TravelinGirl

I suck as a travel writer - Ok, I've had NO time to do any writing, so hence my woefully small number of entries thus far. The only reason I have a few minutes to write right now is because I've confined myself to my hotel environs due to Montezuma's revenge. The idea of wandering around St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel and such in this condition was more than I could deal with, so here I am. I thought it might be kind of blasphemous to pray for my body to cooperate while in Rome's most holy place, so I decided to chill here at the hotel.

Other than this small setback (which isn't really that big of a deal as I had seen those things on my last trip anyway) though, my trip has been awesome. I got to see some of the great large sights - San Marco in Venice, Uffizi in Florence (I was wishing Meta were with me for the art stuff), remains of various saints in various churches/basilica/duomo, etc., beautiful views of vineyards and coastlines and marble quarries, etc.

I'll have to go back and fill in some of the blanks when I have access to my journal. What I've been finding is that if I don't do my journal within about .5 days of actually experiencing something, I've experience so much more that I can't actually remember it very well.

My next stop is to visit Tooch and Cathy for a day or two, and the to visit Terry (with whom I journeyed through Europe last time). I'm looking forward to seeing friends, and being able to hang out in one place without feeling obliged to go SEE something, or DO something. Ah...

Stupid things about home I didn't know I'd miss - my washer/dryer. I can't wait to have clothes NOT dried on a line (they get all stiff), and clothes that are ACTUALLY DRY. Also looking forward to television that is not news but is in English. I can't possibly watch any more CNN or BBC World. Not sure my shows will be correctly recorded on Tivo when I get back, but I can't wait to find out. Also looking forward to going home where people drive in a logical and orderly manner (although comparitively England will be wonderful compared to Southern Italy) - I didn't know a horn with only one noise could be put to such creative use to convey consternation, anger, warning, happiness, etc. I knew I'd miss family and friends, but didn't realize in what ways. I thought of Jay when I saw Aprilia motorcycles, Craig whenever there was any wonderful food/wine, Dan when I saw cute girls in high heels and mini skirts, Mom when I saw ceramics I couldn't possibly carry home, folks at 1010 when I saw anything absurd or cartoonish (whether deliberate or not), Shane/Alyssa every time I took a picture, SteveRod when hiking in the Alpe di Suisi, etc, etc. (Don't be offended if you didn't rate a mention here - I'm sure I was thinking of you at some point :-)

Things I didn't miss because they're everywhere here - McDonald's (no surprise there). Signs telling you where to go/what to do - the US should have such good signage for visitors. Comparitively, our lack of helpful info for tourists is shameful.

General ideas/impressions - Boy those ancient peoples took their monuments seriously - how the hell did they get those big blocks of marble up so high? And why didn't they write things down so that we didn't have to go through the Dark Ages? I love the Italian language - not only does it sound beautiful, you can figure out most of it if you see stuff written down and/or if you just think it through. Churches are great places to get out of the sun and stay cool (all that marble). If I can ever get the songs Volaré, O Sole Mio (and the Elvis version of Be Mine Tonight), That's Amore and Funiculi/Funicula out of my head, it'll be SUCH a relief!!! Art through the ages is fascinating - and even more fascinating to see how contemporaries drew from the same artistic lexicon. And doesn't is seem funny that some people get ALL the talent (Michaelangelo, Leonardo, etc.) for sculpture, architecture, painting, etc.? In any case, my brain is overstuffed with cool stuff, and it'll take a while to sort out (and will probably leak out in weird ways in my postings) when I get home. Traveling does weird stuff to your dreams. Meltdowns are inevitable when traveling, and come in myriad shapes and sizes. How do the women here manage to walk on the cobblestones in 4 inch heels without breaking their ankles?

More when I can or when I get home... Ciao!

posted by Unknown @ 4:29 AM