{vending machine pasta. did you hear me? VENDING MACHINE PASTA. and that pizza was pretty life changing, too.}
{some florentine details that caught my eye}
{the galleria dell'accademia: went in thinking sculpture wasn't my thing, came out a changed woman}
{the light that makes any city pretty}
{inside the cupola of brunellesci's duomo}
{why they're known for their food}
{ponte vecchio // i'm now wishing for a villa in the italian countryside...}
{uffizi gallery}
{insane views from boboli gardens}
not until i left paris did i realize how fondly i had grown of the french language. never did i ever think i would ever want to merci beaucoup the crap out of everything until i got to italy.
while i traveled to other places on the weekends while living in paris, i always knew that i would be back; italy was different in this way. it made learning basic italian phrases that much more complicated, as i way toying inside with the fact that i would never again make the trek across to ile de la cite every 9 am for work. despite my separation anxiety from the first foreign city i have come to love, i finally felt like i fit in in italy! they pronounced my name "lawn-zah," the correct way, and it was music to my ears! florence was beautiful. i ate penne and ravioli and risotto, fell in love with gravitas and semifreddo and crema caffe. compared to paris' cold rain, florence was steaming hot, and it got to the point where i just accepted that i would have multiple layers of sweat on my sun beaten body until the shower at night. we saw art up the wazzooh and i drank it all in.
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after florence, i took the train to milan, where i ate corn chips and salsa and a steak salad at a restaurant called roadhouse grille and loved every lip-smacking-american moment. it's been a while since i've had such a basic meal. on the train to geneva, i watched the italian countryside pass me by outside while two little french boys ran up and down the aisles and excitedly played a game on their game boys, screaming ALLEZ ALLEZ at every opportune moment (aka every time i lay my head against the window to sleep).
i've been thinking a lot about the age and time in my life in which i'm here, abroad, experiencing something completely out of my comfort zone. i think if I had studied abroad, say, sophomore year in college, i wouldn't have gotten half as much as i've gotten out of this summer. that's not to say that others don't benefit from experiencing other countries and continents early, but i grew and changed so much in college that i can truly appreciate where i am right now. it's a whole other world here in geneva compared to paris but i think i'm gonna like it.
(also, i recently checked itunes for the top american hits to update my running playlist - my knowledge of music parallels that of a 5 year old's - and one of the top songs is called wiggle, with snoop dog. i think i'll stay in europe a while longer.)
"have you ever had that feeling - that you'd like to go to a whole different place and become a whole different self?"
- haruki murakami
