Beer Fest! [ MUNICH ]

As an American, I pride myself on many things...McDonald's, Bruce Springsteen, the missionary position [you're welcome], but most of all, my ability to drink vast amounts of cold beer. But I, as well as my fellow American counterparts, were put to shame by the Germans as far as beer drinking goes at Beer Fest in Munich, Germany the other weekend [Sorry America].

=Birra of the Blog=
Holy shit! Already?! Just wait...
Hofbrau Dark [or Dunkle] is a Bavarian original and its probably one of the darkest beers I've ever drunken. It is so think tasting, almost to the point where you could consider it a meal in itself. Very delicious though!

We took an overnight train from Florence and arrived in Munich very early in the morning with very little sleep. So we took a quick nap at the hostel and recharged for what would be a long and adventurous weekend. The first thing we did, upon our awakening in the beautiful city of Munich, was rent bikes and ride all around the city. Munich is set up perfectly for bike riding. Wide sidewalks, very little elevations, lanes especially for just bikes, and so many sites to see [that a bike is almost a necessity if you want to catch them all]. I love bike riding and I miss my bike back home very much, so this was one of the greatest feelings in the world at the time.









After a full day of bike riding and site seeing, it was time for some beer! We decided to go to one of the most famous German Breweries and beer garden, The Hofbräuhaus. We started out with the Hofbrau Dunkle [mentioned above] and some fine German cuisine.

+Wienersnitzle is gross looking, but ok tasting...just ok.

+German beer is only fully enjoyed with a gigantic pretzle accompaning it.

+Beer is served in these gigantic, heavey beer mugs known as a Stein and hold the equvalent of about three American beer cans...not to mention the alcohol content is alot higher.

So after the heavey dark beer and alot of food we moved on to some lighter beer.

=Birra of the Blog=
Yea, just get used to it. The next beer on the list is the Hofbrau Original. Although this beer is lighter than the Dunkle, it still is heavier than most beers I am used to drinking in Italy or back home in the States. The Original has a very crisp, refreshing taste that reminds me summer time. Definitely give this one a try if you have the chance.

So needless to say, six steins of beer deep each and we were on our asses. I'm not gonna lie...I don't remember getting back to the hostel that night [nor taking the picture below].













Saturday started with a headache [no shit], but was quickly replaced with fun and excitement as we visited Munich's soccer stadium and the Olympic Park.








After that, we visited the best museum I have ever been too in my entire life [no, I am not over exsagerating...and yes I have been to the Rock and Roll Museum]. The BMW Velt and Museum are not just amazing in their architectural design, but they contain some of the coolest motorized vehicles ever! The museum is a MUST MUST MUST do if you ever make it as far as Munich, Germany!

We decided to top off the day with...

=Birra of the Blog=
Wham! You gotta love those mid-sentence ones!
We started our evening with a Munchner Weisse. I thoroughly enjoyed the taste and even smell of this beer so I inquired about it. The recipe consists of a balance of the banana, clove spice and lemon [among other things]. It is very fresh tasting and extremely drinkable.

After thoroughly enjoying a few more Munchner Weisse's, we made out way to a night club called Naucght Gallerie. This place was gigantic! There were different rooms with different types of DJs in each! Drinks were cheap and the girls were cute, so we danced and partied there till they turned the lights on on us and, to us, it felt like a great two hours and we should move on to the next club, thinking it was probably around two in the morning. We walk out of the doors of the club to the sun rising. It is seven AM! We had been having ourselves a blast for over 5 and a half hours without even realizing it!

Sunday, which was also Easter, we spent the last part of our stay in Munich at the concentration camp, Dachau. I have visited the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and have been very moved by it, but nothing could have prepared me for the flood of emotion that engulfed everyone visiting this place. Dachau was one of the first concentration camps, or what the Nazi's called "re-education camps". They believe over 35,000 souls lost their lives in Dachau, not to mention the starvation, over-working, torture, and general crimes against humanity that occurred there over the entire length of World War II in Europe. The most moving part of my visit was the first hand accounts that I was able to listen to through a rented audio set, from actual survivors and liberators of Dachau. I will, with out a doubt in my mind, remember this visit for the rest of my life.

On a lighter note [didn't mean to depress you, but atleast you know that I did stuff other than drink beer while in Germany], Munich is a beautiful city full of...

=Birra of the Blog=
Ok, this is getting kind of rediculous! But it's Beer Fest!...last one...I promise. = )
Probably the most unusual type of beer I had while in Munich was the Radler. It is actually a cobinaion of beer and lemonade soda [kinda like a Seven-Up or a Sprite]. It has a citrus-y taste and is a little sour for my liking, but I thought it was interesting enough for the blog. Try it just to say that you did.

No, but for real, Munich really is a beautiful city full of great architecture, a very fun and interesting culture, a rich past and a blooming future, too many things to do in just one small weekend, and...of course...its full of BEER!

It's true, I did get my American, beer-drinking ass kicked by the Germans...but ask me if I had a good time in the process...I dare ya!

Spring Break 09!!!! [CURFU and ATHENS, GREECE]

Holy Shit!

Its hard to respond much more than that, looking back on Spring Break 2009 with my good friends Logan, Nik, Rob, and Kyle [not to mention all of the awesome people we met and hung out with while there...mostly importantly Colin]. Unfortunately for all of you not present on the cruise, the island of Corfu, the stay in Athens, and the cruise back..."What happens on Spring Break 09...stays in Spring Break 09!"

So I've devised away to give you snippets [is that a word?] that will kind of fill you in on some of the absolutely crazy-ass fun events that happened over the week with out incriminating anyone in particular. What I am going to do is give you short, ambiguous one or two liners that could apply to anyone or no one. I may have learned these things through a personal experience, through a friend, or heard about it through word of mouth. This is going to be a HOW TO SURVIVE SPRING BREAK 09 handbook, if you will. All you need to know that every single statement below are absolutely true...

HOW TO SURVIVE SPRING BREAK 09
by: Lucas Staib

+It's smarter AND cheaper to buy a stock pile of liqueur and champagne at a cheap super market before you leave for SB09






+The wardrobe you pack for SB09 should be solely determinant on how many t-shirts you need to wrap your previously stated stock pile so that they don't break in transit.

+Just because your on a boat doesn't mean you can't party...in fact it gives you more of a reason to. See this if you haven't already...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU








+Slip and Sliding on the top deck is dangerous and should only be done by the drunkest of professionals.

+Just because you're not a famous DJ from New York doesn't mean you can't DJ in a discotheque on a cruise boat.








+The Kite Runner involves the religion of Islam...not Judaism. And yes...there is a difference.

+Slovakian truck drivers are very, very friendly...

+No need for a cabin on a cruise, just have sex in the hall way. The employees don't mind.

+A 20 person hot tub next to the beach on SB09, no matter how many STD's you think it may contain, is too tempting to not get in.

+Ouzo is the local Greek alcohol...like Vodka in Russia and Tequila in Mexico. And like vodka and tequila...its wretched.

+When pre-gaming dinner, be mindful of that fact that you may not even make it to dinner.

+Getting with a girl on SB09 may be easy, but its never a guarantee. There is always something you can do or say to ruin it, no matter how drunk and no matter far along in the game you are.

+"Big steps" are always bigger than they look...way bigger.

+Offering to urinate, in any sexual form, is like karaoke...ALWAYS a bad idea.

+If there is no booze cruise...make your own.

+Drinking 101 beers before 1pm is do-able...and extremely suggested when on SB09.

=Birra of the Blog=

"101 beers before 1pm?! That's crazy!" you might say. But you'll think we were even crazier when you realize we were drinking this shit. ALPHA is the cheapest piss water a Spring Breaker can find in Greece. Think of it like a Greek Nati Lite. Its shit...but it gets the job done. "Hellenic Quality Lager" my ass!

+Warm sand is the best feeling in the world after a cold, drunken dip in the Adriatic Sea.







+Some sand mermaids are made just better equipped than others.











+Peeling and orange and putting it in cheap vodka does not make it taste better...it only makes dirty cheap vodka.








+Eighteen year olds who graduate high school early and live in Amsterdam for a semester are the coolest. And yes...its ok to be jealous of them.














+Banana chairs are fun but can be used against you. Newton's third law of motion is a bitch.

















+If your wearing a pink toga on SB09 and your not drunk...there is a problem.















+Getting a Greek plate smashed over your head hurts alot more than it looks.












+With enough alcohol, you too can become a professional break dancer.









+Tonic water is not beer.

+People who tell you to be quiet or that you're too drunk are apparently nuns and packed bibles instead of bottles. They're no fun.

+In Athens, they have a complete disregard for driving and construction safety.

+The Athens General Hospital may be the worst place in the world...and I USED to be a unquestioning advocate of Socialized Medicine.

+26 liters of wine in one night is also do-able. And also extremely suggested.

+It is also ok to be jealous of your forty year old Australian trip organizer who lives in Switzerland to snow board and makes this SB09 trip five times a year.

+Don't forget your Circus Peanuts.

+When bathing suits are not handy...go with underwear. When underwear are not handy... go naked.

+The Acropolis is #1 on the list of 1001 places to see before you die. Get there!








+SPRING BREAK 09 in GREECE = BEST IDEA EVER!










So, for those of you present for these, I'm sure your laughing and looking back on those times saying to yourself "Man, I wish I was back there!"...either that or "What the fuck was I thinking!?". For those you who were not present...I'm sorry...you missed out and your probably either just more confused now or your about to explode with curiosity. If something is really is just gnawing away at your soul and you simply just cannot go with out know what happened, depending on who you are and what you want to know, you can e-mail and I may tell you...

That's it...please don't judge.
Leaving for BEER FEST in Munich, Germany tomorrow...wish me luck!

Moments [NAPLES, POMPEII, VESUVEO, and CAPRI with KARA]

Dive in! I find myself constantly telling myself this. Whether its committing to a final Studio model or booking a flight to Hawaii to visit a best friend...its the act of running and diving head first into the freezing cold pool with very little consideration given to the consequences that shall follow. It's this reminder to myself...Dive in...to just go for it...no matter what, you can deal with what comes after the fact. And I have found that even the worst of consequences do not cause more damage than rewards gained. Along with reminding myself, quite easily, to 'Dive in', I find myself constantly fighting with Kara to 'Dive in' more often. She is obviously not as compulsive as me [which many people consider to be a good thing]. So sometimes I feel like I need to give her a little push to just 'Dive in'.

So you can imagine my surprise and extreme excitement when I got a Skype call from her telling me that she had already 'Dove in' with out any pushing and purchased plane tickets to Italy for her Spring Break! There is nothing better. The only major thing wrong with living in Europe right now, for me, is the fact that my friends and family aren't with me experiencing the same things that I am. So when the opportunity arose for me to share some time and experiences with Kara, I went all out.

Together we took a train to Naples [one of the dirtiest and slightly frightening cities in Italy in my opinion]. We had some pizzas in the city Pizza was apparently invented [guess what...it tasted the same as everywhere else in Italy]. The next day we took a tangled and misleading metro route to the ruins of Pompeii. If you ever have the chance to check out Pompeii, either get a guide or an audio guide or at least a good book. Pompeii is huge and the amount of information you can gain from experiencing it with some expertise is astounding. Afterwards, we sat down for some local food which blew our minds and our pallets. The Caprese salad [which has tied for number one with Bruschetta on my list of best Italian appetizers ever] is mostly sliced, fresh, tomatoes and very, very fresh Buffalo Mozzarella. And before that we split the biggest, freshest orange I have ever seen. They are native to southern Italy [along with delicious lemons and limes] and are so juicy they have dark red pulp in the center.















The next day we woke up early to catch a metro to the still active Mount Vesuvius [or Vesuveo in Italian]. If you ever find yourself with the options to take the free public bus to the base of the mountain and then hiking the rest or spending a whole eight euros to take a tour bus most of the way to the top...spend the eight freaking euros! Our over-adventurous and delusional asses got willingly picked up only half way up [after hiking for two and a half hours] by a tour bus and we very willingly spent the eight euro after that. The last 300 meters to the top we you have to hike because there is no road, but is worth every steep step. The view seems to be a collage of the Rocky Mountains, some western Pennsylvanian forests smashing into a dispersed New York city which leads you to a Virginian coast line. There are snow capped mountains in the distance. You can still see the hardened lava path carved through thick forests from the last eruption. And past that, Naples is in site against the Mediterranean coast. It is absolutely beautiful. One of the most beautiful sites Ive even seen in my life [up there with the top of a mountain in Hawaii and the top of the Acropolis in Athens...the pix below don't do it justice at all].

After we descended Vesuveo, we caught a bus to a port in Naples, where we caught a ferry to the island of Capri. The next 2 nights we stayed in the Hotel Casa Caprile [which I very highly suggest...perfectly placed away from the main town of Capri, in the smaller Anacapri, slightly hidden, beautiful rooms with beautiful views, and affordable]. On Capri, Kara and I browsed the local shops and sites [Be sure to visit the Blue Grotto if you make it to Capri], but more importantly we ate and drank like kings...or I guess it would be a king and a queen. Whether it was Gnocchi alla Sorrentina or Spaghetti con scampi or anything in between, the meals were always accompanied by a huge basket of the best bread I have ever had, usually a Caprese Salad [with the best Buffalo Mozzarella I have ever had] and/or some Bruschetta [with the freshest tomatoes I have ever], and of course a bottle of wine...or two.

=Birra of the Blog=
During one of our meals fit for Kings...and Queens. I tried a new type of beer called Elephant Beer. It is a Danish beer with an interesting story behind it if you are interested you can Wikipedia it [because I'm too lazy to tell you the whole thing...sorry]. Another thing that is interesting, or slightly ridiculous, is when a vintage version of the Danish Elephant Beer came out in 2008, a bottle went for $400. I just had a simple 4 Euro bottle, but it was still pretty good. Give it a try.

And it was here, on the island of Capri, nestled upon the steep white cliffs covered in lushes green vegetation and surrounded by miraculously blue water that I had one of my first "moments". Now I thought about that statement for a while. Because I had been thinking differently from the moment I walked off the plane in Florence. I'm not sure if there is something in the air here or if I am growing up a little [God forbid], but I would occasionally find myself thinking of people who would never get to see these sites, eat these foods, experience any of this. I would question how I am so lucky...so blessed. But at the time, most likely because of the lack of concentration and excitement I am usually experiencing at the same time, these thoughts w ere more like un-lucid dreams that you can't even help if you wanted to, and would often be forgotten the next day, just as easily. That is why I say on Capri, I remember very distinctly, having, what I call, my first "moment". I was on a public bus [of all places], jammed between an older woman with a bag of groceries and a gentlemen in a business suit. Kara and I were the first to get on the tiny little orange bus at the port, but over the distance from there to the town of Anacapri the bus had gotten more and more crowded with every stop. Kara was sitting in a seat, which she graciously gave up to the older woman with the groceries and stood up next to me. The switch-back roads and near 180 degree turns ascending the highest cliffs of Capri caused my knuckles to turn white as I clung to the safety bar above my head. I kept my other arm around Kara, even though I knew she was safe and holding on to her own bar. And it was with the next sharp turn that the setting sun ripped through the tiny public bus, so much that every person on the bus, including the bus driver winced at first. But as our eyes began to adjust to the sudden influx of light , I realized that the bus was driving in the direction of a tremendous view. The soft orange sun was just beginning to touch the dark blue line that divided the pink sky and the seemingly endless Mediterranean Sea. Its reflection was almost as orange as the actual sun and it sparkled the whole was across the water until it hit the white pebble shores where the small waves gently crashed, where Kara and I had carelessly walked up and down earlier that day. And it was here, on a crowed public bus, with the sun kissing the sea and my arm around Kara, that I had a "moment". All of the previously said thoughts rushed back to me, but for the first time I was able to process them all. I was able to consider almost everything at once. I was able to be grateful. Extremely grateful. Grateful to my parents. Grateful to my grandparents. To my bother. To my friends [both here in Italia and back home in the States]. Everyone involved in me being exactly where I was at that exact moment. I was grateful to Kara. I was, and still am, grateful to God.

That was my first, what I've started calling, "moments", because it was not my last. And I hope I have many more. The rest of the week with Kara was spent in Florence, showing her how I have been living and all of the usual sites. And with all of our adventures in Italy combined, it turned out to be one of the best weeks for me, living here in Italy. Like I said, when Gretchen and Steve came to visit, there is such a gre at feeling when you know some one loves and cares about you enough to spend alot of money and time and effort to come across the ocean to visit and try to experience what you are experiencing.

Kara, thank you for the money spent, the time used [hopefully well], and the effort exhausted. Thank you for being a part of my first "moment" [I'm not sure it would have happened with out you ]. Thank you for coming. Thanks for holding up your end of the bargian. Thank you for 'Diving in'. I love you.

My Body is a Temple...and I am Decorating It. [my new TAT]

So there was never a doubt in my mind [despite what I may have said to my mother] that I was going to leave Italy with a new tattoo. So here it is! My newest addition!
















Just a quick explanation of my design...
Its a combination of a compass and a clock. The compass to symbolize my traveling here and hopefully the traveling that I get to continue to do through out my life. The clock to symbolize the time that is always ticking away. And at the top of the clock is '1987', the year I was born. The single hand of the compass/clock is a short moment away from ticking back to the top of the clock, 1987, the moment life began and eventually will end. George coined the term "The Doomsday Compass", which I kind of like. I know its a bit morbid, but its my constant and permanent reminder of my own mortality and to keep living every moment like its the final moment and there won't be another moment like it again.

A Day in the Park [Florence]

It has become a habit of mine to venture out to the park near my apartment and read my novel and take in the beautiful weather. For the past two weeks it has been sunny with temperatures in the high fifties and sixties. The best part is the weather is only going to get nicer the longer I am here.
Their are always interesting thoughts going through my head as I try to find an open seat on a park bench, which are always somewhat occupied at all times during the day. Are there any completely empty benches? No? Do I want to sit next that guy? Does he want me to sit next to him? What if he starts to speak to me in Italian and I answer back with my dumb ass "Mi dispiace, Non Palro Italiano"? What if he does speak some English and I can have a real good conversation with him? But no matter what, I always end up sitting next to someone and they may nod or greet with a "Buongiorno" or "Ciao", but over all it seems that they barely even realize that anyone else is near them if they're not in conversation with someone else.
And I may read for a while, then try to enjoy the sun, usually with some music playing through my ipod. I look up from my book, maybe glance across the gravel walk to the bench and the man simply sitting there. All he has with him is a bottle of water which he may occasionaly take a sip of. He watches people with out realizing that I am watching him. The term "peole watching" seems like such a stalker-ish phrase...almost prying or intruding on someone else's private thoughts and actions. But it actually isn't that at all, despite what how the term makes me feel. It is more like "people glancing". Just a small peak at someone as they pass by, coupled with your own little analysis which is probably eighty percent incorrect but still interesting.
So I sit there and "people glance" at the man across from me who is "people glancing" at other people as they stroll by, and I realize that all he has with him was this bottle of water. It was just him, the park bench, the bottle of water, the sun, and his own thoughts. I began to think about what he could be thinking about. How could he sit there so long with out moving, with out music or a book? Then I slightly turn my head to the right to the man sitting next to me, who I had asked so many questions to myself about as I walked up to the open seat next to him. He had a book...but he wasn't reading it. At one point he was as I approached him. But now it just sat in his hand on his lap. He wasn't looking at it or reading it. He wasn't even "people glancing". He was just looking, not sure if he was even looking at anything in particular. His eyes weren't glazed or lazy the way they get when you fall in to a deep thought or day dream, but they weren't strained or fixed, the way you would stare at something when your thinking about that one thing. He was obviously thinking about somthing, but it couldn't be anything of any great importance. Both of these men, co-inhabiting the park with me on this beautiful day. Both living, breathing, thinking, but not much more than that. And here I am. Attempting to read my novel, trying to ignore the bombardment of my random thoughts and daydreams. I have music playing in my ears from my ipod. I have my phone on lap so that the vibrations from a friends call with the next thing to do today will stir me from my reading. Why do I have so much going on? Is that wrong? To be non-stop the way I am? I remember thinking, even before I walked out the door of my apartment, 'OK, I'll go read and enjoy the weather for an hour or so and hopefully Frank will call before I get too bored with that and I can move on to the next part of my day." I know that I can't sit still. And I like that about myself. I always need the next event, next hair cut, next tattoo, I can sleep when I am dead. But here I am next and across from two men who are showing a true display of this cliche "European mentality" that you always hear about. Just sitting in the middle of a work day, in a park with just them, the bench, the sun, and their thoughts. They were both there before me. And I'm sure they sat there long past the time I left. I sit there and think to myself 'Am I missing out on somthing?'.
So I take one more "people glancing" look at the man across from me and then one more to the man directly to my right, who has shifted positions and set his book down between us on the bench. I set my novel next to his. I open my ipod case, unlock it and press pause once, then twice to shut the screen off. I take the ear buds out of my ear and wind them around my ipod. I shift positions and cross my legs. And there I sat with my two friends in the park. Not reading or staring or focusing on anything in particular. Just thinking casually about what ever came to mind.

There's a McDonalds right across from the Pantheon! [ROME]

Think about the oldest building in the United States...
Maybe...MAYBE four hundred years old...at best...
I walked through buildings and climbed monuments pushing THREE THOUSAND years old in Rome! Building that were built one thousand years before Christ was born! It is absolutely astounding to be alive, in the year 2009, walking on the same stone roads, sipping from the same public fountain, leaning on the same Portland cement wall...that a Roman could have been walking, sipping, or leaning on some two thousand years before me.

So this post is going to be short and sweet...for a number of reasons.
1.)That's how my trip to Rome was...three short, sweet days of seeing everything there is to see in Rome [I'll go through that later]
2.)I'm really behind on my blog and I'm gonna shoot them at you rapid fire here to get caught up before I leave for Spring Break
3.) Its absolutely beautiful outside [mid 60s!] and I wanna go back outside instead of sit here on my computer

So here it is...Rome [short and sweet]

+MUST SEE: The Roman Forum/Imperial Forums [this is where these ancient building are]. Get a tour guide if you can...or at least a book. There is so much to be learned there.

+Our Roman Forum tour guide was one of the highlights of the whole trip. His name was Yan and he was absolutely insane. He started off by introducing himself as a ridiculously fast walker and that if any of us didn't think we could keep up to just quit now. No sooner did he say that, he was gone. Already half way up a set of Roman stairs, basically sprinting. As we sprinted with him he would ask our names, just casually. By the end of our 3 hour tour [nothing like Gilligan's] he and his photographic memory had all 25 of our names memorized. He pointed at each of us in a line and said our names. You could tell he had a photographic memory because when he would lecture, he would do it with his eyes closed, just like he was reading off of his note cards behind his eye lids. He could rattle of dates and names with out pausing to think, he admitted to smoking alot of pot, told us that as Americans we had to watch out for Belgium [where he was from] because they already stole our beer, and bet us a Belgium beer when asking us hard questions. Basically, the best tour guide...ever. And to sum it all up, when leaving, Yan said, "Thats all. I see you...in hell I guess. See you."









+MUST SEE: St. Peter's Basillica. Check out Bernini's Piazza out front. Go inside, see his Baldiquin. See Michelangelo's Pieta. Then climb to the top of the dome. Its even higher than the one here in Florence.









+MUST SEE: The Sistine Chapel. Its a short walk from St. Peters to the Vatican Museum where it is located. They say no pictures and to please be quiet, but every single person was taking pictures and talking as loudly as they please...kinda ruined the moment for me but it is still beautiful.











+MUST SEE: The Pantheon...and grab some lunch at the Mickey-D's right across from it.

+MUST SEE: The Trevi Fountain. Its an amazing sculptural fountain that takes up the entire facade of a building. It depicts the both beautiful and destructive, force of water.











+MUST SEE: The Colosseum. Another space that astounds you with its beauty, its massiveness, and its age. Try to watch Gladiator right before also...it'll get you all jacked up.

+Get dinner at a place called Magnolia near Piazza Navona. Great food and...

=BIRRA OF THE BLOG=
That's right...it can just pop up just like that. Wham! While at Magnolia try one of their specialty beers called Devils Kiss. Its apparently very tough to find but its a Strong Ale brewed somewhere in Scotland. Lord only knows what it was doing in Rome, but it was delicious.

So we did all of that, plus a shit ton more, plus we found enough energy to go out and party a bit at night [go figure]. But what's funny is the smaller simpler things are becoming the most fun and memorable. Quick example: one of the funnest things looking back at Rome [other than Yan the crazy tour guide], was running through the metro not exactly sure if we going the right way, a little buzzed on cheap wine, just laughing at our indecisiveness. We were trying to make it to the colloseum before it closed at 5pm. And the colloseum was amazing, don't get me wrong, I just think it's interesting how a moment like that in the Metro, buried underneath three thousand years of brick foundations and history, a moment like that, just with friends and excitement, no monuments or tourist traps, will stick out in my mind forever.














Footnotes:
+The list above is just the highlights of Rome. There is always more to see/do/experience

+Miss everyone back in the States! Hope all is well!