Italy,
Your cities of history, rolling country-sides, and cuisine have been on my radar for as long as I can remember. I did not seek you out though, as I decided on studying abroad. The whole entire world was open to me at that point. After choosing you though, I found it was the best decision I could have made. Your every corner holds relics of the past and world history walked your cobblestones. I had not realized the ways I had been depriving myself of learning before I climbed off my first international flight to you. I had not understood why my heart yearned for your travertine statues or golden basilicas or half-standing monuments; I cannot be certain that I realized even as I immortalized you through a viewfinder. I longed for knowledge “impractical” to my credit hours or even my degree; I desired to find passion in learning purely to enrich myself. I found that excitement again because of you, so I thank you.
In a time where I felt betrayed by love, you showed me love in a brand new light. Your winding alleys were flirtatious, knowing they would stay and guide new feet long after I had to leave. Your apartment buildings, with chipped pastel paint, no dryers and a backbone strong enough to house hundreds of parents living with unmarried sons, radiated the feeling of home quite unlike anything my soul had encountered before. Your fountains served as benches in the stories of couples who swore Shakespeare wrote about their love, inviting passion that could be felt in every caress and kiss by those who strolled by. Your ruins told the story of lost loves, stolen lovers, crimes of passion, foreign flings, and proved time and time again that all is fair in love and war. Your constantly running drinking fountains became an unlikely metaphor to always give, even to those who cannot give me anything in return. Your residents taught me about slowness, the beauty in four hour dinners and rambling conversations. Your galleries of creativity, housed in modern structures that do not quite fit your timeless charm, displayed an expression of beautiful admiration for those long gone; proving maybe that love is everlasting. I found love in every corner of you, down every alley, and always in a glass of wine created in your countrysides. Thank you.
There is still no thank you quite adequate enough for the home you allowed me to make in you. No sentences that can encompass the longing to embrace you again. No amount of coins that I tossed over my left shoulder, into one of your most famous fountains, will bring me back to you until you have more lessons to let me live through on your streets. There are no pens with enough ink to journal my all memories nor memory cards with enough space to capture every breathtaking part of you, but I will continue to try to do you justice until we meet again.
Mia cuore anela per voi | My heart yearns for you
