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The Eiffel Tower, Paris. 

Then we went to Barcelona, but I didn't take any pictures because we 
spent the whole time on the beach.

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Every April 30, the Dutch celebrate the birthday of their Queen (though actually it's the birthday of the previous Queen, becuase the current Queen's birthday is in January, which is a less good time for a holiday.)

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Last Sunday, after renting a cute little Fiat Panda from a completely unhelpful woman in Rome, Nick and I drove two hours North to Perugia, a medieval town on a hilltop in Umbria. It took us quite a while to find the apartment we’d rented—in a beautiful villa just down the hill from the city—because the city is all twists and turns and tiny alleys. However, when you’re not in a car, it’s wonderful—magical and awe-inspiring. There are tiny cobblestone alleys—many so steep they have stairs—and arches everywhere. Most of the restaurants we’ve been too—all delicious—have been in vaulted stone or brick basements. But there are several universities here, so there’s actually a decent amount of life going on within the ancient walls. We found a good, though cold, coworking space, and decided to stay for the week.

In between working, we’ve eaten at seemingly every restaurant in town. The pillowiest gnocchi was at a local/organic place (in a vaulted basement) called Al Mangiar Benne. We had the best pizza—covered in three or four different kinds of meat—at il Bacio, also in a vaulted basement. The cappuccino and espresso—drunk standing up at marble bars—is good everywhere.

And eventually, we figured out how to get around without getting lost—at least most of the time.  

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On Wednesday night, Nick and I boarded a train in Munich that would take us all the way to Rome. We had two bunks in a six bunk compartment that wound up only having four people in it. The bunks were a little on the hard side, but overall it was a pretty peaceful ride, and we arrived in Rome 12 hours later more or less refreshed.

Our attempts to find a couch to surf in Rome had so far been futile -- demand is much greater than supply -- so the first order of business was figuring out where we would stay. We plunked ourselves and our backpacks down at a cafe with free WiFi, had a couple cappuccinos and croissants (called cornetto in Italy), and set to work. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too last minute to rent an apartment, so we went to Plan C: wander around until we found a hotel. Three or four hotels later, we wandered into Hotel Ferraro, on the second floor of an old building with a rickety elevator and marble windowsills and stairs (everything in Italy seems to be made of marble, right down to the curbstones).

The Italian woman working there only spoke Italian, but we miraculously understood her anyway. After consulting a complicated chart on a piece of paper (despite the fact that there was a computer right in front of her) she informed us that yes, she did have a room available, and for a very reasonable rate. We put down our bags, which were getting pretty heavy, and decided to stay a while.

The next two days, we tried out various coworking spaces around Rome, in between eating lots of good food (Nick had spaghetti three meals in a row, they were all good.) We also saw plenty of ruins (they're everywhere) and walked up the Capitoline Hill. Neither coworking space quite fit though, so we decided to make Saturday our last day in Rome, and then head North out of the city.

Saturday we saw a lot, and walked even more -- partially because we got lost a few times, and partially becuase we kept trying to get away from all the other tourists. We had gelato twice, and finished up with a very nice Roman dinner -- including Saltimboca and Carciofi (artichokes) a la Romana, probably the tastiest meal yet.

Sunday morning it was off to the train station to pick up our rental car. Sounds easy enough, considering we had reserved it in advance. We got to the rental car counter and there was a fairly long line -- what looked like five parties ahead of us -- but we were an hour early, so I wasn't too worried.

An hour later, we were still standing in the same place.

The sole woman working at the rental car counter was entirely unconcered that she'd kept several customers waiting over an hour. She continued plodding through the people in front of us at a glacial pace.

When it was finally our turn, it became clear why the line was moving so slowly. Not only does renting a car in Italy require enough documentation to buy one in the U.S. (among other things, our not having plane tickets home required special permission from some central office somewhere) but the woman renting it to us couldn't be bothered to utter any more words than absolutely necessary.

Eventually though, we got the keys to a little black Fiat Panda. We got lost getting out of Rome, of couse, but once we were on the road it was beautiful -- all rolling hills and precarious-looking hilltop towns. And we didn't get lost once! Once we got to Perugia of course, it was a different story... but I'll save that one for another day.

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Saturday we went to see some of Munich's many museums. First, the Glyptothek (first picture), a collection of Greek and Roman sculptures, which, like much of Munich, was destroyed by bombing in WWII, but was rebuilt. Then, the Staatliche Antikensammlungen (second picture), an antiquities museum with lots of very old vases. Then, the Alte Pinakothek, the Old Art Museum (pictures 3-6). The most interesting paintings there were the old German ones. Most have similar religious subjects as Italian or French paintings of the same age, by they tend to be a little weirder... as you can see in the details above. The snake eating the lion is from a great series of 17th century paintings that suppossedly depicted animals from around the world... they were a little off when it came to everywhere except Europe, though we would have some really cool animals walking (and flying and slithering) around if they'd been right!    

Then, lunch at the outdoor Lowenbrau Biergarten. Great.

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And finally, the BMW museum! My favorite part were the cute little blobby robots that moved around, silently. But the cars were cool too. Above, art cars by Frank Stella and Jeff Koons.

Unfortunately, it got cold here on Monday, rainy on Tuesday, and then it actually snowed a little Wednesday morning. Nick and I found a great coworking space to hole up in, but we miss the sunshine, so tonight we're taking an overnight train to Rome! I'll let you know how it goes.

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The view from the top of Alter Peter (Old Peter), otherwise known as St. Peter's, Munich's oldest church. Over 300 steps up. The other church in the first picture is Frauenkirche, "Church of Our Lady," and the spiky building in the second picture is the New City Hall (new since 1874), home of the famous Glockenspiel.

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First Picture: In Munich's outdoor market, selling fruit, vegetables, flowers and Bavarian crafts (lots of things made with pussywillows). Second picture is from Thursday's Bavarian Dinner with all the conference attendees, where we met Ahmed, an Egyptian. Ahmed had been living in the U.S. for 15 years when the protests in Egypt started this winter. He went back to Cairo to participate and has now decided to stay there. He's very optimistic about the country's future and it was great to meet and talk to him.

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