Just Some More Pictures For Your Amusement:

**At Ostia Antica, the ancient Roman port city**

**Rue dei Valeri-- no significant importance except one day I may move to Italy just to live on this street**

**In a local pizzeria in Sorrento, Italy**

**At the Archeological Museum in Naples, we were each assigned a Roman emperor and this was mine (Hadrian)**

**Prosciutto and Buffalo Mozzarella pizza for the first time in Rome**

**The Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) at the Santa Maria in Cosmedin**

**Trajan's column, Rome**

**August's Ice Sculpture**

**Ancient Artifacts at the American Institute** 

**On top of the Doma in Florence**

The Very End

          After seeing all the beautiful and incredible sites in Italy I know that I have definitely learned more about ancient Roman archaeology and culture. But after spending three weeks not only site seeing but meeting locals, dining at local eateries, and orientating myself and figuring out how to get around major Italian cities I know that I am walking away with more than just knowledge on Roman and Greek history. Before the trip all I thought going abroad would bring me education on history and seeing major tourist sites. But what I took away from it was so much more. I gained a sense of pride because I know I could single handily navigate around a foreign nation, I am confident now that there is a way of communicating other than language, and I feel more adventurous because I know I can sign up for a trip knowing no one and come out with friends who I see myself keeping in touch with for years to come. Italian culture is more than just amazing pizza, delicious coffee, and mouthwatering pastries and gelato. Italians are kind people who treat everyone like family if they enter their home or business, they appreciate their lives and choose to savor and live them, their ‘siestas’ are meant to allow people to have more in their day than just work, and their culture is one to be inspired by. 
         This year I have taken other globalization courses, in addition to the ones I took last year with Global Communities. In those courses we speak a lot about the theories of the world being flat or not, how it is for people of different cultures to interact, and if there is a way to be global. I feel that while in Italy I met all sorts of different type of people, many of which knew as much English as I knew Italy (which was just preggo, gratzie, and caio). I found a way to communicate with these people, to keep informed of what was going on politically in Italy, Europe, and the U.S., and pick up as much of the culture as possible. My experiences have shown me that the world can truly be globalized if people gave themselves the opportunity and chance to be. Yes markets, economies, technology, and politics could become globalized but I believe the world will truly be globalized when all people have a basic understanding and respect for almost all cultures. My experience has given me that and I can not wait to continue my process towards globalization as I continue to travel to different countries and immerse myself in different cultures.  

One night we had decided to go to dinner in Rome to this restaurant called Osteria that we had found on yelp. The reviews looked amazing and we decided to be adventurous. We took the bus and then light rail into the city based off of the directions our professor had given us. When we got out we weren’t sure what street we were on, we turned the corner of a street and right there right in front of us was the Monument of Vittoia Emanuele II. It looked magnificent all light up against the dark black back ground. We then tried walking and finding the right street but all the road signs were on random buildings and not well organized. We had a map and started going down the right street but could not find the next street to turn. We saw a family with a better map and went up and asked them in English to let us look at the map for two seconds. The father shook his head and looked confused, it was clear they didn’t understand English. We left them alone but then I heard the father speaking Russian to his wife. Immediately I walked back over and explained to them that we were lost and needed to get on to a certain street, in Russian. Right away the wife and husband smiled and started speaking to me in Russian. My friends were amazed that of all the people we asked for help in Rome they ended up being Russian. It made me feel good that I had a skill that had gotten us onto the right street! Once we got to the restaurant we were amazed that there was a women hand making the pasta! Once we were seated we had one of the best dinners of the entire trip. We had an appetizer with anchovies and fresh buffalo mozzarella. In very broken English our waiter told us that they do not make mozzarella like that in America, and I believed him. We all got a different pasta dish and tried each other’s. All were divine. Two hours later we left the restaurant feeling happy, satisfied, and accomplished. 

After Naples we headed to Rome, a whole different city with a very unique style. Any turn you take there seem to be ancient ruins there. We were staying right outside of Rome by the American Institute where our professor used to live and work. She showed us all the delicious local places to get food, pastries and coffee. One place specialized in making suplis, flat breads, and other delicious fried foods. After touring in Rome we would take the bus back to our little area and treat ourselves to a supli or two before dinner. A supli was like a fried mozzarella stick with rice and sauce inside. It was the most delicious snack and only a euro! 

I was shocked by their generosity and how friendly they had been to us. Everyone warned us that Europeans hate Americans but these people had been nothing but kind to us! I After five days in Italy I no longer felt like a tourist who knew nothing, I felt like I could find my way around the light rail and metro system, pick a good restaurant even when I didn't understand anything on the menu, and truly understand the culture of wanting to ‘siesta’ for three hours every day! 

              One day we were supposed to visit the Archaeological museum in Naples and it had unexpectedly been closed because of some Holiday. Our professor was disappointed but realized that there was nothing that we could do so she just let us have the day off in Naples. The weather was beautiful and we decided to try to get to Capri that day since we wouldn't have a full day off again while in Naples. We made our way down to the docks stopping to try some delicious pizza. As we walked into the pizza shop a man was hand making the tomato sauce. That pizza to this day is the best I have ever tried. We then made our way to Capri by ferry. Once there we sat by the water and had espresso and Tiramisu cake. The local shop owners asked us what we were doing there and where we were from. They seemed genuinely interested how a group of American college students ended up in Capri in the middle of January. They laughed and joked with us where the best views were and what we definitely had to try before leaving. Then they gave us free hot chocolate just because they were so happy Americans came to their island!

            After the first three days I realized that though we were with a professor and there to learn, we had a lot of free time to do as we wanted. To go into Naples and walk the streets until we found a pizzeria we wanted to try or a gelato place. One girl on my trip had a Italian uncle who taught her all the tricks for finding good quality gelato places. The tricks he said was to find a place that had their gelato in metal containers and then to find the banana flavor and see if it was cream colored. If so then you know the gelato was good, fresh quality gelato. 

**This picture is after the first day where we visited Pompeii and I 

did a presentation on the Temple of Isis**

Before Italy

            Before embarking on my winter study abroad trip to Italy I had been to Europe a few times before. Once on a trip with my high school for two weeks where we traveled all over the place, spending three days in each different city and mostly just doing museums and site seeing. The second time was with my parents when we went to the Swiss Alps to ski. Both trips taught me a lot and showed me so many beautiful places. However, with both trips I did not get to truly experience the cultures of the places. With my high school trip it was so chaperoned and we had no free time to explore the cities try real authentic food. Whereas with my parents we spent the days skiing and the nights relaxing, we had one day off where we explored the ski village but that also felt limited. This would be the first time I would be going abroad alone with expectations of structured times and group meetings.