Well, another year has gone by without my posting.  Clearly, I'm not such a good blogger.  But this has been a crazy, wonderful, busy year, filled with new places, new friends, and new experiences.

I fulfilled a bucket list wish and finally made my trip to Italy.  It was so amazingly full of sights and sounds that it's difficult to single out one or two, but I'll try.  One of my favorite places in Rome was the Piazza Navona.  It was a gathering spot for all of Rome, and not just for tourists.  It was enchanting and exciting, relaxing and renewing, inspiring and meditative.  All at once!

I saw street performers, street artists, jugglers and magicians.  But I also saw families, people going home from work, and visitors from war and wide.

One night, in a small area, there was a cacophony of languages that must've rivaled the Tower of Babel.  All of it was so interesting.  And the food!  The cafes!  All of it wove its magic in me and around me.  I surely threw those coins in the fountain so that I would return one day.

Of course, I also visited the typical sights, including the Vatican (the grounds of which are shown in the photo to the left, with St. Peter's Dome in the background), St. Peter's Basilica, the Square, the Piazza de Republica, the Pantheon, Trajan's Column, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  But we also went to the Catacombs and St. Paul's Outside the Walls, which was one of my favorite places of all, not the least because its ceilings were spectacular as can be seen in the picture below.

I rode the hop on hop off bus, traveled in taxis, met people from Rome and the countryside, and really, really loved being in La Bella Italia.  It didn't hurt that I ate pretty doggone well, too.  Some day, I hope to return to Rome...to sit in the sidewalk cafes, to meet people, to watch the world go by, and to fall in love all over again with this wondrous, magical, fascinating place!