I’m back in Italy

CIAO! I realized I haven’t posted a blog in a month (which is crazy!) so I wanted to break my silence with a quick post to let you all know that I’ve arrived back in Italy!

The last month was so busy with preparing for travel, stress dreaming about getting the wrong COVID test, and trying to see all my friends and family before I left. In the end I spent time with everyone I wanted to and got all my packing done! I even squeezed in some shopping for new Adidas sneakers and some summer clothes.

enjoying my last days in Minnesota…

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I flew to D.C. last Friday to meet my friend, we got our COVID tests on Saturday (negative!), and then flew out on Sunday morning. In the end, we arrived to Italy on Monday morning June 21st, the day the EU officially opened for travel! I was hoping it would work out this way. Having the EU officially open meant that all we had to show when we landed was our passport. To get on the flight, we showed our vaccine cards, our digital passenger locator forms, and passports. Now that the rules have changed, this seems to be the status quo to not need a COVID test. (Unless you haven’t been vaccinated – in which case go get the shot now. It will save lives.)

Preparing for this trip took a lot more effort than previous trips abroad because of the pandemic, which is understandable! It was definitely more stressful, because I didn’t want to be denied entry at the airport due to getting a test at the wrong time or missing a form. I’m so glad that the timing worked out how it did and that the travel ended up being quite easy. Our ten hour flight from Dallas to Rome wasn’t even that bad, and I only slept for all of seven minutes!

Landing in Italy was quite a sensation. I was so happy to be back, and to be hit by the language and the customs immediately upon arrival. I took my first espresso at the bar in the airport while we waited for my friend’s parents to land, and I was grinning ear-to-ear at this simple action returned to me. It felt like I had been waiting SO long for this moment – to land in Roma again – and it was finally here. In many ways it feels like I never left, and in others it feels like a lifetime ago that I was here (I left in December 2019, so over 17 months ago). You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. It felt like coming home again!

Since landing a week ago, I have been working to get settled in and had some major changes to my plans, which is why I haven’t posted anything here on the blog quite yet. It has required some extensive transit and moving but things are working out better than I imagined. My Instagram stories are super active each day, as I share daily Italian life with all of you (my favorite thing to share!). This week I plan to get settled in more to Rome, which is where I will be based for the rest of June and all of July. Once I’m settled, I have a lot of content ideas to bring to you and I will be doing some weekend trips in July! So follow along on Instagram for those.

As always when I come back to Italy, the language is returning to me and I’m trying to get better each day at comprehending and speaking in Italian. I’m marveling at all the things I’ve missed – espresso at the bar, the grocery store, walking everywhere, the sound of mopeds, umbrella pines, the beauty I’m constantly surrounded by, even the smell of cigarette smoke. When I finally arrived in Rome on Friday morning and met my former host mom, stepping out of the metro at Circo Massimo, it felt like such a homecoming. I am so lucky to feel so at home in Rome and absolutely content and happy to be here. I don’t know if I chose Roma or it chose me, but I’m glad we somehow belong to each other.

I’ll be sharing more about getting back to this Italian life and who I am here, plus more details about what I’m up to this summer, another day soon. If you have any content requests, don’t hesitate to let me know! Sending you all love wherever you are in the world. xxMaggie

that feeling when you’re back in your favorite place…

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ciao for now!