Hump Day Top 5 List

While the husband and I are thrilled to be incipient parents, my burgeoning belly does mean that the trip to Scotland my mother, sister and I were planning for this summer won't be happening - at least not this year. (I don't fancy international travel with a two month old; they're cute and all, but they cramp your style, tourist-wise.) And this is sad, because I loooooooove traveling, and it would have been the husband's first trip overseas. So in the interest of vicarious pleasures, for today's list I want to see the top 5 places you've traveled, with an explanation for what made each place so great. No limit on location or length of time spent. Have at it! Here are mine:

1. Salzburg, Austria - I lived there for a semester with my family during my senior year in high school. It was amazing. I immersed myself in art and music history and soaked up the language (with the crazy Austrian accent) - and we lived right at the base of a gorgeous mountain.

2. London, England - lived there for a semester in college, and it felt like coming home (probably as a result of all the British lit I'd grown up reading). We lived in the Little Venice neighborhood, right down the street from Annie Lennox (!) and I don't think I've ever loved a city so much.

3. Bellagio, Italy - you want pure gorgeous, go to Bellagio. Right on Lake Como, nestled in the mountains ... there's no great museum or church like there are in so many major Italian cities, but all you need to do is walk through the Melzi gardens and take a deep breath of lake air to feel all your little petty stresse just float away.

4. Inverness, Scotland - especially in autumn. Even more especially when you could go on Gordon's minibus tour of Loch Ness, and talk about life and death as you picnic'd on a hill surrounded by sheep. I felt like I was in a frickin' George MacDonald story!

5. New York, New York, USA - it's just such an exciting place to be - so energizing and busy. And truly something for every taste and palate, from theatre to restaurants to art to music to shopping. (And really, what else is there?) If I could afford it, I'd split my time between Manhattan and London. Wouldn't that be the life?

Pretty Eurocentric, I know, but that's where I've been so that's my list! What's yours?