Story Dust and Wanderlust.

Halloween is just around the corner, so, reader, let's talk about blood and gore.                                                                It was a Friday night and I was standing on haunted ground. The bodies of the infants that had died shortly after birth were buried on this ground instead of a cemetery because they weren't cleansed of their original sin through the sacrament of baptism. But of course I'm referring to something that was done back in the Middle Ages. Now, however, a gorgeous little square that is home to a small 11th century church called Santi Apostoli stands over it. The little gorgeous square's name is Piazza del Limbo, named after the dead chi...

Have you ever done something stupid enough to throw your entire travel itinerary into complete disarray? If you have, you know the struggle. If you haven't, come on a journey with me to relive what, at the time, felt like the most brutal 15 hours of my entire existence, and you can laugh with me. Or at me.  " Flight 1396, scheduled to depart at 9.05 am has been delayed. Please wait for further instructions shortly, thank you" the intercom at the airport in Pisa blared a little too loudly. The sun, now shining in all its glory heated up my skin through the glass of the windows in the waiting area and it told me that it was approximately three hours past our scheduled departure. Angry passengers huffed and puffed at the ground staff of the airline, but there was little they could do about a strike that had ensued everywhere in Italy. We were fresh out of the stress of midterms and only just beginning to feel the excitement of Fall Break, when we found out the ni...

Today, last year, I landed in Florence, Italy for my Fall semester abroad. I left home, left my parents who, mind you, I have never been more than 10 miles away from my ENTIRE life, for what I only hoped would be a life changing experience. I wasn't prepared for what I got though. Because what I got was more. My God, it was so. much. more. Sometimes I think that I didn't feel homesick or alone/depressed because I was blessed enough to have someone I trusted wholeheartedly and whose company I enjoyed and welcomed, with me on this journey. But then again, I have always been into risky, sometimes lonely endeavors. Into traveling and experiencing things that I'd only imagined before. The thrill of searching and finding, of exploring, of independence existed inside of me long before I knew enough to acknowledge it. (My parents can stand testimony to that!) But despite it all, despite the excitement and the lack of homesickness, I was scared out of my mind. I was walking into...