Getting in the mood for Italy

Feeling very European. Self-portrait taken in the car while waiting at a red light.

THREE WEEKS TO GO. Only three weeks until we leave for Italy. I finally started reading one of Rick Steves guidebooks. I am being uncharateristically not me about this trip for some reason - it must be Steve's Gemini influence on me over the almost 8 years we've been married. My old self would have finished all the books months ago and I would have learned Italian and had an ulcer by now. I guess my way of dealing with not getting so excited I make myself sick is to be laissez faire about the whole thing. Not that I am not excited to go! But I am looking forward to a grand adventure that will have a lot of spontaneity thrown in.

My friend Maria (currently living in New Mexico) sent me a scarf and gloves for my birthday, along with this wool beret. We were reading "French Women Don't Get Fat" and the hat will look spanking good as I travel around Italy.

So three weeks from now, I will be "deplaning" in Milan. What a dumb word, deplaning. But I guess it's a real word now, so I am going to use it. I have all the clothes shopping complete, and we finished all the shopping for Stephen as well. We are going to be some of the best-dressed Americans Italy has seen in a long time!