Et Cetera – Page 7 – Studio Josie

an intermission: photos from the city

Please excuse this quick interruption of my Narni posts! I wanted to share a couple of photos with you from the last few months.

As I’ve mentioned, the trip was incredibly special for me, and I came home with a group of lovely new friends. Since we’re all from a mix of three different states, it was really hard saying goodbye at the airport as we didn’t know how often we’d see each other.

Since arriving back home at the end of July, we have had one reunion per month. We meet up in New York City and hang out for the day, catching up on our lives and eating gelato, trying so hard to relive the two weeks we spent together in Italy.

The reunions have truly been a highlight of my year. I love all of my friends, and it is a joy to see them and to catch up. This trip was such a wonderful time in my life, and their presence will always remind me of it.

Each month I have anxiously awaited for our next reunion, and I can barely focus at school the day before I leave for the city. Today, I wanted to share some photos of the city I have taken. I feel so lucky that I’ve been able to visit one of my most favorite places more frequently over the last few months. Every time I go, I get more and more eager to live there…someday!

Besides seeing my friends, frequenting the city has made me so much better at navigation, specifically regarding the subway. Last week, I successfully got us to each location and made no mistakes. It is incredibly empowering… almost as empowering as when you swipe your MetroCard and get through the turnstile in one shot! 🙂

Anyway, here are a couple of photos.

Beautiful bee art on the side of a mailbox.

If anyone knows this artist, please share with me. I saw lots of these illustrations on poles throughout the city, mostly in the West Village.

Again, incredible street art. There is nothing like this where I live, so seeing any form of public creativity and expression makes me giddy.

The Oculus! We went to the EATaly inside. I got some of my favorite chocolate there: Venchi’s Pistaccio Cremino. I discovered it in Sicily, and while it’s a pretty universal Italian chocolate brand, it unbelievably delicious.

A flower statue right outside the Oculus.

Washington Square Park: quite possibly my favorite place in all of the city. I will never tire of people-watching on the benches there. Lots of great memories have been made there, and it makes me smile just looking at this picture.

It’s really simple, but this is one of my favorite photos I’ve taken. It’s in the West Village, right on Carmine Street. I love it so much.

This photo is from last weekend, taken on the High Line.

This one was actually taken on the subway with my dad. We did some college visits in between my reunions (to Pace and The New School), and I took this right after seeing *Joker* in the coolest movie theater ever (it had reclining seats!!!).

Again, this was with my dad. Before our tour of Pace, we walked on the Brooklyn Bridge a bit.

This is right near Pace. I’m not sure what its purpose is, but I am in love with this building. The design reminds me of a chocolate bar.

Last weekend, in Grand Central. I took the train into the city for the first time by myself before meeting up with my friends. As an introvert, it was a little anxiety-inducing but also incredibly nice to be alone in the big city, even if it was just for a couple minutes.

The NY Public Library. This is where I met my friend Maia before we took the subway to meet up with everyone else at Chelsea Market.

The most vibrant and colorful flowers outside a little convenience store in Chelsea.

This was taken on the High Line as well. I couldn’t get a great shot of that mural, but it is gorgeous.

That’s all!

In the midst of senior year stress, it has been a treat to visit the city every couple of weeks. It’s always a breath of fresh air (well, not *literally* fresh air), and I always leave feeling so inspired. I can’t wait for our next reunion which will, hopefully, be soon!

I feel so lucky to have made such intelligent, kind, and loving friends who are willing to travel a little out of the way to get together. These mini day trips have meant the world to me; I know they may not last forever as our lives get increasingly busier, but I treasure them while they’re still here.

I’ll be back soon with my next post from Italy. I’m determined to finish the series by the end of November!

Have a great night.

PS. Wow. After four years of blogging, I just figured out how to do captions on photos. I apologize for the lack of captions in all of my other posts! This is so much better and easier, and I’m very excited to use them from now.

more from narni…

The next morning was Sunday, and for the majority of Italians, that means going to mass. We had the option of going both this Sunday and the next Sunday, so I decided to go on this day.

We went to mass in Narni at the St. Juvenal church. It was absolutely gorgeous inside, and we got to visit it again when we toured Narni a few days later (that will be in my next post!). Going to mass in Italy was a pretty cool experience, even though I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying!

After mass, we stumbled upon an outdoor art market that was going on in the square. There were a bunch of vendors selling jewelry and other random, homemade items.

This was the main area where the artists sold their work.

I bought a little recycled bowl for my mom at this woman’s booth. She had so many pretty pieces of jewelry, and much of it was made from recycled plastic. Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate the man’s outfit who’s standing on the left?! Ugh, I love it.

Here’s some of the lovely jewelry for sale.

And this is, perhaps, the most charming moped in all of Italy!

This is a flyer for the annual Gnocchi Festival in Narni. When I applied for this scholarship, I had to make a video researching an aspect of the town, and my topic was this festival! I used this flyer in my presentation, so it was really neat to see it in person.

After mass, we got to go swimming at a nearby pool which was a nice treat. We swam for a few hours, enduring the pain of the swim cap and trying not to get sunburnt.

The next thing that was on our schedule was “Narni Adventure.” None of us had any idea what that meant, but we soon learned that it was an underground obstacle course. In the town square, there’s a subway entrance-looking staircase that goes underground. Once you make it down the stairs, there are harnesses and hard hats hanging on the wall.

We watched the safety demonstration and were allowed to begin going through the course. I’m not the most coordinated person, so this was a bit of a challenge. Once we got to the end, there’s a zipline you take to the opposite end of the room. After that, you walk back to the other side and can rock climb up a wall. It was my first time rock climbing, but I made it to the top and rang the bell, whoooo!

Despite the stress that this induced, it was pretty fun. Narni Adventure is pretty new, and the employees working were super friendly. If you ever find yourself in Narni, go check it out!

After that, we walked a couple feet to the nearest gelateria. This cone was probably the best one I had. These flavors are so simple, pistachio and strawberry, but I remember it being the most refreshing afternoon treat.

We walked by this purple house nearly every day on our way to the hostel.

After gelato, we headed back to the hostel to shower and eat dinner. Dinner was made by our two teachers, and it was buonissima! There was homemade pesto with pasta, zucchini, spinach, and fresh fruit for dessert. I still dream about this meal.

Later that night we went out into town again to eat more gelato and hang out. There was a man with a karaoke machine, singing old Italian songs. My friends and I danced in the street next to him, probably looking crazy but having so much fun. After we stopped dancing, the people sitting outside at the surrounding restaurants gave us a round of applause. It was a pretty magical night and one of my favorite memories.

I love this photo of the fountain that stood within the piazza. I threw multiple euros in there with my friends over the course of the trip.

After hanging out in the town, we headed back to the hostel and went to sleep.

The next morning, we had breakfast and then a three-hour lesson from 9-12. After the lesson, we had lunch in town and hopped on a bus to Carsulae, an excavation site. I don’t have many photos, but — despite the unbearable heat — it was pretty cool to see people working on the excavations right in front of us.

After that, we headed back to Narni for dinner. This picture is taken in the center of town.

Yup, you guessed it: another gelato! The darker-colored one is coffee, and the white one is yogurt. My friend Jane tried yogurt and said it was good, so I was intrigued and tried some for myself. I really liked it, but it was a bit weird to have with coffee, haha.

Another cute piece of graffiti.

One of the things that made this trip so much fun was the fact that we were all overtired for much of it. We’d stay up late and then wake up early, so by the end of the day many of us would either be dead or get a random burst of energy. Also, the most random things were funny to us, such as this weird bumper sticker we saw on a Fiat.

And here’s yet another beautiful sunset to end the day. This is the view from my room at the hostel.

I have a lot of photos from the church we had mass in, so I’ll share those in my next post, along with pictures from the mosaic class we took (and more gelato photos, I’m sure!). Ciao!

narni & amelia

On the first full day, we visited a steel factory early in the morning. No one particularly wanted to do this, but it was on our itinerary, so we headed there after eating breakfast at the hostel.

We had to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt for safety, along with steel-toe boots and goggles they provided for us. 10/10 would not recommend this outfit in 90-degree heat in front of huge flames producing steel!

Even though that experience was less-than-ideal, we all made the best of it, and the steel factory was the punchline of many jokes throughout the rest of the trip.

Because we were all sweating like pigs after the factory tour, we got to go swimming at a super nice public pool. This was a really fun experience because in Italy you have to wear swim caps! Well, I shouldn’t say fun…the pain of taking off a latex swim cap is the worst! But nevertheless, it was super nice to cool down and relax at the pool for a few hours.

Looking back, my friends and I were so lucky to have become so close that early on because it gave us more time to spend together. While most of us were in the same room at the hostel, it wasn’t until the middle of the first day that we all kind of solidified and started to become close.

After we swam, we had a few minutes to kill while waiting for the rest of the group to change clothes before heading to lunch. I remember sitting at a little table, pulling up extra chairs so everyone could fit, and going around sharing what our future goals were and what we planned to do after high school. This was the start of our question/conversation circle which we would have at every meal. I miss it so much!

That day wasn’t too eventful, which was very nice because we were all a bit jet-lagged, so I’ll share photos from the next day…

Here’s a lovely view of one of the streets in Narni. We would have to walk up and down streets like this to get to the hostel from the town square every day. It was kind of miserable at first, but after the first few days, I grew to love the crazy streets and alleyways. Multiple times during the trip I’d get random bursts of energy and would feel the need to sprint up the hills! 🙂 Looking back, I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I had so much fun in those moments.

That morning, we had our first Italian lesson. I was super nervous because I’m just a beginner, but by the end, I enjoyed the lessons a lot. Our two teachers, Marco and Benedetta, were wonderful, and they made the class super interesting and fun. After the first lesson, we went to the town square to meet the major of Narni!

We had lunch afterward and relaxed at the hostel for a bit. Then, later in the afternoon, we walked about thirty minutes uphill to a castle called La Rocca di Narni. While the walk up was a bit strenuous, the views we saw made me completely forget about the hills.

This picture doesn’t do justice to the view. Endless green mountains and a perfect blue sky! Oh, and look in the middle on the left side of the picture….there’s a house there! So cool.

This is the outside of La Rocca.

And this is inside! In the picture below, you can see the different types of stone used on the wall because of the many renovations they’ve done over the centuries.

The gorgeous view from the top of La Rocca. You can even see our beloved steel factory.

Our tour guide at the castle was great. She spoke in Italian mostly, but when it was a confusing topic she would clarify in English. This is a picture of nuts, beans, and seeds: all of the ones here were a large part of the diet during medieval times/when the castle was inhabited.

Because the walk up to the castle was so long, we were all super sweaty and hot by the end. We saw clouds beginning to roll in and were hoping there’d be a thunderstorm to cool us off! Thankfully, it started to rain a bit on the walk down. Now that I’m recapping this day, I think it was definitely one of my favorites. But to be honest, I could say that for every day!

Here are me and my friends at La Rocca…

Oh, I wish you could smell this picture. There were a few lavender (lavanda!) bushes up on the hill, and we all picked and smelled them for a few minutes before heading back. It was the most picturesque moment. I still have some sitting on my shelf, and every time I smell it I’m instantly reminded of Narni and my lovely friends.

Here’s a shot of the houses we walked by while heading back to the hostel.

And this has got to be one of my favorite pictures I took!

After dinner, we returned to the hostel and got ready for a 9:30 performance we would be attending. This was the first of many shows/concerts we went to, and it was quite interesting. It was called “To The Moon,” and, because it was in Italian, I didn’t understand all that much. I can tell you that it was about the first moon landing and that there was beautiful piano music throughout. Here’s a photo of us before the show:

After the show ended, it was nearly midnight, but many of us were hungry for gelato. So, even though we were all kind of tired, we stuck around in the square (it was very lively since this was a Friday night) and ate gelato together, discussing the play we had just seen.

And then we went to bed.

The next day was Saturday. We had breakfast at 8 a.m. and headed to a town called Amelia shortly after relaxing on the balcony and getting ready.

I love this photo. I would do anything to be sitting at that table in the hot sun again with all of my friends!

Eeeee! Spot the kitty in this photo!

We arrived in Amelia around 10:30 and headed straight to a bakery. This is my group walking down one of the streets in the town. Try to find me! 🙂

Look at how gorgeous these desserts are. Too pretty to eat!

My friend Isabella and I shared a cannolo. It wasn’t as good as the one I had in Taormina this April, but it was still pretty tasty.

Next, we went to an archaeological museum called Museo Civico Archeologico e Pinacoteca. It was pretty neat and really well-designed, and there was a lot to see! The tour guide then took us to the Teatro Sociale of Amelia which is a beautiful theater. I’ve always wanted to sit in one of those theater boxes, and I finally got the chance to!

The view looking down.

The painting on the ceiling is gorgeous. I love how it looks like an addition to the balcony. And, of course, the flying babies are great, too XD

This is the incredible ceiling inside the theater’s dressing room.

This green door makes me very happy.

Oh, so beautiful! It looks like a painting.

The cutest hedgehog street art.

After lunch in Amelia, we headed back to Narni for a cooking class. We made a pasta salad and tiramisu, and there was also a meat dish with prosciutto I can’t remember the name of. Here’s a picture of me cheesin’ it up while I mix the mascarpone…

The cooking class was held in the center of a restaurant. We were surrounded by four walls covered in vines as we cooked and ate dinner.

The food we made was delicious, of course. It was definitely one of my favorite meals, and my friends and I had a really special conversation that night which made it ten times better.

Here’s one last picture of some pretty houses I saw after our cooking class that evening…

That’s all for today. This was only my fourth full day, so I have lots more to share. Buonanotte!

narni, italy – the flight & our first day

If you didn’t know, this past July I had the opportunity to visit Narni, Italy for two weeks. It was a trip run by the Italian language company IACE and the Narnia Music Festival. In the spring, with the help of my Italian teacher, I created a video that I submitted to IACE. I won the scholarship contest and was one of the twenty other students selected to go.

While making the video, I didn’t think much of the trip. I was only a beginner in Italian, and I knew there were tons of other students entering who were ten times more advanced and qualified than I was. I didn’t think I would win, but I tried my best anyways and attempted staying positive about it. When I found out I won, I was shocked, confused, and excited; it didn’t really kick in that I was going to Italy again until I was at the airport.

I’ll talk more about this as I continue sharing photos, but the main reason why it has taken me so long to write about it is because of how special it was for me. The two weeks I spent in Narni changed my perspective on life and opened my eyes in so many ways. I met the most lovely, intelligent, and special friends there, and I laughed (and cried!) more than I had in a long while.

So, you see, the reason I haven’t been able to write about it is that I don’t think I can translate into words how much it meant to me. Also, I feel as though many of the memories are more personal, you-had-to-be-there memories, and I don’t want to over-explain them because I don’t know if they’ll make any sense.

Well, I’m going to try my best to give you an accurate taste of the incredible trip I went on this past July. I hope you enjoy… Andiamo!

My trip begins at JFK Airport in New York on Monday, July 16th. My dad, brother, and I left home at around 8:30 to get to the airport around noon. Once we got there, we had about an hour and a half to kill before I had to meet up with the rest of the group. I ate a snack in the food court area, and my dad got some airport sushi which wasn’t actually half bad. Then, around two p.m., we walked to the check-in counter and met up with the group.

I knew no one in this group, except for the other student from my school who won the scholarship as well. He happened to be in my class, too, so we had the same skill level in Italian, which made me feel a lot better. Other than him, the only known commonalities within our group were 1) we all live on the East Coast and 2) we all are learning Italian. I hadn’t spoken to anyone else before the airport, and this was my initial fear about going on the trip.

Once we checked our bags, it was time to say goodbye to our families and head to security. The line leading up to security was awkward, and no one really spoke to each other. I find it funny looking back at that moment; while going through security on our way home, everyone was talking or laughing their way through the line.

We made it past security and were given free time to wander around until we had to board. There were some students from the same school who paired up and wandered off, but many of us didn’t know anyone. When the group split up, I didn’t know what to do, so I put on my shoes and slowly began to wander. Immediately, I thought that the whole trip would be like this and I’d be alone and awkward the whole time. Horrible thoughts swirled around my brain, but then I remembered I brought four books and would have plenty of time to read (more on that later…), so maybe I would be okay after all.

I quickly exited my negative frame of mind when someone walked up next to me. She said, half-laughing, “I’m not really sure what to do…” and I replied, “yeah, me neither…” (or something like that). From there, we introduced ourselves, and I made my first new friend: Maia.

We talked for a while and made our way to the gate where we continued our conversation. My negative thoughts ceased for the time being, and I was just so happy to have made a friend that early on.

We continued talking until we had to board the plane. Our seats weren’t near each other, so I met two new girls who were my seatmates. I didn’t talk to them at all, which, again, I find funny because the girl who sat next to me ended up being one of my close friends by the end of the trip!

On the eight-hour ride to Germany (where our layover was), I watched Green Book and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, two of last year’s Oscar-winners that were on my to-watch list (both were fantastic, by the way!). I also tried to sleep on the plane because I knew we’d be getting into Rome with a whole day ahead of us, but I was not very successful in doing so.

The eight-hour flight ended eventually, and we landed in Germany at around seven a.m. The Germany airport was super cool. We had some time to explore, so Maia and I rode down the moving sidewalks and checked out the little kiosks and shops near our gate. After about an hour in the airport, we began boarding the flight to Rome.

This flight was only two hours long, but it may have been the worst flight of my life. There wasn’t turbulence or anything: I just felt sick the whole time. I was constipated (TMI?), I was hungry, I felt nauseous, I was exhausted, my back hurt like crazy, and I was stuck in between two smelly men. I have never felt worse in my life. It felt SO. GOOD. to get off of that plane!

Once we exited, we found our bags and got to change out of our sweaty and smelly clothes. We walked to the tour bus, loaded our luggage, and then we were off!

Our first stop was Ostia Antica, an ancient archeological site outside of Rome. I don’t think this will be surprising, but this part of the trip was not easy to enjoy and appreciate. We were given about an hour and a half of free time to explore the site, but everyone was exhausted, hot, and hungry, so there wasn’t much learning that went on.

Maia and I walked through the site and made it to the food court which was, oddly, in the center of the site. We bought some watermelon and a bag of Cheeto-like chip things called Crick Crok.

I LOVE these trees.

This is an original 7th-century mosaic.

Here’s the theater right within the site. Apparently, they still do shows here, which is really cool. It reminded me a lot of the Greek theater I saw in Taormina, Sicily!

I kept saying this as we roamed around: I truly wish we had come here another day. I’m sure I’d have appreciated it after a good night’s sleep while wearing some clothes that weren’t drenched in sweat!

From there, we drove for about an hour and a half to get to the hostel in Narni. I had a surprisingly good nap on the bus which energized me for the insanity that was about to occur…

Once we made it to Narni, the bus dropped us off in the town square (since the streets are far too narrow for it to drive down). We took our bags out of the bus and began the walk to the hostel.

If you didn’t know, Narni is a medieval town, meaning that basically everything is made from cobblestone. The ground is all cobblestone, too, which is lovely… when you’re not dragging a suitcase. Uphill. In 90-degree heat.

I feel like we all deserve medals for making it to the hostel that day. For real, though, I can’t complain… I was in ITALY, after all! And once we got to the hostel, we enjoyed this view from the balcony! It was completely worth it.

Just thinking about the balcony at the hostel makes me so happy. My friends and I would stay up late talking out there as bats flew around us and lizards climbed the walls. The view was breathtaking, and I can’t believe I got to wake up to that every single day.

This is what you saw looking behind the hostel: rows and rows of mix-matched houses, all of which fit perfectly together.

After showering and relaxing for a bit, we got to explore the town as we headed to dinner. Remembering these little things makes me so sad and happy. I remember the big memories, the ones that everyone reminisced about the most… but the little things don’t always cross my mind as much. When they do, though, they always bring a smile to my face. I hope the little moments of this trip never escape from my memory.

This picture, for example… I remember so vividly sitting on the street staring up at that building. We were waiting outside a theater for a presentation to begin, and everyone was (still) exhausted. I couldn’t believe I was in Italy at that moment; it took quite a while for that fact to settle in. All the time, my friends and I would remind each other that we were actually there, but it took a couple days for it to hit me.

And here we have a photo of my dream car. Whenever I see Fiats here in the US while I’m driving, I am instantly taken back to Italy 🙂

Here’s a photo I took while waiting for dinner. I am still in awe at how preserved these homes and buildings are. Being in Narni truly felt like we were in a different century.

Ahhhh, the cats! This is the first of many cat photos.

There were tons of stray cats throughout the town. It was glorious, and we all made friends with them. I find it interesting that in Sicily I only saw stray dogs, but here I only saw stray cats. There were many dogs here that were on leashes, but in Sicily I saw very few dogs. Weird!

Here’s a view from the balcony, again. I would do anything to be there right now.

Cotton candy skies…

Here’s a photo from the hostel lobby. Lots and lots of religious iconography, here and pretty much everywhere we went. The hostel was lovely. It is designed specifically for students and teachers, so there were only a couple of other students who joined us (they were there for the music festival).

It honestly felt like a hotel. Our beds would be made every day and the bathroom would be cleaned, too. The breakfast was delicious: there was espresso, juice, fresh fruit (apricots especially!), and a myriad of pastries. I still dream of the chocolate croissant I would eat almost every morning.

Ahhh. Gelato. This is one of the two gelato shops we would visit daily. I preferred this one 🙂

This was the very first gelato I got on that trip. It’s cannella (cinnamon) and oh, boy, was it delicious! I wanted to be more adventurous with my gelato flavors, so I began that streak right at the start.

Another kitty!

I think this was actually the second night, but there was an incredible red moon we watched rise up while sitting on the balcony. It was so hard to take a picture of it, but it was absolutely beautiful. This whole trip feels like a dream.

That’s all for today. I was there for two weeks, so there’s still a bit more to share! Stay tuned… arrivederci e buon weekend!

our last day

After a little over a month of blogging about this trip, my Sicily series is over. Today I’ll be taking you through my final day there. It was simple, but it was one of my favorites.

Instead of eating breakfast at the hotel, many of us waited until we got to Taormina to have some cannoli instead. That cannolo was the best I’ve ever had. They put the cream in the shell right in front of you so it doesn’t get soggy, and it’s topped with sweet almond pieces and powdered sugar. It was the flakiest, crunchiest, and most incredible dessert. If you ever find yourself in Taormina, be sure to hit up Roberto’s for a once-in-a-lifetime cannolo. Oh, what I would do to eat one right now! PS: Their torrone is crazy delicious, too.

This was outside the little bakery. Our tour guide, Nicole, translated a couple of them for us, and some are really funny.

A really cool staircase guarded by a face.

The only thing we had planned for this day was to visit a pottery shop called Made in Sicily. One of the owners told us about their products and how everything in the store is hand painted.

This woman did a demo in front of us. It blows my mind how much time is put into these.

I bought a couple things there for friends and family and a little owl for myself.

After the mini tour, we had about three hours to shop and get any last minute gifts to bring back home. My grandpa, uncle, aunt, and I got lunch, and then my aunt and I went on the hunt for the perfect scarf. Everyone I passed by on the street there always had the most elegant and beautiful scarves, so I couldn’t leave Sicily without getting one! I ended up buying two. They make me sad/happy when I wear them!

This was a cute display in one of the shops we went to.

I loved window shopping and going into all the designer shops. It was so fun admiring all of the beautiful clothes and other items with my aunt!

Ugh, and I wanted that sweater so bad! The store was closed, though 😦 I would have bought it in a heartbeat.

And now, my friends, I present to you… the last gelato. *sobs*

This is ginger and chocolate. See, I told you I only ever got chocolate! But, hey, at least I was adventurous with the opposite flavor! Ginger was actually really nice and unexpectedly good!

While it’s definitely a bit of a touristy area, Taormina is a really fun little town. There’s so much to look at, do, and eat there, and I had a blast roaming around that day.

Later in the afternoon, our group met up and we rode back down the hill to Letojanni. There had been a storm brewing all day, so my friends and I went down to the beach to watch the waves. These were the biggest and craziest waves I have seen. It’s almost as if Sicily was having a temper tantrum that we were about to leave…I sure was! 😉

These photos aren’t the greatest, so I posted a quick video on Youtube for you to watch if you’re interested. Here’s the link.

This one is the biggest of them all! I have a video of it, but all you can hear is my friends and me yelling, so I took a screenshot of it instead:

We hung out at the hotel after it began raining before we headed to dinner. The restaurant we went to was only a few minutes from the hotel, so we all braced ourselves for the rainstorm and made the treck.

For dinner, we each had a small pizza to ourselves. The weirdest thing happened at this restaurant, too: We were each handed our pizzas, but they weren’t cut into slices! So, we had to use our little butter knives and cut them ourselves. It was quite strange, and everyone was curious as to why they weren’t pre-cut. Despite that, it was so fun sitting down with our whole group on our final day in paradise, even if we were all in a pre-grieving state about leaving.

After dinner, my friends and I hung out for a few hours before bed, packing up our suitcases while singing songs and drinking Coca Cola. Then, when 11pm struck (our curfew), we said goodnight and headed to bed.

The next morning, the storm had calmed down and the ocean was still again.

We went down to breakfast and loaded our luggage onto the bus. And now for the fun part: the crazy traffic! It was supposed to be only about an hour to the airport from our hotel, but it took us way longer than expected because of the inexplicable traffic jam the entire way there. We all thought we’d miss our flight, but, thankfully, we made it! We even had some time to spare in the airport gift shops.

Our first flight to Germany was about two hours. Taking off from Sicily was so different from landing there ten days prior; my mindset was completely fresh and new. When we arrived, I was nervous and scared to be in a new country, and I didn’t know anyone too well in our group, either. I was a completely different person on the flight home, though: I had both new friends and new experiences under my belt, and I felt ready to conquer the world.

Hi, Mount Etna!

And thus, our journey back home began.

I arrived home at around 11pm-ish. I didn’t sleep on the flight back (instead, I watched 3.5 movies: A Star is Born, which is my new favorite movie; Bohemian Rhapsody, which I’d seen before but wanted to rewatch; Beautiful Boy; and half of Mamma Mia 2). Lufthansa has the best movie selections ever!

When I got home, I showered and went to bed immediately. I had school the next day (ugh) and had to wake up at 6:30. Sigh. Back to reality!

Well, that’s all! I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. It’s taken a while for me to get it up, so thanks for sticking with me and continuing to read. Sicily was the first place I’ve visited outside of the country. I think it will always hold a special place in my heart, not only because I’m 1/4 Sicilian myself, but because it was the first major travel experience I’ve had. I also got to go with my grandpa, aunt, and uncle, which was just the best. I hope to return someday and explore other areas of this special place.

I also have some exciting news: I will be going back to Italy in just a couple weeks! This time I’m going to a small town called Narni in the region of Umbria. I won a scholarship to go study the Italian language and culture for two weeks in July. I am so grateful for my Italian teacher for giving me this opportunity and for my Arizona aunt & uncle for helping with plane fare. I can’t believe I get to go back! I’m a bit nervous, but I cannot wait to share it all on here. I’ll post updates soon!

As always, thanks for following along.