Our dream vacation and wonderful adventures finally had to come to an end. Today was our last full day before departing for the airport tomorrow morning at 8:30am for our long journey home.

We spent mid-morning leisurely wandering the streets, in part targeting our final lunch destination. We ended up at another good small trattoria just before some rain showers arrived. Yesterday was the first hard rain we've had the entire trip (but fortunately not while we were out and about). We were graced with extremely good weather the entire trip, especially here in October.

After some late afternoon packing, we headed out for a light dinner and ended up breaking our intended rule of not dining at the same place more than once. In this case, we ate again at a place called Baffeto's, where they make excellent thin crust pizza. Then we headed in search for the holy grail of gelato (we saw another highly rated gelateria on Trip Advisor that was close by). However, we all agreed it was not as good as our previous favorite place called Giolitti's. C'est la vie (I know, French, not Italian).

In general, here were a few of the things we did not especially enjoy about Europe:

• Though somewhat expected, the lines and queues and crowds (during the cruise as well as Europe)
• Uncomfortable, hard beds (in non cruise locations)
• Cigarette smoke - smoking is still very prevalent there by all ages
• Paying for water (and high prices for sodas)
• Pay toilets (and lack of toilet seats)
• Value of the US dollar against the Euro (1E = ~1.3US, made everything about 30% more)

Here are some of the things we really liked:

• The art, history, and architecture
• The scenic coastlines and little towns
• The food - the pizza, pasta, panini's, pastries, coffee, cheeses (especially the homemade buffalo mozzarello), the cheap (but good) vino, and probably, most of all, the gelato. (Okay, maybe food should have been at the top of the list - as we said to many before leaving, we planned to eat our way through Europe - and we were not disappointed).
• The small bakeries, cafe's, osteria's, trattoria's, restaurants, and shops of all kinds just all over the place
• The people

Overall, we will really miss the cities and cultures we have visited on our 26 days away from home. On the other hand, we look forward to once again sleeping in our own beds and, of course, seeing our families and friends.

Arrivederci from Rome and see you soon,

Tom, Malinda, Steve, and Michelle