News From Chicago

Hey all. Desiree and I just returned from a great trip to Italy. The whole thing was a surprise - she only knew the temperature of the place we were going, and that we were going for 10 days.

We spent the first few days in the hill towns north of Rome: Bagnoregio and Orvieto. This is Desiree walking down a little street in Bagnoregio.

The next day, we drove around Lake Bolsena, a very pretty and quiet lake.

That night, we parked the car in Bagnoregio and walked across the bridge to Civita Di Bagnoregio, an ancient town (pre-Roman!) with only a few residents left. The rest of the town has eroded away over the years. There is one bed & breakfast out there where we stayed.

It was out on Civita that evening, looking out over a quiet Italian valley, that I asked Desiree to marry me. She said yes!!

So, we are officially engaged, and couldn't be more excited. After a night in Orvieto, we dropped off the car and headed to Rome for 5 days.

I'll post more pictures later, or maybe we'll put them all online and post a link here, but I wanted to share the great news as soon as possible.