The End.

It's hard to believe that my fairy tale adventure has come to an end.  I apologize not for continuing with my posts but I promise I have an explanation for this.

A casual stroll home from school

Every story has its ups and downs and I am lucky enough to have the "downs" happen at the end of my journey when I already fell in love with the abroad experience.  In the last two weeks my computer broke, my wallet including my licence, credit/debit cards and cash was stolen, and my two cell phones (my American and Italian) was stolen.  I basically had 15 Euro to my name.  Here's what happened...

Computer: So me being proactive and such, decided to work on my final papers a few weeks in advance so that I could really enjoy the last week living in Rome without having to freak out about school work.  I was on a roll and had 2 out of my 3 papers completed when... my computer had a power surge with the international converter.  Now, I am not a tech genius so my terminology may be way off - but as soon as I plugged my computer into the outlet my computer went blank.  It figures, trying to be proactive and a huge other obstacle comes about.  I had to find a local computer repair shop and communicate to them in Italian about what happened and figure out how they might be able to fix it.  Of course they didn't speak English which made this even more difficult. What ended up happening was they were able to take the files off of my computer that I needed for school and put them on a USB drive and I would just be without a computer until I got back to America.  I could deal with that - luckily I had an iPad that I could finish the rest of my papers on and somewhat survive.

Wallet and 2 Cell Phones: Last weekend of Rome - my friends and I were ready to andiamo (we go, we go - a term we used a lot for when we wanted to go out).  Wearing a cross body purse that was zipped up and always at my hip, I was aware of where it was at all times.  Or so I thought.  During the night at some point, a pick pocket unzipped my purse and stole my wallet and phones out of my purse while it was on me.  Everyone always expresses how skilled the pick pocketers are in Europe but didn't know it was to the extremes of this.  They also got away with my roommate's wallet as well.  I am so lucky that I had great friends with me at the time who helped me look for my items and pay for the cab back home.  When I went back home I realized I had 15 Euro to my name.  That surely was not enough cash for my last week abroad.  I got loans from my roommate (who for the weekend was me and my other roommates "Sugar Mama") and from my program.  I was able to text people through my iPad and call my poor mother through FaceTime to cancel my cards.  

I think we can all agree that I was very thankful for bringing my iPad abroad.

Before this all occurred I made a day trip to Naples with my roommate Rose.  Her family originated from there and it is the home of pizza.  My brother's number one advice for life abroad was to listen to Rick Steve's book.  Since Naples is known for being a little on the "sketchy" side we decided to really stick to his guide.  We started our day at Trianon Pizzeria - one of the 2 most famous pizzerias of Naples.  I am surprised to say that I finished the entire thing by myself... There goes my waistline.  We also went to the Archaeological Museum of Naples were they had beautiful sculptures, mosaics and a secret room with very explicit artworks from Pompeii (they had veeeeerrrrrry dirty minds).

Then we saw an amazing view of Mt. Vesuvius and drinks at a famous cafe called Gambrinus

My last few weeks in Rome involved friends, last minute tourist stops and amazing views.

Daylong in Piazza del Popolo

Bar San Calisto in Trastevere with great friends

Tazza d'Oro Cafe by the Pantheon

Cappuccinos and Cornettos

Trevi Fountain

Forever Fienaroli (My Street)

On one of my last nights in Rome, my friends and I stayed up all night and visited each of the famous monuments and piazzas.  We reminisced our time abroad and appreciated the city's beauty.  We finish our walk viewing the sunrise in Gianicolo Park and overlooking the city.  

I am so thankful to have had the experience of living abroad for a few months of my life.  The memories I made here will last a lifetime and the knowledge that I gained I will take with me in my future adventures.  The saying goes that "Rome was not built in one day" and I certain for this after living here.  It still surprises me how long the history dates back and that some of the buildings that I stood in had art and structures from the 1st century.  Another saying goes, "All roads lead to Rome" I hope that the next road I take in life will someday lead me back to my home <3