Can I leave now please? Vorrei partire, mo!



This cinque cento ad among other things like the sightings of Italians, talk of booking flights, asking for recommendations and perusing of Pinterest's travel boards is the reason why I find myself longing to smell that Italian air as I sit in my caged room archiving away...

With FIAT USA breaking the waves in the United States, another reminder of the place I love is integrated into my every day life.  The only difference is FIAT USA is comprised of flashy new Cinque Centos with boring license plates. Where are all the antique cars that travel Italy's tiny roads, driven by oversized men sporting their dirty working clothes, mouth continually puffing on a cigarette? That is a sight that will always evoke a smile from my face. Sitting at my desk everday I stare at rough turquoise FIAT500, with a Roma square plastic license plate, parked on a lovely Roman Viale paved with cobblestones. Che miraviglia!. This is where I want to be and what I want to be driving and the newly launched FIAT USA commercial only furthers my desire to be ripping around the curvy roads of Amalfi in my own FIAT.

Another constant reminder of Italy has been my new job in Cambridge. This I am blessed for on a number of levels. First off, through riding public transportation I've been granted the gift of running into numerous Italians on the T.  The first time I did, I had just finished Happy Hour Cocktails with some friends after work so I was feeling confident in my language skills and actually stopped the girl to talk to her for a minute.  She spoke so eloquently and with certainty being from Milano, and I immediately became jealous of her accent and pride. Knowing I'll never be able to speak and present myself like her, it still made me beyond happy just to hear her rolling 'r's and how her sentences composed lovely strings of music in my ears. For the other encounters, simply hearing a mother chastise her kids, or a couple converse about which stop they had to get off, easily made my day.  There are many more Italians in Boston than I had expected to be vacationing at this point, and they keep reminding me how much I long to return to be perpetually filled with the beautiful language.

Finally, I can't count the amount of recommendations I've given since the start of the summer... It seems as though everyone, not including me, has made plans to travel to Italy for the Summer of 2012. How lucky!  Tina and Rod went to spend a week in a fantastic Villa outside of Florence and then to Rome.  My new co-worker Melissa was headed to Rome and Florence.  My parents arrived in Fontechiari this morning. My aunt Toni has been asking me questions to help prepare her trip. Fabrizia and friend head out August 3rd and I'm stuck here!  I can only hope that they will bring back tons and tons of pictures, maybe a few perugina chocolates and espresso from La Brasilera!

What's really preventing me from crying though is my recent success with getting through to the University of Bologna.  It's starting to be clear now that two years of Italy are within my future, so I can't really complain about not boarding a plane this summer quite yet.  My only regret is that the Summer is really the best time to be in Italy with the Festa every night, but looks like I'll just have to take this summer off to make next summer that much better!

All in all... Mi manchi, italia! Mi piacerebbe ritornare al momento piu presto!  Ci vediamo presto! Speriamo!