Some write it as one word, “buongiorno” while the Associated Press reportedly suggests it be written “buon giorno.” It’s pronounced “bwon-JOUR-no.”

Either way it means good day or hello in Italian, which I heard often the past two weeks as wife Gladys and I traveled to Italy to visit family and to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

Gladys’ sister Nancy, Nancy’s husband, Ernie, and their two sons Justin and Mitchell live in Milan where Ernie works in the oil business for Eni, an Italian based multinational energy company. They were nice enough to put us up as well as to show us many interesting and beautiful sights.

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We’d been saving up and cashed in frequent flier and credit card points to help on the cost of the flights. I hear lots of complaints about the airlines and airline travel, but my experience going and coming back on Continental was most pleasant, as has been the case most other times when I have flown with this company. The planes were clean and modern and the flight attendants and other personnel with whom we dealt were friendly and competent.

The only downside of getting there was the eight-hour leg of the trip between the Newark/New York airport and Milan. But the flights were smooth, with in-flight movies, some surprisingly good food and I was able to catch a few winks to lessen the effects of jetlag. The time in Milan is seven hours ahead of New Iberia.

We visited more recognizable Italian cities like Milan, Sienna and Venice. We spent a day in Florence, though I’m not sure why we call it that and not by the name the Italians use, Firenze. We visited Pisa, known for its leaning tower.

They were each beautiful and had interesting things to see but I preferred the smaller communities in the beautiful Tuscany region of Italy, cities not as well known but each with a particular beauty and charm, like Lucca, Arezzo, San Gimignano and especially Cortona, the setting for popular 2003 movie, “Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Nancy and Ernie had rented a house outside of Arezzo and we made daytrips that included all sorts of beautiful sights and fun adventures.

Making that experience all the more memorable was meeting up there with friends of Nancy and Ernie’s from Australia (Ernie is from Perth). Blair and Genevieve Jobson and their kids Emma, Ben, Becky and Sam were great company and it was fun getting to know them a bit while we toured together. They, like other Australians we’ve met, seem to have that “joie de vivre,” that joy of living that is the trademark of people from our area.

School was still on for the Jobson kids but they had arranged for their schoolwork, including for some sending e-mailed updates of what they were seeing and doing during their trip, and answering classmates’ questions that were e-mailed back to them about their experiences and observations.

I’ll share some of my observations and thoughts about things we saw in a coming Sweet Talk.

Most of the Italians seemed to use ciao (chow) for goodbye and not the arrivederci (a-REEV-a-dare-chee) we’ve heard in so many movies. So until my next report, “ciao.”

WILL CHAPMAN is publisher of The Daily Iberian.