there are a lot of cats in the forum.

welp, here we are in italy. we started out in rome, where devon promptly informed me that "there are a lot of cats in the forum." she wasnt kidding. incidentally, there is both a cat hospice among the ruins of ancient rome and a cat sanctuary. go figure. highlights of rome included: seeing the forum, cats and all, stumbling upon the pantheon, and cutting in front of old italian women while in line to see St. Peters Basilica. its fine, they pushed us first. from rome we took a train to orvieto, which is as good, if not better, as devon has told us all. there we went to an enoteca (wine bar) which gave us the best atmosphere and the worst sandwiches imaginable. but orvieto was great because i (devon) went on a walk and ran into old professor Skillen, who treated us to cappuccino and explained how orvietani takes care of the old crazy ladies. also we had dinner at a restaurant in which we were the only 2 women, and so obviously a lot of staring ensued. the staring, oh the staring. italy is a funny country.

next was florence. we were alternately charmed by the citys renaissance art history lessons and annoyed by the massive amounts of tourists which were there. we found the highlight to be a vespers service at the monastery of San Miniato, overlooking the city of florence. i (lex) had a small crush on one of the monks. oh well what are you going to do. also we saw the uffizi gallery, home to a lot of bigwigs. or at least their art. we saw the graves of galieo, michelangleo, the art of santa croce, and numerous other fun stuff. we ate the messiest gelato ever, and also the most overpriced.

now we are in the cinque terre, and planning to flee. pretty as the views are, its also the off season and fairly dead. so, on to siena we go. we have had the best food here, though, taking the opportunity to sample the seafood for which the cinque terre is so famous. before we leave we will grab some focaccia and perhaps one last cappucino before we get on the train.

wish yall could be here. italy, as we miight have mentioned before, is a funny country. it brings out the humor in all of us. pictures to follow after we get to our respective homes.

well wishes from the cinque terre, devon and lex.