We said "Ciao" to Italy  and our travel companions this morning and boarded a plane for Belgium.

Italy was fun and we have so many great memories.  I can't wait to download some pictures. 

John asked me what was my favorite part, and honestly I don't know.

Rome was cool and in many ways just "wow".  Venice was magical.  The Dolomites were fun. 

We had one not-so-great hotel room (but it was clean and fairly cheap) but other than that we really lucked out with our stays.

We had some "lick-your-plate-clean" food and some "take-it-or-leave-it" food.

John and I spent the afternoon in Brussels wandering around, doing some window shopping, and doing some actual shopping (for chocolate).

Funny story I have to share before I forget- 

I was picking out some chocolates in one particular store (Every other store in the town center is a chocolate shop) and this girl was telling us how much she loved her job.  Apparently we couldn't pay her enough to take another job. "You could give me 5000 Euros a month and I would not leave zis job."(say it with a French accent) I made a comment that I would be afraid to work there because I'd get too fat.  She replied  "Oh no, zee chocolate is so good, you need only a little bit and you are satisfied".  To which I replied that after eating Belgian chocolate I can't eat American chocolate anymore.  "Oh! I will pay you to keep your American chocolate!  One time I accidentally eat a piece of Hershey's chocolate, and I had spit it out!"

I'm pretty excited (and nervous!) for tomorrow.  I'm taking a train to Paris by all by my little old self to spend about a day and a half.

Poor John has to work. :(