La Dolce Vita With my Cuz

Ayayay!! Where did the 63 days go?

Today I’m writing this post from the sofa in my parents’ house instead of on some train or in one of our many “homes” that are scattered all over the European continent. Since our return last Wednesday, we’ve experienced beautiful reunions and have been reintroduced to all the American items we began to so sorely miss while abroad i.e. Mexican food, our beds, our wardrobes etc.

As a result- and I can only speak for myself- I’ve felt really distracted. This blog post will offer the reflection that is necessary after such an adventure. It helps to put feelings into words and hopefully (if I do a good job) I can return to these words and I’ll feel the flickers of memories as they resurface.

Before I try to sort out the mixed emotions that I’m left with, I simply must offer a few straightforward descriptions of our time in Italy. Both Liv and I agreed that it was our favorite of the countries we visited. The best way that I can describe it is with the Goldilocks allegory. As you know, Goldilocks tries 2 porriges, 2 chairs, 2 beds, etc. and each one isn’t just exactly to her liking. Then, she tries and third and it jives “just right”. For me, Italy is the proverbial third porridge, chair, bed, while the other countries where I’ve lived are the other 2 near perfect alternatives.

Take the language for example: when living in Spain, I adored the bouncy, wide-open, floppy castellano of the Spaniards, but I really didn’t like the seemingly lazy syllables at the end of words. (Why can’t you say pes-ca-do instead of pes-cau?) Now take French: the French do an exquisite job of articulating, but as a result, the francophone must make those, pointy, pinchy, and altogether unbecoming pursed lips. Italian, however, is the perfect marriage of the two: precise, lively, animated- like music to our ears. Even the words to describe music come from Italian and they illustrate perfectly the harmony achieved in this language. Staccato when spoken sounds intentional and delicate, while largo sounds relaxed and mellow. Perfecto!

Now take the cuisine: another perfect marriage of the Mediterranean diet that I experienced in Spain and the propensity for richness that I’ve encountered in France. Here is a place where I’d drink their olive oil as if it were wine and their wine as if it were water. In Italy, we ate pizza and paninis day after day without pause or remorse. We’d wake up in the morning and rejoice that another day had started because that meant that we’d get to try new flavors of gelato. We both agreed hands down that our best meals where in Italian homes- courtesy of our friends in Bologna and Rome. Our last night in Rome, I was reunited with one of my dearest friends in the world, Sara, where we devoured cheeses, anchovies, prosciutto, olives and her charming boyfriend Francesco’s pasta romanesco. Refer to Liv’s post about our meal in Bologna.

I could go into detail about the other realms wherein my Goldilocks analogy seems to be true, but I suppose I should get to know Italian culture a little more before I start generalizing about the demeanor, tempo, and values of this great country. However, if you left me that task at this point in time, I would have only the best things to say about Italy: for Liv and me, it was a paradise.

I would say that Italy offered me the best moments of the whole trip, but I would be overlooking a far more important factor. Perhaps I could overlook it because this factor has always been such an integral part of my life that I struggle to separate it out from other circumstances. But, like I said at the beginning of this blog post, now is the time for reflection.

Upon reflecting, it’s really quite obvious what that one factor was that made this adventure so remarkable: Liv. Almost everyone reading this also knows her, so I needn’t start from scratch when I sing her praises because you already know how smart, witty and kind she is. I’ve always known that, but I didn’t know just how much I’d come to rely on her for her other attributes that lay just slightly deeper under the surface.

She’s resilient: I never saw a tough situation weaken her resolve. If anything, she found ways to make light of it, to find the humor.

She’s adventurous: She never declined any opportunity to add depth to our shared experience.

She’s indulgent: Thank goodness I was travelling with someone who just as eager to attend fancy symphonies, order liters of wine, or buy truffles for the train-ride.

And conversely, she’s thrifty: Thank goodness (again) that I had a partner who was fine eating pb&js for 3 weeks straight or who would carry a cauliflower across three countries just so we’d have dinner when we arrived where we were going.

She’s flexible: That’s probably why we never had a genuine argument.

She’s responsible: She always carried the keys

She’s hilarious: Sometimes I felt like I was traveling with a comedian who had researched my life experiences and crafted her jokes in order to make me squeal with laughter.

She’s reconnaissante: Which means that she recognizes her good-fortune and expresses gratitude for it. It’s such a precious quality in a travel companion. Without someone like that, one’s a risk of becoming impervious to the ever-new wonders around them and with Liv that never happened.

It’s sad to end this blog, as it is sad to end such a trip. It was the best trip of my life, but I’m leaving it with many many treasures. I return home with images and memories of places that will color the canvas of my life. However, the friendships that were born or were deepened and the interactions that I had bring that canvas to the third dimension. They have marked me and will forever shape me.

This trip began as 2 cousins 7 countries and it has ended as 8 countries 2 sisters.