title: the last day in january

i had a wonderful day today. the only bad part was when nathan had to leave.
nina, max and i got lunch with my aunt and uncle, then walked across the public gardens and up the esplanade to sweet where we got delicious, heavily icing-ed cupcakes.i always feel stronger after i see them. hopefully that isn't just because i eat more then.

title: the grounds for sculpture

often when my cousins visit, we find ourselves with a beautiful fall or winter day and nothing to do outside. solution? the grounds for sculpture in hamilton! the landscaping is beautiful and (sometimes) the sculpture is too. but we always have fun.they have peacocks and peahens strutting around the premises. i am sure they are fed up with cameras by now.

i am working on getting my head around florence and san gimignano. there is a lot of beauty to attempt to condense.

title: home to boston

this is the view from my room on the 11th floor. if you want to appreciate the beauty of a city, 11 stories up is the place.

title: ice and moss

a short break from my fond bloviations on travel.
today was an ice and moss day. the air was fresh, sweet, chilly, and the ground was crunchy. a walk alone through the sourlands left me with this feeling.

title: venezia di diurna

it's quiet and mysterious at night, but vibrant and alive by day. you really visit two venices when you go.the above picture grabbed me in the daylight and under the flourescents at night.i like them both.

title: venezia di notte

i have been having some strange experiences lately. nathan is playing assassin's creed 2, which takes place in the vital parts of renaissance italy: florence, venice, rome, and even san gimigano among them. it gives me a constant feeling of deja-vu. i have never seen a game so accurately depict reality before. they bathed florence in the right light, detailed all of the intricate decorations of il duomo and st. marco's (which, incidentally, you climb all over), captured the insanity that is rome. we have been joking that i got suckered into paying for the real tour when i could just have done it in the game. of course there's no truth in that; italy must be lived to be understood.

i took the classic college student course through italy: venice to florence to rome. from florence i also visited san gimigano, which was probably the most beautiful place i've ever been to. and i've been places.
the train ride from munich was staggeringly long, but tempered by the stunning magnitude of the snowy alps passing by the windows, good friends, and a card game called scopa (heard of it?). we stepped onto the platform in venice's central station at night, and wandered in awe for quite a while after checking in to our hostel (which happened to be a 3-bedroom-apartment-cum-hostel). we actually did get lost, but that's supposed to happen in venice. enough yammering, here is a visual description:
often the camera will distort the colors of the night, but i promise these are accurate. venice really is green at night. it's eerie and peaceful; feels thick with ghosts who dance and laugh and cry and kiss and kill each other. i will share with you how bright venice can get in my next post.

title: what did the tomato say to the straggler?

hello. the world has settled down for me, at last, after goodbyes and airplanes and suitcases and hellos and presents and an excess of delicious food.
my head is immersed in craft projects, reading, and sleeping in late.

time to backtrack and catch the great collective mind up on what i did after brussels. yikes, that's almost the whole trip. so it goes.