At long last, I'm back in Seattle, and after reading through and answering just over 600 emails (and deleting/ignoring another 12-1500), I'm finally ready to start blogging again.

The trip, I have to say, was fantastic. I've amassed some photos from the London SES show here, but they represent only a small fraction of the more than 450 photos total I took on the trip. My only regret is that a week out of touch (after the conference) is fairly severe. I nearly missed an interview with USA Today (not sure when that might be published, but I did manage to get in touch with the reporter via phone), had several problems in communicating effectively with my staff and clients and am coming around to the idea that it may not be possible for me to take time off in this manor in the future without first building more solid backup systems with my SEOmoz team.

As for the cities themselves - London is terrific, as always. It's expensive (especially with the exchange rate), but much friendlier and warmer than I anticipated. The residents seem to tolerate tourists particularly well, which is more than I can say for the cities I visited in Italy. Milan lived up to its reputation - I've never been to a better dressed city in my life. The quality of clothing on nearly every Milanese person we encountered was simply stunning - from shoes and belts to suits and shirts - Prada does a robust business in their hometown (and yes, the rumors are true - the cost of designer wear in Milan is considerably less than here in the US, particularly for men's suits).

Venice was my overall favorite. It was tough to imagine a city that functioned entirely on water transport, and seeing it at work was something out of a fairy tale. Despite being massively overwhelmed by tourists (it was a challenge to actually find someone who lived there), the city itself is intensely addictive - a return trip is definitely in order.

On the business side, I got to hear a bit from some companies in Italy about Internet penetration, e-commerce and web users. The web has come a long way in Italy over the past 3-4 years and e-commerce, once considered nearly impossible, now accounts for a significant portion of sales for many firms. Rural Italians are still very wary of the web, but in medium-sized towns and smaller cities, traffic and commerce is robust. Wifi is helping, as is cheaper access via broadband (telephone lines are still charged by the minute, even for local calls, making dial-up a poor option for most).

Looking forward, I've got massive amounts of work to get through here in Seattle, and I'll be traveling to Tennessee at the beginning of next week, but I should be back to regular connectivity and lots of late night blogging. Thanks a ton to 2K,  Egol, Michael & Guillaume for filling in during my absence - I received several positive emails about the blogs and enjoyed reading through many of those discussions. Now all I need to do is get back on Pacific Standard Time and I'll be golden.