Going Home:

We had an early morning, getting up at 5am to be at Heathrow for our flight, after a late night. The Heathrow Express rocks - we were there in no time at all.

They had the news on, and I nearly blew a gasket when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by a reporter as comparing some problem he was having to the persecution of the Jews in the Holocaust. If one of your stated goals is to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and have claimed that the Holocaust was a hoax, you DO NOT GET to invoke the Holocaust to describe your own suffering. Use whatever hyperbolic simile you like, but not that one. No heaven, no virgins for you, you election-rigging women-oppressing thug.

We got a pretty decent breakfast at Heathrow. I had yogurt and a grilled ham breakfast sandwich, and we tried to find a few small items on which to blow our last remaining pounds before getting on the plane.

I managed to get some sleep on plane, but - having already slept 5 hours - I didn't have it in me to pull more than an hour or two of sleep.

Fortunately, this plane had a good entertainment system, complete with on-demand movies I watched The Reader, Bride Wars, and a bunch of 30 Rock episodes that I'd missed as a result of my teaching schedule on Thursdays. I enjoyed The Reader as a film, could see the humor in Bride Wars even if the characters were far from fully-formed, and was amused to see that a fellow U of C alum - Tammi Sagher - had become a script editor for 30 Rock. I'd seen her in a bit part on Knocked Up and knew that she'd done some writing for Mad TV, so it's kind of fun to see where she turns up next. She probably wouldn't even recognize me if we met today, but it's a bit of school pride.

We had no problems with customs or the train and bus rides home, stayed awake as long as we could, and crashed at 9pm after watching 30 Rock in our own bed.

A Few Closing Thoughts and Best-Ofs:

First of all, thanks to my family, Lillie's mom, and Mrs. Zenz for making this trip possible. Without their help, we could not have made it happen. It was a trip of a lifetime, and both Lillie and I are very grateful. Whatever I may have groused about, we had an amazing time and are truly grateful.

I don't really have a grand closing summation for all of my above observations and rants. They're more just things I thought - things that, to paraphrase Arsenio Hall and C&C Music Factory, "made me go 'hmmmmm.'" If anything, I'd rather that you read what I had to say, formulated your own suppositions, and then maybe go do some travelling of your own to see what you think about it all.

We couldn't possibly pick a favorite place that we went in Italy. Each town/city in Italy is utterly unique, with its own charms and detriments. Our feelings about the variations from one to the next are more of a reflection of how a given place's attributes complemented or worked against our mood that day.

If you've visited Rome, Milan, Venice, and/or Florence, you've had almost completely different experiences at each. It's part of the charm of Italy. Whereas parts of the US have been so hopelessly homogenized by chain-stores catering to corporate employees moved from one region to another that you may not be able to tell the difference between suburban Atlanta and suburban Cincinnati, Italy is still a region-by-region, town-by-town experience.

I feel like we only scratched the surface at most of our destinations, and one of our various ongoing conversation topics was where we'd go back in Italy, and what other countries we'd like to see. I could do another Roman sojourn, but not jetlagged. I would allow more time for Orvieto and/or other Hill-Town destinations, and I feel like we have a few more days' worth of exploring to do in Florence. Lillie feels like she could spend more time in Venice.

With regards to other countries to visit, I think that the British Isles and France may have passed by Greece and Spain on our list of "next places to go in Europe." We didn't get nearly enough of London.

I would say that food was pretty consistently good throughout our trip, but we definitely had favorites we'd be sure to recommend or visit if we get a chance to go back.

Our favorite meals were our Tuscan meal in Orvieto, Lillie's meal in Siena (not mine, so much), pizza in Vernazza, and both of our dinners in Florence. On average, the best coffee was in Rome - but we were also just getting into the Italian coffee habit at that point. I don't remember a bad or so-so cup there. The best pizza was in Vernazza, followed by Rome. Grom (Florence and Milan) and the artisinal gelateria in Vernazza were our favorite gelato places. We have the best wine memories of Orvieto and Florence.

As my Dad said before we left, "Your job in Italy is to eat and drink."

Been there, did that, and designed the t-shirt, which reads: "Como se dice 'Bad-Ass?'"

The altar and dome in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. I just like the geometry and color.

Some small quiet beauty amidst the Roman ruins

Orvieto's charm...

Siena's Campo....

Florence's art...

Venice's vaporetti...

... and wine, everywhere.

All material copyright Ethan Sellers unless otherwise indicated.