Places

 It's a strange feeling to travel around Italy and then return to Bologna with an overwhelming sensation of being "home". I have now been living in Bologna for over a month. In this one month, I've done everything from finding an Italian apartment to learning how exactly you're supposed to peel garlic. I still can't understand everything everyone's saying to me, but when I get asked for directions I can usually point in the right direction. And I no longer get toilet paper and paper towels confused while I'm in the grocery store.

I've traveled on the weekends both with my program and with friends and with each place I visit, I realize how grateful I am to be living in Italy. Sometimes I feel like this country is the tourist capital of the world and when I go to other cities, I'm one of them. Yet, when I get back on a train, I am going to a city where I no longer need a map. I can stop by my favorite gelato place on the way back to the apartment and not have to ask for recommendations. I can go home in Italy.

 I took a day trip to Venice the second weekend in to my program. Never have I felt more attracted to and repulsed by the same location. Piazza San Marco was so full of tourists and pigeons that you couldn't walk without jostling something. I paid way more than I should have to see a golden depiction of the apostles that had a very forgettable name. And I opted out of the ridiculously overpriced 100 euro gondola rides. And yet, despite the crowds, the city still pulls you in to its nooks and crannies and doesn't seem to want to let you go. There's a reason it's so crowded in Venice. Once you're lost in its charm, it will never let you go.

 San Luca is a church just outside the walls of Bologna. It's real beauty lies in the fact that you have to hike uphill through over 600 porticoes to see it. This is a part of Bologna that doesn't really feel like Bologna I've come to know. Raised above the graffiti, the coffee and the ridiculous number of bikers, San Luca is a sanctuary from city life. Look in off to one side and all of Bologna lies before you. Look to the other and the hills outside of Bologna roll away into the horizon.

 Ravenna is a city with a strange mix of the Byzantine empire and classic Rome. Known for its gorgeous mosaics, I found this city to be special because it is the location of Dante Alighieri's tomb. It's probably because of Dante that I'm on this program right now. I imagined his appearance to be a little more elaborate in my head. This is the man who hypothetically changed the course of my entire life. But his manifestation was nothing to be remembered. His tomb is modestly small. We stayed there for a grand total of 10 minutes. And I'm not really sure why I even took pictures. I think I liked it better this way. He has a place in my mind that is much more tangible than a box of marble.

Just yesterday, our program took a bus to Urbino. As you can see, this Renaissance town is known for the Palazzo Ducale, which, pretty much, used to be the entire town. We spent about an hour up on this hill looking down at this dominating image. I was amazed at how, the longer I looked, the less strange it seemed. There is a gigantic fairy tale castle right in front of me and it doesn't phase me. I'm not balling my eyes out about how beautiful it all is (which most people who know me would expect me to be doing). I can still see the castle as the dream I once had of its emotionally charged beauty, but now that I'm living in it, it's surprisingly comfortable.