L'ultima settimana e la rimpatriata

I'm sorry that it's taken so long for me to make my final post. Returning has been busier than I expected, but before I get to the homecoming let me fill you in on my last week.

I had a fantastic time during my final days in Italy and met a multitude of people while I was traveling alone. Because I can't do anything that isn't exciting, I nearly missed my bus in Sansepolcro. Thankfully, Bekah was a helpful guide and got me there just in time. At the end of my very long day of traveling (I started at 8:00 am and arrived at my destination at 10:00 pm!) I grew to believe that the trains in Italy might be one of my favorite place! I shared my music with Marco on the second leg of my journey to Rome and had an entertaining conversation with a brother and sister to Sibari. I consider myself very lucky to have such great company on the long trip.

But when I got to Sibari I was finally able to meet my cousin Gianna and the rest of the family! Unfortunately I didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I would've liked, but the time there was fantastic. We stayed at their beach house which was a 5 minute walk from the most beautiful spiaggia I have ever visited. There were no waves at all, a phenomenon that made the water look more like a big lake then part of the sea, and the water was a refreshing temperature, neither too hot or cold. Gianna was very patient with my elementary Italian skills and often our conversations were heterogeneously mixed with Italian and English words. She took me to Terranova da Sibari, la patria of my father's maternal family. Here are a few pictures including the house where my great, great-grandparents lived.




When the day came that I had to return, Gianna and her mother made a big lunch for all of us and I was on the 3:oo pm bus to Rome. We got there at 10:00 pm, I took the hour-long train to my airport and I waited...and waited...AND WAITED. At 5:00 am I found out that my flight had been canceled due to uno sciopero (a strike) and was reassigned to a direct flight that left at 12:45 pm. Oh, the joys of travel! When I arrived in the Atlanta airport--yes, I still had 5 hours left to travel back home!--I found out that my luggage was left behind in Rome. All of these unlucky events on the trip home made getting there so much sweeter. But I'm already missing Italy a little which, I hope you'd admit, would be easy to do after such a great trip. Grazie mille for following i miei viaggi and I hope to catch up with you soon!