My Brothers Came, Saw, and Conquered

So, I am not sure how best to explain my blogging absence. I could say that it is because of my brothers' visit or mid-terms or even my spring break trip to France. Or I could say it is a combination of all of the above. I think I will claim choice (c).

Regardless, I have lots of good stuff to report and expound upon. the first topic to tackle will be my brothers' trip to Italy....

To properly set the scene, you have to understand a couple things about these boys (who were nearing the end of their first jet-lagged day when this photo was taken--don't they look excited?):

First, this was the boys', aged 25 and 18, first trip together. Ah, ain't that sweet? More importantly this was Diedrich's, the older and red-headed brother, first international trip and his very first passport. The big question is who will go win the race to take their second trip abroad first--my mother or Diedrich?

Anyway, those are the preliminaries. Now on to the specifics of their trip. They arrived on a Saturday, left the following Saturday, and traveled to Ravenna, Venice, Rome, and Pompeii in between. These were some busy boys.

On night one, I thought they should jump into the Bolognese scene first feet, with dinner at Aroma de Roma and drinks at the Druid. Joining us on this adventure were the usual suspects--Mark and Natalie. here is a picture from dinner (Natalie is taking the picture): And here are some photos from the Druid (does anyone think Patrick may have enjoyed a pint given his embracing of his siblings? Also, would you not agree that we are the most motley group of natural siblings you have ever seen? Not sure one would guess we were related, let alone siblings....):

While in the northern part of Italy with me, the boys and I visited Ravenna and Venice. If you would like to see pictures of Ravenna, please see Liam's blog, which is only a click away. We saw the same things....The day after we traveled to Ravenna, we decided to venture out and tackle Venice. Here are some photos from that experience:

And then after Venice, I got a willing group of participants (actually this willing group looks more like a get-together of my blog circle--Mark, Liam, Meghan, and Natalie) together and took my brothers to Osteria Broccaindosso, which is infamous among SAIS students (and potentially among my loyal blog readers) for serving large amounts of food family-style and then presenting you with bowls of chocolate and cream for dessert. Here are some pictures from this event:

And that was about it in terms of pictures. My brothers left the next day for Rome and then came back for one last half-day/evening in Bologna. All in all, I think they had a good trip. At least Patrick enjoyed ordered and drank legally--that has to count for something, right?