I just experienced the most gratifying wave of Roma-nostaligia. It's amazing how little it can take to transport us back in time. The brain is an amazing thing. It stores things without even telling us, and sometimes the right combination of sensations will just trigger a memory. For me, right now, it was sound and taste: the sound of rain outside the window (quick thanks to God that it isn't snow), the sound of "City of Blinding Lights" by U2, and the taste of Red Bull. Suddenly I was back at my desk in Rome, drinking RB, listening to City of Blinding Lights, working on some paper or the other while it rained outside. Not a major memory, and maybe that is why it didn't make me sad... I'm just grateful to be able to remember how I felt at that moment, or at those moments, I suppose.

If I was at my desk in Rome, here is what I would be looking at on the wall in front of me:





And, my 20th birthday in Rome was definitely the best one that I can remember....I went to Pompeii and when I got home my door looked like this:




Sigh... You can never go back of course but memories are a wonderful thing. Those pictures are very small, you can click them to make them a bit bigger but they're mostly for me.