Sheep and Harry Potter!!

Highlands with Vince

Last week I went on the school trip to Scotland for Thanksgiving break! Scotland was amazing. Everyone speaks English!!! I haven’t been in an English speaking country in 3 months; it was pretty exciting especially with their cool accents. We stayed in apartments on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The first day we went on a guided tour of the city and then Erika and I spent the afternoon in the Christmas market. After about 5 minutes of being in Edinburgh I realized that I was in Harry Potter land. Everything looked exactly like everything in Harry Potter is. A multiple moments throughout the trip I kept thinking Harry would just come walking around the corner. 

Making Stuffing with Summer

Sadly he did not, but I did have a dream when I was there that I was Harry Potter. I later learned that the heavy Harry Potter influence was because Edinburgh is where JK Rowling lived when she wrote the first few books, and she got a lot of her inspiration from the city and from the castles in the area. Erika and I went to the Elephant House for tea, the same café where JK wrote the first 3 books. It was pretty exciting and I had Darjeeling tea, my favorite :) That night my apartment (14 girls) made Thanksgiving dinner. It was hard not being home for the holiday, but making dinner with the girls was a lot of fun and dinner was delicious.

SHEEP!

The next two days were spent on buses, traveling around the countryside of Scotland. We went on a boat in the highlands. It was so windy and freezing, but absolutely beautiful. We stopped in various small towns, went to Stirling Castle and saw lots and lots of fields of bright green. It was extremely windy and rainy the whole time we were there, but was still great. My favorite part was probably all the sheep in the fields. They are EVERYWHERE and I love them. We stopped in a small town on the coast that is known to have the best fish and chips. Personally I wasn’t too impressed with the fish and chips, but everyone else loved them. 

Erika and I had a mini photo shoot on the water before leaving. It was so windy we could barley keep our eyes open and it was hard to walk. We were literally being blown away, but it was fun. I also loved going to St. Andrews. We spent a couple hours in the city and saw the Golf Course and the University (where William and Kate met!). I also got Starbucks for the first time in 3 months! Red Holiday cups and an extremely tall cup of coffee is one of the best things in the world. 

Our travels home were long and exhausting, but so worth it. Hanging out with Harry Potter and the sheep on Thanksgiving break was pretty awesome.

Assisi Retreat

My roommate Maggie and I at St. Francis Basilica 

Retreats always seem to come at the perfect time and my retreat to Assisi hold true to this. When my parents left, I went on a retreat to Assisi with 15 other students and Father Russ, the Jesuit priest at GIF. Assisi is a small town a few hours away from Florence where St. Francis and St. Clare lived. The retreat was designed as more of a self-reflective and peaceful experience rather than a typical retreat with talks and small groups. Father Russ gave us booklets that would guide us in prayer and reflection with the help of Francis and Clare. We stayed in guesthouse that used to be a monastery. 

Watching the sunset over St. Francis Basilica 

The structure of the retreat was very free, as Fr. Russ would say every few minutes, “Just get lost, wander and be at peace with Francis and Clare.” His words could not more accurately describe the weekend. We spent each morning having mass together as a group, the first day in the tomb of St. Francis, the second day in the Porziuncola chapel, and the third day in a convent chapel. The rest of the day was ours free to relax. The town of Assisi is small enough that you can walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes. It’s quiet and peaceful and different from anywhere I have been. There was something different about Assisi. You can truly feel St. Francis and St. Clare’s presence. 

Picnic overlooking the city

It is one of the holiest places I have ever been and having some alone time to reflect on these past few months and simply just be was exactly what I needed. Living abroad is an absolutely incredible experience, however it is not always easy. Between being homesick, traveling almost every weekend, missing my Gonzaga world, going to school, and trying to make new friends while keeping in touch with friends back home, it’s exhausting and I have never felt more busy in my life. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to travel and live in Florence, and having this weekend to myself in Assisi was the best way to bring a little balance and focus back into my life.

Candle light rosary procession 

Aside from having relaxing alone time, my favorite part was having lunch with a few of the other students on the retreat. We took a small picnic of cheese, crackers, cookies, and chips to the fortress at the top of the city. We sat overlooking the entire city. The fog was so thick that it looked like we were above the clouds, making it feel like we were in a city in heaven. That is truly what Assisi feels like, a city in heaven. Our beautiful picnic was short-lived when 20 minutes in we noticed extremely large ants crawling all around and on us. We all jumped up and went running down the hill. We also went to a candle-light rosary procession on 

Saturday night. It was beautiful to hear it all in Italian and to walk around the piazza in front on the church with candles and italian music. 

It was a beautiful weekend and I definitely will be going back to Assisi before I leave Italy.

"While you are procliaming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart." -St. Francis of Assisi

Mom and Dad Come to Italy!

Verona with my parents 

A few weeks ago my parents came to visit me in Italy for 2 weeks. I loved having them here and traveling in Northern Italy with them. I met them in Milan with Erika and we stayed in my dad’s business colleagues house right outside Milan. The first night we explored Milan and went to the incredible Cathedral. Aside from the Cathedral in Milan I didn’t really care for Milan. It is a huge city and a bit overwhelming. 

Pumpkin Ravioli for dinner!

The next few days we took day trips to various towns in the area. The weather was so beautiful so the first day we went to Lake Como and spent the day relaxing and wandering around the small town on Bellagio. Driving around Italy is very different than I expected. That night we came back to the house and stopped in Bergamo, a walled city that looked like a castle, for dinner.

Mom and me in Fiesole

The next day we went to Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet. We had a great time exploring the city and seeing the incredible roman ruins. We came home that night and made the most amazing fresh pumpkin ravioli. The next morning we decided to start driving down to Florence and stop along the way. We drove through Forte Dei Marmi and watched the sunset on the Mediterranean Sea. That night we stayed in Lucca, officially one of my favorite cities in Italy. It is a walled city with so much character and life. We went out to dinner and spent the evening and next day just walking around in the crisp fall weather. The city walls look like a park with the trees changing colors and beautiful out exercising or playing with their kids. After Lucca we came back to Florence where we stayed the rest of the week. It turns out that the same people that run my pensione ran the pensione my mom lived in when she studied abroad. It was like a family reunion when they came to my pensione for lunch. We had a great time together and it was hard to say goodbye.