well, now i am back in the you ess of a after 2 fab weeks in italy. apparently it rained here the entire time and has yet to stop. ah well. about italy...will i ever be able to speak the lingua (unaided by wine)? how many meals can you squeeze into a day? never enough, that's for sure. starting to plot the next visit, maybe this time around regional foods as well as landscapes and architectural masterpieces.