Scott & I arrived in Rome this afternoon, just as a protest was getting underway. In some parts of the city, these peaceful protests turned in to dangerous riots. Thankfully, we were a few miles away from the heart of the violence when it erupted. Tomorrow we will be visiting some of the areas where these events took place.

Oddly enough, this is the second protest we have run across on this trip so far. The first was in Venice, and from what we could gather, the two demonstrations were protesting the same issues, "corporate greed." Apparently, this is all tied back to the "Occupy Wall Street" protests taking place recently in New York.

Coincidentally, a few years ago, Scott & I were also mixed up in the London metro bombing, which took place just minutes after we departed the train. I promise we have had nothing to do with any of these events, just bad timing, or good timing considering neither of us were hurt.

We are safe, and we will continue to stay safe.

** side note: as for my trip so far, I'm averaging about a page of notes and 250 pictures per day... looking forward to sitting down and officially writing up all the adventures... stay tuned

Hi All. I'm almost a week into my six week trip, and am writing from Cinque Terra, Italy. Yesterday we were on Lake Como, before that Milan, and we started in Venice. So, its been a busy week.

Tomorrow we leave for Florence, but are stopping in Pisa for a quick trip to the leaning tower. I heard from a fellow traveler that you can climb up the inside now, so that's what we're going to try to do. Last time I visited the inside was closed off. We did climb to the top of the Duomo in Milan, which was a thrill and had a beautiful view.

I can't process any pictures until I get home sometime in mid-November, so I'll post the pictures then. I'm keeping detailed notes everyday, so I have lots to write about. I just wanted to drop a note and let everyone know we're having a great time, and I will post more about the trip soon...