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Stuff I do not want to forget about in twenty years:

• The swiss franc was about equal to the dollar so it was easy to calculate how much things were really costing me (hint: a lot). The euro was very high to the dollar, so I would add 60% to every price to get my true cost. Converted from both francs and euros, $60 seemed to be the usual total for meals, both lunch and dinner.
• Italian showers are all little. Even if the rest of the bathroom is spacious there will be a tiny little shower in the corner, always a pre-fab unit. My personal theory why it is so small is because Europeans use the bidet frequently so they don’t care about a large shower.
• Favorite parts of Italy: driving to Volterra, Pigelleto Nature Reserve, the hilltown of Cetona as seen from a distance (did not stop there), the belvedere Etruscan park with the caves near Cetona, the waving wheat fields in Val D’Orcia, the villas along the shores of Lake Como.
• Favorite parts of Switzerland: All of it I’ve seen. Driving to Lauterbrunnen, the mountains around Lake Brienz, the giant mountains along the austostrada heading to Belinzona.
• Kevin and I were checking out a cave in the bronze-age Etruscan dwellings near Cetona when Kevin realized there were bats in there with us. One was flying around us to check us out.
• Kevin and I carried matching Eagle Creek bags. Mine had a pink tag, Kevin’s had a blue tag.
• There is no fresh-brewed ice tea available. Some places have Lipton in a can.  When I ordered Coke Light (Diet Coke) and Kevin ordered regular coke, the restaurant would always put a lemon slice in Kev’s coke to differentiate it from mine.