I am now having a rather uneventful and pleasant short stay in Vienna, at the home of the AFS student whom my parents will be hosting this coming year, which is a good way to recuperate from some crazy days in Rome, and to try not to succumb to the illness which I feel is approaching.

I want to compose an entry doing justice to the glory of Rome and my all too brief stay there, but I don´t quite have the words or the energy or the time.

But: after traveling through several Italian cities and feeling uninspired at best by each of them, and after having trudged through numerous galleries and hallways full of "the world´s greatest art" and fearing in each that my aesthetic sensibilities had somehow evaporated, perhaps destroyed by materialism or drugs too much analysis, I got to Rome. And every cliche proved true.

My faith in the powers of cities, art, travel, history, food, alcohol, and sex have all been restored.

I have found a new favorite place in the world.

More to come later, only 30 seconds left here