“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

At the AS Roma vs. AC Milan football game.

We’ve reached that point, my loyal readers. It’s time to say arrivederci to this beautiful city and incredible country. Phone numbers have been exchanged, final pizzas have been eaten, and the gelato cup is empty. This post’s quote, by Martin Buber, reflects how much this experience has been more than I could ever have hoped for.

I came abroad wanting to experience a new culture, meet new people, and travel in an amazing country. Check, check, and check again! I was incredibly scared to take the leap of faith and go somewhere half-way around the world with no one I knew and no ability to speak the language. I’m beyond thrilled that I decided to face these fears and take a chance. I have completely adapted to the Italian culture, made amazing friends, and gone to so many incredible parts of Italy. These are experiences I never dreamt I would have.

Cinque Terre

I also never knew how profoundly this semester has impacted me. Not only have my eyes been completely opened to the world around me, but I have changed inside. I will come home a little more independent, a little more self-assured, and believing more than I ever have that anything is possible. I am forever changed for the better from a semester in Rome.

Pompeii

There are, of course, things that I am looking forward to at home. A couple of things on my list include:

o   My dog

o   My family

o   My friends

o   My mom’s cooking

o   My house

o   My kitchen and cooking with a spatula

o   A stove that lights itself

o   A microwave (that’s right ladies and gentlemen, I’ve learned to live for four months without a microwave, even I’m impressed)

o   The gym (oh elliptical, how I’ve missed you)

o   A grilled hot dog and/or burger

o   A belated birthday cake

o   A summer at home

o   My car and driving

o   Pancakes with maple syrup

o   My American phone number and the ability to text and call easily

o   Seeing people dress for the weather, not the month

o   Finally being 21 and enjoying all the perks that that entails

o   Maryland

o   Maryland Images

Can't wait to get back to my puppy!

But with this list comes an incredibly long one of things that I’ll miss about Italy. Here is just a little taste of it:

o   Food

o   Gelato- Romagnani, Cremi, and Della Palma especially, banana and nutella flavors, and the ability to have multiple flavors in one serving

o   Pizza- Dar Poeta’s San Pietrino and Da Simone’s Caprese

o   Sfogliatelle- chocolate-filled pastries- Romagnani’s are my favorite

o   Gnocchi Thursdays

o   Sandwiches at the shop by AUR (Side note to my friends here, I just found out it’s called Specialita Alimentari Gastronomia- Santi Fabio. Who knew it had a name?!)

o   Supplis

o   House wines (especially Dar Poeta’s vino rosso)

o   Amazing olive oil

o   Delicious, cheap wine

o   Parmigiano Reggiano

o   Pasta Carbonara

o   Prosciutto crudo

o   Dried fruit

o   My cereal- Bran flakes with mixed fruit- the best way to start my day

o   Blood oranges

o   Red pears

o   Fresh, incredible fruit and vegetables from my market

o   The way that everything somehow tastes better here

o   Places

o   My apartment

o   Villa Sciara

o   The Trevi Fountain

o   The Colosseum

o   The Pantheon

o   The Vittoriano

o   The church in Piazza Navona

o   My open-air fresh market

o   The Punto Sma grocery store

o   Campo dei Fiori

o   People

o   My friends that I’ve made here

o   My roommates who have made my apartment so wonderful

o   Manuel, the man who sells amazing dried fruit at Campo, and always teaches me Italian and gives me free things

o   My favorite fruit and vegetable vendor at the market (who makes my day when he sees me and says “Ciao bella!” and then proceeds to know the first thing that I always ask for: five of his amazing oranges)

But my emotions are not something that can merely be reduced to these lists. I’m feeling so incredibly blessed for everything that I’ve experienced this semester. The friends that I’ve made, the places I’ve traveled to, the food I’ve indulged in, the culture that I’ve fallen in love with- these are all parts of the amazing life I’ve been living. While it’s sad to leave Rome because I have to physically leave Italy, it’s not just the place I’m going to miss. I know that I can come back to Italy. It’s not going anywhere and I have promised myself that I will be back. But I cannot come back to this life. It’s a snapshot in my life, a moment in time that I can’t return to. At the same time that I wish it could last forever, it feels right that it has only been these four months. It was a precious and short amount of time and because of that I knew that I had to do it all. I have packed so many memories into this semester and I have absolutely no regrets. It was exactly the semester I wanted. Actually, it was more than I wanted; it was more wonderful than I could have ever dreamt it would be. I still lie in bed sometimes at night and have to give myself a reality check- I really did it, I’m really in Italy. There are days where I feel like I’ll wake up and it will all have been a dream. And it has been a dream. Famous poet Anna Akhmatova once said that “Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life.” I now understand that she’s completely right.

While I know that this can’t last forever, I can’t help but want to hold on to this life. It may not be reality, but it has been my reality. Thank you to the people and places that have made this the best four months. And thank you to this city for the amazing life I have gotten to lead. Roma does and will forever hold my heart. 

The lovely ladies of Via di Monte Verde 48

(I have made a video of my experience in Rome. I have placed it in this post and also posted the link to watch it on YouTube. Enjoy!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYCBUCHaCMw

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.”

Relaxing on the rocks by the beach in Monterosso al Mare (Cinque Terre)

As I close in on the culmination of my study abroad experience, I’m completely blown away by how far I’ve come. It seems like only yesterday that I was planning all of my travels and now I’ve just come home from the last trip of the semester. The quote that I picked, by Anais Nin, discusses travel and spoke to the experiences I’ve had in the past three weeks traveling within Italy and to Greece. It was an escape to a different life while at the same time serving as an amazing reminder that this really is my life. I’ve never felt so lucky.

Pictures of both Greece and Cinque Terre are online but under a different album- La Dolce Vita-Parte Due https://picasaweb.google.com/100853123413362137278/LaDolceVitaParteDue?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6X7e-xsPyB8gE#

Previous pictures can be found at https://picasaweb.google.com/100853123413362137278/LaDolceVita?authkey=Gv1sRgCI6NoeLsqoHy_QE#

So many travels, where to begin? Let’s start with Greece! I have dreamt of going to Greece for years! Between the food, the culture, and the different characteristics of the country (beaches, cities, ruins, etc.), I was dying to make it there before the semester ended. After seeing a friend’s pictures of Mykonos, I decided that a beachside vacation was the top of the to-do list. I also figured that I couldn’t go to Greece and not even see the Parthenon, so we settled on a day in Athens followed by two in Mykonos.

I haven’t been on a plane since I arrived in Rome and I must say, the 3:30 am wake-up to get to the airport was not the ideal way to reunite with air travel, but on some level I do enjoy an early-morning flight and the chance to get somewhere and have the entire day to do things. Our day in Athens got off to a smooth start when we checked into our hostel and then made our way out in search of gyros and the Parthenon. No gyros places were open yet (but we had eaten granola bars at 5 am in the airport, 11 am was definitely not too early for lunch in our book), so we sampled another Greek tradition- spanikopita. This delicious spinach filling is accompanied by small chunks of feta cheese and an occasional onion and stuffed between two layers of flaky phyllo. We sat in the café and watched a cook make huge sheets of phyllo dough for other dishes. It was like watching a pizza-maker toss dough in the air except more amazing because his phyllo got to the point where we could see through it yet it somehow never ripped. We were mesmerized. After the snack we strolled through the meat and cheese market around the area where whole, skinned, raw lambs were flung over the shoulders of adults and children alike as they made their way to the stands to put the meat on large hooks. We later learned that this didn’t happen everyday, but was rather in preparation for Easter dinner two days later.

"Spanikopita! You hungry?"- My Big Fat Greek Wedding

With one Greek food checked off the list and feeling a little grossed out by the lamb’s skinned heads and bulging eyes staring us down, we took off in search of the Acropolis. Our hostel was very conveniently located to the center of the city and we got to the Acropolis easily. While the Acropolis itself is huge, the main attraction is, of course, the Parthenon, which just so happens to be at the very top. It was a tiring walk up to the top but so much fun to see the famous Parthenon! After the Parthenon we stopped for gyros before going to the Olympic Stadium where we took an audio tour that was informational yet got very boring. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the streets of Athens and enjoying a light dinner of a Greek salad and lamb in lemon sauce. After dinner we went back to the hostel for an early night (keep in mind that we’d been up since 3:30 and that we were waking up at 5 the next morning for a ferry to Mykonos). We relaxed on the rooftop bar at the hostel that had stunning views of the Parthenon before falling asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

The Parthenon

Me and Athens

Olympic Stadium

The view of the Parthenon from our hostel

The next morning we took a train to Piraeus port and boarded a ferry bound for Mykonos. This was a five-hour journey but completely worth it to be able to arrive in the beach paradise island. We arrived at Mykonos and were taken to the hotel, which was every bit as wonderful as I’d dreamt it would be. The balcony looked out over a beach of soft sand and turquoise water. It was breathtaking! I never wanted to leave the balcony. Our day was perfect, enjoying gyros, strolling around town, relaxing on the beach, and eating a delicious dinner at a taverna- mussels appetizer to share and then an entree of lamb baked with vegetables and feta cheese. Greek perfection!

The view from my hotel room

The famous windmills of Mykonos

Relaxing on the beach- life is good

Lambs roasting on the spit for Easter

The next day we decided to rent ATVs to explore the island more. Unfortunately, mine was faulty and lead me to crash twice. After the first one I was brave and got back on, but after the second I decided that it was time to call it quits. I didn't realize until later that it had happened because my wheels were not properly aligned. Regardless, while the rest of my friends drove around, I ate a gyro, grabbed a baklava to go, and sat on the beach at the hotel, enjoying the warm sun (not enjoying the cold wind), my baklava, music, and a book seaside. It was a great afternoon! That night was Easter Sunday so we went to the restaurant next to the hotel where the music was blasting and the party was in full swing. There was plate smashing, drunken waiters, ouzo galore, and a lot of music and dancing. While we were entertained, we ventured back to our hotel and ate a delicious salmon dinner because the waiter at the other restaurant never even brought us our drinks (he was a tad preoccupied with the dancing and singing. Oh yeah, and the ouzo).

My ATV experience started well- at least for five minutes or so

The beach, called Platis Gialos, at sunset

The next morning we sadly made our way back to Rome. I got sick upon my return unfortunately. My philosophy: I barely got sick in Rome and that’s my body’s way of saying that it didn’t consider Italian germs foreign since it considers me Italian too. Regardless of being sick, I made it through a week of school and off on another weekend trip to Cinque Terre!

Cinque Terre, translated to mean “Five Towns,” is a beautiful place on the northern west coast of Italy. It features five towns all set into cliffs and mountains along the coast and you can hike or take a train between them. It is famous for stunning views, delicious seafood, great hiking, and being the birthplace of pesto! We stayed in the last town, Monterosso al Mare, the only town with beach access. After a beachside lunch of stuffed mussels, we spent the afternoon on the beach, relaxing and enjoying some of the best banana gelato I’ve had in Italy (it’s not the artificial stuff like in the States, this tastes like a frozen fresh banana). Another incredible seafood meal rounded out the night perfectly. We shared a seafood sampler appetizer and the plates just kept coming: scallops, sardines, shrimp, anchovies, and many different styles of preparation including baked, fried, stuffed, etc. It was wonderful to try so many things.

The beach in Monterosso Al Mare

I actually got tan- it was a miracle!

The next day we enjoyed a great breakfast at the hotel to stock up on energy before starting the hike. We took a train to Riomaggiore, the first town of Cinque Terre and the typical place where people start their hikes. From there we bought a hiking pass and hiked all the way back to Monterosso (with a train ride between two towns where the trail was out). The hiking started off easy on a paved path known as Via dell’Amore/Love’s Way, before getting into the more strenuous hiking between Corniglia and Vernazza and then Vernazza to Monterosso. The trek was filled with narrow trails, never-ending steps, and very steep inclines. We also got caught in the rain, a welcome and refreshing break from the sweaty heat of hiking. While it was a bit of a workout (and that’s a bit of an understatement), I felt so proud of myself when it was done. There were so many beautiful views, trails, and towns. When the hike was done we rewarded ourselves with kebabs and more banana gelato (my third time at this place over the weekend- the banana and nutella were the perfect combo) before heading back to Rome.

Vernazza

Monterosso Al Mare

The coastline of Cinque Terre

Now it’s a week after Cinque Terre and I’m one week away from leaving Rome. I can’t begin to accurately describe my feelings right now. This semester has been such a dream and I’m not ready for it to end. At the same time, I’m excited to see my friends and family at home. It’s a mix of emotions all at the same time. For now, I’ll sign off and go get ready to head to an AS Roma soccer game- pardon me, I mean football. Time to enjoy sports like a true Roman! I’ll post again soon before I depart Rome!