On the Road with Julie

Time to Read:

And, finally, my final Italy post. As those of you know that are following along on the blog – for each country I go to and language I am attempting to learn, one of my goals is to write a post in my target language and, after review and correction by a native speaker, post it. I think it says something about Italy that I have had more posts about my time here than anyplace else, and I’ve only been here 2 weeks. So – much of what I have to say is in other posts. If you want to read this post in my current Italian (but also with the aid of my friend Antonio that I met back in France! Thanks, Antonio!), click here.

Italy is a place best discovered by wandering. If you have a plan, you’ll have fun. Sure. BUT, if you don’t have a plan and wander, you’ll have fun and experience the thrill of discovering incredible and historic places as if they were completely new.

You can’t walk far without seeing something remarkable. Even if you walk down an unremarkable street, there’s still a good chance you’ll see something significant.

But, truth be told, I’ve only been to Venice, Florence, the Cinque Terre, and Rome. Maybe that’s not true for all of Italy, but something tells me it’s everywhere. It’s not about a specific place—it comes from Italy’s culture, its people, its history.

If I had to sum up Italy in one word, it would be “delicious.” Italy is delicious. It’s a feast for the eyes, the soul, and, of course, the palate. There are delicious things everywhere in the world, but in Italy, flavor is the rhythm to which everyone and everything dances.

And what a wonderful dance!

Italy is a place that has the ability to evoke feelings simply by mentioning the name of any of its world-famous cities. I don’t know if there’s another country besides my own where I know the names of so many places without knowing much of anything else about them. There are so many names of Italian places that evoke emotions, even if you know nothing about them. I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but I know it was true for me. And I’ll leave Italy having seen the reality behind some of these perceptions. And they have all turned out to live up to the hype, at least for me. I’ll leave Italy hungry to see the rest and to savor the many more flavors there are here.

I was in Italy for two weeks. And what a two weeks it has been! I had the chance to visit a handful of those famous cities—Venice, Florence, the Cinque Terre in Tuscany, and Rome. My stay in Italy was exactly what I expected. Absolutely wonderful. And, as I said in my post about Venice, expecting to be amazed and actually being amazed are two different things.

In every place I’ve visited, I feel like I’ve only experienced the smallest part of what they have to offer. At the same time, I feel like I’ve tried to savor every last moment of the two weeks I spent there studying the language.

And, after all, my main goal was to study and learn the language. I’ll say it bluntly, I impressed myself! Truly, I was amazed at how much I learned in just two weeks. When I arrived here in Italy, I didn’t speak Italian at all. With the exception of a few Duolingo lessons, I had never studied Italian. And, after two weeks, I can say that I actually speak some Italian. I can hold conversations. I understand a lot. So many that I’ve taken piano lessons entirely in Italian, a film course entirely in Italian, and a course about Italy entirely in Italian. I still have a long way to go, but I’ve learned far more than I thought possible. (If you are interested to hear about the counterbalance of my linguistic humble pie serving, click here.)

My piano teacher, Italian cinema teacher and all my Italian language teachers were absolutely wonderful. The many new, wonderful people I met—some will be lifelong friends. And the art, nature, food, architecture, and history—that I had the pleasure of learning about.

I’m overwhelmed by the task of trying to describe it all. Luckily, I covered most of it in other posts.

To Italy, to the Italian language, and to all the wonderful Italians and people from around the world who are here to enjoy Italy’s beauty, and whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, laughing with, and learning from, it was a pleasure and a privilege to dance with you for a moment. Thank you. Thank you so much!