One Last Shot

The last seen of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie is the seen where Will sets Jack free from the gallows because he is in fact a good man and helped to rescue his true love Elizabeth. The song from the movie score that plays is called One Last Shot. I may or may not have all of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks in my possession (I write papers to movie scores. As a history major-you write a lot of papers) and its one of my favorite pieces. Every time I hear it, it reminds me of the final push, one last shot to get everything all done, with hope that it will all pull through in the end seeing as the end is near.
Hence the title of the blog post. I had one last shot, and I took it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-XVTuqKzg (this is the link so you can listen to it on youtube)
I've been home for almost two weeks and I realized that I never actually followed up on my trip, what I did with my last couple of days ect. So this post will talk about how I did not make it to Chinque Terre, what I did on my last two days in Florence, my flight home (much more of an adventure than my arrival flight) and finally a couple reflections on my experience.
After Livorno, Megan Anicka and I went home to try and figure out the Chinque Terre. Truthfully we COULD have made it work it just wouldnt not have been worth it for us. It was like 60 euro round trip and since it was the off season and trails were closed, trying to get local trains to coordinate and make sure we were home in time wasn't worth it. We would have had maybe 2 hours on one of the trails and for what we were going to pay to go out there, we opted against it. Plus those two were leaving the day after so they wanted to make sure they were all packed and ready to go for their early Saturday flights. We did look for another day trip but nothing was cheep or close enough and the three of us were so exhausted we decided to sleep in and spend their last day in Florence.
We met up for lunch at a restaurant across the river called Dante's. I'd been there before with other ACM students for one of our neighborhood walks and I had enjoyed it. When I went the first time I had had some very tasty pasta and this time I had a to die for pizza. We enjoyed a red table wine and Megan and Anicka have veterinarian pizza's. After we got one last scoop of gelato before heading home for the afternoon. I finished up the packing that I had started that morning before supper. I had a nice dinner with Christian and Carmen and then headed out to meet Anicka and Megan one last time for an evening out.
We walked around Florence a bit, looking at things that they wouldn't see for a while, if not a long time-the Christmas lights, the Duomo, the Ufizi, the Arno. We went to our favorite bar (its called Naima. Its a sports bar that is generally patronized by people who are in their 30's or older which means no drunk American college students. Its quieter, and chill and a nice place to sit and chat and have a drink or two.) Our night was made when we walked in and the bartender looked at us and said "Ah. Three Cosmos?" So we enjoyed a drink before turning in early because they had early flights the next day.
Saying goodbye was a lot harder than the three of us had expected. I don't think any of us expected to become so close in such a short period of time, but as it was in 4 months we knew a lot more about each other lives than some people I've been going to school with for years. Anicka's parents had taken me out to dinner, they had let Megan and I come over and use the kitchen in their apartment to cook for an afternoon. Megan had sat on facebook with me for two hours while we tried to locate my parents when they flew over and Megan and Anicka had shared countless adventures together as roommates (lots of fish with the heads still on staring at them through dinner, Nona (their Italian grandmother with dementia) walking in and talking to them in Vinician, and Taio, their dog, walking around with a shawl on because Nona heard him cough that night..)  We agreed that it was not in fact goodbye, rather a see you later-for future road trips and visits in the summer.
The next day, while they flew home (or rather attempted too. The weather WAS NOT in their favor. Megan got stuck in Canada over night and they lost her luggage and Anicka got stuck in New York and her air line lost her luggage in Europe...) I spent my last day in Florence taking my one last shot. I got up and went to the Ufizi and the Borgello (two of the biggest museums just because I could for free with my pass) to say good bye to Boticelli's and Michelangelo pieces. I waited in line way to long, so I did not go to the Academia to say goodbye to David but I'd seen him twice already so I wasn't all that sad. I then walked across the river to Gusta Pizza where I had one last 5 euro pizza (and made some friends with an American family who were visiting their daughter who had been studying there for the semester. Since I was by myself they offered for me to sit with them and it was just plane nice.) After lunch I went home and Christian and I went and found a copy shop to print off our boarding passes, picked up plastic bags to packing and stuff like that. We packed, tried not to cry at our last dinner with Carmen (it was hard when she gave us Christmas presents, matching knit scarves) and then went to bed one last time. 
The next morning we were up early to get to the airport. Our flight left Florence at 8:50 so we got their around 6:30. I went through no problems but Christian had to check both of her bags. (It was also at this point we ran into other America students. One set of girls who had to be twins, had 4 bags each. Another girl told me she threw out a ton of really cute clothes and still had to pay 400 euros to check her bags...) So long and the short of it Christian and I had it pretty easy. We made it to Frankfurt just fine, got on our plane and had a beautiful flight into Toronto. I've never been so excited to see snow in all my life-I was on my continent again! In 3 hours give or take I'd be home.
The joke was on me. The guy next to me looked at his watch and said "yea. we were supposed to land 30 minutes ago." We were late. And we taxied for like 15 minutes too. I only had a 2 hour layover to get through American customs, security and my next flight. Now I had less than an hour. I was going to miss my flight.
Christian and I ran. We scanned our boarding passes, and waited by the electronic screen for our name to come up with our luggage and our next flight and the gate we were supposed to be at. But because our flight had been so late our luggage was still processing. By the time we found someone who would tell us where to go we had the option of trying to make our connecting flight and leaving our luggage in Canada or waiting for our luggage and getting another flight.
We sprinted through customs and security convinced that we would miss our flight. You know those scenes in movies when people sprint through air ports? That was us.
Lets just saw our flight was supposed to depart at 18:05 and we walked on that plan at 18:04. That close.
Finally we touched down in Milwaukee and wonder apon wonders, our luggage made it too. The adventure drew to a close. I was sad to leave Florence and Carmen behind, but I was really happy to be home again. I had done everything I possibly could have dream of. I saw 13 cities (Florence, Pisa, Viariggio, Venice, Arezzo, Prato, Seina, Greve, Pompei, Fiesole, Rome, Certolda (Certaldo Alto) and Livorno). I ate all the pasta I possible could, lots of pizza and gelato, and drank plenty of wine. I took over 1,000 pictures, and did lots of shopping. I was more than happy with my trip but it was time to go home. I was ready to get back to my family, ready to get back to Ripon and to get back to swimming.
In true Laura fashion, I hit the ground running the next day. I was up at 3 am with horrid jet lag, and was the the dentist and the dermatologist before heading up to Ripon to move and and swim. I was in the middle of packing to move back up to school when all the sudden 3 of my best friends in the world (Katie Drew, Emily Fischer (my roommate) and Zac Nell showed up in my house to take my back to school.  We loaded up Emily's minie van and before I knew it we were on the road. I almost fell asleep against Zac on the way up their, but I got my probably third wind of the day the minute we pulled up outside my dorm. Katie's boyfriend Brian sat in the lobby of my dorm waiting for us to come back and I got a huge pick up hug from him before he helped me to move in too. My sorority sisters screamed so loud when they saw me that they were heard them on all four floors of our building ( I live on the fourth floor. Katie who was on the first floor bringing stuff heard them, and one of my friends who lived on third had her door closed and heard them.) Then I went down to see my team. They had just finished practice. Krissa and Anna screamed when they saw me, Nick just kept coming up and hugging me and not letting go, Kevin picked me up, Sara climbed out of the pool mid set to hug me, and then there was Coach. I got a Coach hug and a grin as he asked what was up and how it was going and then I introduced him to Marty my rubber duck. He was greatly entertained that he had "traveled" Italy with me, swimming in the canal in Venice, in wine at Greve, held up the leaning tower of Pisa, you know the usual.
All around it was good to be back. Italy had been quite the adventure, one that not a lot of people well get to have. I saw so much, did so much and I can't wait to go back to Europe (hopefully with in the next 2-3 years) for another adventure. If anything this trip taught me that travel really isn't hard you just have to find the spark to go and do it. I have that spark and I can't wait to go again. I made amazing friend and beautiful memories and its something I really hope everyone can get a chance to do at some point in their life.You can't go wrong taking a chance studying or visiting another country. There is always something knew to do or to see and I hope that you never truly have to take One Last Shot. I hope that you get multiple shots. I know for me, Italy was one of many.

To the Sea!

Megan didn't got to Viariggio with us, so the three of us decided to go to the sea today. Since we all finished our final papers early and we are done with our exams we are taking out last two days together to travel and see just a bit more of Italy.
Today we hit up Livorno, a coastal town West of Florence, past Pisa. It was about 20 euro for us to go round trip. Its not a super tourist town which was super nice because for as big as it is, we didn't see that many people so we basically had the run of the place to ourselves! Truthfully they chose the town by googling "places to visit in Italy" and this one looked like it would produce the prettiest pictures. It did.
We took the bus down to the center of town where we found a grocery store so we could snag a light lunch then we hunted for the coast to sit and eat lunch by. We found a Marina first (which was where we sat to eat) then went exploring to find the place that Anikca and Megan found on Google. On our way we came across a small stretch of beach where we searched for sea glass (something I've always wanted to do!) among the rocks and sand.
Then we found the tiles. A good potion of the coast is a paved walk way of black and white tiles that looks like you are in Alice In Wonderland. So of course we took all the pictures we could. It was a simple and relaxing day trip that left us tired and having to face packing to go home home.

Art Show!

Tonight was the final night of our drawing class. I highly recommend taking it. It really was a wonderful class and I really enjoyed the method they taught us and the instructors were very nice and incredible helpful. And with tonight being the final night, we had a lovely art show where the instructors picked what they believed were out two best works (one pencil drawing and the other charcoal drawing) and they displayed it for the evening. The entire group and our host families were invited to the show and there were snacks and wine and nice mingling about.
After the art show we went out one last time as a group for our final dinner. I opted for a fantastic spaghetti dish with a green salad and a whipped cream, merange, and chocolate dessert. Anicka, Megan and I sat with Rosita (who is a Saint and the secretary of the school) and Jodie (our program director) Charles (the master of Cecil studios) and Professor Sacks (our Esoticism Professor who's exam we just took today.) It was a really lovely dinner, very low key and relaxed.
But tonight was truly the beginning of the end. Tonight was the last night I will see most of the people in my group. Its been a good run and its bitter sweet to say good bye-bitter because we've made a lot of memories and shared a lot of time together in this city. Sweet because we get to go home.
Once again I find myself at the beginning of another journey-this is the journey home. I've finished my papers, my exams and my art show. I'm officially done with my fifths semester of college and soon I will travel 5,000 miles to reach home. But before I do, I have a few more places to see, a few more gifts to buy and more memories to make.

Which sounds better? I studied in Italy, I studied in Florence, or I studied in Tuscany?

With 8 days left in Tuscany, the region we have lived in for over 3 months now, Anicka, Megan and I decided to take another last minute trip. Last night they messaged me on facebook (after googling places to visit in Tuscany) and said hey, Certaldo is 5 euro's by train, both ways. Lets go. So we did. Because that is how we do things: we always plan to do something with our weekends and the night before we actually look it up and make it happen. Not always our best plan because sometimes in order to get cheep tickets one should plan say 2 days in advance not 12 hours but hey, we've made it work so far.
Certaldo. Not a tourist town. I expect in the summer it sees a little more action, but it was relatively deserted when we were there, which was actually really nice. No tacky tourists ruining your pictures with their ipads, no overly loud youths breaking the peace of your experience, not large groups standing in your way-it was just nice to take a break from the hubbub of an overly trafficked city.
Certaldo is about an hour away from Florence and is a Medieval town not a Renaissance one. Simply stated, its older and has a castle and towers and is the home town of Boccaccio, a famous Renaissance author (The Decameron.) Certaldo is the city where the station is and Certaldo Alto, a separate smaller city (kind of like a suburb or Florence and Fiesole) is right next to it where the castle is. Which was what we went to go see. We did not get a chance to go into the castle because you had to pay to go in and we were just fine wandering around and seeing the city but it was pretty on the out side. The views were superb and we just walked around appreciating a break from our studies (we had our Italian exam on Thursday so we had a heavy week and we all have two ten page papers each to write for the end of this week, plus and exam and a presentation.)
By complete accident as we scouted out a place to eat lunch, we came across an American campus-Eastern Carolina University. One of the professors there was walking up to go into the gate as we were reading the sing and poking around and she invited us in to look around-much to the displease of her students setting up for their art show. There was some good art there-photography, drawing, hand made sketch books, a little bit of painting.
We opted for a nice sit down lunch since we are at the end of our trip and not in a hurry to see EVERYTHING in the city (its so small there wasn't THAT much to see). We stumbled apon Da Messer Boccaccio which had reasonably priced pasta and 6 euro house wine. (I'll take a moment to interject a Laura's word of wisdom here: when in Italy ALWAYS order the house wine. It not only tends to be the cheapest on the menu, but it tends to go with what ever you are eating AND its good. This one was super tasty, really light, and had a hit of what we thought might be pomegranate in it. Simply divine) I had gnocchi certaldina which was gnocchi pasta with their famous onions in a sauce with cheese. It was delicious! Oh my gosh was it good-the onions were so sweet and the sauce had a bit of tomato and melted cheese in it and it was so so so yummy.
After that we called it a day and headed home (to get more school work done). On our hike down from Certaldo Alto to Certaldo we stumbled across some roosters who liked me a little too much and like six or seven cats just lounging in the sun.
 And that was it. We outlined our plans for the up coming week (getting together and studying) and possibly taking more two more trips next week before we fly out. We discussed how we wish we could have traveled a bit more on our weekends doing day trips and such yet we recognize that we have seen a lot. My personal list includes 12 cities in Italy with a possible two more this coming week. The three of us realize we've done quite a lot for our time being here and we've seen a lot more of Tuscany than most people will see in their lives (unless they live here.) Hence, it sounds cooler to say we studied in Tuscany rather than just Italy or Florence. To be fair most of the trips we did take (to Pisa, Fiesole, Sienna, Arezzo) were for class with our professors who were conducting class on site...so we did technically study there. Makes the school work we've done sound cooler!