What I'll miss about Italy (post #3)...

...walking through the citta vecchia (old city), former home of the Ancient Romans.

If you look closely at the lower left of the yellow building in the photo below, you'll see the exposed stone from the original structure. Many older houses leave that peek into the past for all to see. Here's the view of the strip of sky above me, sandwiched by the buildings in the alley:

It still amazes me that people walk these streets every day and don't pause to think about the history that surrounds them. For Italians, 300-year-old buildings are simply part of the landscape.

What I'll miss about Italy (post #2)...

Roofs, Roofs... ...and more terra cotta tile roofs.

What I'll miss about Italy (post #1)...

...is living an hour and a half away from this floating city: ...where boats (although rarely gondolas) are the main form of transportation.

Venice is a dream destination for thousands of people around the world, and yet we can say: "Let's spend the day in Venice." And we have, countless times. The road signs on the autostrada that say: Venezia still strike me as exotic, even if they don't merit a second glance from Italians.

It was the same way for my Italian husband when we lived in Virginia--he used to see Beltway signs for Washington, D.C. and still find it hard to believe that we lived so close to such a famous city. I love Washington, but to my eyes, it can't compare to Venice.

On our way out...

After 5 wonderful years in Italy, we're headed back to the States on July 16. Italian Moments will soon dwindle to a sprinkling of posts here and there, but it won't die altogether...I'll blog about re-entry culture shock as we get used to life in the States again, and then I'll be posting each summer, as we'll be back during July and most of August each year (my husband and I aren't independently wealthy, in case you're wondering why we get to "summer" in Italy...we're both teachers).

I began this blog a year and a half ago as a way to capture snippets of our expat life here in bella Italia. I also wanted to give family and friends back home a glimpse of our lives across the pond. As it turns out, Statcounter tells me that Italian Moments has between 685 and 1,903 unique visitors each month from over 36 countries. And no, I don't have that many friends and family back home...

Some of those visitors stumbled upon my blog when googling things like: italian game shows, easter bunny in italian, and translate happy birthday in italian (all according to the aforementioned Statcounter). Others are probably disappointed in the content of my blog--those would be the visitors who found my blog by googling the following phrases (and this is just a smattering, believe me): naked breasts, italian bare breasts show, well endowed breasts mature, and italian breasts tv. For those of you who have found my blog in this way, I'll save you some time by saying that, yes, I've blogged about breasts, but there ain't no photos. Sorry.

But for those of you who are not hindered by the lack of photographed breasts, I've added a feature where you can sign up to have new posts sent to your email inbox (just look on the left side of the blog for the link).

Starting tomorrow and up until our move, I'll be posting a collection of photos showing what I'll miss (and not miss) about about Italy, so stay tuned!