Ciao Firenze!

I'm sad to say that this will be my final post from Italy. I feel like I have experienced so much in such a short amount of time; it's funny how that works. I have a whole new group of people that I consider to be friends for life. We each have extremely different personalities: personalities that sometimes clash and have occasionally caused some conflict. However, through those issues, we have all found our commonalities and created strong bonds. And that's what it's all about.

I have soaked up this culture, learning that some things make no sense at all and that some things just take some adapting. Yesterday, I decided to climb up to the top of the Duomo. I will admit that I got fairly dizzy and nearly passed out by the time I climbed the nearly 500 stairs. But once I got over my vertigo, I looked out onto a city that has become a vital part of me. I look in one direction and I see the Central Market, the other I see the Palazzo Vecchio, another I can see Santa Croce, and I can even see my apartment window in another direction. I circled the top of the Duomo for a few minutes, in part to catch my breath, but also to take in how much I have seen and experienced and how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to have this experience.

And now I will take the relationships that I have made and the many things that I have learned back home to reflect upon and share with others.

Ciao Firenze!