Peter Zumthor's Therme in Vals, Switzerland is the most worthwhile thing I've done in Europe. It was an experience almost beyond words, so I snuck my camera in during "Hotel only" swim and took some photos. Brief intro: Peter Zumthor built the baths in 1996, in Vals, a town that might not even be on a map without them. It's beautiful and in a valley in the Alps. The baths are open to hotel guests most hours, and open for free to residents of the town after 11 am. We arrived Thursday night, in time for the thrice-weekly night swim, completely in silence.The baths are set up so that there are different rooms with different "experiences." Everything is in grey slate, arranged in thin horizontal bands. Rather than a room with a pool, the rooms are the pools. The above picture is the only interior "pool" in the traditional sense; it was the largest one, in the center of the baths. For the rest, you walk down stairs and wade through chest-high water to enter the rooms,which have no windows and are only lit from under the water. One bath has yellow rose petals in the water, one is extremely hot, one extremely cold (14 degrees Celsius - I didn't make it in above my knees), one really creepy that I didn't stay in very long,and one that was actually a water corridor to a heated outdoor pool. It is so surreal to swim outside in Switzerland in February. Note the mountains in the background.This morning, before public swim opened, I swam laps in the outside pool, and it was wonderful.
We got gas around the Swiss border on the way home today, and saw these two guys hitching:
(Ein foto, bitte? Sprechen sie English?)
They were Danish carpenters, hitching to Italy (our van was full or we would've offered) in what they said was "traditional clothing," though we couldn't figure out if it was traditionally Danish or traditionally carpenter. Either way it was a pretty sweet outfit.

11 days of running through central Italy at breakneck speed, and I am glad to be back in Genova, even if it means picking up studio work where we left off. The first few days, we were in Rome, and I have decided that aside from the Coliseum: and the Jubilee Church, I hate Rome. Mostly because I got lost around midnight as a result of misguided decisions (I won't bring a phone or a list of numbers out to dinner with me, and I won't remember the name of the hotel, and I'll decide to leave the group and go home early. Yay me!). But after a fairly stressful evening, I ended up safely collapsed back at the hotel. Next stop was Siena, which I really enjoyed. The weather was like walking through a 35-degree sneeze, but it was a neat, small, easily navigated medieval city, and I enjoyed doing my sketches even in the yuck weather.
After a day in Siena, we went to Firenze (Florence), and I really enjoyed it. Our hotel was right across from Brunelleschi's dome and its accompanying churches, baptistries, and so forth, so not only was it a lovely walk to get to, but it was hard to get lost. :) We walked up to the top of the dome (463 stairs; a piece of cake compared to living in Genova) and the view was beautiful, even when I stood in the way:I really liked Florence, and spent a fair amount of time just wandering around and absorbing my surroundings. We went to the Uffizi museum, which houses a LOT of famous antiquities, and I got my fill of Catholic iconography for a good long while. The hotel was really cool, too -- tile floor, big windows with quaint lace curtains, high ceilings, and good and warm. The best part of Florence, however, was taking a bus with a couple kids up to San Miniato al Monte around sunset and walking around. Construction began in 1013, and it's got a patterned facade that's different from the other ones that we saw.There were neatly planted firs growing all around the exterior wall that we walked through, and it was just beautiful. It was high up the mountain, hence the "monte," and had a beautiful view of the city, despite the haze.
The last place we went was Bologna, and I would be lying if I claimed not to have called it Baloney the whole time we were there, though not to anyone Italian, because I am trying my very hardest to represent the US well. The best part about the last few days was actually not in Baloney proper, but when we took a bus to a winery in Modena: There were tables with lovely food that was supposed to go well with the wines they put out (a sparkling white and a red), and sure enough, it was amazing. They also took us up the hill to the big steel vats where they ferment the wine, which reminded me of the tour of the Flying Dog brewery. Everyone wanted to stay longer, but we had to scurry off to Parma and hit up some museums.
We're now all back in Genova, and there is a long line for the washing machine, but it's good to be back at a home base.
Photos uploaded to Flickr.