A Week away, A week of . . .

This morning I returned from my week abroad in Italy; it was definitely interesting and I learned a lot about myself and the Italian transportation system.
First thing: I get grumpy and snappy when I don't get food often enough. I'm not saying that I need to eat all the time, but a meal at least once a day is a good idea. By meal I don't mean a hunk of bread and some yoghurt. I need something more substantial.
Second thing: I don't like Italy, and I don't mean the pretty countryside of Italy, it's always beautiful. But the city, I don't like it. It seems that all the youth of Italy can do is spray-paint things and make things dirty. And there are so many people, everywhere. I know that's the life of the city, but it seems worse in Italy. There are just so many tourists, and I wasn't even there during the tourist season. moreover, everything's expensive, really expensive. Now, I never felt unsafe or uneasy about where I was. We were smart in our traveling, we stayed together, we watched our stuff and I kept an eye on the map wherever we went. (thank you dad for directionality, I am a Map Goddess). And some cities were pretty, some were fine, like Siena. However, I feel that industrialization has destroyed the beauty of all things. industrialization and electricity with its wires and antennas and power-polls, and capitalism with its clothing and demand for money money money. I was given this impression as we traveled from city to city via domestic train, through cities and not through country-side until we went from Rome to Milan; as we walked through ancient streets lined with luxurious clothing stores and cheap stores with umbrellas that break after 2 days. I find it disheartening. Those who live what we percieve to be our life-long dream withing the history and beauty of ancient societies have lost sight of the imperical value of all that is around them and see it only as a means to capital gain.
Anyway, enough of my depressing views. I was pretty and it was interesting, and now I'm poor, but I have a butt load of great pictures.
I'll be putting up some journal entries from my time in Italy so that you can read a bit about what I was thinking as i was traveling.