the extremely short version of my journey to italy is as follows - new york had bad weather, 24 hour delay landing in venice, severe food poisoning, got friendly with airplane bathrooms, floor in JFK international airport is not good for sleeping.
first activity of the trip was a weekend camping trip to Faaker See, Austria with cameron and his girlfriend. here is a picture of me trying to push my brother into traffic at the Austrian border:

this is a picture of the Faaker See. we camped just off the water in tents, doing the whole cooking on a grill, not showering business. it was surprisingly a fantastic experience. the weather was perfect, except for some rain all saturday night. but even the rain was awesome. sunday morning i woke up early to take the hike to the bathroom in the rain and it was so quiet and peaceful that i took the opportunity to walk to the water and stand there among the mountains and trees and just appreciate the beauty of life. that whole weekend set the tone of "relaxation" for the entire trip. it was pretty amazing. as you can see, the hills were pretty alive with the sound of music, but it just didnt have that feel that i was imagining for "the pose".

here is cameron in all his glory watching his silly girlfriend go down the slide into the water. this was saturday before the rain so i didnt get in the water because it was pretty dreary. but sunday was perfect and we all got in and i pretended like i was athletic and joined in the toss of the volleyball in the water. then we all laid out to dry at our campsite. europeans are considerably more free with their bodies and so there were many men of all ages in speedos and women with varying degrees of cellulite in bikinis. it was very freeing and i felt compelled to tan like a european.

our next touristy adventure was a trip to a small town which is currently undergoing an archeological excavation of some ancient roman ruins. this is a picture taken in a burial ground. ancient romans were not allowed to bury their dead inside the city so this site used to be in a deserted place. now it lies in the middle of a quiet neighborhood surrounded by people's back yards. inside these stone things are remains and belongings of ancient romans.

this is me standing on what's left of a roman harbor. i'm roman on the inside.

and of course comes the stereotypical Venice picture atop the Grand Canal.

venice was way cool. when one flies into venice, you are entering on the mainland. the touristy part of venice that most people think of is actually a series of islands that you must enter either by train or boat. consequently, there are NO vehicles of any kind on the streets of this part of venice. the UPS driver - boat. the grocery delivery guy - boat. taxis - boat. you walk through the town and it is so quiet and it just makes you want to slow down your life and open yourself up to really take everything in and enjoy it. there are about 50 million ways to get somewhere and everything is very old but still beautiful and alive.
this is a picture in San Marco square. so basically that means that behind me is the cathedral of St. Mark. his remains are underneath it, and i saw many a saints partial remains inside it. it was pretty cool. i have a lot of other pictures of it inside (i snuck them) and closer up to see the detail, but you get the general idea. when a woman enters this and other churches like it, she must cover her shoulders. seriously, i paid 1 euro for a paper scarf that i had to wear while inside the church.

another draw to Venice is Murano Island. Murano is famous for hand-blown glass. so many amazing things are made out of glass in murano. some of it is pretty affordable (if it's small) but other things are quite pricy. i bought the small stuff and took pictures of the big stuff that i would buy if i were a millionare. this picture is a piece that is about a foot in diameter and is completely handmade. the picture does not in any way do it justice but you can kind of imagine how cool it is. it cost somewhere around 2500 euro, whichi s roughly $4000. i did not touch it.

so yes, my overall impression of italy is very good. more than anything, it was a very relaxing vacation - which was much needed. it was nice to get away from the stress that exists in this house and totally remove myself from it. not to mention the time spent with my brother was priceless. we had a great time and i'm very grateful for the opportunity to experience all of that.