Quist World Tour

Every time you get on a bus, or a train, or for that matter walk into a convenience store in Japan, you will hear a little song created especially for that place or vehicle. The washing machine in our little apartment plays a digital segment (think Wii Music) piece of classical music that I cannot place, though I know it was on one of our Baby Einstein vídeos back in the day. The doorbell (yes our hotel room has a doorbell) plays another electronic chime. The Maibara station plays something suspiciously like the chorus of "Do They Know It’s Christmas?" by BandAid, and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" came over the loudspeaker at Kyoto station once. It’s like everything electronic needs to greet you and say goodbye.  I still haven’t gotten over the toilets here. In public restrooms, seats are heated and bidet options are on offer. Here in our little apartment, the porcelain throne greets me by lighting up and starting some kind of running water noise to mask any indisc...

Rather than a third day spent fighting the crowds in Rome , we decided to go to the ancient Roman town of Tivoli to visit Villa d’Este. This is the summer home of some cardinal or other who was in power way back when. He built it on the remains of a Roman structure, which was then a convent, which he then replaced with his vacation home. It’s amazing! He channeled the natural flow of water to fill the entire building and grounds with fountains. Paintings and sculpture abound, and we only had to share the space with a few other people. Highly recommend it. We enjoyed lunch in the main square, to which several in our group were attracted because of a sign that said you could get a hamburger and French fries for 5 Euro. The hamburger, to their disappointment, was not as expected—just a small hamburger patty minus the bun, tomato, lettuce, whatever. Andrew even requested his with some mozzerella on top, a request which made the server shake her head. It was hard not to laugh at thei...