Trip or vacation?

bborror15
Nov 7, 2017
2 min read

10 days, 3 cities, 11 people, lots of pasta.

I never imagined that I would take a trip to Italy with this many people, and I never imagined that it would go so well (maybe that's the pessimist in me?). I was so surprised at how well we all got along and how smoothly everything went. Before the trip Rachel, Jenna and I talked about what we wanted out of our time in Italy. We started to talk about rest. Rest has been a constant theme during my time abroad; with days packed full it is incredibly important to take moments to breathe, to relax, and especially to reflect. This trip to Italy, as we had decided, was more of a trip than a vacation. Don't let my photos deceive you...what you can't see is the miles and miles of walking we did, the crazy bus rides we took that almost made my head explode, our struggles with directions, and our 6 euro water bottles at lunch (those sneaky Italians!). Despite the hard parts of the trip, we made a strong effort to relax, to not feel the pressure of seeing everything there was to be seen. It's definitely hard to have avoid the mentality of "go, go go", but I have learned that if you want to have a vacation, you sometimes just need to stop, not worry about getting great pictures of some popular touristy spots, and to just enjoy the people around you.

So yes, these 10 days in Italy did include some vacation-y moments, but by the end we all were really exhausted. I am glad to say that coming back to Seville really felt like coming back home. There is SO much to be thankful for!

The Spanish Steps (Rome)