Alluring Adventure

Lost on a quiet side street, caught between the beautiful Tuscan landscape and the enormous stone towers of San Gimignano, I found myself breathing in the summer air and the sunshine warming up my tired face. Maybe it’s the fact that I am too much of a romantic, but the picturesque scenes of olive trees and rolling hills caught my eye as I looked over the walls of the city, and I felt a peace that I had not known since I was a child.

When I learned that my months of late nights and saved paychecks were enough to fund my long-waited trip to Italy, I had all of these dreams of what my Italian experience would be. All I could imagine was an Italian man sweeping me off my feet while I wore sundresses and ate delicious gelato. While I did experience the sweet taste of gelato, put a note on Juliet’s wall and saw this historic site of Pompeii, it felt a little too touristy. Though it was incredible, I didn’t feel as if I knew what Italy was like on a daily basis.

For me travelling isn’t just taking a variety of cute pictures and seeing historic sites, it’s about immersing yourself into the culture and seeing how people from another side of the world live. After a long trip of bustling tourist towns, leaning against the wall surrounding San Gimignano I finally felt that I had found the true Italy. Sure I had wandered off from the city center and wasn’t quite sure where to go or how to get back to my tour group, I knew that in those quiet moments is where I found my true Italy.

Seeing young children playing futbol, or for us Americans soccer, in the street while their mothers were hanging out laundry to dry or sitting outside together and discussing what is new in their lives. Italy isn’t just about the amazing gelato or art. It's also about family and love of the little things in life. It's about helping a lost American girl find her way back to the city center, when she has no idea what they are saying beyond the basic Italian words she learned on the tour bus. It's having a morning cappuccino and helping someone perfect their Italian and telling them the best local secrets.

How did I find the true Italy experience? Well for me it took leaving the group behind and seeing what was outside of the tourist areas. It took just finding a quiet moment alone in a picturesque area to look at my surroundings and to see what this amazing country really is about. Now I know I will be going back to the beautiful country of Italy, but will you have your Italy experience?