4 Categories of Italia

1. Sights that reminded me how beautiful the world is

While I hesitate to title this first category this way - because there are millions and millions of reasons to know that our world is a special and beautiful place both in its natural state and through the people who call it home - there was no other way to describe the way I felt on five specific instances. Throughout most of this trip I continuously repeated: "I just can't believe I'm here. In Italy." Yes even on day five I was still saying this. But on these specific moments I was struck silent at the beautiful I was experiencing not in photographs like I had for years before but in real life.

So here they are: The Sistine Chapel (no photos allowed), The Trevi Fountain, The David, sunset at the Piazzale Michalengelo, and A Contrada Museum in Siena.

While I think the other monuments are fairly self-explanitary I do think I should explain this Contrada museum! In Siena the city is divided into 18 contradas - or districts. These districts where used hundreds of years ago to supply army's to defend Siena against its rival - Florence, but now they are used as a source of local and ancestral pride and as the various teams that compete in their famous annual horse race - the Il Palio de Siena. Today there exists these small museums for all the contradas and on our last morning in this small Tuscan town we were able to find the museum for the contrada our hostel was in - the Owl! In this museum I was in awe the entire time. We got the most detailed and amazing tour from a women who's family was from this contrada - we saw flags hundreds of years old from past horse races the Owls had won, the stable where they train the horse (where we also learned the detailed and historical process of training the horse before the race!), saw the original statue of Romus and Remus famous to Seina, and walked through the old underground tunnels. Our guide was amazing and hearing her broken english describe the rich history of this small town is an experience I am going to be forever grateful for.

2. The food - oooh the food

Honestly if you got rid of all the sights and winding city streets of Italy and just left behind the restaurants I would still book a flight back in a heartbeat. My expectations were high for a week of pizza, pasta, & gelato in Italy and I'm happy to say they were met 10-fold.

In addition to the mere taste of the food I also found so much appreciation in the mere act of eating in Italy. I think food is so much more than substances to solve hunger - food is an important cultural tool and insight that links all of humankind together.

I saw the markets in the Piazza's with fresh fruits and vegetables - sustaining both the citizens and the small local farmers. I saw the workers in restaurants performing the art of pasta making. I ate dinner later than ever before with a friend from high school who is actually from Rome and drank wine while people watching outside beautiful cathedrals.

Only downfall to the food in Italy? There were two days I didn't get gelato which are two chances I will never get back :'(

3. skylines. skylines. skylines.

Being in Italy for 9 days meant that I was able to explore multiple different cities in Italy - from the large and bustling Rome with it's winding streets and old Roman monuments at every turn to quiet Lucca with its large wall.

Roma -

Siena -

Firenze (Florence) -

Livurno -

4. The not always amazing parts

There is a tendency on social media, and I'm sure on blogs although I am still relatively new, to glamorize experiences and pretend like everything was picture perfect. And while there were many amazing moments of my spring break - it was not all perfect. I think it's important to recognize these and acknowledge that despite the little bumps, I am still in awe and feel so luck for this trip and these experiences.

So what were these bumps? Well I got a brutal cold in Florence that knocked me out for a whole afternoon. I still feel pretty dumb for booking one of our museum reservations for April (Abbie what were you thinking?!). Sleep was at times few and far between. The only pair of shoes I brought with me were not good at staying dry in the rain. And now that I'm back I got a million and one things pilling up to work on. ... also still upset about those 2 days I could've gotten gelato.