Back home
The last ever blog post for this trip! I am home now…well, home in Pittsburgh. I go home home to Lancaster County tomorrow, and the first thing I will do is hug my family very tightly and let my dogs give me lots of kisses.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Pittsburgh, happy to be back in America where I can order an iced honey latte and sit in a room where everyone is speaking English. My first meal when I got back was Chinese takeout. My first drink was a large glass of water with about five very large ice cubes.
I also slept for a nice and long 13 hours last night on my couch, because I don’t have a bed in my apartment yet. Believe it or not, my couch is more comfortable than any bed I slept in while in Italy. I’ll take it.
As far as the actual day of travel goes, nothing very exciting happened. I watched four movies on the plane ride home, and they were interspersed with short and uncomfortable naps. I watched Loving Vincent, the Princess Diaries, Suburbicon, and The Greatest Showman…a very interesting mix. Before everyone closed their windows very early on the flight, I got a peak out to see a beautiful mountain range, that I suspect is the Alps, covered in snow. It was BEAUTIFUL and made me wish I had an aisle seat:(
The most exciting thing to happen was getting a Magnum ice cream bar (thank you Delta), but I ruined that excitement by finding melted chocolate from that bar all over my pants 3 hours after eating it. I’d like to thank my Mom and Dad for fully equipping me with Shout wipes…that was the first thing I did when I got off the plane. Customs was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but we had to go through TSA again at the JFK airport which was not fun. Our layover was short, so we went straight to the gate and boarded within 20 minutes of getting there. After the first 9 hour flight, the flight from JFK to Pittsburgh felt like a walk through the park at just under an hour.
I want to take this last blog post to share some of the things I’ll take away from my trip. I’m sure I’ll be getting this question a lot: What was our favorite part of the trip? I’ll answer that now – THE VESPA TOUR.
My favorite cultural, tourist spot to see was probably the Colosseum. Hearing the history behind it and actually seeing it was amazing. I also never knew 100% of the information that was given to us, and the tour guide totally smashed all of what I thought I knew about that structure beforehand, which was pretty cool.
My favorite city that we visited was Florence because of the overall vibe I felt. There were more quaint stores, less “tourist traps,” and had a lot of hidden gems. I think Florence is kind of a hidden gem in and of itself. My favorite town we visited was Assisi for it’s picturesque and quaintness. It seemed like a fairytale.
My least favorite parts of Italy:
- the men were not that nice to us in Rome. When we walked through the streets, they yelled at us and often came up to us, invading our personal space.
- While everyone did speak English, most vendors and people we met while out and about were not nice and were actually really impatient with us as English speaking tourists. Overall, the Italians were not very warm with us at all, and we got brushed aside more than just a few times. (This was NOT the case for the professionals we met on our media trips – they treated us wonderfully!)
- having to pay for water everywhere!!! But you already know this.
- The service at restaurants was overall was not what I am used to, especially as a waitress myself. In most cases, the service was actually pretty bad. Slow, neglectful, and manipulative (I’m referring to the bread thing)
Overall, this was an amazing experience – my first time out of the US! I had a wonderful time with some wonderful people, and I have memories now that I will cherish forever. I could write a couple thousand words on all of it, but for now just take these little bits and if you want you an ask me specific questions later…haha!
Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have been reading my blogs. I was honestly so surprised at how many people wanted to read them and continued reading them throughout my trip. You know who you are(; If you read them, I would love to hear your favorite moments or something that truly jumped out to you. I don’t know, I think it’d be fun for me to hear them! Shoot me a text or a Facebook message…and please don’t be shy!
I’ll end this blog with some of my favorite pictures that I’ve taken on the trip. I have a lot of favorites that other people have taken, but these are all just mine. They’re each favorites for very different reasons – maybe they’re my favorite spots, maybe they’re associated with some good memories, maybe they capture a person I really love, or maybe it’s just because I think it’s a well taken picture. All for different reasons, but here they are – unedited for authenticity (and also because I have no idea how to properly edit photos). Thanks to my camera, for accompanying me on this trip. Her name is Cam Jansen, and she’s a Canon Rebel T6. This was her first journey with me!
Alright…that should be all. For the last time! Grazie e ciao!
Peace + love,
Carrie
