Oh, if I were to come back, and maybe on my own or with your husband, you come here and you want to spend a couple of weeks or whatever, a month, who knows, and you go, that might be the place that I would go there and I would start there and say you know, I want to stay in this city for a while and explore around this area. So, because we go to so many places, you kind of get an idea of what you're learning, what it's all about, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 34:03

So hey, I think we're going to wrap it up here and I want to say thank you to, first of all, to Ron and Deb for joining us unbelievably at night in a laundromat in Florence, italy, when they could be doing anything else in the world. Danny Boy, my best friend, ryan, my other best friend. We're here in this laundromat and thanking you for listening. That's what we're doing. I truly appreciate it. Someone said to me you're going to have to start this over. Someone said to me as we came back to the hotel tonight and I apologize All of a sudden I can't remember who said it she reached out to me. She says Pat, would you please somewhere on your podcast this week, since we're in Italy, play Mamma Mia by ABBA by request.

Speaker 4 34:51

By request. Pat's Creeps 240. Here we go, baby.

Speaker 1 34:54

Pat's Creeps here we go, baby. Go ahead, ryan. Go ahead, ryan, here we go.

Speaker 2 35:11

Let her out. Let her out. So I've made up my mind. It must come to an end. Look at me now. Will I ever learn? I don't know how, but I suddenly lose control. There's a fire within my soul. Can I get here a better way? Can I forget everything? So, can I get here a better day? Can I forget everything? Mamma mia, here I go again. My my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again? My my, just how much I miss you.

Speaker 1 36:00

We'll see you tomorrow for Patch Peeps 241 from Lake Majore in Stresa. See ya, I never let you go.

Speaker 2 36:10

Mama mia. Now I really know. I bet I could never let you go.