Firenze

I have uploaded the pictures from the trip to Florence and it already seems a distant dream. We visited the Uffizi, the Duomo, Palazzo Pitti, the Boboli Gardens, Pisa, Fiesole, and much more. There are no pictures allowed in the Ufizzi and the exterior corridor was under construction, so I did not take pictures there except for one sign.

I will get around to adding descriptions to the photos - eventually. The problem with taking so many photos is that you really have to stay on top of editing and uploading or you quickly get behind. I have also uploaded pictures from our visit to the Folk Museum in Oslo a couple of weeks ago - when Nick was here. And I have more to edit and upload - Sunday walks, more commute, Intermedia, etc.

We are back and...

thoroughly exhausted from walking and looking at art, design, architecture, archeology, and antiques for 5-10 hrs per day. We filled our eyes with the Renaissance - Botticelli, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, etc. A. kept up with us the whole time as we dragged her on buses, trains, taxis, etc. We had a very good time, but it seems weird to be coming back to Norway instead of New Haven. There’s actually a New York Times article today about our street in New Haven. There are lots of pictures and descriptions of all lovely neighbors and I even get a brief mention in one of the paragraphs. Reading it makes me homesick and a bit lonely...

While we were in Florence would do the sites by day and after August fell alseep about 9 or so, we would turn on BBC World News and watch the US unravel. In the past week or so our mortgage company (Washington Mutual) has gone under and now our bank (Wachovia) is either being taken over by Citigroup or Wells Fargo. Being this far away is a bit scary and impotent - what can we do? what do we need to do? what happens if...?

Today, I’m restoring order in the house for back to school and back to work week. I’ll do a blog post on Italy with pictures in the next couple of days and another on Italians and their cell phones on the Mobile Misuse Blog - what a trip...