And So It Begins

I have been wanting to try blogging for a while. A favorite grad school professor shared his belief that every communication student should try it at least once. I figured this trip to Italy deserves the opportunity to be expressed in a bigger way. So here is it.

The trip begins June 17th with 3 flights and 17+ hours of travel...alone. Most of my friends with children tell me they would fly for 30 hours straight if it means they could read a book uninterrupted. I hear ya sisters. It's funny how every mother I know wants children and has wanted them for most of their life. And yet when you have a child, you are so unbelievably grateful but still have the capacity to also want uninterrupted time to oneself. I love those kinds of complexities in life, like wanting two things that often seem mutually exclusive.

I leave from Denver and have two layovers in Chicago and Brussels, Belgium and finally arrive to Florence on June 18th. I will be spending a week in Florence, Italy and then my class travels to Cagli, Italy where we will spend most of the rest of the trip.

Cagli is an ancient town located in the Le Marche region of Italy, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino. It's home to over 8,000 people and seems largely unaffected by outside influences like tourism and modern industry.

For what it's worth, Cagli is pronounced kai-lyee. It's just one of the many Italian tongue twisters I have been learning. Another is euro, pronounced ay-ooh-row. Why the Italians must make the European currency a 3 syllable word while most other countries pronounce it with 2 syllables is just one of the many fascinations I have with this language. I have been listening to Pimsleur cds since last year in preparation for this trip. A love of languages has made this an enjoyable pastime while driving around in the car. I hope it translates into at least a basic fluency while abroad.

The trip ends with a 48 hour whirlwind tour of Rome. I wish I could spend even just one more day there. Though truly, I keep telling myself one day won't make that much of a difference in a city like Rome. Still, when this trip is over, 24 days will have passed since I have seen my children and I think nothing will be as nearly as exciting in Rome as seeing their lovely faces in Denver. Another fascinating life complexity.