Il fine.

To summarize my four months in Italy, I thought I'd make a couple lists:

Places I've visited:

Sicily

Cinque Terre

Greece (Corfu, Athens - non mi piace- and Aegina)

France (Paris and Versailles)

Tuscany (Siena, Montepulciano, Florence, Pisa, Chianciano)

Pompeii

Foligno

Montefalco

Tivoli

Objects I have lost or destroyed:

2 Cameras

1 Phone

1 lamp (which I never got replaced now that I think about it)

My permit to stay which turned out to be not a big deal at all.

And one tragic loss of a previously healthy bank account.

Creepy Italians I have come across:

There were many interesting characters I came across, but the one who asked to makeout with my feet needs to be mentioned for sheer dominance over anyone else who would make the list.

My rank of classes:

ITALIAN ITALIAN ITALIAN!!!!!!

Drawing

Painting

History

Ok. Now if you choose not to read further, you at least got some highlights. And to all those who have been reading this from the beginning - really just Steph and Kait - sorry for not writing for over a month!

My last month in Rome was by far one of, if not THE greatest month of my life. It was like I got hit in the face with the reality of my one-of-a-kind friends, the beauty of Rome, and the extraordinary life I was living there. As I mentioned in my last post- I really didn't want to leave. The last 2 weeks were particularly hard because myself, along with many of my friends came to a sad realization. We would be returning changed people. However, we knew we would be returning to the same life - completely unchanged. Nervousness couldn't even begin to describe my emotions. I was nervous, excited, worried, fearful, etc. etc. Part of me wanted to stay longer, but the other part of me knew I needed to go home. They were an amazing four months which I will never forget, but that's all the time I am going to get to live in Rome. Four months. Well, for now at least ;)

Enough with my nerves of leaving, however. I need to write down some memories before I lose them. The last month of my travels were filled with many guests from back home. First, I got to see Meaghan Holloran. She visited from Paris for easter weekend. (I don't think I wrote this in my last post.) Secondly, I got to see Johnny and his girlfriend, Katie. API bought everyone opera tickets which of course was the one night Johnny would be in town. It was 12:00 when I got back that night and I called to apologize for not getting to see him. Well 30 minutes later I was hugging him in piazza Venezia. Next I got to see Erin Horan. I was only supposed to see her for one day as well, but the one and ONLY good thing about that damn volcano was that I got to see Erin's lovely face for three days more days. I'm still not entirely sure that Erin thinks even remotely highly of that volcano considering her epic adventure home. Last, but not least, I got to see Keara and Joe in Paris. The three of us went the second to last weekend before I left. We went to Versailles, the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the gardens of Luxembourg, and we even had a baguette fight. It was infinitely better than the last time I went to Paris. Maybe sleeping in until 10:00 had something to do with it...

As for my adventures in Rome, I spent my last few weeks soaking up the sun at Villa Borghese, getting to know the trail mix guy at Campo di Fiori, splitting dinners with the lovely Mor, and visiting every last sight I could. I also visited the ever beautiful hills of Tuscany and even saw the place where Twilight was filmed!!!! Oh, wait, I don't really care about Twilight. But it was breathtakingly cool to see that clock tower in Moltepulciano. You know, the one Edward walks out of in the movie. Ok ok, so I've seen the movies. Shoot me. And for the record, there is no epic fountain Bella so gracefully runs through to save her beloved. And the movie isn't filmed in Volterra, where the movie is set. However, the town itself was by far one of the most stunningly picture perfect towns I have visited in my life. Then again, I say that about every town I visit. In this town, however, there was this beautiful wine cellar we visited where we got to sample some of their wine. Yummy. We also went to these thermal baths which were pretty relaxing.

Other highlights include:

-Going to an Italian spoken mass with the always charming Mr. Larkin and actually understanding parts of the homily.

-Hanging out in Trastevere.

-FINALLY visiting the Galleria with Mor.

-Having a picnic in Villa Borgheses with all of my loves.

-The last night before I left which included a farewell dinner, a last goodbye to Trastevere, and an epic goodbye bash in my apartment with literally everyone in our apartment building. Totally worth the 2 hours of sleep I got that night.

-My EPIC journey home which included a 2 hour delayed flight, a missed flight, a 5 hour delayed flight (which I never made it on), 8 hours at JFK, and a memorable ride home from Mr. Alam. All I'm saying, is most Americans turn 21 in a bar or club. I turned 21 in the back of his car.

Finally, what would a blog post be without one last mention of my Italian class? After our course ended (molto triste), our Professor invited us over to his house to cook dinner with him and have one final night with all of us together. "We" made pesto, eggplant parmigiano and tiramisu. I say "we" because really Claudio cooked most of it and we helped when we could. Grazie mille, Claudio. The best part of the night, however, was when we gave him the scrapbook we made. We each had a picture and a note written in Italian in the book. He loved it. We also got him a t-shirt which he put on right away. :) It was a pretty memorable night which I don't think any of us could ever forget. That class is the reason why so much of me misses Italy right now. I left behind a family and a home which I will never get to see again. Sure I'll go back, and of course I will see my friends again, but we will never live or learn together as we did. But I'm not gonna live in the past. I'm bringing my memories with me into my future because truthfully, my Italy experiences are still happening. I'll always be growing from what I learned there. I'm just not gonna be blogging about them anymore. You'll just have to trust that I am a better person for having lived in Italy for four months, and I will continue to be a better person because of Italy. La vita è bella.

So that's it folks. That's my Italy. Basta.