Smile, you're in Italy!

Let me explain to you the context in which I heard this phrase, first off, and secondly why it hit home for me.

First I have to lay the groundwork; bare with me if this is slow, but it’s all very important.

Picture this, you’re sitting around with your friends, having a few beers, generally enjoying life and most importantly, doing nothing when someone (in my case my roommate, Gustav) comes up to you and starts talking about plans for a trip to Florence.

“Oh, maybe I’ll come, I don’t have anything better to do”.

Stop. Let me just point out how spoiled I am here. How is it possible that I can make a decision to go to Florence and Tuscany while getting drunk with my friends the night before we are supposed to go. What?! Is this happening?

Needless to say, I was up and at em’ at eight in the morning after a night out at a bar and a delicious slice of pizza at two in the morning and heading to Florence.

Rule of thumb, the more spontaneous the trip, the better it is.

Gustav wanted to meet a friend of his for lunch and while we were on the train we decided that maybe it would be cool to check out Siena….SIENA! You know, that beautiful Tuscan town tucked in the sun kissed and rolling Tuscan hills… yeah that one.

Lunch was wonderful (after a train, ps, that was 45 minutes late) and incredibly simple. We picked up some food in a small market and ate on the side of the river close to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Now, I realize it’s not everyday that you decide to eat lunch in Florence… This. Was. Fucking. Cool. We sat there, talking for a good hour two; the conversation somehow drifting between Swedish (Gustav’s friend from Sweden) English and Italian, sitting in the sun, talking about life, exchange, studies…

Then Gustav’s friend says it…
“Just smile, you’re in Italy…” All the stress, preoccupation, worrying, isn’t worth it…especially when the sun is shining.

Living a charmed life? I am for sure. Um, hi, I went to Florence? To eat lunch?

After lunch we took a stroll through the historic part of Florence and climbed the Duomo. I needn’t discuss the views… just think of how you feel when confronted with overwhelming beauty and majesty…Done.

After, we were off to Siena (I had been to Florence twice before, but never Siena, so this was a real treat). I don’t think we really knew where we were going and if we were even on the right train...but we were there.
The ride between Siena and Florence was breathtaking… even if our views were from a regional train window. All those sun kissed and rolling hills, dotted with small walled towns and vineyards that everyone talks about… is incredibly accurate and more beautiful than you could imagine. Enough said.

Siena was unbelievable and after a small detour (one of those “rights when you should’ve gone left) we managed to make it to the main square (famous for the fact that twice a year there is a horse race that goes on right in the center of the city between it’s different quarters). Sparing you the urban geography lingo (again) I will just say that it is a marvel how they built the square and how the city itself fits in unbelievably with the hills.

More food. We were starving. Luckily there was this small bar with an outdoor terrace that afforded us a view (from a few stories up) of the whole square. We (Gustav and I) sat, enjoyed the scenery, sipped chianti, and had the best damn panini I, at least, have ever tasted before in my life. One of those “really good ends to a really good day” kind of things. For dessert we were recommended at bar/bakery where they serve a regional specialty called “Ricciarelli”… Italian for fucking delicious… well maybe not that, but it was good.

Good food. Check. Café an dessert at a nice bar. Check. Beautiful views. Check.

We got back to Bologna at around midnight…all of this traveling… about 200 KM in each direction, cost less than 26 Euro. How? I don’t know.

Most importantly, and the point that I was trying to make from the beginning… Smile, you’re in Italy. So much of this exchange experience goes beyond studying. It’s really about life. To horribly quote two songs which some up my situation right now.

-It’s time like these you learn to live again…
-I’m no superman…(I love Scrubs way too much)

The “not being superman” probably is the most important for me specifically because, I don’t know if its an only child thing or not, I am soooooo independent (sometimes to my own detriment). Realizing that a) its ok to depend on people and b) that you absolutely CAN’T do everything has been so important. I think my biggest problem is realizing that I can’t have/do it all and that I will NEVER be the best at everything I do…this meaning of course that I have to make choices, be it parties on a Friday night, places to go in Europe, or even majors in university. I can't tell you how many times I've overextended myself and tried to be too many places at once, which of course in the end that I missed out on a lot...just in the time I spent to get from point A to point Z.

No more making myself miserable.

The moral of the story, for me at least, is pick wisely, enjoy the choice you made and don't set the bar too high for yourself.

So here I am, learning to live again, learning what makes me “me” in the context of being constantly confronted with things that are new and different (I never thought I would say that about Italy) and learning to just smile and go with the flow.

THAT is what is most important.