Satisfying. Humbling. Eye-opening.

The past six months have gone by so fast. If I had any pictures they would all be blurry. That fast.

But one thing that I have fresh in my mind, that I would like to keep fresh forever, is my trip to Italy! Two and half of the most incredible weeks of my life were spent in several cities in grand Italia with 17 other girls and 3 professors, becoming travelers.

Who knows what each girl took from this trip.  We were asked on our last day there what three words we would use to describe our trip.  My three words included:

1. Satisfying.

2. Humbling.

3. Eye-opening.

I heard other ones from the girls that I really liked, like surprising, inspiring, enlightening, awakening, but I stuck with my first three, although I don't think words can really describe what you see, learn, and feel on a trip like this.

So here are some pictures, not in any specific order, and hopefully they can give you a taste of this trip. There will be more to come, considering I have more than 1,600 pictures...

Sometimes the memory of these places is so clear I swear I could open my eyes and be waking up in Spello to clear, earthy air, be smelling the cigar smoke from the old Italian man that just walked past, be walking on the deep-cut cobblestone roads with my thin sandals folding to form with the stones, be looking up into the bright sun trying to take a picture of a great building, be sitting on a rumbling train on my way to a whole new destination for an unexpected experience.

I loved coming back to America when the trip was over, so I can't say that I miss being in a foreign place where everyone that walks past me speaks a language I can't understand.  But I do miss the feeling of being on an adventure, and with a purpose.  My purpose was to learn something.  Not necessarily about the art or the history, but to learn something about myself.  And then remember what I learned.  What good is learning something if you don't let yourself remember it?  But that's what the hardest thing is about learning, I think.  And it is also a beautiful thing.

What have you learned that you DO remember?

That is what is beautiful.