Anthropology of a Girl: Things I Learned in Italy

If someone where to ask you what the most dangerous think you've done by choice was, what would you say? Would you have an answer?

Well, someone asked ME that question last night, and for once, I actually had an answer. Just a month ago I honestly don't know how I would have answered the question, but last night I knew exactly how to answer the question: going to Italy.

Before I get to the why part, I must first share with you the excitement I have over even having an answer to this question. You see, all of my life I've played it safe. I do the right thing, think things over before I make a decision, wait until all the pieces fit, yadda, yadda, yadda. Part of me loves the thrill of trying things other people are not willing to do, like eat menudo and sit on a public toilet without the paper (oops, wasn't supposed to say that, and no, the two are not related). However, those aren't exactly what I would call "adventurous".

I also love traveling and experiencing new things but until Italy, I'd never really done it on my own timeline with no real knowledge of what I was doing. I visited my sister once in Bolivia (i.e. the armpit of the world), but even there she knew where to go and what to do (i.e. cook eggs and banana bread on her patio-kitchen and watch episodes of 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' on my iPod while trying to heat a small room with our own body heat snuggled under a blanket).

My sister in the Patio-Kitchen

Me & Charango (Bolivian claim to fame?)

Italy, on the other hand, was a total adventure and leap of faith. By the time my travel-buddy and I left for our trip we had been planning for about 9 months. We took things one at a time, starting out slowly with looking into things to do and places to go, determining which cities we'd grace our presence with, then moving on to buying plain, train, and museum tickets. The planning and coordinating became more and more intense as the months went on. Even the week before we left was filled with last minute details, emails to family, final research and reservations, multiple trips to Target and very specific packing of my carryon that would soon become my dresser, bathroom drawer, small closet, and place to rest my bum. It basically became my miniature traveling apartment.

With our mini-apartments before we left; very ignorant

The thing is though, with all our planning and coordinating, we really had NO IDEA what we were doing. We read books and received plenty of information from friends and co-workers who had traveled there, but there is nothing that will really prepare you for a trip like that. And we knew it.
I could go on and on and on with stories about things we did and saw. Walking through cities and experiencing the things we did, I couldn't comprehend how anyone could NOT enjoy Italy. Seriously, there is something there for everyone. There was the time we got stuck on a tour causing us to almost miss our first train out of Rome, the night we had nowhere to sleep and almost ended up sleeping next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa (literally), the dozens of times we got lost, the changes in plans, walking paths that ended without warning, the boats, the trains, the buses....and everything in between. I'm doing quite a terrible job expressing to you the amount of adventure we experienced, but like I said, there is just too much to share in a single post.

The night we almost slept at the Leaning Tower of Pisa

How we felt about almost sleeping at the Leaning Tower of Pisa

In the midst of this incredible adventure, in the midst of huge failures and successes, we survived. We got to where we wanted to go and each place we arrived at brought a huge sense of relief...we did it!

With each goal or destination we faced a new obstacle that brought new anxieties and forced us to cope in new ways. If at home you "learn something new every day", then in a foreign country I think you must learn 500 new things every day. No. Joke.

In the midst of it

The thing is though, by the end of the trip I couldn't help but think to myself, "If I can do this, I can do anything." No. Joke.

And so here I am, a month later, having to remind myself that I can do anything. ~~I think I can, I think I can, I think I can~~ I know I can, I know I can, I know I can. Going on this trip took a huge leap of faith and the willingness to try something new, knowing it would be really good, but really difficult in the process. I didn't know what "difficult" would look like, but I was willing to work through it in order to see and experience things I knew were a once in a lifetime opportunity. Simply stated, I was not willing to miss out on life because of fear. And it was totally worth it.