Little letters to the little things...

With one day left in Viterbo, the (enormous) tiny walled-in city I’ve called home for the last five weeks, I reflect on the many peculiar, but important lessons I’ve learned.  In the words of lifestyle guru and pop culture philosopher, Kylie Jenner, “I feel like this year is really about, like, the year of just realizing stuff.”

20 years-old with a background of planned, usually tense family road trips across the US, I would hardly consider myself an experienced traveler.  However, leaving my mother’s systematized “to the T” itineraries, our snack-packed, chili pepper red 2006 Honda Odyssey minivan, and family bickering about taking just “one” more family photo in the blazing sun, was the biggest push I needed to learn how to be my own kind of traveler. 

None of the blog posts, Pinterest boards, or advice from past travelers could have prepared me for the little things, like what the humidity will do to my bleached hair, that Sundays are truly a day of rest – even for the town’s ever spewing water fountains, or how to avoid getting temporary arthritis from twirling your spaghetti noodles too much.