Home again

After climbing the 414 cramped, steep steps to the top of the Florence Duomo (yes, I counted and happily informed people "only 250 stairs to go!") And seeing some great views of Florence We found Galileo's boyhood home And found our first international geocache And walked through the Boboli (no, no pizza to be found) and Brendini gardens And went to get dinner which included singing Happy Days with our waiter who served me the best pannacotta known to man We rubbed the boar's nose And the coin went through the grate instead of bouncing off, which foretells a return to Florence and good luck Until it was time to get going. So we went to the Florence train station, where there was no Munich to be found on any boards. And absolutely no one to help or a board to tell us anything helpful. Instead, there was a train going to Monaco-Vienna at the same time. True to Italian form, that was our train. (Monaco, Munich, they both start with M, right?) So we found our train car and got in our luxurious sleeping quarters with no air conditioning for the first 2 hours and 4 extremely polite Germans who were already fast asleep (until we barged in), having come from Rome. I mean, nothing says luxury like this, right? 8 hours later, we arrived back in Munich. We had our final German pastries and wursts and beer while we watched everyone getting off the trains at 6:30 a.m. already drunk on their way to Oktoberfest (this festival is STILL going on?!?!) and rode up to the airport to be on our way. And now, sigh... it's unpacking and laundry time. Well, that and hugs and kisses and loves for C-man and Harry time, too. I went from death camps to beer festivals to castles to climbing the Alps to almost ordering horse to chocolate factories to David to churches to wandering Italian streets to gardens to gelato and pannacotta and tiramisu to trains to planes to home again... So the final review? Southern Germany is a really nice place. Somewhere I'd happily live. And Oktoberfest was an absolute blast. I fell irrevocably in love with Switzerland, which was a total surprise. Hearing the cowbells dinging and the cleanliness and orderliness was something I appreciated immensely. Even the air smelled sweet to me. (Then again, maybe that was just the chocolate in the air.) And while everywhere has great things to offer, (beautiful gardens, David was amazing, food was deee-licious) it'll be quite a while before I return to Italy. It was by far, the biggest disappointment of the trip. If I ever went back, it'd be to stay in a villa in the country. But the cities, Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan - I'll leave for the people who are happy just eating and drinking with millions of other tourists and calling themselves world travelers. 4 continents down, 3 to go...