It's hard to believe that this is my last day in Italy. Today feels like a mixture of two contradicting ideas. I think back to the first night we were here, on the rooftop terrace of the Hotel Baglioni, and it feels like 4,000 years ago. But when I think harder, it's hard for me to explain exactly where November and December went. These past few weeks I was so excited to push through my remaining school work and head home to my friends and family. Now that the day is here, however, I've come up with a new plan: Everyone I love can just move to Italy. Bring clothes dryers and peanut butter and we'll be all set.
Seriously though, there are a lot of things I am going to miss, a LOT of things and people I am looking forward to at home, and a solid list of things I am excited to leave behind. So in a last-ditch effort to sum up this experience, here's a series of lists. Mainly because I'm too lazy to write in paragraph form.
Things I will miss:
1) Italian coffee- shot of espresso for 80 cents? sure.
2) the duomo- oh hey, enormous, wondrous feat of architecture that I walk past on a daily basis. what's up?
3) delicious pasta for virtually every meal, i don't hate it.
4) secret bakeries!! (every night a select few locations in Florence make all the pastries for all the cafes to be sold the following morning. If you are lucky enough to stumble upon one in the wee hours of the morning by following your nose (or by googling it if you're lazy) you can get delicious pastries fresh from the oven. be warned, however, the bakers are often akin to the Seinfeld soup nazi.
5) sporadic church bells ringing at virtually every time except when you would expect them to ring. it that santa croce I hear? must be 5:17.
In addition to these five silly things (most of which involve food, clearly) I will obviously miss the experience of living in this wonderful city, in what I maintain is the most beautiful country in the world. I will miss the friends I have made here, certainly (tear...) and will miss the knowledge that, even after 4 months, there are random moments where the sheer awesomeness (I don't think that's a word) of this situation takes my breath away.
Things I will NOT miss:
1) dog poop. It appears as though the pooper-scooper has been deemed an unnecessary invention by the majority of the Italian population.
2) San Lorenzo Markets- Although these can be a fun folly if you're a tourist in the city, the market stalls where merchants ceaselessly try to get you to buy a new leather coat (even in 80 degree heat) or any other such goods are a HUGE nuisance when I'm trying to get virtually anywhere in the city.
3) Foreign tour groups- you know the type. They need photos in front of everything that even resembles a monument or landmark, they stop in the middle of the street, they travel in packs of about 50-100, and make no attempt to move out of your way if you need to get past. Sure I was a tourist this semester, but someone shoot me if I ever feel the need to follow a tour guide's ribbon on a stick.
4) narrow sidewalks- one cobblestone width raised 1/2 and inch above the street does not constitute a pedestrian walkway. sorry florence.
5) communication barriers- before you even ask, I am nowhere near proficient enough in Italian to actually speak to a native about anything other than, say, the weather. in very rudimentary terms. gesticulating, using broken english-italian hybrid words, and occasionally ending up with a croissant when I wanted a coffee are no longer cutting it.
Things I am looking forward to:
1) Reunions with family and friends that I haven't seen in far too long. I suppose this speaks for itself, but everyone better be ready to receive an enormous hug immediately upon seeing me. Whether you like it or not.
2) Personal space- another concept that Europeans have yet to master. Even if we've never met, it's totally acceptable to stand 2 cm behind me while we wait in "line" (read: mob) for train tickets. or something.
3) Starbucks- yes, I love italian coffee. it makes my morning, every morning. However, there is definitely something to be said for slowly savoring a delicious, enormous cup of starbuck's christmas blend. Yum.
4) Stonehill. College.: Quesadillas from the Hill, dance parties, running into multitudes of familiar faces around campus, playing in the snow, spending all night in MacPhadin library (oh, how I miss it.), getting unreasonably excited over free t-shirts, any and all things purple, etc. etc. etc. It might still be a month away, but I can't wait.
5) CHRISTMAS!!!!! Christmas is the best!! enough said.
So there you have it: a list of lists. More of an outline, really.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going out to savor the last 18 hours I have left. My friends and I are celebrating/saying goodbye with a trip to scenic Piazza Michaelangelo (where we went one of the first nights) and dinner out-- gotta use those Euros somehow!! :-)
I'll see you when I see you. In the USA.
Ciao forever,
Liz
