So What Does It All Mean?

As I sit here, putting the finishing touches on my blog before final inspections, I am reminiscing. The infernal question, "So what did this mean to me?" keeps popping up into my head. I suppose I can try and answer it, but I have a small feeling that I will never be able to fully answer that question because this trip was too much, it overwhelmed. I experienced so many new things, fulfilled several of my life-long goals, and simply saw so much that I don't know what it can be reduced down to.

However, I do know that this trip has reaffirmed my need, no perhaps thirst is a better word, for traveling. For seeing the world. For not being satisfied with what little I have seen in these measly 19 years of my existence. Experiencing Roma and Firenze and Pompeii has only made me more parched for the rest of the world, the rest of the cultures, the rest of the architecture, the rest of everything that rests just on the edge of the horizon.

I do know that my love of architecture has significantly grown during the 8 days I was in Italia. Now, more than ever, I will be able to learn from the past and incorporate in the future. I am completely fascinated with the idea of a piazza inside a building, and Roma has only made that itch worse. The fact that Pompeii and Ostia Antica and Hadrian's Villa still stand speaks volumes about choice of building material and sustainability. As a student of architecture I must take what I see and use it later on.

I do know that I will be going back to Italia. Whether it will be in the next 5 years (perhaps my final co-op?), or in the next 50 years, I have to go back. There is no other option, I've fallen in love with Roma, and I only saw a small glimpse of it. I have yet to experience half of what that magnificent city can offer.

I do know that this class, as a whole, has helped me to be a more brain-storming student, rather than a by-the-book student. I have learned to think more analytically, which will help me in both of my majors.

All in all, I cannot simply reduce this trip to a "once in a lifetime" event, because that sounds cliche and used. Not to mention that it doesn't truly express what I felt for this trip. It was also mind-expanding, ego-shrinking, and quite simply amazing. Words don't work here. So let me end this post with the a few quotes, they aren't exactly what I want to say, but they come really, really close.

"O Rome! My country! City of the soul!" -Lord Byron

"In tears I tossed my coin from Trevi's edge... I gave to Rome my rendezvous and pledge. " - Robert Underwood Johnson

"Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning." - Giotto di Bondone