I am slightly depressed to be back from Italy. It was a great vacation and it felt great to mingle a bit with a culture that's so different from ours, but now I'm sad to return to the grind.

I did all the tourist stuff just cuz you kind of HAVE to take advantage of that opportunity when you visit a place like Italy. I saw:

-The Colosseum
-The Roman Forum
-All the various Piazzas and fountains in Rome
-The Pantheon
-The Vatican Museums
-The Sistine Chapel
-St. Peter's Cathedral
-Assisi
-Terni
-Pompeii

My favorite tourist attraction had to be Pompeii. It's amazingly well-preserved and I'm a nut for really ancient stuff. It was a bit like looking back in time. I mean, some of the PAINT is still intact on these buildings and the general layout of individual homes and community gathering points has been kept how it was in the 1st century BC!

All that touristy stuff being said, my favorite part of the visit was the food and the people. Since my wife used to live in the area she was able to arrange a visit with an Italian couple in Terni. We spent the whole afternoon and evening with them. Their home is built on the ancient stone streets of Terni and they've laid tile right over the top of it and constructed a home and garden.

They were so warm and accomodating. The wife, Luciana, took the day off work to be with us and the husband, Franco, took me under his wing and showed me his gun collection and hunting trophies, all the work he's done putting up the walls in his house, running the plumbing and electricity, and constructing his own private kitchen, and finally how he prepares pork chops and sausage.

Their daughter, who runs a local gelateria, brought us a sampling of assorted ice creams which were the best we had on our trip.

When it was time for us to catch our train, they basically emptied their fridge to pack us a lunch for the next day...lots of fresh bread, prosciutto, cheese, and some aranciata (a delicious orange soda you can only find in Italy) and then Luciana walked with us over a kilometer to the train station.

It had been 8 years since my wife knew them, and they'd never met me, but they really made both of us feel like they were our surrogate parents...it was a really refreshing experience and restored my faith in humanity. It was also great practice for my rusty Italian.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading!

Here's a pic of me in Pompeii (it was raining hard so the place was almost deserted):