I am not what you would call a world traveler. I am the stereotypical bookworm who likes to sit at home reading books that transport me to such far places as modern China, Renaissance Italy, ancient prehistory, or to imaginary worlds in the far future such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars or Dan Simmons’ Hyperion. But travel to any of those places? Rarely. We visited England and Scotland in 1982, the year before Andy was born, but other than a few trips to Canada, we have not been out of this country in the 24 years since.

Hopefully that will change this summer when Jean, Mark and I travel to Italy for Fei Fei and Silvio's wedding. Our plans currently call for visits to Naples, Capri (where the actual wedding will take place), Rome and Venice. Jean and Mark applied for their passports today, and I will do so next week. Now it is just a matter of planning the details of the trip, although that will be a lot easier since Silvio will not only be the happy groom, but also the tour guide for the trip. Since the best way to visit any country is obviously to do it with a native, we’re all excited about it.

Well, maybe one person is not too excited, but that’s just because the thought of getting married makes her break out in a case of hives, haha.