Hello everyone! We hope you are all doing well. I'm actually in the air right now as I write this. I have a company conference in Orlando this week, and I'm heading over today so I can stop by and see my family for a couple of days. Monday is a UK Bank Holiday, so the timing worked out really well. I'm so excited that I will be seeing my family in a matter of hours! Our nephew Landon is already walking around!!

Jill and I will both be home in June, so this is a little bonus for me. I already miss my wife, but she's got her dad in London to keep her company. He arrived safely earlier this week, and they've already been out exploring London over the past several days.

London is still treating us well - we're having a great time over here. We took a trip to Italy last week - we flew into Venice and then took trains to Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Rome. We had a wonderful time.

Venice first - In case you don't know, there are no cars on the island of Venice. It's made up of 150 canals (including the Grand Canal which is the largest, and it winds through the heart of Venice), thin walking streets (more like alleys), and 409 bridges. We flew in late on Monday night and took a water bus into the island of Venice. Once we got on the island, we took a water taxi to our hotel. It pulled right up to the hotel door and we stepped off the boat right into the lobby. That was pretty neat.

If you are ever going to visit Italy, Venice is the place to see. It's like a fantasy world over there. It's beautiful and it amazes us how people really live and work over there. The day after we arrived, we took a water taxi to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is known for making all kinds of special glass objects. This is the only place in the world that has the knowledge and skills to make this type of glass. Everything is hand-made - the glass is heated up, stuck on the end of a tube, and the guy blows into the other end to form the glass' shape. As we were touring the place, we pointed at a piece that we liked. The guy says that it only costs 6000 euros and that he would ship it to us for free. Somebody's making some money over there - but the things they made truly were amazing!

Burano is right next to Murano, and it is known as a place where women sit out by the canals and work on their hand-made lace. It is a beautiful island, and the houses are very colorful - the story goes like this - all of the men go fishing for a living, so they are out all day fishing and drinking. By the time they go home, they are too drunk to find their house. This is the reason that they are all painted with unique colors that stand out so much.

St. Mark's square is in the center of Venice. It's a beautiful area - there is a really nice church and bell tower there. There were also pigeons all over the place - and I mean lots of them. They will eat right out of your hand. We had drinks and a dessert out in St. Mark's Square one night. Being the romantic guy that I am, I bought my lovely wife a rose that night. I should get some points for that!

We got our hotel to make us reservations to a nice restaurant one night. They gave us the directions, so we headed out. Let me start off by saying this - Jill is absolutely amazing with directions. You can drop her off in the middle of the jungle and she'll find her way home before you notice she's gone. She's that good. The streets in Venice are all like alleys - they are all surrounded by four and five-story buildings. It's hard to get your bearings because you're constantly surrounded and can never get a bird's eye view of the place. Even with directions, and even with the human map, we could not find the restaurant. The island is like one giant maze. It's really cool because you never know what to expect around every turn - and you're constantly walking over canals on the little bridges. Well, Jill is so good that she did end up finding it, but we were late and it was not an easy task. Dinner was great - we met some people from the US and the UK that night.

One of the coolest things we did was ride the water bus down the Grand Canal - we just bought an all-day pass and jumped on. We rode up and down the canal for hours. The best thing we did was take a gondola ride - now that's romantic! It was awesome riding through the canals on a gondola with the love of my life! If you go to Venice, you've got to have a gondola ride.

The weather was nice while we were in Venice - we are fortunate because it had been raining a lot before we got there - it got up to about 80 degrees while we were there. We went and had a drink at the famous Harry's Bar - this bar is nothing like the Harry's in Tuscaloosa - it's a nice bar on the Grand Canal where several famous writers have been known to go.

Next, we took a train to Milan. This city is known as the shopping capital of the world - and I now know why. I'm in the wrong business - they were selling tiny little handbags for 3200 euros - and the thing's not even big enough to carry a Kleenex! There were as many pigeons in the city center as there were at St. Mark's Square. Check out our pictures to see us hanging out with them. I was good on this day - you see, I'm probably the worst shopper on the planet. I've had enough after about 7 minutes - and I'm usually grumpy after that. If I need something and don't find it within 7 minutes, I would rather just not have it. I'm happy with one of my 14-year-old t-shirts - it knows me well.

All I know is that we spent a full day walking from store to store - and things were expensive. And at the end of the day, Jill had a big smile on her face after we bought ANOTHER purse - fellas, if I've learned anything about women, it's this - they can never have too many purses or shoes - don't even try to understand it.

Florence is a beautiful city. We were only there for one day, and we'd like to go back and spend some more time. There are large colorful houses all over the surrounding hills. The city center is a cool place with a beautiful church, statues, etc. If you're walking down the street and hear a little "ding-ding" sound, you better get out of the way - so many people ride bicycles over there - young, old, business folks - everyone - and when they're riding and you're in the way, they won't hesitate to ring that little bell - cracked me up when I turn around to see an older woman in a business suit ringing the heck out of that little bell at me.

Pisa is only an hour train ride from Florence, so we headed over there to check out the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was really neat to see it - it's leaning a whole lot more than I thought. I heard that they had to strengthen the foundation so it wouldn't fall over.

Finally, we went to Rome - turns out that we visited each city in a good order - after Rome, we were ready to get back home. Rome is incredible as far as the ancient history and the sites, but we didn't care too much for the city itself. It's difficult to get around - the subway system is next to useless - they only have two lines because every time they try to dig to create more lines, they find ancient artifacts.

The Colosseum (Colosso) was our favorite - We've seen it so many times on TV and in books, it was really cool to actually see it with our own eyes. The Pantheon is a church that has a dome that is the largest masonry vault ever built - the height and diameter both measure 43.3m. The Roman Forum was one of my favorite sites. This is the place that has all of the ancient ruins - old columns, staircases, parts of buildings, etc. We went to the Palazzo Altemps and the Capitaline Museums while we were there - Jill likes museums about as much as I like shopping - actually, she doesn't dislike them that much, but she likes to just do a "run-through". We hit these two museums pretty quick - she was glad that their size didn't even compare to the Louvre in Paris.

The Spanish Steps that lead up to the Trinita dei Monti (French church) were lined up with flowers since it was Easter month (this is the only time of the year when these flowers are on the steps). The Trevi Fountain is a huge fountain with lots of statues and carvings - it's the largest fountain I've ever seen - it looks like a house. The San Giovanni in Laterno is a beautiful basilica - it actually compares to St. Peter's Basilica. It has all kinds of statues, paintings, alters, beautiful detail, etc. just like St. Peter's

St. Peter's is the most beautiful church I've ever seen though. It is massive, and the art inside is just incredible - there's no wasted space - everything is art. Michelangelo painted the ceilings of the dome when he was in his seventies. I can't describe this church - you'll have to check out the pictures.

The Vatican is a huge museum - but the most famous part is the Sistine Chapel. This is the famous room where Michelangelo painted the nine scenes from Genesis on the ceiling, as well as the Last Judgment on the huge front wall. I'm not a big art fan, but these works are absolutely amazing - I tried to talk Jill into buying a picture of the Last Judgment to hang in our flat, but it didn't happen. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there, but I snuck a few in (if they aren't straight, it's because I couldn't look through the lens or I would have gotten caught).

We also saw Palatine (the mythical finding place of Rome), the Piazza Novana (contains a fountain created by the famous sculptor Bernini), Vittoriano (medieval palace), Piazza Mignanelli (a tall statue of St. Mary), San Clemente Basilica (medieval church), and Trastevere.

That concludes our trip to Italy - we had a really great time. Our advice when traveling over there is to bring lots of cash (especially in Rome) - it's amazing how many places don't take credit cards. And the restaurants charge you to use their facilities - not the bathroom, but to actually sit there - and if you sit outside, look out - we ordered two sandwiches, two beers, and two cookies that listed for 18 euros - the bill was for 30 because of their "service charge". If you are like me and like to collect hotel room keys for memories, it won't happen in Italy - the keys are gigantic - and heavy - so big that when we left to go out for the day, we dropped it off at the front desk so we wouldn't have to carry it around.

After we got back, we went and saw Britney Spears at Wembley Arena. Jill was very impressed - it was like a big production. She said it was the best concert she has ever been to - the dancers were incredible! They did a lot of technical dancing rather than hip hop - leaps, switch leaps, attitude turns, and axils.

A couple of quick bits before we go - I got a "roll tide" from a guy who noticed my Alabama hat - he's from NYC - it was good to hear those words over here! We went to a place called Claridge's to have a martini last week and met a guy that was actually in a wedding in Demopolis, Alabama - Tim, you probably know him.

We are very excited to have Jill's dad visiting us right now! He and Jill are going to Paris on Monday. The next update will talk all about his time here. Our pictures have been updated so that you can click on them to see a larger image. We have also uploaded our pictures from our trip to Italy. Please keep signing the guest book - we love hearing from you all. Don't forget that you can always view our past updates in case you may have missed any. Thanks again to all those who have been keeping in touch - it is so good to be updated on the happenings in the US. We hope you have a great week! We love and miss you all! God bless!