Everything about my journey to Italy was perfect and I can’t believe that I’ve had such a great beginning to my adventure. Michelle, Paul, and Roman reminded me of the love that our family shares and gave me the perfect last morning state-side. My mom then drove me to the airport and although she almost got arrested trying to follow me to the plane, she made my departure memorable and I couldn’t have asked for a sweeter send off. (Love you!)

Even my pre-flight times were entertaining. At Bush Intercontinental Airport I met a Michael Jackson impersonator who wasn’t pretty damn good, and in Newark I neglected to make concessions for the time zone change and was forced to sprint down the concourse to catch my plane on time. I made it in true movie-style, scanning my ticket and walking down the jet way mere seconds before they closed the door.

I met several interesting people on my flights and exchanged contact information (gotta love the networking power of confined spaces). It was interesting to note that flying in and out of Houston I saw city through the plane windows, in Newark I saw New York and the Statue of Liberty, but arriving in Roma I was greeted by hay bails. That’s right, hay bails. they must have known a Texas boy was coming and threw some out there in an attempt to make me feel welcome.

At the Aeroporti di Roma I met up with Ryan and Miguel, two fellow University of Texas students. We had an enormous span of eleven hours before the rest of the group arrived, so we set out to find something to do. A few trips around the airport and much broken Italian later we discovered that there was a beach ten minutes from the airport. We paid a few Euros each to store our bags, bought bus tickets, and abbiamo andato alla spiaggia.

Our trip to Fiumicino proved to be most enjoyable. We found countless ristoranti, gelateria, and then came across a great man-made beach next to a fishing pier. There was a great bar with ice-cold beers and plenty of topless sun-bathing women. I immediately stripped off my shoes and ran into the refreshing waters of the Mediterranean. And the sky here is without description… I constantly found myself gazing aimlessly, awed by it’s beauty. Incredible!

We could have lazed around in the balmy 75 degree F weather all day long, eating our gelato and laughing at the Italian fashion, but we had to meet up with the group back at the airport. We inadvertently convinced a bus driver to allow us to ride for free and were quickly reunited with the other students. A charter bus arrived to take all of us into Roma to meet with our new families. Suddenly a wave of nervousness and excitement washed over me as I realized that I was too excited to recall even the simplest Italian expressions.

To be continued…

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3