The Most Beautiful Place We've Seen

These are pictures from Stoer Lighthouse north of Lochinver. Our B&B owner (a Dutch man fascinated by motorcycles and Texas) sent us up here in search of whales and other sea creatures. We drove through fields of sheep and stone houses and ruins to get here and the pictures do no justice at all to the experience. We just kept turning to one another and exclaiming over how beautiful it was. The sky was so huge and the grass was so green and the light was amazing.

When in Rome

It is a terrible shame that I canàt download photos on this computer (although maybe not, since my curls get bigger and fluffier as the day progresses) and also a shame that I canàt figure out where the apostrophe key is on the keyboard. Itàs even trickier than a German keyboard.

We are making a whirlwind tour of Italy this week. Highlights so far are as follows (Um, I cannot find the colon key either but picture one here)

1. Tour of the Vatican, Colosseum, and Roman Forum with Francesco, who bears a stiking resemblance to Ira Glass. Francesco knows everything in the world about art history and studied with the artist who restored the Sistine Chapel, so he was a fantastic guide. Also, did I mention that he looks just like Ira Glass? There is a new (to me) trend in tourism in which tour guides have little over the ear microphones and all the tour participants have boxes around their necks and ear pieces so they can hear the guide without being near him. It is fantastic. It made everyone on my tour look like bad CIA operatives and we could wander around the sites without sticking too close to the guide. (Although why wouldnàt you want to stay close to an Italian man (Italian is dead sexy) who looks like Ira Glass?)

2. I took us the secret slow way to the Cappuchin Crypt, but it is morbidly delightful, and we treated ourselves to gelato after the grueling march to the church where the bones are housed.

3. Love the Trevi Fountain.

4. Love the Baptistry in Pisa. The acoustics allow sound to linger for 10 seconds, so a single person can sing three notes and create chords and harmonies with himself. The guard demonstrated and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.

Having been a Humanities major is pretty much the best preparation in the world for a trip like this, since I already have memento mori and Medici and other important M words stored up in my brain. I studied Michelangeloàs Pieta in college, but I still wasnàt quite prepared for how gorgeous it is. Seeing it is overwhelming.

Florence and Venice later this week.

Ciao!