Though I have jumped around while recapping a bit of our recent European vacation over the last few weeks, it only makes sense to finish with the city that we ended our trip in.

I should mention that I have covered pretty much everything to this point other than our brief (though longer than we wanted) stop in Paris.  Let me sum that up by saying that I would rather remember Paris as it was on our honeymoon and during my other visits rather than the travel hell that involved sleeping on a train that didn’t move and going to the airport without a ticket in hand.  I will do my best to not associate our most recent experience with my memories of Paris.

We were exhausted by the time we hit Rome but that did not prevent us from walking everywhere and passing up public transport to better see the city on foot.  The historical and religious sites in Rome are amazing and everywhere and you need to be on foot to see them up close.  They are everywhere to the point where after a few days you find yourself looking to the left, seeing some sort of ruins, and barely pausing because you are numbed to how spectacular they are.

One other thing I will remember Rome for was for some of the most wonderful food we have ever had and easily one of the top three meal experiences of our lives.  My mouth is watering as I write this.

Now a bit of Rome in photo form . . .

In my skipping around while recapping our time in Europe I have almost lost track of what I have already highlighted, but I would never forget our time in Florence.  If pushed to choose I would likely say that it was my favorite stop during our travels.  Granted I could say that our time in Florence included Cinque Terre so that alone would push it over the top.  We also made an unplanned stop in Pisa in those few days to check out the tower and the Central Market is something that I will always remember.

Today will be some photos of what we did outside those little side trips (save for a Pisa image) and individual highlights.  We covered a lot of ground in the little time we had, but the compactness of the city and the central location of our hotel made it incredibly easy to do just that.  Stepping out the door of our hotel and immediately seeing The Duomo is a detail that is difficult to ever take for granted.  If back in Italy some day I certainly would not mind a few more days in Florence and the surrounding area.

Just a wonderful city . . .

It is time to go back to the beginning of the trip.  Immediately after returning I made a point to highlight my time visiting Cantillon, then moving on to various spots in Italy without ever making mention of the rest of our time in Brussels.

The truth is that I loved Brussels and Bruges and just being in Belgium overall.  Though I have to think it will not happen (since there are so many other places to visit) I would love to go back to Belgium someday both to be in Brussels again and also to see more of the country that we did not get to this time.

On the whole the people in Brussels were very pleasant and that went a long way to making us feel comfortable.  Our hotel was great (including the surprise balcony), the food and the beer (of course) were wonderful, and the city was simply enjoyable to be walking around in.  Had we known the travel hell that awaited us as we passed through Paris we definitely would have stayed another night in Brussels.

Sante!

Our plan for traveling far away is so close now that I cannot help but to think about the trip in every spare moment.  In doing that I am open to any sort of visual aid that will give me some advance scouting on where I will be in a very short time.  So . . .

The place where I am planning on doing a little shopping at some point.  Quite different from my local bottle shop I think it may take a while for me to make a decision on what to buy.

Yet another video on the place that I wrote down as the one place I simply could not miss in our short time there.  Though the explanation of their brewing process is pretty basic (since it is so different), it is very cool to see all of the old equipment still in use after 100+ years.

Maybe, just maybe if the schedule works our just right I will have a chance to shake the hand of the man keeping the family brewing tradition alive.  After watching all of the interviews with him that I have, he seems like a very interesting individual.

Santé!

Instead of determining what exactly I will do with this site while The Wife and I are gone on vacation in the near future, I have instead been daydreaming of researching my local craft beer options while on that trip.  Or I should say part of that trip.  I will likely pass along some of the things I am looking at for the other part of the trip as well sometime in the near future.

In both countries I am mostly going to be keeping an eye out for foods and beverages that I cannot get here in Florida.  That is what I tend to do wherever I travel.  So since we have somewhat regularly had offerings from Birra del Borgo and Birrificio Italiano (Tipopils is do good) at Redlight Redlight, I am trying to look for places where I can sample some other harder-to-find brews.  Say from breweries like this one . . .

Though I do have a few places in mind along the way that I would very much like to stop at for a pint or two, I am always looking for suggestions.  In that search I tend to give more weight to the beer folks that I keep up with via Twitter and their own sites.  As a result I am immediately putting these two locations on the list after seeing Zak Avery enjoying them so much.

Salute!