Anticipation

Manda and I are leaving for Europe in less than 21 hours. I am so excited I can’t stand it. Now that the moment is here, there is no focus.

At work, I was a waste. The internet offers far too many distractions for the traveler, from the Louvre and the Vatican to Disneyland Paris and European sports bars. Oh, yeah, I looked up their sports bars. It might be bad, but I still have to try a French beer; chalk another nation off the list of brews I’ve sampled. I’ve had enough Italian beer to be covered there, thank you very much, and I look forward to their wines and German imports. Ick.

As amazing as I’m sure Paris will be, I’m positive Rome will torch it. Rome was the most important city in the world for 1,000 years. I don’t know what else I need to say about it. It was New York combined with Washington, D.C., for four times as long as America has existed. The Coliseum, Vatican City, the Pantheon, the museums and churches and temples and statues…. My only regret is that I have only one week to spend there. I’m sure I could leave a month of my life behind there without regretting a second of it. The Italians have the love for life of the French without the quasi-fascist levels of nationalism. That’s a helluva one-two punch for enjoyablity.

I’ll be back in roughly 16 days. Make sure the country doesn’t fall apart without me here to hold it together.

Ciao and adieu.