What's your name? I speak very, very perfect English

I am finally in Italy and I can hardly believe it! After months of planning, waiting, 10 hours on a plane and 8 long hours of travel I finally made it to Sansepolcro. When we arrived in Rome we had to take two trains to get to Arezzo. The first train ride was about 45 minutes and I spent the entire time looking out the windows trying to see as much as I could. My first impression of Italy and Rome was not what I expected it to be. In my mind I have always pictured Italy as this picturesque place where everything was remarkably beautiful and breathtaking. Instead I was seeing lots of flat land with no buildings, billboards, the back of apartments and lots of graffiti. For awhile I had to remind myself that I was in Italy and not just in some other city in America. At this point nothing I saw set apart Italy from anything else that I had seen before. It's not that I wasn't excited to be in Italy I just had not had an "Ah! Now this is Italy!" moment.

As more exhaustion set in we arrived at the main train station in Rome. After struggling to get all of our luggage off of the train we lugged it all down to the main terminal where we were soon to have our first experience with Italian food. Walking around the train station looking for something to eat nothing seemed appetizing. From being tired beyond belief to being hot and extremely sweaty from carrying the luggage all I wanted was water. However, we walked into a place that was like a small grocery store where some grapes that I saw did not look too bad. In this store is where I had my first Italian lesson. When buying fruits and vegetables you must put your items in a plastic bag, put the bag on the scale and press the button on the scale that matches the food that you are buying. The machine will print out a sticker with the weight of food on it which you then wrap around the bag showing that you have not put any more food in the bag after you printed out your sticker. If you do not do this, you will get to the cashier and she will begin to start speaking rather loudly in Italian telling you that you have not done this right. But if you are like me and speak little to no Italian you will have no idea what she is saying and will probably end up leaving without your fruit or vegetables that you had intended on buying. Luckily, we had someone with us who speaks Italian and was able to explain this process to us. All in all my first Italian meal was grapes, chips and water. Yumm! Exactly what I had imagined my first Italian meal to be like.

After my wonderful lunch I sat down with the other girls next to our bags against a wall where I am almost positive we all fell asleep for a least a couple minutes. Being that we were 7 American girls sprawled out on the train station floor with all of our luggage taking up at least half a wall we got many looks by those passing by. I was too tired to take in what was going on around me but I did realize how much goes on in these train stations. There was everything there. There were tons of places to eat, get gelato, shop and when I say shop I don't mean little touristy shops that you would expect to find in an airport, I mean clothing stores and Sephora. Finally, it was time to board our next train where I slept for the entire 2 hour ride. Just one more bus ride and I would finally be at my new home.

After getting off the train in Arezzo and getting my suitcases down a flight a stairs and then up another flight a stairs we were ready to catch our bus. I was told to try to stay awake for the hour ride to Sansepolcro because the drive would be absolutely beautiful and it was! The first thing that I noticed while on the bus was all the crazy drivers on these small roads and I thought this is worse than New York drivers. I soon stopped paying attention to the road and all the drivers and began to look at all the buildings, houses, and mountains! We passed entire fields of nothing but sunflowers and I couldn't even imagine how gorgeous it must be when they are in bloom. There is no doubt about it, Tuscany is breathtaking. When the bus arrived in Sansepolcro and we stepped out onto the cobblestone and into the walls of the city I finally had my, "Ah! Now this is Italy" moment! Sansepolcro and the palazzo are more than I could have imagined. While touring the palazzo I did not know how to get back to where we started. I am truly living in a palace! While walking through the streets of Sansepolcro I feel like I am in a movie. The small streets, the buildings, the piazza, the churches, the cobblestone streets, it's all than better than the movies!