I'm Hoooomme!

Yes yes, I know I missed the Bible Project post, but I've been getting things in order since my return. I'm back in the Windy City as of Wednesday afternoon, and goodness, it's nice to be home. But it was a truly fantastic trip, so I thought I'd share some things with you - especially bookish things. :-)

Rome is perfect for wandering - there are so many little side streets to get lost in. Even if you go to the same piazza four times, there are thousands of ways to get home. We thought we could get there without a map the third time. We were very, very wrong. 

One thing we found on one of our rambles was Geppetto's puppet shop! Here is a picture of Geppetto himself at work on a new Pinnochio. (He had a wooden nametag pin that actually said "Geppetto.") 

Also, here's a cool book fountain by our apartment. 

Over the course of our first bunch of days in Rome, we saw: the Pope, the Coliseum (and a cool little exhibit on ancient libraries), the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Victor Emmanuele monument, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and St. Peter's. All the good Roman stuff. 

Then we went on to Venice. 

And my heart is mine no longer. Venice, that glorious city of dreams, has captured it forever. 

I've got to get back there. During Carnevale, if possible. :)

But most importantly, I've just GOT to write a story about Venice. It is THE ULTIMATE SETTING. It is made of pure MAGIC. 

Anyway, there were lots of mask shops (I bought a mask - how could I resist the charming enchantment?), but there was also this cool little bookbinding shop where the guy sold these tiny blank books. (That's my finger for perspective.) Aren't they adorable?

All of Venice is such a storybook village - my sister said it reminded her of Bree. (Except with some canals thrown in, of course.)

Ugh we only had three and a half days there. It was NOT ENOUGH.

Back in Rome, we saw the Vatican Museum, which is spectacular. And then we dashed off to Florence. 

The stalls in the bathrooms in the Florentine train station have become covered in tons and tons of scribblings over the years, in many different languages, but mostly English. There is one that I think deserves particular mention, and was the work of three different "artists". It looked something like this (if the first two are in sharpie and the last one is scratched in):

I am Satan

I am Jesus Christ

And I'm Javert

I laughed so hard at that. (Not out loud. I'm in a public restroom. That would be weird.)

We finished off the trip back in Rome, and spent our final days watching street performers on the piazza by our house. If you care to see a collection of a bunch of street performers that we saw around Italy, here's a video I recently put together:

So there you have it!

Some miscellany:

-The Bible Project from last Sunday will be combined with next week's post. Oh well.

-Ravens and Writing Desks now has both a FACEBOOK and a TWITTER. Go follow me! :-)

-Venice has so inspired me that I will be doing Camp NaNoWriMo this July, with my novel set in that glorious city. I don't have a plot yet, but that will come in time. Is anyone else doing July's NaNo? If so, I'd love to be in a cabin with you! Let me know your username so I can request you - mine is Philomena.

-Does anyone have any good books to recommend that are set in Venice? I'm clearly going through Venice withdrawal. 

~Sophia