Discovering that tt's hard to impress a Bosnian tourist

I have been to Rome four or five times but it still makes my blood race: the heat, the color, the age of the buildings, the scope of the ruins. It's just one of the most memorable places in the world.

Eldina on her first trip to Italy was a little cooler.

So, tell me, she said, as we walked around the Coliseum and the Arch of Titus, just why is this so important?

"It's a good question!" she protested in response to our gapes of disbelief.

This set a tone for the week where Fabio and I rushed gushing from one sight to another and Eldina coolly held back, appreciative but yet always urging that we rest some little bit before going on or that we "save some for the next time."

Fabio did everything including literally climb the walls of the Coliseum to impress her.

"I have to say," she told him at one point touring the wonders of Rim (Even the Bosnian word for the city seems to devalue it), "You used to be tough guys but now you are practically nothing."

Later in the trip we came into Montalcino after a long drive and Eldina exclaimed in relief, "A toilette!" Fabio said dryly, "Ah, at last something excites you."