Italy

Arrived in Venice late this morning after too many stories to tell right now. Am typing at beautiful desk in corner room on canal near train station.

I am utterly in awe of Italy. The light, the views, the buildings. It looks just like all the paintings. As in, you are walking around in a painting. We drove around a curve yesterday and there was Lake Garda and I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life and I will be 37 soon. And five hours before that I was talking to cows while hiking in the Alps in Switzerland. Big brown cows with tinkly bells.

You'd think at some point you'd fill up on the beauty, but you just make more room for it. There is so much room for it, it turns out.

In other greater McP family news, my uncle, and father of the cousin I am traveling with, is in Kabul right now. You can read about it at www.unionleader.com. You'll have to do a search for "publisher" to get to his column. He should be blogging more once his luggage gets in from India and he embeds with the troops.

We prayed for him at churches in two countries.

Tomorrow we head to Rome in the early evening.