Living a Dream

And the Machine, am I right?? But seriously, if you want jokes, that's cool. I'm gonna tell you about the city of Florence real quick, and it's one of my favorite cities in Europe/the world (which really only consists of Europe and like 1/8 of the US because that's all I've seen). Florence, more-so than London, New York, Paris, or anywhere, is the city of art. Oh, you "don't like art"? There are still museums full of stuff you'd like in Florence - it's out of control. According to Tripadvisor there are 83 museums in Florence, and the majority are in an area of about 1 square mile. It's crazy. We skipped out on the Uffizi Gallery, known as one of the world's best (and home of the Birth of Venus by Botticelli), because of the long lines and because I'd been there before and was overwhelmed by the size and underwhelmed by the variety for long stretches. We opted for a trip to the Bargello Museum, which was about 5 euro and had wo...

No. I did not see George Clooney, nor do I know where his house is. That's the first (and usually only) question that gets asked by Americans about Lake Como. The reason he "lives" there though is that it's insanely beautiful and simultaneously close to and far from the rest of the world. It's a 40 minute train from Milan for about 3 euros per person, and once you get there you'll see towns that seem to be only reachable by boat while others are just one more stop along the train route. So what I'm saying is that it's really nice. On an unseasonably warm January day, the two of us headed out to see what all the fuss was over, although I'd gone with Graham in 2012 and knew it was gorgeous. We arrived about 10:00 a.m. and began by stomping through the town of Como, which is pretty nice. It has a major medieval feel, with an old city-wall popping up in a few places and a couple of giant cathedrals. The main one, the Duomo (aka the Como Duomo, to p...