I'm back!

Let's just get the important info out of the way. Yes, I did get Harry Potter in Amsterdam. It was awesome. I got off my plane, and at the first store I came to, there it was. I snatched it up with only a little bit of visible external dancing, paid, and was on my way in 10 minutes.

But, see, the universe felt I needed to pay for being so lucky as to get Harry Potter on the day it came out. KLM lost my luggage. Well, strictly speaking, they knew exactly where it was, it just wasn't in Italy. They sort of "forgot" to put it on my plane. Whoops. I fit into the Italians better than I anticipated, what with my stench an all. Four days later, they managed to get it to me, and let me tell you, I have never been happier to wear pjs in my life.

Italy was beautiful. Witness the disgustingly beautiful view of Todi, which is only on of the many disgustingly beautiful views I have in my picture cache.

And the Italian breakfast? Due cornetto nutella e un caffe da portar via. (Two croissants with nutella in the middle and an espresso to go.) All for less than 2 euro. And my non-existent Italian? Very much existent. Italian is actually quite easy, especially if you have been in a previous life pretty fluent in French.

And, oh, the wine. This is from a wine "tasting" which was actually 4 glasses of different wines with dinner, not tastes. My favorite was Orvieto Classico Superiore. I hope you can get it in the US, but I bet it's expenive. Wine it Italy? Not so expensive. Yes, they really do drink wine all the time, and yes they really do eat pizza and pasta every single day. Every. Single. Day.

This is the hill I had to walk up and down at least twice a day. There is no way for this picture to accurately illustrate how steep this hill really is (or how scary it is to walk up and down with buses screaming past.) Let's just say that I now have a fantastically perky rear end.

My Italian experience wasn't all wine and views and nutella (although, let's face it, there was a whole lot of that going on). Actually I was there to play music, and boy did I. I have never played 3 recitals in a row before, nor have I ever put music together that quickly, but the whole thing was remarkably successful.

I have finished my travels for the summer, so you can expect a much more predictable schedule of posting from now on. I've got a ton of stuff to do, like study for my theory placement exam, learn my audition excerpts, and move, but the knitting? It's coming with me.