The semester will start in September, but I'm leaving for Europe in the middle of August. This trip sort of just...evolved. I'll start from the beginning. Since I'm incapable of giving a short explanation, skip down to the bullet points at the bottom of this post for the quick summary!
I've been planning to study abroad in Italy since I started taking Italian freshman year. The program I'm doing has an optional three-week summer session in southeastern Italy (in the heel of the boot.) I opted not to do this summer session, but will meet up with that group in Lecce for their last two nights of the summer session, along with two of my friends from school, Caitlin and Nicole. There is a six day break in between when the program in Lecce ends and when we all meet in Bologna, during which we (Caitlin, Nicole, and I) are planning to see the area around Naples.
In April, our friends from France, whom we hadn't seen since 2000, came to New York to visit us. I wanted to visit them in La Rochelle for a few days before my semester in Italy started, not wanting another eight years to go by, and my mother, the wonderful woman from whom I inherited the travel bug, wanted to go too. Once that decision was made, it seemed easy enough to tack on Amsterdam (where my mother's high school friend lives on a houseboat with her husband, a Dutch sailor) and Paris, which is not too far from La Rochelle. Before I knew it, Pamela, a close family friend, was joining us on our adventure, since she too has a friend in Amsterdam, and loves to travel.
Somehow I'd have to get from La Rochelle to Lecce. But flights from France to Italy were - I kid you not - as much or more than flights from New York to Europe! And making the trip by train would be, at the very least, a solid two or three days. Luckily, a well-informed travel agent at the student travel agency nearby figured out that if I could get myself to Barcelona, I could book a flight from Barcelona to Lecce, with a layover in Rome, where I'll meet up with Caitlin and Nicole.
I don't blame you if you didn't make it through that whole explanation. Basically, I'm traveling for about a month before my semester starts. Hopefully the itinerary will be made clearer through my posts. But I figured I'd better offer an explanation before I started posting about being in countries other than Bella Italia, and things got confusing.
In summation:
- Amsterdam
- Paris
- La Rochelle
- Barcelona
- Rome
- Lecce
- Naples
- BOLOGNA
3 comments:
Your travels sound awesome! I can't wait to read about them. Did you get a suitcase yet?
Judy
Wow, you lucky duck. That's a whole lot of travelling in one month! Cool cool. I'm excited for your blog, yay! Oh, you probably didn't hear, but I'm no longer going JYA but staying at Vassar the whole year instead... long story, but a good one ultimately. It was my own hard considered decision... but I'll be checking on your travels from time to time... check out my blog if you're in the mood for randomness. Ciao, my dear! Have a wonderful time! Buon viaggio! <3 <3 <3
gabrielle! hope we see each other before we both leave -- didn't realize you were going straight (well, sort of straight haha) from amsterdam to lecce to bologna!! wow! good luck packing! wanted to tell you: your best friend this semester is kayak.com -- it finds cheap flights, incredibly useful. might be late now, but maybe it'll help you in the future! looking forward to reading all about your travels... and hopefully see you soon! hugs, chelsea
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