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"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page" - St. Augustine of Hippo (5th century)
My favorite discovery of this past year was not an audio component or even a piece of music. It was a country. Italy. My wife and I plus our two boys (10 & 14) spent three glorious weeks backpacking our way from one end of Italy to the other.

We travelled light and apart from a brief car rental, we used the terrific rail system, stayed in small hotels and B&Bs and tried to not only see all the sights but also to get a feel for the people and culture. Man, Italians sure know how to enjoy life. Even rush hour in Rome seems laid back compared to the mayhem I'm used to. It is also damn hard to find a bad meal in Italy (unfortunately, we found one in Venice). It was a life-altering experience and as a result, we have changed our daily routines and slowed down the hectic pace and make the time to smell the flowers as it were.

Favorite stops? I polled the family and the most popular were Florence, Venice, Vatican City...

...a 1000-year old Tuscan monastery converted into a winery/B&B...


...our cooking lesson in an alpine village (my wife now makes her own pasta and pizza)...


...Varenna on Lake Cuomo...

...climbing up Mt. Vesuvius...


...and climbing up Capri to the emperor Tiberius's Villa Jovis...

We topped our trip off on our last night with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 at La Scala. It was like being inside a jewelry box! One of my favorite memories was watching one of the Euro Cup games with the family of the working farm/B&B we stayed at outside Sorrento. They pulled the giant flat-screen TV outside and we watched the game in a lemon grove. Every time Italy scored, fireworks and cheers went up all over the surrounding hillside. I then proceeded to become incredibly drunk while carousing with an Australian couple and two young Italian newlyweds. You mix Canadians and Australians, there's going to be some serious drinking.

If you ever plan a trip to Italy, purchase all your train tickets and entrance fees online beforehand. You'll save a ton of time and potential aggravation. Example? When we went to the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence, there was a two-hour line to purchase tickets. We were gazing at David within ten minutes once past the gate keepers.

On to audio. Rather than highlight the more impressive products I reviewed this year, I thought I'd cover a couple of items not formally reviewed and opine on a few other topics...