I am blogging about my trip to Italy little by little. Today as I was looking at the pictures I took in Pompeii and something struck me. It was the feeling of being lost. Let me explain. The ruins of Pomepii are like a giant maze. I am not exactly sure how large the site is but let's just say it is massive. I was slated to take a guided tour of Pompeii with other tourists, but unfortunately only 7 of us wanted to take the guided English tour and we needed 10 people for the tour guide to bother to take us around. Being adventure girl, I decided to take a map, a bottle of water which cost 3 euros (damn near $6 dollars!) and the audio guide thingy and set off by myself. The day was sunny, warm and breezy enough to be comfortable. When I approached the imposing entry to Pompeii I could barely contain my excitement. As a child of the 80's I remember the cheesy movie The Last Days of Pomepii and I damn near skipped up the hill into the ruins. Pomepii is one of Italy's biggest tourist attractions and I was surrounded by people speaking every language under the sun who just like me were enthralled with this ancient city. I spent about an hour strolling the stone streets smiling at Japanese tourists who were trying to take my picture on the slip. All in all I was having an enjoyable time. I felt like I had gotten the gist of Pompeii and was ready to go have some of that lovely Italian wine I have become so fond of. This is when the story takes a DRASTIC turn for the WORST. All the streets look the same. I was wandering and wandering around Pompeii surrounded by people looking for the exit. About 30 minutes of this and the theme of the day morphed into the Busch Gardens ride Escape from Pompeii. I wanted OUT. It was getting hot, I was getting sweaty, my overpriced water had run out, and I was sick of looking at decrepit buildings. For me hot equals cranky. Panic started to set in. First of all, I couldn't ask people how the hell to get out of this place because it seemed everyone around me was speaking another language AND they were just as frustrated as I was. Body language is international and you can tell when someone is hot, pissed off, and tired of the people they are with. So I continued on my quest. Another hour passed and now I am really really really over it. I actually sat on a log and started to cry. What a sad sad sight I must have been. All J Crew clad covered in dust, sitting on a log crying. I know people thought I was crazy but I did not care. I was LOST. I wanted to go home. Life is like Pompeii. You wander around, surrounded by people, but you can be so completely lost. Plus the people around you are not able to help you because they are lost too. I don't want to get all spiritual in this post but I KNOW something very special got me out of Pompeii that day and it was NOT that jankey map they gave me which was impossible to read. I am thankful that no matter how lost or hopeless a situation becomes, all I have to do is let go. Once I do that, the map appears and I always find my way again. I eventually found my way out of Pompeii with some seriously dusty Chucks looking like a sweathog. Being lost is only as temporary as you let it.

So. Ok. I have been in Italy for too long. I can't even blame Italy for my negligence towards my blog. I am just a lazy mistress no two ways about it. I come up with all sorts of things to blog about but never quite get around to actually putting my fingers on the keyboard. I have many things to share about Italy and I am confident when I get back to the States I will blog uncontrollably about my experiences in this lovely country. Pictures included. But as my time here comes to a close I can reflect on a few things. I wrote a blog recently about youth and how age changes you. Heavy. Right? Very Heavy. Italy makes my heart heavy at times. I will get to that in a later blog. But. I want to write about something that I have noticed here that most likely escapes the eyes of all those around me. You would expect me to want to discuss the history, beauty, food, wine, or people right? Wrong... Not at all. These are things that all people here see and appreciate. Things that are not overlooked by the untrained eye. I have noticed the dogs here. There are lots of random little dogs roaming the streets, train stations, and subways. These dogs look like they are the happiest creatures on the face of this planet. At first I was thinking these poor little dogs. No homes. No owners to love them. No three hots and a cot. Then I looked more closely at the dogs. They were all smiling. To people who do not own or have never owned a dog they do not understand what a dog smile is. But to those of us whose hearts have been open to canine kind, we know what a dog smile is. These stray dogs are walking the streets delighted with life. I am convinced they are the happiest creatures in the universe. They come and go as they please. Socialize with other random doggie friends. Take naps when they are tired, eat when they are hungry. The wander the streets just as carefree as the wind. And they all have that dog smile on their face. The more I paid attention to these packs of dogs the more I was astounded they all were so happy. I made it my mission to find a dog that looked unhappy. Well it has been two weeks of dog watching and ya know what? No sad random dogs have been spotted. I HAVE noticed the dogs that are on leashes and the ones behind gates or fenced in were the uptight unhappy dogs. They were the ones who barked at every passerby and are just generally tense. The kept dogs in theory should be the happiest dogs but they are not. They seem to be the most miserable. I will take from Italy the lesson of the random stray dog. I think they are on to something. These little dogs are free, happy, and their basic needs are more than met. So they smile. Breaking out of my confinement is going to be difficult, however to reach the level of contentment these little Italian dogs have is more than worth the effort. I encourage more of us to live life like little random stray Italian dogs.