What's with the name?

I stared at that Blogger name box for days!!!!! I enlisted help from my Facebook friends. I even asked my mother! Still, no name. Then ,The Bearcat Diaries popped in my head. Hmmmm. I like it! I decided to run it by my sister (marketer of all marketers). Her response, " No, Not good Andrea. It sounds like the escapades of some new type of "cougar" and not the cat kind!"  Really? Really??? Noooo it does not! Does it?

Soooo, I tried others   A gelato a day- TAKEN
                                    La Newyorkaise- TAKEN
                                    Sono Americana- TAKEN
                                    My life is a postcard- TAKEN

Taken, Taken, Taken!!! Apparently I am not all that original because every name I punched into the check if available box came back TAKEN! So I threw caution to the wind and went with my first instinct. The Bearcat Diaries. Hey, maybe the illicit name according to my sister will drive some traffic here :)

Bear was my cat. He moved with me when I first came here to Florence and a lot of my early writings involved him. The stories became a marathon of a trip report on a travel site and Bear quickly became the star. I thought it fitting to give his name to this blog which will be at first, mostly retrospective with the writings of the first few months I was here and my work related travels literally criss-crossing the world over the last 3 years. 29 countries, 78 cities, some a few times over, that is A TON of packing and unpacking. I have got that 23 Kilo rule down to a science!

I 'll try to add something present day at least once a week. Lord knows in this CRAZY but FANTASTIC country there is more than enough material.

I'll also try and keep it clean, although I can't guarantee that. After all, I AM from New York and and we tend to talk as colorfully as the Italians ( it just doesn't sound as pretty). I hope I at least give anyone reading a giggle along the way :))