Its 5 pm on sunday night.
Im sitting on my bed in my apartment.
The sun is setting behind the vatican, which is three blocks south of me.
I can not believe i am leaving in less then 48 hours.
How is that possible? This semester has been unreal, no words can describe the expirence of living in Italy for 5 months.
Let me try my best by recapping the last 5 months with the highlights.
I lived in a small Italian town in the country side for 3 weeks, getting the feel of real italian lifestyle. No one spoke a word of english so our italian language skills grew immensly. I climbed the highest peak in the apennins.I went to the beach in the Adriatic sea. I have travelled all through out italy; milan, sienna, florence, venice, arezzo, perguia, como, tuscany. i have ridden on a gondola in the picturesque canals of venice. I have travelled through out europe. I have been to london, paris, dublin, galway, cork, prague. i returned to the land of my namesake. See the countryside of the country that i love. I went on a pub crawl in dublin. saw the cliffs of mohr. i saw buckingham palace, big ben, parliment, the eiffel tower, the louvre, the arc d'triumph.I climned Notre Dame. I ate crepes in paris, had fish and chips in london. had irish stew with a pint of guiness in ireland. I had the time of my life in Prague, eating goulash and pilsner. I have seen the pope, met him twice, kissed his ring on the second time. Ate lunch with a cardinal. have seen the coliseo, trevi fountain, spanish steps, and roman forum more times then he can count. I have lived in an apartment with 4 other people completely on our own. I have learned a language that is completely foreign to my own. Learned my way around a foreign city. Had some of the best times with friends i will never forget. I have made some great friends in every city i have visited, sadly some of which i will never see again.
From this trip i have learned alot about myself aswell. I can survive completely on my own. The world is a my oyster. I can travel completely on my own in a foreign land with nothing but a map and a backpack. I am open to all cultures. I am not afraid to try new things, even if that means eating cow stomach, or staying out all night for the hell of it.
I have learned that this life is too short to be spent wondering 'what if'. The world is too big not to explore. There are far too many things to see and do to waste your life with insignificant issues.We all need to learn to let loose, have fun, make mistakes, do things for the hell of it, stay out all night, go church,do what makes you happiest, love more, hate less, laugh more, cry less, be happy and less sad and never ever regret a single thing. This life is short and this trip has taught me to live my life the way it was meant to be lived.
So with my bittersweet departure early tuesday morning i will grab my bags and leave on a plane. A plane destined for the people i love most in this world. I am sad to leave and happy to go home, no words can describe the feeling.
Ciao Roma, thanks for being the time of my life.
-Matteo
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