I failed. Yesterday my exhaustion reached levels of such epic proportions that I simply didn’t have the physical capacity to drag myself to my laptop to type a post for this silly post a day challenge. Had I tried, anything I wrote would have been completely incoherent anyway. Forcing myself to post everyday has taken the fun out of this whole blogging thing, and as I mentioned in a previous post, I believe quality should trump quantity in this case. So I admit defeat, but not without this slew of rationalization. Onto blogging.
I know I have been promising a post on my fall fashion wishlist, but A) I’m guessing most of you don’t really care what clothing items I’m lusting after and B) It’s flipping 80 degrees where I live and just looking at coats and capes and boots makes me break out into a sweat. So fall fashion is going to have to wait.
What’s on tap for today? A healthy dose of nostalgia. When Damon is gone, I get to catch up on movies he would never watch with me. The other night, I watched Eat, Pray, Love. The film was mediocre, but it made me long to return to Italy. When I was a little girl, I wanted to visit three places: London, Paris, and Italy. I have no idea where these desires came from, or why I designated specific cities in England and France, but left my Italy travels unspecified. I like to think that at eight years old I had to foresight to realize that all of Italy is worthy of visiting.
I had the good fortune to participate in an internship program in Florence the summer of 2005, followed by a study abroad program that fall. While Florence is my fave, I love all of Italy, (almost) everything about Italy: The people, the food, the art, the food, the language, the architecture, the food, the history, the food… you get the picture. I returned after college graduation in 2007, but haven’t been back since. And that makes me sad.
Watching Julia Roberts cavort around Rome sparked an intense need to return. Immediately. Perhaps it is because I am pregnant and all the food looked so good. On the flip side, the movie reminded me how embarassingly little of the language I recall. I’ll need to work on that.
For obvious reasons, though, I can’t just hop on a plane to Italy. Luckily, my little brother Jamie happens to be participating in the same study abroad program that I did next spring. I think a visit at that time might be in order. I also think it is entirely appropriate that Baby’s first trip abroad be to my favorite place in the world. (As of now – admittedly I have much more of it to see, and some place could very well overtake Italia as my favorite.)
Jamie has no idea of my intention, but he’ll soon find out. In the meantime, Jamie – hopefully some of these photos will get you as excited for your upcoming adventure as I am for you.
San Miniato al Monte. My favorite church in Italy.
Elba. Not a bad place to be exiled, if you ask me.
Venezia
Go to Venice, but skip this. Besides, I think it's illegal.
San Gimignano. You should go here.
- View of your future hometown.
- My lovely host mother, Filomena. She made killer tiramisu. Find her and ask her to make you some.
- You will obviously go to a football game, and buy a scarf to show your support.
- Performers on the Ponte Vecchio
- If you want to feel cultured, you can go to the opera at a palazzo.
- Wine on the Spanish Steps. But you’ve probably done that already.
Ok, I need to stop. I have far too many pictures of my Italian adventures to include in this single blog post and I could stay up all night recommending where you should go and what you should do. That would be unwise seeing as I have yoga early tomorrow morning. I’ll just save my advice for the next time I see you in person. Aren’t you excited?
Plus, besides intensifying my yearning to skip town for anywhere in Italy, this is also reminding me that I used to be young and carefree, my most pressing concern which town to travel to the following weekend or which wine to drink with dinner. Now, Jamie, I suppose I will have to live vicariously through you.
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