Dabble:

woo hoo!

Good to hear from you - would love to hear more about Italy - one of my dream locations....

Isn't Europe wonderful?  I think what I like about it most are the unexpected pieces of beauty here and there  - the carved face in the window frame of an otherwise unremarkable building; the fountain down a quiet, unloved street that chortles with water, the violinist playing on a streetcorner, the surprisingly elegant park benches...

I miss it's everyday beauty.  Glad you had a chance to wander through it.

Wordsmith:

How wonderful...

...that you could make that trip.  I've always thought Italy would be a wonderful place to visit, but I've never been.  What I've experienced instead is the Italic overflow into North American culture.   When I worked in radio, I aired taped programs of Italian popular music.  It was wonderful, sensual music.  Even the rock and roll had a depth and sensitivity that was surprising.  In graduate school, I took on a project that, in part, involved me making an in-depth study of Italian art history.  My studies of poets like Blake and Eliot had me exploring the intricacies of the Italian poetry that had so influenced these English-language poets.

All of this had the delicious flavour of dining out in a fine Italian restaurant.  How much more delicious and wonderful to actually visit the country and have the intensity of these things all around you!  Thank you for sharing your own reactions after visiting Italy.