La Bella Italia!

After an enchanting vacation in Italy, I am back in Angers! I had a wonderful time seeing la bella Italia! I left Angers in the afternoon on Thursday, February 18th. I took a train from Angers to Paris, and then a night train from Paris to Florence. I was a little nervous about traveling on my own, but God really provided me comfort! When I was on the train to Paris from Angers, I met two American girls who were traveling to Paris as well to catch a night train to Florence! What’s more is that they were supposed to be traveling with their friend Kassie who couldn’t make it because of a kidney infection. So, they also had extra space in their sleeping car so I wouldn’t have to sleep with strangers! It was all very serendipitous.

Our train to Florence was two hours late arriving, and then over the course of the night, we managed to add two more hours. So, I was a total of four hours late meeting my college roommate, Bekah, in Florence. On top of that, the train couldn’t go into our scheduled station because there was some kind of unforeseen complication. I had to take a train from the Campo Marte train station to the Santa Maria Novella station. This glitch showed me just how travel-savvy I actually am. I met other Americans on the train, and while they were having a lot of anxiety about the change of plans, I kept my cool and helped them get to where they needed to go. It really boosted my traveling confidence!

When I finally met up with Bekah, we walked around Florence. Despite the drizzly weather we were having, the town was absolutely beautiful. I saw the Duomo (the Italian word for cathedral) and the Ponte Vecchio – a bridge on which they have built buildings, most of which are home to breathtaking jewelry stores –, as well as many other beautiful sites in Florence. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to post because my camera went missing in Italy. I’m not sure if it fell out of my bag or pocket, or whether it was stolen from me, but either way, I no longer have a camera.

I also got to have a glass of wine with Dr. Betty Webb and her husband, John Rose. Dr. Webb is the supervisor of the program, and she was also my boss when I worked in the Office of International Programs as a student worker. It was so nice to see her and get to talk with her. I also got to meet the Meredith students who are studying in the program this year. They were very kind and fun to be around! I enjoyed spending time with them. Being with the Meredith group was so refreshing for me; it was like traveling with family! Seeing familiar faces from home definitely helped with my homesickness. I am ready to conquer my last two months in Europe!

After Florence, Bekah and I took the train to Arezzo where we caught a bus to Sansepolcro, a small town in Tuscany where the Meredith Study Abroad Campus site is. I fell in love with it right away. Meredith has renovated an old palace there (“palazzo” in Italian), and they have the good life! The rooms are beautifully furnished, and they get a real homemade Italian lunch during the week. The town of Sansepolcro was even more charming; with the vividly colored houses and the clay tile rooftops, it was like a picture in a travel brochure. The people were very welcoming and friendly, and I felt right at home!

I was also lucky to get to meet Sarah and Patrizio, a couple that Bekah stayed with for a summer as a nanny. Sarah works as an instructor for the Meredith program in Sansepolcro. They have three children: Leonardo, Genevre, and Veronica. It turns out that they were celebrating Leonardo’s third birthday while I was there, and I got to meet the whole family! They were very open, welcoming, and patient with my limited Italian skills! They later invited me back that week for gnocchi – a kind of potato pasta, if you will. Patrizio is a chef, and he made some gnocchi from scratch. It was sooo delicious. It melted in my mouth as I was eating it. I will never look at American Italian food the same way again!

During my week in Sansepolcro, we took a daytrip to Siena, Italy. Bekah spent a semester studying in Siena our senior year at Meredith, so this was a special trip for her. I got to see the new building where her school is now and meet some of the people she got to know. The town of Siena was hauntingly enchanting. It’s an old medieval city, and being within the walls was like walking through an old history book. There were paintings of the Madonna with the infant Jesus all around the town as we were walking through. The streets were hilly and paved with cobblestones. The houses were all touching each other with laundry hanging from the windows. It was like being in a movie.

I got to see the main square in Siena where the town hall is, and I also saw the beautiful Duomo there. It is, undoubtedly, one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen. Bekah was telling me that during the time it was built, it was supposed to be the largest cathedral in all of Christendom. However, when the plague hit, they ran out of money and could not finish the construction. The front, despite the fact that the rest of it is unfinished, is incredible. Another important thing that I saw in Siena was the head of St. Catherine of Siena. I stood in the church where she received her visions, and her head is displayed there. It was really neat to get to see my mother’s patron saint!

I spent my last day in Italy in Milan. I have a friend there named Amber who is doing some mission work for a two year period. It was great to get to see her and meet the people she hangs out with! They were very friendly and made me feel very welcome. We had dinner at a restaurant that served “all you can eat” appetizers with a drink order – and it only cost about 7 Euros! That restaurant was a great little taste of food in the city. Afterward, we went site-seeing. I saw a lot of the major things there are to see: the cathedral, the opera house, the first shopping mall, the decorated cemetery. The cathedral was absolutely my most favorite. The towers were intricately decorated, and the size was amazing. It is impossible to look at it and not be reminded of the majesty and power of God.

After a quick evening of touring and socializing, we returned to her apartment and crashed. I flew out from the Milan Malpensa airport to Charles de Gaulle Paris. Little did I know that earlier that morning, a huge storm had swept through the region. From my understanding, it was like a hurricane with high speed wind and lots of rain. Some cities by the coast were, and remain, flooded. There were over 50 people killed. A storm like this does not happen often here – only once every decade or so.

Needless to say, the weather affected my traveling. When I arrived in Paris, all the trains were running late because of branches blocking the train tracks. Some trains were canceled all together! Luckily, my train was only an hour late; however, we had to stop several times during the trip to wait for the tracks to be cleared. In all, we arrived about three hours late, doing what is usually at two hour trip in three hours.

When I got back to the residence, my neighbors had made me dinner! We’re quite an international group: Sofie is Belgian, Cristina is Italian, Guillaume is French, and Thedi is Bulgarian. I was so excited to see them, and it was so thoughtful of them to cook for me, especially since I was exhausted from a long day of traveling.
I started with my classes the next day, teaching 4 hours total. It hasn’t been a normal week though because I haven’t had any classes Tuesday through Thursday. These few days have been “Journees Professionelles” where the students don’t have classes and are supposed to attend conferences concerning the degrees they are pursuing, while the teachers catch up on work. Luckily, I am all caught up, so I had another few days free to recuperate from my vacation!

I am also really excited because on Saturday, my fiancé Peter is coming with his friend Paul. It’s Paul’s first time in Europe, and I am really excited to give him a taste of the European lifestyle. I’ll give you another update on all of that after their visit.

I hope you all are doing well! Please know that you are in my heart and prayers! A la prochaine.