It has been a little over 10 years since I stepped off the plane in the Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy to spend the following 5 months ‘studying’ abroad. To date this has been the greatest adventure of my life. Hopefully, until now. The time I spent in Rome, the surrounding European countries, and Cairo, Egypt were filled with new beginnings, love, loss, and letting go. I learned more about myself in that semester than all of my time spent in college.

That is why I have decided to travel extensively again. The monotony of work has been getting to me and I decided a long time ago I would stick around only to save enough money to go on another great adventure. Here I am in my eighteenth day on the road, or on the rails, as I am inter-railing around Europe before heading off to Russia on May 2nd. I stopped in Venice for a few days and all the great memories from my time spent in Italy flooded back.

In the second semester of my Junior year of college 2019 I was accepted into the Loyola University John Felice Rome Center not knowing a single person that would be studying that semester. When I arrived in Rome and met my roommate we immediately hit it off. He was an adventurous and positive person who had already been studying there for the first semester and I was a goofy adventure seeker ready for anything. A few weeks later we planned a road trip from Rome to Venice with his girlfriend and a friend of hers. He was the only person under the age of 28 with an international drivers license and therefore could rent a car. We printed off MapQuest directions (no smart phones and GPS was too expensive) and headed to the rental car place in town.

There she was our tiny little Fiat. We packed in and headed off to our final destination, Venice with a pitstop in the small European country of San Marino along the way. We were lost within the first 30 minutes and going off MapQuest directions and a fold up map proved pretty difficult. We weren’t phased though because we were 20 and 21 year old care-free college students with no set agenda. We took that time to tell stories of our live’s before Rome and discuss our ambitions moving forward. Ah, a time when apps and social media didn’t run your life or bring forth nonexistent anxiety. If only we could revert back to that time, we would all be better off.

We resorted to pulling over and asking for directions a few times in the Italian countryside and were always greeted with the same instructions no matter where we were: ‘A sinistra, a destra, e sempre dritto.’ Translated into English that’s ‘Left, right, and always straight.’ From what I understand Italian men like to be confident even if they are unsure so the most common response for directions is ‘always straight…’ We found that out the hard way but it was a lesson learned and brought us through some unforgettable landscapes before getting back on track to San Marino. We eventually started winding our way up the slopes of Monte Titano before reaching Guaita, an old fortress on the top of the tiny country of San Marino. We had what I consider the best views of the Italian countryside on a beautiful sunny day. I will never forget sitting there and staring off into the distance taking it all in. Fully content. We couldn’t stay all day so got back on the road for another 4+ hours before we would reach our final destination.

We arrived in Venice late in the evening and Carnevale was in full swing. We dropped everything in our room and headed to the nearest piazza where everyone was wearing masks, drinking, dancing, and setting off fireworks. We joined in immediately just happy to be out of the car with the first of many drinks in our hands. As we bobbed through narrow passageways and bridges across the canal I stopped to talk to anyone and everyone who was willing to chat. At a small tavern I got to talking with an older Italian man who was eager to pick my brain. I told him I was an American college student studying for a semester in Rome and some of my plans on where I was to travel. He stopped me and told me he only had one piece of advice for a young foreigner coming into his country and that was: ‘Don’t fuck Italy, make love to it!’ This statement really hit me and stuck with me the rest of my trip and still stays with me today. It’s important to experience everything with an open mind and at the same time respecting local beliefs and cultures. I have learned to enjoy every moment no matter what is happening around me.

I will continue to keep this advice close to heart everywhere I go because it’s easy to stay comfortable and keep old habits but once you learn to take pleasure out of every new landscape, person, language, and experience then you truly open yourself up to adventure and more positive outcomes.