We have been here for over 2 weeks, and what a trip it\u2019s been. This once unfamiliar place is now comfortable to me. I was so worried to go somewhere\u00a0I had never been and change my routine, but now I have one here: sleep in until class is about to start, walk down the hill, sit in lecture for a few hours, head to town for lunch, sit in a coffee shop for a few hours, head to wine tasting lab, head to dinner, walk up the hill, go to sleep, and do it all over again. I felt like I belonged in this city when our dinner waiter gave me seconds on pasta without me having to ask. Italian hospitality at its finest. I have a favorite coffee shop and the barista knows I will order two cappuccinos before I leave and maybe a muffin if it\u2019s one of those days. I have tried multiple gelato flavors, pizza toppings, and pasta shapes. I have found the best tiramisu in town (Mario\u2019s restaurant) and the cheapest lunch (#4 at Molesini\u2019s-turkey, tomato, pesto, and fresh mozzarella). I have found a new place to call home. The wifi isn\u2019t great and neither is the hill, but everything else is. I am getting homesick though. I would love Mexican food or Chick-fil-a. I would love my own queen sized bed and bathroom. I would love to have my car to drive to get lunch rather than walking everywhere. But I have realized while I\u2019m here, I need to fully be here. Sure I miss the comforts of the U.S., but as many of us have said \u2018You\u2019re only in Cortona once.\u201d And for now, I will embrace every hilly street, scenic view, and late night studying. The lack of wifi has taught me two things. One, it makes you explore local restaurants and coffee shops because they have good wifi, cheap pastries, and really good coffee. Two, when I\u2019m not looking at my phone constantly, I am looking up. Up and around, left and right, all over this quaint town. I have explored shops and stores, talked to locals, made friends with other travelers, appreciated the views, and so much more. Maybe I can take this to heart in the U.S. rather than constantly checking Twitter. Ciao for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have been here for over 2 weeks, and what a trip it\u2019s been. This once unfamiliar place is now comfortable to me. I was so worried to go somewhere\u00a0I had never been and change my routine, but now I have one here: sleep in until class is about to start, walk down the hill, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,28,23,32],"tags":[67,74,65],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-led","category-italy","category-maymester","category-viticulture-and-enology","tag-cortona","tag-maymester","tag-viticulture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1762,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/1762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}