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My Mexican Place

Decent Essays

A semester is a long period of time to be removed from your normal routine. Being away from my family and friends for the first time in my life, I struggled feeling comfortable in Italy. Slowly, as I explored my new city, I found places and foods scattered around the city that made me feel like “home”; a term that I realized is flexible and does not mean where you are from, but where you live, and this semester I have learned to live in the moment. Two weeks after arriving in Florence, while walking home from dinner across the river, stumbled upon Piazza della Signoria, for the first time. With the sound of a street performer’s violin in the crisp night air, I sat on the edge of the open-air gallery of statues. I still do not know why the piazza affected me the way it did, but with tears in my eyes, I knew I had found a place in Florence where I could be bitter sweetly happy. Piazza di Santa Croce has a similar affect on me. My favorite time to visit Santa Croce is in the cold early morning when the sky is still dark and the piazza is at its emptiest. There is something about the stone, the cold, and the loneliness that makes my heart ache for home in an inexplicable way. Standing alone, it feels like the piazza belongs to me and we belong to the moment. Food that I normally eat in the States has become incredibly comforting this …show more content…

Via de Pepi 73 has comforted me in the lowest of times. Our red couch has held me while I cried, my bed has hugged me while I slept, and the walls have closed me in. Being separated from the outside, from Florence, I cannot tell the difference between Iowa and Italy. When I walk in the door of my building, I know that I am home. I know that I can kick back and relax. I know that the right side of the red couch is my seat, that the bed on the left side of the room is my bed, and that the walls are what give this place the capability of being a

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