One of these days, I'm gonna slip away...

It really isn't any coincidence that I'd be most likely to jaunt off to Italy for a few weeks if someone happened to offer me an insta-vacation to anywhere I wanted. It's led to accusations being leveled at me that I'm a little boring, but all the top slots on my must-travel-to-soon list are taken up by destinations in Western Europe. I am, believe it or not, kind of a history nerd, and I think almost before anywhere else I'd really like lick my tongue into some old, semi-forgotten corners of Rome or Milan or Venice (not that anyone's likely to have forgotten about any of those places, but you get what I mean).

As many Italian (and Italian-ish, for better or worse) restaurants as I've worked in, I'm not at all going to pretend to really know much about the history or various regional characters or ANY of the language...that's exactly WHY you would travel somewhere, right? I'm a big advocate of the idea that traveling and education go hand in hand.

Also, I have to admit that one of my major culinary goals--as an eater, not a cook--is to sit for a good, slow meal in which most, if not all, of the ingredients have come from the same soil, where the grass that fed the beef grows on the same stony mountain that fed the wine grapes and the asparagus and the arugula and maybe even the olives...for sure you can have meals like that in the States, and without a doubt I hope to really soon. But it seems like maybe it'd be even better if I have to suffer some good-natured ribbing for mangling the local language while I try to order from the menu.

Is it obvious that I've been daydreaming about taking a vacation? Yeah, probably. Soon! Best friend's getting married in a couple of weeks and then some familial shenanigans, all of which will be unconditionally awesome. But I haven't yet gotten to take that proverbial backpacking-through-Europe-with-a-train-pass adventure that I've always wanted, so I've got at least one entry on my bucket list. 'Til then, though? Sit in the sunshine and pretend I'm somewhere else, I guess. Music goes a long way...