Tales of Abundance
Tales of Abundance artwork

All episodes

AI, Bubbles, and the Beauty of Sicily: Lessons on Innovation, Investment, and Living Fully

Episode 44 · 8 October 2025 · 1 hr 12 min

Open on Spotify

Show notes

Is AI a Bubble? Lessons From the Dot-Com Era, and the Beauty of Sicily

Is AI a bubble, or the start of something lasting? Randy Lorensen, Dr. John Oberg and Anthony Marino compare today's AI boom with the dot-com era and 2008, then Anthony shares what a trip around Sicily taught him.

The first half is a current-events conversation: whether Nvidia is "full of helium or hot air", why some bubbles still leave useful things behind (from personal computers to the 1890s bicycle boom), how concentrated the NASDAQ has become, and whether there will be enough electricity for all the planned data centers. Each host also shares what he's doing differently because of AI.

After the break, Anthony is back from Sicily. He talks about Taormina, Mount Etna, Ortigia and the fishing village of Sciacca, asking locals where they'd take their mother to dinner, and the pride Italians take in their work. They also cover how to plan a trip like this, picking the right travel partners, and why you shouldn't put it off.

AI Bubble Lessons From the Dot-Com Era, and Things to Do in Sicily

What you'll discover:

  • Is AI a bubble? What the dot-com era and 2008 suggest
  • Nvidia, picks and shovels, and why bubbles aren't all bad
  • The power problem: data centers, electricity and even data centers in space
  • Sicily highlights: Taormina, Mount Etna, Ortigia and Sciacca
  • How to travel like a local, and why not to cram Italy into 10 days
  • The pride Italians take in their work, and whether America can capture it

Timestamps

  • [00:00] Welcome: Randy, John and Anthony on current events
  • [00:45] Is AI a bubble? Lessons from the dot-com era and the 2008 crisis
  • [03:00] Is Nvidia full of helium or hot air?
  • [04:56] Picks and shovels, and why great businesses start in downturns
  • [06:46] Bubbles aren't all bad: personal computers and the 1890s bicycle boom
  • [09:46] 40% of the NASDAQ in 10 companies, and record valuations
  • [12:21] The Nvidia-OpenAI deal and a data center the size of 10x Nvidia's output
  • [13:31] Power: will there be enough electricity?
  • [16:32] Data centers in space, and AI that helps people (drone delivery)
  • [18:43] Hope for AI that has a real impact on humanity
  • [20:45] What each host is doing differently because of AI
  • [24:10] The pace of change
  • [24:28] Sponsor break: Premium Cabinets
  • [25:04] Anthony is back from Sicily
  • [27:48] "The most beautiful place I've ever seen"
  • [29:20] A missed ski trip, and why you shouldn't cram Italy into 10 days
  • [31:30] Talk to locals: "Where would you take your mother to dinner?"
  • [33:36] History, slowing down, and a family link to Messina
  • [36:20] The top three: driving around the island
  • [38:21] Mount Etna and a tiny restaurant with no menu
  • [39:27] Each corner of Sicily has its own language, food and way of life
  • [42:26] Ortigia, local shops, and dinner after 7
  • [45:43] The Italian people and their pride in what they do
  • [47:28] Can we capture that pride in America?
  • [50:29] Retiring in Italy on Social Security
  • [51:22] Planning a trip: how loose or tight?
  • [52:20] The Verdura Resort, and the fishing village of Sciacca
  • [55:07] How to pick the cities, and the one mistake
  • [59:00] Picking the right travel partners
  • [1:01:46] Next trips on the list
  • [1:04:50] How big Sicily is, and an island with no manufacturing
  • [1:06:12] A hidden gem: Ortigia, the island off Syracuse
  • [1:07:11] A private sailboat trip
  • [1:08:43] The one downside: smoking
  • [1:09:57] Wrap-up: get out and see the world, and don't put it off

🌿 SPONSORED BY AG1 (Athletic Greens)

Fuel your health and performance from the inside out.

Try AG1: https://shop.drinkag1.com/tales

About the hosts

This is a hosts-only episode with no guest: Randy Lorensen, Dr. John Oberg and Anthony Marino. (Host bios are on the host pages linked below.)

Find us online:

Hit Subscribe so you never miss an episode of Tales of Abundance. 🔔

Related episodes

Meet the hosts: Randy Lorensen · Dr. John Oberg · Anthony Marino

Transcript

A full transcript is below. It was generated automatically from the episode audio, so expect some spelling errors in names and terms.

[00:11] we're here with John and Anthony and we're going to talk about some current events. Uh so let's let's jump into it. Anthony, we had a interesting last week. uh the three of us along with some other people about AI and is it I guess the contrast is AI is going to solve all of our problems versus it's a bubble and we want to dig into that a little bit. So I know you have some thoughts on this. John and I the last couple of weeks have talked a fair amount about AI and how amazing it is and how it's going to save the world. So give us the other way to think about that potentially. So I I've given it given it a lot of thought and I went back and I looked at um the dot era and what occurred then and what occurred uh during the GFC the great financial crisis of 08 and09 and what I found was it wasn't really a bubble. What it really was was a series of and some of the some of those balloons turns out some of those balloons had helium in them. You know, during the during the uh dot era, you know, Google came of age, Netflix, YouTube, PayPal, uh Facebook, um any number of successful uh businesses um came out of that period of time. th those um those uh balloons were full of um of helium and they stayed afloat. Whereas Pets.com and ETY and you name it, you can find a bunch of them.

[01:48] Randy, I think you were part of one back then. Um that just no more. and the amount of wealth that uh was lost during that time, you know, estimates of about 60% of the uh market share, not market share, market wealth of the NASDAQ disappeared pretty much overnight. And believe it or not, it wasn't recovered fully. You want to guess when it was recovered fully? When how long did it take to recover? I'll say — only based on what you said 2012. — 2015 is when NASDAQ fully recovered from the losses. — Yeah, I never would have guessed that if you hadn't said that. — 08 and09 very similar things happened. Countrywide Mortgage went the way of the Dodo Bird and Lehman Brothers and uh several other major financial firms that had bet heavily on the mortgage market, the subprime mortgage market. But others like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, uh others came out of that. Uh and in that case it was due mostly to government bailout you know the TARP money that the government did and so forth. So my point about AI today is similar. You know if we consider that um you know is is in is Nvidia full of helium or hot air is the the there there are a host I think there something like startups in the AI business and they can't all be winners. So much like uh investment bankers make multiple bets in the hope that one or two will be really successful, one or two might pay back enough to cover the investment and the rest are going to be bombs. I think we need to look at AI the same way. You know where where are you where are you placing your bets or are you placing Who's going to be successful? What are the elements of the business that you have to look at and the characteristics of those business to predict which you can only do you can only predict you can't be sure that they're going to be successful. Um and if you use the traditional SWAT analysis you know really spend some time as you're doing this work uh on the threats what the threats could be you know um versus what the investments are being made. I you know again I brought it up uh a few days ago when we were talking and I predict the same thing that happened in ' 02 08 is going to happen in at some point in the in the not too distant future. Call it one year to 5 years the same thing's going to happen with AI. We're going to be talking about remember when so and so built that mega site in wherever Texas and it's you know got a 2,000 acre solar field and 12 windmills and it's now sitting empty and not even connected to the grid. So I guess that's — we're that's as old as time itself during the gold rush Mark Twain said something about like it's a good time to be in the business of picks and shovels, right? Nvidia looks like they're in the business of picks and shovels right now maybe. And so I think you know and great businesses generally get created during downturns in the economy. If you look at 1939 huge numbers of businesses that started then that were successful and then there but there's there's a cycle to these things. Nothing is forever.

[05:22] Well, right. And that and that was my point that we we are um so many people seem to be just caught up in the euphoria of the present day. And what did what did Mark Twain also said? History doesn't repeat itself, but it I'm that's that that was my point about the AI discussion was okay great making all this investment but let's not forget about the gold rush let's not forget about you know um 1984 and 85 when the stock market crashed in 1929 and so forth not everyone's going to win here — yeah that's the I think that's the difference between a person who's disciplined about like AI and how I'm going to make it work for me right now in terms of ROI today versus the person that just wants to put AI everywhere because it's AI and they hope it'll pay off in the long run. I think there's very there's a spectrum of those people obviously in in the world but you know there I talked to someone today CEO of a company he's like I want to put AI everywhere and my caution was you should only put AI in places you can see an immediate return and there's some really easy lowhanging fruit for most businesses but AI everywhere is not generally a good strategy today. I heard you. Go ahead, Granny. Go ahead.

[06:43] — Well, I was going to say some of this is I think bubble has a negative connotation. I think there's a lot of words we use and I don't think bubble should be looked at as negatively as it is. Right. The the example you gave with the internet is one of the clear comparisons, but we could go back to the personal computer even before that, right? There were lots of computer companies. Lots of them didn't make it, but some did. And then some of them, you know, Apple turned into, you know, like a completely different company and and they spun off. But this has happened throughout time. I mean, transportation is another great example. And my favorite example of that is bicycles. If you go back into the 1800s, you remember the bicycles, what they looked like, the ones with the with the big wheel in the front, right? And they were dangerous and people were getting hurt and they just they weren't really catching on. And then in 1890 or right about then somebody created the safety bicycle which was the one that we see today really with two normalsiz wheels and the chain and the whole way it works. And within a few years by the middle of the decade this bicycle phenomena took over the world. I mean in in Britain alone there were literally hundreds of companies that had been started to make bicycles in that time. But it was happening in America. that was happening all over the place. Prices soared, the the stock there was a stock market bubble and these bicycle companies were the newest technology and everything was running wild and people were getting rich and they just kept building and then well, you know what happens?

[08:14] There's too many of them. They have too much supply. They start cutting prices. It's a race to the bottom and most of them disappeared. Now Schwin, Raleigh, like some of the big names came out were in those original comp companies in the UK, but it really went to the entire world. Even Ford, by the way, started out as a bicycle company before they were selling cars. Um, there was technologies, ball bearings came because of bicycles. Pneumatic tires that we have today came because of bicycles. Chain drives and other things that created other, you know, other products. I think Randy I think that's the difference between like a human and the species right like that was great for humanity the bicycles happened but there was a bubble that burst that did have a really negative financial consequence for lots of people so society as a whole was better but the bubble was still real still had real negative consequences I think for me at least bubbles are negative when you look at the impact to the people but it's also true that great technologies great innovations great things they push forward and So maybe that bubble cycle is just a part of the fast innovation cycle that we can't we can't avoid. Like I don't I don't I don't know enough about bubbles to know if we can or can't avoid them. But I think you know species often times do what's in the good of the species but not necessarily great for the — There's a little bit of I don't know if you guys have seen the movie Alien and its subsequent uh spin-offs. But, you know, I heard a statistic today that made me think of this movie um that 40 more than 40% of the NASDAQ valuation is housed in something like 10 companies. So, it's like this alien is growing inside the NASDAQ and 40 or 50% of the value is contained in only 10 companies. Now, if two to four of those companies fail given and they're they're they're the reason that they're made up making so much on NASDAQ because they have invested and have committed to hundreds of billions of dollars in AI.

[10:24] So, if two or three of those implode, right, that they made really bad bets and things go, a little guy comes along and um picks them off, Google comes along and creates uh wipes out uh Netscape and Yahoo and so on and so forth. What does that do to the valuation of the NASDAQ? That that could be catastrophic for a period of time. — When was the last time? But — when was the last time two companies that failed in the NASDAQ? Do you know? I I'm going to check right now. — I don't — I don't know. But I do I do know the NASDAQ has I believe it has the highest um valuation compared to earnings like PE ratio overall that it's ever had. — 35 35 times. I mean it's it's and there there's a correlation between that and some other companies in the NASDAQ that failed back in the early 2000s that had uh Cisco. Cisco uh didn't quite fail, but they they had a valuation of 30 plus Nvidia has 30 plus EPS. People are drawing a parallel between those. If Nvidia bet wrong, you know, could you have another thing? All All I'm saying is, and I've all I'm only, again, I'm playing the black swan card here. Just just be cautious, be aware of what could be, and and not all is gold, as they say. So, I don't know. I I I know that I'm being a a pessimist about it. Um, but we have enough history in our life in my lifetime to at least be, you know, reticent about, you know, betting the farm on um on AI. So, on — if you're if you're if you're like if you're going to retire in 2005 and the and the dotcom bubble hit in 2000, you were screwed. If you're going to retire in 2020, it means something entirely different. And black swan is called a black swan for a reason, right?

[12:21] — Well, let's use that. Anthony, you brought up Nvidia and some of the other things. Uh, one of our other topics for today is the Nvidia Open AAI deal. By the way, it's sort of tied up as I research this with an with a deal that's already working with those two companies along with Oracle, SoftBank, and Stargate uh to build AI infrastructure. And I don't know just just to get listeners the quick overview. They've got a letter of intent to work together on an AI data center. It's going to have 10 gigawatts of compute deployment at least. To put that in perspect that's millions of GPUs. To put that in perspective, Nvidia only produced about 10% of that this year. That's 10x That's 10x what they produced this year that they want to put into one data center. It's already being built. It's in Abalene, Texas, and it's supposed to go live, the first phase of it supposed to go live in the second half of 2026. And boy, there's other stuff going on, but let's let's dig into that, right? So, I mean, really, — really just just so listen, 10 gigawatts, 7 and a half million homes of — one data center. We tal we've talked about power. This is why, John, I'm I'm so concerned about power and prices of power going up. And — that's reasonable — and we're not going to have enough electricity in this country. So, — and how many data centers like this are being talked about across the US or the world right now? It's not one.

[13:45] — No, it's a lot. It's a lot. But I think I think the the market's concern on this is that Nvidia is putting a hundred million dollars into Open AI. I had heard that they were going to get some ownership stake in turn, but I couldn't find that in my research before this. So, I don't I I maybe got bad, you know, bad knowledge there previously because I couldn't get confirmation. But that I mean this is incestuous. It comes to mind, right? Like they're putting $100 million, but then OpenAI is going back and buying their chips, — right? And they're not putting up actual capital. They're putting up the chips as part of the deal. And for that, they're getting they're also going to get a piece of the I heard the same thing that they're going to get some sort of equity stake in Open AI. So yeah, you're right. It's a it's They're they're feeding they're they're feeding each other and feeding on each other which is another re another reason to be concerned right because this this is if you know it's a it's like a Jenga t uh tower you know you start pulling one of the pieces out and all of a sudden does the whole thing come crashing down and then what happens to the companies that um are producing something of value out of generative of AI or or other AI um technologies like you know we talked about the company one of the things I raised was you know what good is AI and it turns out well there are some things out there that are in the marketplace that are really really good and we talked about the company Zipline that is you know used AI to figure out a way to deliver packages and not just you know your Chipotle package but blood to, you know, people in need in Africa. They've cut the maternity and and infant mortality rate down by tremendous amounts by being able to deliver simple medicines uh within minutes of need. So, you know, there are there are really, you know, I I I I am very hopeful that, you know, those types of technologies are going to jump to the front of the line and because they're they can be so valuable that they're going to get the attention, they're going to get the capital investment. Um, and then I I do believe in time the world is going to solve this energy problem. We always seem to with as long as the government doesn't get involved, we always seem to be able to solve these big problems. So whether it's through the use of renewable energy, nuclear, hydro, whatever you — you saw Bezos Bezos just said they're going to put they're going to put power stations in space where it's all on solar. The whole data center is going to be in space and they'll have in you know always on solar. I mean what country owns that if it's floating around the — Yeah. le left to uh solve problems. Man has solved every major problem uh presented to it. So — you said you said if the government doesn't get in the way, — And the only chance I see of that in the near future is if Bezos puts one in space, I don't know. I don't know what the regulations are for him building the data center and the energy in space, — Probably easier regulation than — Nobody owns space. Nobody owns it. So Now, it doesn't mean it doesn't mean that they can't do something about it, — but um you know, — let me uh Anthony, you transitioned into um the zipline thing. So, let me uh let me just show people that are watching on YouTube what uh what we're talking about here. So, this is this is pretty cool. This is their website, but you can see it's dropping it down. The original ones had an airplane that dropped it and it sort of parachuted it down — like a care package, but you can see now it's it's hovering, dropping it. Um, and you know, it's really just a glider, a glider airplane that comes and uh drops off your package. I think it can carry 8 pounds is what I found right now, but getting getting better. Uh, Walmart is already using this up in the Dallas Fort Worth market. Uh you mentioned burritos with Chipotle and Africa. I mean there's there's a lot of uses for this.

[18:19] — 90 95% of all packages being delivered by Amazon are under 8 pounds. — 95%. So this is a very again of course they have to do something that generates significant revenue to pay for their ability to expand into places like you know uh the continent of Africa and places that you know really are in need of help and maybe that's the tradeoff that that occurs that you know you make money off of Chipotle so that you can save people in rural Mississippi. I don't know what that is. But the it it gives me great hope that you know man is still thinking about something really positive that has a tremendous impact on humanity. It my perspective changed a little bit from my dire statements of a week ago to when I ran across this company. I said, "Wow, now there's something that makes me feel good." — I think there's still abundance in the truest sense.

[19:22] There's a there's a learning curve though like I am I do have a real concern about you know my young kids learning how to use AI well enough because everyone I've talked to so far has said that AI the generative AI requires some amount of domain expertise to use it well and you know I think that won't be the case eventually but in the short term at least like knowing how to use generative AI requires some domain expertise and if you're not giving young people the experience or people new to the field experience then you're not building the domain expertise necessary to use it. So I think we are going to have to find a way to cross that gap. agreed. I mean I but this is with any new technology, right? People have got to train. They've got they've got to — Um you know I I think Anony's bigger point is that the money could be better spent. I don't think you've said that. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you're — I think a lot of what you're saying is it's being misappropriated, right? — Yeah. Yep. And you know the market I mean I I believe strongly in the free market right that the free market will find the answer and it is the greatest algorithm that we have and the money will go. It's not all going to be used perfectly. Creative destruction is part you know part of that market right I mean some of the computer companies we talked about earlier that didn't make it got bought out by other computer companies or created more market share for the winners. And — so here's my snapshot before we go to the break. Then what with all this information, Randy, what have you done the same or differently as a result of all this? Things are moving fast. Every single week we're talking about things that things are changing radically faster than I can remember in my professional life. So what's changing for you as a result of this?

[21:05] — For me, not much because I'm I'm not interested in gambling on these companies. I'd rather just buy Bitcoin and take the safe route. Um, so I'm not looking to throw darts and see which AI company I hit. — Okay, Anthony, for you, anything changing for you? — I'm I'm just studying right now. I'm I'm studying. I'm trying to observe. I'm trying to I'm not trying to predict the next big winner. Um, I'm watching my backside and um, you know, I'm I'm looking for companies like Zipline and others like them doing good things that are either investment opportunities are or are companies that I can get behind and and support. So that's pretty much — for me what I'm doing is looking for places that I can, you know, influence or control where I can take the smallest possible uh, kind of movements into AI. So I'm actually trying to find companies I can use uh in very very small ways that create immediate wins. That means I have to get really granular in my business and find ways where there's a promise of automation that's been kind of un unrealized for the last 20 years.

[22:12] And how do I do that fast now? And so um just just since our last conversation I pushed my team and we've had you know one of our developers said I found a way to increase one particular process that I've had to work on. Best estimate in the last 7 days we'll get a 15 to 20x um faster. So we'll reduce the development time by 95% for one little piece of something we do normally. — By using AI in a different way. Well, and what I'm hoping, Anthony, is that even if you think that the money should better go to Zipline, or maybe I think it should, too, that a there's enough wisdom in the free market that that what does work in AI, I mean, the the real promise of AI that they keep telling us along with quantum computing and all these different things is that it's going to solve all the problems. I mean, there's people now talking about AI solving math within a few years, like literally solving math. and they're talking about it being able to cure all diseases. I've heard 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years. I have no idea.

[23:16] Don't don't even know where to begin. But if it does that, how do you put a price on on those things and all the different things it can create? And maybe the maybe AI is what c we don't have an electricity or an energy problem worldwide because AI makes some some way of of getting energy. Maybe it is to help Bezos do it in space, right? and that what doesn't seem like it's obviously well spent money now could be really well spent money when we look back in 20 or 50 years. — There's so much capital out there, there's so much money to be spent that some of it is not going to be spent wisely. We all know that. Um I'm hopeful and I hope it's not false hope that uh just enough of it will be spent in such a way that it helps create abundance for a lot more people that are that are um that don't have that abundance right — Changing world. 100 years ago we had we had a we had a couple you know I don't know two people in every household that were doing household chores 100 years ago. And now we have dishwashers and and garbage disposals. And so 100 years from now, I think we're only accelerating the pace of change. So guys, let's take a break and then when we come back, let's talk to Anthony about Sicily.

[24:28] — Hey, it's Randy from Tales of Abundance. Is starting a business part of your journey? Do you have ambition but no clear path? Maybe you feel trapped in your current career? Do you want a real business that can produce $250,000 or more income for you and your family? We have an opportunity for a profitable business that can be part of your path to abundance. I want to personally invite you to see the proven system we've built. It's designed to give you that freedom and control you've been searching for. Visit premiumc to learn more. That's premiumc Tales of Abundance. Uh I'm here as always with with Dr. John Oberg and Anthony Marino is back from Sicily and uh we talk about the five Fs and one of those is definitely fun and I think travel falls into that a lot. So uh John and I are mostly just going to ask Anthony how amazing Sicily is. We've already got some of his things. So uh give us the overview. You might want to I mean John asked you about this a couple days ago. Your response I thought was great. So — yeah, you know, um this was the first uh trip that um or one of, you know, one of the first trips that, you know, just was it was all about us, you know. Um most of most of our trips historically have been with the kids off to beaches, you know, um really um kind of straightforward, spend a week and um and head back to work and and maybe not actually drop work for the week that you're gone. So this trip uh was determined to um to check out and really uh a country uh actually two in the sense of we did spend some time in Rome and then and then 17 days trapesing all over Sicily. So you know it really fits under the why settle for less uh moniker for us. Um there was nothing was um left to chance. There was no spense expa spared. Uh we did what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it. Um it was great. You know I traveled uh with another couple, my sister and her and her husband uh who are the same pretty much the same age as us and have the same interest. So, it was, you know, it was interesting to have, you know, companions and it was just great, you know. Um, — well, let's start there. I mean, traveling with another couple can be the most amazing thing in the world in my experience. It could also lead to some not awesome outcomes. Have you traveled with this company? This cult, you know what I'm talking about, the couple. Have you traveled with this couple before?

[27:15] — Yeah. And everything wasn't perfect, but it was um it was all, you know, on a on balance. It was just very, very good, you know. Um, — but you knew them. You traveled with them. So, it wasn't it wasn't 0 to 17 — No, no, no. We had been to the Cayman Islands. Um, you know, we spent time in Myrtle Beach together and so on. So, um, and we know each other really well. So, and and it's a later in life uh relationship that has really has really gotten really great. So, yep. It was it was terrific. So, you said something about it being the most beautiful place you'd ever seen the other day. — What was that? — Yeah. So, having been to Hawaii many, many times in my life, particularly Maui, um there is striking similarities between Sicily and Maui. There's mountains, there's valleys, there's and it's surrounded by beaches. Sicily is I don't I don't I'd have to look it up, but it three times the size of of Maui in terms of actual geography, the size of the place. Um and its mountains are, you know, it has Mount Etna, which you know is a live volcano. Uh and the beaches are just amazing. you know, it is Europe, you know, so the the towns are um how would I how would I put it? They're they're not luxurious in the sense of um you know big beautiful hotels and things like that but you know there's a lot of alleyways and little shops uh here and there that um you know you visit and you know so it was terrific as far as that was — Oh wow. More beautiful than Maui. I've never been either, but now it makes me want to uh definitely want to go to sis.

[29:16] This has been on my list, by the way, is I would love to go to Italy. I was supposed to go to Italy when I was in my early 20s. I had I booked and paid for like a 12-day ski trip. I believe Cormeair is where we were going. And it was it was a place where you flew into Italy. You went up and then there were like this side of the mountain was Italy, this one was France, and this one was Switzerland maybe or whatever. Yeah, — I might have one of the countries wrong. And I broke an ankle playing basketball a few days before going — and I just what was I going to do in a ski village, you know, and I think we were going to spend a day or two in Rome or Florence or someplace and I was like, I can't walk. I can't, you know, I'm like I'm just going to be a burden and I'm going to be sitting around a skilet, you know, for 12 days. So, I just didn't go. I just stayed home and worked instead. But I I would, you know, Julie and I have talked about, you know, my dream. I'd love to go spend six weeks or two months in Italy and just spend two weeks here, two weeks here, two weeks here, and really really just immerse ourselves. But — yeah, I I would agree. You know, we've we've been to Italy a few times and um you know, the first time we we did Italy, you know, we did Rome, Florence, Lake Ko. Um, you know, we jammed a lot into 10 days and it's just not the way to do Italy. You know, it just isn't.

[30:37] And I I think that's a lesson learned. Um, you know, I know people that have gone to uh all of the above plus Venice plus Milan plus Serra and frankly that's great. Every one of those places is fantastic. But you you get um you get so much more when you spend at least four, but if you can spend at least 5 days in a place, which is what we did, you get to know the — you know, you get to know where not to go. Um, and like I said, if you can um, cities, these little these are little towns with nooks and crannies everywhere, you know, little shops, little um, family restaurants. And the only way to get to know that is to talk to people. Whether it's a guide who took us up to mount, you know, mount top of Mount Etna who gave us a lot of good advice, uh, or the the woman the guy that we had in Polarmo and the concierge down in um, Chiaka. You listen to these folks and and you quiz them. You don't just ask them where to go to eat. You say, "Okay, where would you eat?" No, no. If you were taking your mother out to dinner, where would you go to eat?

[31:53] Oh, well, if you if you want if you're talking about that, then you need to go to this little place in Shiaka that only serves se fresh seafood and it's based on what came in on the fishing boats that day and it's very uh you know unpretentious and inexpensive and so on. — um I love — and that's the way that's the way we approach things. Yeah. — Yeah. that that's my way of going as well, right? Like I I'm not a big planner before we go. A lot of times when we go on a trip, — we just go and we maybe have one or two things that we're like, we know we want to do this, but yeah, I just want to talk to I don't care if it's a cab driver, somebody at the hotel, somebody that we meet on the street, and just like you said, just I think part of it is just the interest of meeting people and finding finding out, but then they'll tell you the good places to go. I mean it just — Yeah, we we we flew into Rome because it was convenient from getting from Austin to Rome. We flew through Boston where we picked up my sister and my brother-in-law and then we flew to Rome.

[32:57] We spent two days there. You know, I hadn't been to the Systeine Chapel in 25 years. So, I wanted to see that again and get a private tour of the museums. But the best part of that was the guide. She gave us, you know, tens of things to do in Rome. And when she she knew where our first stop was in Sicily and she had friends there and she said, "Okay, you want to go to this restaurant, you want to shop here and see this Greek theater and so on and so forth." So your point about talking to locals and listening to them as opposed to having a predetermined itinerary um I think makes for more enjoyable. Now that said, you know, there's a there's a lot of history in Italy. You know, there's a lot of history. So, if you know, if you want to kind of do the Chvy Chase, you know, Grand Canyon thing where you, you know, okay, I saw the the St. Peters, I saw the thing, I saw the Colosseum, and you know, I saw Mount Etna. You know, if you want to do that and that's what you you want to check those things off your bucket list, then that's good for you.

[34:05] — Yeah. For us at this age, it was more about, you know, immersing ourselves a little bit in the culture. And, you know, you get you get a little of it. You don't get as much as you'd like, but I could have stayed in any one spot for a month without any difficulty at all. — Yeah. you know, the te termina in eastern northeastern Sicily. It's only a few miles away from where my uh my great um came from. You know, she left uh Sicily in 1908 after an earthquake wiped out Msina. They lost everything. So, they all shipped off to America. Um, and then you know you get the it's it's hard to unless you've been to Europe like it everything is smaller in terms of the the buildings, the the the hotel rooms, the apartments and so forth. Everything is, you know, on top of each other. There's very few subdivisions. You you just you just won't find subdivisions.

[35:10] Um, you know, you you you look up on the hills of Sicily and you'll see apartment buildings. You know, one of them uh was 40,000 people live in the town and you can literally see every where everybody almost where everybody lives cuz they're all in these, you know, 15story apartment buildings um that I don't I'm not sure many of us could live in for long. Um but um that's how they do it. I mean, they stack them on top of each other and and that's their that's the way they approach life, you know? — If that's all you've ever known, right? Or that's what you get used to. Like, we're just so used to having a room and having, you know, a huge extra garage and sheds and storage and attics. And if you don't have it, you don't have it. And you you live appropriately. Or — that's a topic for another day for sure. I, you know, I used to live in 5,000 square feet. I'm now in uh 2,000 square feet. And we went to 1300 square feet in the middle. We should that'd be a fun topic for a different day. — So, what are the Okay, so you've kind of been all over. What were the three for in your opinion and I think we'll go to Jan and the rest of your family, but what were the three thing your big if you had to pick three things that were the best that you really enjoyed or took away or that you liked, whatever — Yeah. Um, working backwards, I would I would say that, you know, our few the last couple of days in Polarmo were probably a little too much for us. Uh, big it's big city. Um, we we we kind of the way to think about what we did was we started on the far northeast corner of Sicily and literally drove around the entire island and finished in Palmo, which is in the northwest corner of Sicily cuz that's where we were flying out of. Um, so ending there was the right thing to do. But um I would have spent a little less time in the big city because to answer your question, each of the three cities that we did spend time in had their it had its own unique So the first city other than Rome of course, but um Tarina, which is, you know, as I said, in the northeast uh corner of Sicily is this bustling hilltop town with um you know, shops galore, restaurants, um unbelievable views of the Mediterranean that um just are inspiring. our our apartment that we had there. While it wasn't the best apartment in the world and you know you know an Airbnb didn't live up to the Airbnb pictures, uh did have a southern view so we got sunrises, beautiful Mediterranean views and so on and so forth. So that was just amazing. the restaurants there were, you know, as I said, I'm an I I used to be a Michelin guy, but I I really have shied away from those of late and just again focused on, you know, uh the local family. The uh the guy from um that took us up Etna gave us a restaurant called Rose Marino, interestingly enough. And I mean, it was just this tiny little place and almost no menu. They just tell you what they have in the back and and then you order everything. Every meal we did, we ordered for the table.

[38:47] Like it was very, you know, have a couple of appetizers, a couple of pastas, a couple of main courses, uh, a bottle of wine or a drink, whatever the case might be. And I think I told you guys it was incredibly inexpensive. incredibly inexpensive in those places. I mean, a hundred to $200 per in dollars, you know,$120 euros um for almost every meal. And it was um you know, it was it was home cooking. You know, my mother's my mother's cooking. I mean, they're all they're all different. Every and that's the other thing. Each each part of Sicily is extremely different. So the northeast part of Sicily has its own language, its own accent, its own style of cooking, um it's its own um approach to life, you know, and then as we move down the coast, talk about what is it there like what's the style of cooking? What's the style of life? What's the — Yeah. So in in Terrama it's the it's you know a very um Roman uh Roman type uh cooking. So a lot of red sauce, a lot of um there's a lot of meat. You can get a lot of meat there. Uh there is you know you can also get you know they they they made this amazing breaded swordfish that everyone fell in love with. It was just absolutely unreal. And you got to remember everything is local there.

[40:21] Nothing nothing comes from Greece or Spain. It's all local. No preservatives. No additives to the pasta, to the flour, nothing. So you you don't have that the you don't get that feeling of uh you know, unbuckle your pants. Um it's just a completely different feeling. That's true all through Sicily. just — They essentially grow beef and pork and chicken and like all there on the — All their stuff. — It's amazing. — Yeah. All of it. Um so, uh yeah. So, and again, they have very strict rules around agriculture. They've even started experimenting with avocados. They never had avocados until the last couple of years. And they got a couple of farmers to start figuring that out. So they work really really hard to be self- sustaining. They are very proud. Um I won't call it Yeah, they are they're they're derisive about the Italians because the Italians and they and I and I mean that they they consider themselves Sicilians. They don't consider themselves Italians. They the Italians look down on them. Um they they had derogatory um terms for them. They use the term negroni. They call them negronies. You can imagine what that means. So they they have they've set up kind of walls uh around themselves and if it was up to them, they'd be their own country. Now they have their own parliament, which is the o they're the only part of the the Italian community that has its own parliament, but they're still governed by the Italian tax laws and and things like that. So, but the first, as I said, the first place was um very similar to Rome in terms of the type of food, the um the the uh the shopping, tons of little boutiques, and you know, you don't see any Louis Vuitton, and you don't see any of that crap that you see in big cities like Paris and Rome and so on where you know, these are — there goes there goes Louis Vuitton to sponsor this episode.

[42:38] — Yeah, that's fine. But, uh, you know, little jewelry shops where you can find really cool stuff and which is kind of one of the things we always like to do. — Um, and get gifts for people that we're going to bring back and and so forth. So now when you move down to Ortisia and as you get south the again it's uh Ortisia is is a little island that's probably it took me say less than an hour to walk around the entire perimeter of it in the morning. I got up and went for a walk and I walked around the entire perimeter and you you know you're going through all the marinas and the beaches and and so on. Um, that's where you you really start to feel the the the seafood, the lighter fair. I mean, pasta is a big part of every meal if you want it to be. I mean, it's it's it's always the second course. Um, we skipped that a few times just cuz we were, you know, you can only eat so much. But, um, but that was had it was had a tighterknit community. It was very small, very personal. um owners would sit down at the table with you and talk to you and you know give you some advice and tell you you know you ought to try this place or um you know where are you staying we got a lot of people talking to us about um just personal stuff just you know having a conversation — how long and you can do as much — oh all night there there's no such thing as turning a table in Italy zero zero interest. Um they're they they move like a glacier even to get you started on the night. They they take a while to to get to you. Um and then it's — Oh, so everything shuts down between 2 7:00. Uh, generally speaking, I mean, there's a couple of tourist areas, tourist uh, places that stay open, but you know, not to to hang out there, but no, no restaurant worth it salt is open before 7:00 at night.

[44:59] So, and and we we would sit there till 10:30, you know, every night. And that takes a little getting used to because we're used to, you know, as Americans, we're used to you sit down at 700, you're out the door at 7:45 if you've taken your time. Um, so it's it takes a little getting used to, but it changes the dynamic of your conversation. You know, you now you're communicating with the people you're with, the people around you, your people watching. Um, you're making fun of people that you see, and you know, you're having a you're having a good time. you know, you — more calm, — Yeah. You're very relaxed and um you you open up a little bit. — talk about a little bit about the difference in the Italian people ver and the just the life the people, the lifestyle. I do believe people are people, but the lifestyle and the culture there versus America because I think this is one of the great things about traveling is you get to just see different cultures, meet different people. So, what what would you say are the big differences?

[46:04] There's a there's a sense of pride that you don't really feel in America. Um, often I'm not saying you'd never feel it, but every single person that you feels like that you encounter in certainly in Sicily and and in parts of Italy that I've been to, there's there's a sense of pride in what they do, in their in their shop, in their restaurant, and their advice. Um and the guides that we had um were just so knowledgeable and so informative about you know the things they were showing us and um almost you know to a fault sometimes you know um we did have um a trip to a place called um the valley of the temples which is renowned for having more Greek architecture remaining Greek architecture than all of um itself and the guide there was you know took a little longer explaining things than than maybe you know we kind of had the chvy chase thing going and it's a lot of walking.

[47:15] — The the the thing is there is a lot of walking um all over the all over Sicily and and and Italy when we were in Florence and Tuskanyany and what have you. So you got to get used to that h — that pride like what if not that you could give advice to the entire country but you know there are people listening. So how do we capture that in America like what what is it is that something that we can learn from we can emulate is it or no maybe the answer is no. Well, you know, there are companies in in the United States that that come from that perspective, right? You know, Starbucks comes to mind, Amazon comes to mind. You know, they're they're focused on meeting the needs of the customer and doing it well and having a continuous improvement mentality. Um, you know, the the certainly the people in in those places, you know, generally espouse that that attitude. Um, and you know, we've been I've been to plenty of local restaurants where um there used to be an Italian restaurant around the corner from where I was uh on Burnit uh very um you know they were you know clearly proud of their u of their of their restaurant. So it does exist in pockets but it's you know we're moving much faster here and our goals are different you know our goals here and you I'm using a sweeping you know generality but our goals here are more focused on wealth and acquiring things than it is about enjoying the moment and that's the sense you get um traveling uh overseas um you Paris was like that, you know, there were parts of France that were like that. Uh they just they're enjoying the — you know, and uh we we we tend to not enjoy the moment. We we — we found that across all of Sicily, like in all the different areas, we thought that Okay.

[49:19] — It didn't change it didn't change one bit. And it same same thing in Italy and in Rome and and other parts of Italy that we've been to. It's um it's all it see always seems to be about you, not about them, you know. Uh like as I said, I've never been in Italy or Sicily where they someone was trying to turn a table ever. And any any location I've ever been, I don't care if it was Rome, big city in Rome, it didn't matter. No one's turning a table. And I think that's that summarizes the difference, — you know? uh it's just a and no high pressure selling in the shops you know yes there was some markets where nonItalians have come and set up booths and selling chachkis and not the you know made in Italy type stuff and you know there you know there there's some of that but that's the very small percentage of of what we ran into it's imagine a shopkeeper from 1940 you know, that's kind of the feeling you get, you know. So, — What do what's their attitude about you know, I they several times they said a lot of Americans are moving here because they can afford to live on social security, — you know, on a very limited retirement.

[50:50] So, and the weather is Caribbean-like, you know, without the without the hurricanes, you know, they have January, February or kind of a rainy season, — but and obviously summers can be very hot like like anywhere, but um it's a very tempered climate. Um it's pretty much on the same latitude as Boston or a little south of Boston. So, maybe more like the Carolinas. So you get that and then you have the Mediterranean Sea which keeps things very flat in terms of temperature and it's spotless. The the the this the Mediterranean Sea is absolutely spotless and nice and warm and but refreshing at the same time. So — I'm ready to go. John, have you have you been you've been to Italy but not Sicily? Is that right? — Yeah, that's right. We we chose to go from kind of Rome up through Tuscanyany and then up into um Lake Ko. And you know, I was just thinking like based on Anony's description like it goes very high on my list right now. And my you know, we have we have plans to go to Europe next year. We've already planned the place and it's not going to be Italy unfortunately. And then uh we've got some other plans coming up, but we we take vacation very seriously in my household. It's a it's a full-time full contact sport. It's amazing.

[52:12] — Yeah. you you are more on the planning side I think than I I think I'm the least in the planning category of us three. You're the most. Anony's — we take some trips that require that like the trips we go on like like I you know went to Italy we were pretty loose uh when Amber and I went a few years ago but uh we had we had some plans but it was you know we had some flexibility. We also take trips where you have to there's certain parts of the logistics you've got to figure out because you just can't do it on the way. So I don't want to um skip over, you know, a little cheat code that I had uh in in Sicily in between these little towns and little restaurants and so forth. We did stay for four nights in a in a four bedroomedroom villa on the side of a mountain uh over that's part of a resort community uh called the Vidura Resort. And that was it was like staying in a in a upscale Four Seasons Ritz Carlton kind of environment, you know, with the spa and the the the uh the the pools and the beach and the service was just absolutely amazing.

[53:25] But around the corner, less than 10 minutes away, was a little fishing village called Shiaka that I have never and I grew up on the ocean. I've never seen more fishing boats in one location in my life. And we we the first day we drove over there was a Sunday and everything's closed on Sunday. Everyone's home on Sunday. Everyone's going to church on Sunday. There is no commerce on Sunday. There was not a single restaurant open — in Shiaka. Uh we had to go back to the resort to eat. Um, so but it was um it was a nice respite if you will from all the walking we were doing, all the little shops and so forth. But it's, you know, it it is nice to put your feet up. — Yeah. I'm just looking at some of the pictures here like that. Wow. — You can share them. You can share them, John. So people on YouTube can see them. — We'll do. Yeah. — Yeah. It's just um you know it's it's it's just one of those places that um it's in the middle of nowhere. You know, that's the thing. It's in the middle of nowhere and it's own there's nothing else around it. Um to the left you have the mountains, to the right you have um you know the southwest um view of uh of the Mediterranean. So you can get a little bit of sunrise in the morning, you get a lot of sunset at night. Um yeah, it's all that in a bag of bag of chips, man. It's just absolutely — Yeah. And and it's, you know, it's okay.

[54:57] It's expensive, you know, for anybody's taste, but um the value I think there's real value there. Um, — so how did you pick or you know this trip or any trip if somebody's listening you know going going to Sicily? How how would you tell? So because you said the first time you went to Italy or in the you know you went here and you went there and it was just a couple days here and it was too much and in Sicily you you know this was how do you pick the cities right like you know Polarmo or wherever you went like how did you decide that's the city was it from talking to people research on the internet or what where did that come from? Yeah, it was talking to people. You know, we have a friend uh who took a trip a couple of years ago where he was on a tour uh with, you know, 15 or so people and they did kind of a very similar around Sicily but shorter in duration, you know, pack and unpack almost every other day, that kind of environment. And so I skipped a few of the places that they went to and extended the stay and what he told me were his favorite places. So I used his advice and counsel as kind of the um you know the the the framework if you will or the baseline to work from. And then obviously I did a bunch of my own uh uh investigation to make sure that it fit with, you know, myself and my wife and my sister and my brother-in-law. And um you know, we did we did really well.

[56:39] The only mistake we made was the first Airbnb that we stayed at was in a in as good a location as you could ask, but it was a pretty dumpy. um just didn't live up to and it it wasn't so much that it was dumpy cuz Airbnbs can be you know eh but the host was just useless just no help at all. You know there was a gate code and it was unclear how you got out and how you got in and where the town was from where we were. So it was um you know it the first day that first afternoon we got there it kind of set the wrong tone you know. So now you start criticizing every little thing. Um, which you know, yeah, the fact that they didn't have a lot of co extra coffee for us, you know, well, go to the store and get some coffee, you know, that kind of stuff. But, uh, — so that aside, Anthony, back to the planning for a second. Like for me, you know, my wife gets a lot of joy out of like doing some of the itinerary stuff and there's parts of the planning she really likes and there's parts of the planning I really like. And for me, it it builds a lot of anticipation for the trip. And I think it makes it um different than trips where I've just kind of I I've I've been on trips where I've just showed up and um and it was it was fun during the trip, but it wasn't it wasn't the same experience where I had like a period of time of anticipation. I'd really kind of been invested in the trip. Do you is that just am I weird like that or are you — No. Um you know this whole trip fell on me. you know, I would I would feed the group, you know, what I had in mind and generally speaking, they would say, "Great." You know, so if this thing had gone south, um there'd be no one to blame except for me. Thankfully, u you know, even the the little things that weren't exactly right, you know, the group that I was with, they were fine. They, you know, they they you know, we got through all that stuff, whatever it was, and it was minor minor stuff.

[58:40] picking the right people to travel with. I mean, I know we we kind of talked about that at the beginning, but boy, that's a big one, right? Because we've all been on trips where you travel with somebody and you just don't see eye to eye or have different ideas. And I have a guy that he and I used to vacation together a lot. And we had mostly the same interests and we were both there was just very seldom that either one of us was like so tied to we have to do it this way and we just kind of everything always worked out or if there was something he wanted to do and I didn't do, he could go do it on his own and vice versa. It didn't hurt my feelings and didn't hurt his if I went. So I do think picking the right travel partners is a big big part of a good I also think the numbers of people that you travel with, there's an exponential risk. You know, when you go past, you know, there's a couple, you know, you can have an honest conversation with one couple, but it's really hard to have an honest conversation with the third couple and the fourth couple because now you've got you don't, you know, one of the one of those people might be on board with you. So, I think there's risk. I I don't think I would ever travel with more than one other couple.

[59:53] And even I I think our next trip will probably be just us. Um you know uh depending on where we decide to go. I don't know where that's going to be, but um it may or may not depending on — That's interesting. John, you've taken trips with multiple couples. Have you have you do you have the same opinion or — You know, I think so. We do, you know, Amber and I do trips for the two of us and then we have there's a couple of couples we travel with pretty regularly. And um for those couples, we had the benefit I traveled with the husbands for years and years and years before we all started traveling as and as families, by the way. So we've not just traveled as couples. We've traveled as entire families together and had really really good experiences. But there are some trips that work out really well for that and there are some trips that don't work out really well for that. And so we just have a really great set of relationships and there's been several trips where it's been like hey do you guys want to go and the answer is like hey that one doesn't fit us for these reasons. We have we have kids at different stages of life and that that you know does a lot and you know our youngest is entering high school right now so Amber and I are really focused on like how do we maximize all those experiences and then we've got one in college and so a limited amount of time before he gets out into the real world and so we're really thoughtful about those types of timelines as well like what are we able to do really inspired by that die with zero book that I think you guys have talked to me about and so um and I think When you find the people you can travel with, I think it does make it really a different and very rich experience. But there's also trips I want to take just my wife.

[1:01:26] — Or my wife and kids or, you know, — I mean, there's so many things I I would like to do. You know, there are it's a humongous universe out there both in the States. I mean, I could probably laundry list 10 things that I haven't been anywhere near in my life that I would love to experience and I, you know, figuring out in this short time that I — What are they? Well, Alaska in the United States, for example, and John's got a trip planned to Antarctica, Greece, south of France, Spain and Portugal, but not in the big cities, you know, in the in the mountains or on the coast of those cities. Um, I've been to Germany. I'm never going back. Uh, sorry to anybody who loves Germany, but it's just not my thing. Um and then you know maybe into the Eastern Europe um for a you know a Poland Hungary kind of experience to if I really want to get into some some history. Um but right now I'm more about um kind of a a softer experience, you know, a relaxing experience, a cultural experience with people, not with things, you know.

[1:02:45] That's I think that's that's been a big change. I used to be the thing guy. Got to go see this. Got to go do that. Got to you know, you know, Lake Ko to me is fabulous. Lake Majiori, which isn't far away from there, is a little more laidback. So, I've been to Como. Next time, Lake Majori might be where I head where I end up. Um I've been to Milan. I don't need to go back. Um I can pick up a car at the airport. Uh but um yeah, so those are the kinds of places that — Well, case we got through a couple different areas of Sicily. Did we get to all of them? — No. No. There when we left um the resort, we drove through the center of Sicily. It's about a three-hour ride from where we were at the southern coast of Sicily to the northeast coast, which is Polalmo. out to the west of that, you could drive through a half a dozen small beach towns that I'll call, you know, Manhattan beachlike, you know, but smaller, you know, very small little beach towns with its own little universe. We just didn't have time to do all that, you know, that um would have — Does that mean you want to go back to Sicily? Like, would you would you go back to Sicily for sure or like you — Yeah, for sure. It's going to We're going to end up back there. There's no doubt about it. No, it for for exactly that reason, you know, we would we would probably we might have to eliminate one of the two east coast cities and start maybe at the resort or finish at the resort. Maybe work our way the maybe maybe work west to east this time because there's two major airports in Sicily. There's one in Polmo and there's one in Katana. literally on opposite sides of the uh thing and no there are no direct flights. So you got to go you got to fly through Rome which is a pretty good airport by the way. Um easy to get around and um yeah so for sure.

[1:04:46] — What's how long is the drive one side to the other? Like what's the — boy if I added it up? 10 hours. — That's big. — 10 to 12 hours. Yeah. — Five million. five million people. So, — yeah, I was curious earlier when he said it was Maui except bigger. It's and I asked it what US states it would compare most closely to and it fell right between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. A little bigger than New Hampshire, a little smaller than Massachusetts when it came to square miles, square kilometers, whatever, — hector in Europe, whatever it is. — Yeah. But the but the beauty of the place, it's freaking are inspiring. I mean, there just isn't like there even like I described those apartments on the side of the hill, on the side of a mountain, there's there it's still beautiful. I mean, it's still absolutely beautiful. It's like there isn't any like there's no industry. Remember now they they don't have any industry. They don't have any oil drilling. They don't have any manufacturing.

[1:05:50] All they have is agriculture. That's it. M you know service there's a service business you know and but there is zero manufacturing and they're proud of that they don't want it and their air is spotless it's clean the their their part of the Mediterranean is absolutely you could drink the water out of it it's just a little salty but — so okay so you've given us the name of a great restaurant you gave us the name of a great resort give us one other hidden gem something you're not going to find on Trip Adviser is a hidden gem in that most of the Trip Advisor stuff point you to go to Syracuse or Syracusa, which is the main town, but this little island that doesn't allow cars for non-residents. Like when we drove down there, we had to give our car to a valet service who parked it for the 5 days that we were there. We never even used it. And it's just this little, like I said, it took less than an hour to walk around the whole thing. But within it, there was Greek architecture, there were restaurants, there were shops, there were markets, there were — This has the famous fortress on it, right? It's the famous fortress right on the beach that you see pictures of — Yeah. Yeah.

[1:07:11] — Yeah. I I did leave out one one cool thing that we did. We rented a um 54 foot sailboat with a captain that took us from Ortizia all around the eastern side, southern side of um Sicily. It was a, you know, it was a full-on sail, you know, um which was really just so relaxing and so much fun. um you know, he took us to little coes, we did some swimming and you do snorkeling and all kinds of stuff like that. So that was that's a that's one of the things that uh my myself and my wife always do when we're on a coastal trip. We always do some sort of voyage. usually with a catamaran private, you know, not not um you know, not not one of those Mexico type things. No party barges, you know, several times we've done it alone, the two of us, — and it's worth every penny. It's absolutely the guy The guy that was the captain had been sails all over the world. He he sails from he's going to take this boat from Sicily to the Bahamas. He'll sell it when he gets to the Bahamas. fly back, buy another boat, — spend the next season in Sicily, do the same thing. It's It's easier to do that than to try to sail back. Just very interesting. Uh very interesting guy.

[1:08:43] — The only the only downside of Italy and and you got to get it takes some getting used to, is smoking. — Everybody smokes. So if you're, you know, if you've got one of those attitudes about people smoking in a restaurant or on a street corner, you're going to have, you know, you're going to have a time. Having grown up in a household where there was smoking day and night wasn't too tough for us, but — it is a little off-putting at first um because and I mean smoking like light a cigarette, smoke a cigarette, light a cigarette, and they most of the time are rolling their own. And it's not the, you know, the one with THC in it. It's tobacco. So, — that was one thing. — You know, I was totally sold this was going to the top of my list and all the smoking. I think it's still up there. But that is actually something good to consider cuz that is not my happy place. — Not my — Yeah, it's not as bad as I'm making it sound. I'm not It's not as bad as I'm making it sound, but it is something that, you know, — it's there.

[1:09:46] — And that's true of most of Europe in my experience. Certainly France, my god, — they're um they're all about smoking. — well guys, I think this is a great place for us to, you know, wind up. What an amazing trip. And I think, you know, great to get out and see the world. Great to see different ways of living. Great to find ways to be present and in the moment. Nathan, sounds like you've really done that. And I'd love to hear that you've got 10 more places you want to go as we keep to keep telling all these uh you know wonderful stories of of abundance in our lives but also seeing the abundance in other people's lives, the abundance of gratitude they have for what they have without trying to be something they're not. So love hearing about that. — Yeah, very true. And they I think you know the message that I took home from this trip is you know I always use the same quote from the the the father or the founder of Lululemon when he when he asked his father you know what what would you tell your 30-year-old self he just do it just didn't do it you know what I mean do it now you know so take those take those moments and we all know how difficult life can be sometimes and putting things off uh which you know I've I'm I'm the the worst one uh historically of doing that. Uh next year we'll do it or next month we'll do it or next you know next decade. So, if you've got the opportunity or or better yet, make the um to do something for yourself. Uh cuz that's what our whole deal is here is why settle for less when you know you don't have to, you know? So, — doesn't have to be expensive either.

[1:11:28] Like, you can do it on a budget. So, that's great. — No, take a trip to your downtown, go out to dinner, go listen to a band, whatever it is. It doesn't have to be, — you know, a 17 a 21-day trip to, you know, an island in the Mediterranean. It could be just about anything. So, take advantage of that. There's a lot of opportunity right in front of you. — I can't imagine a better ending place than that right there. So, — tell tell the listeners what to do, man. Tell them what to do. — Yes. Download wherever you get your podcast. Download. Give us a thumbs up or a star or whatever they have. Tell your friends. Go to the website talesofabundance.com. And as always, everybody, have a great day and and thank you for listening. Thanks, Anthony. Thanks, Randy. — Listen and subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcast. Click follow for more content like this, or go to talesofabundance.com to join our community and get free tools.