My Italian Adventure

Who Am I and Why Am I Sharing My Italian Adventure?

Ciao (hello in Italian)! My name is Morganne and I am currently a senior marketing and management major. For my digital advertising class we are creating blogs, etc. to learn different aspects of building a personal brand. For me, I right away thought about my passion for traveling and the amazing trip I took this past summer to Italy.

Me on top of a volcano on the

 island of Vulcano in Southern Italy.

Anyway, I am from Iowa (yes more people now know where it is and that we are not Idaho because of The Bachelor) and have lived in the Midwest all of my life. The farthest I had ever traveled before this past summer was to North Carolina to for a tournament with my select soccer team, back when I was around 14 or 15 years old. You can definitely say that Italy was a huge jump for me.

I signed up for the study abroad program through my college, the University of Northern Iowa....GO PANTHERS! I knew that once I paid the fee, which was around $160 if I remember right, I wouldn't back out. So, I paid the fee and signed up for the best adventure of my life all in an afternoon and without knowing anyone going on the trip.

Sidebar here...study abroad is seriously one of the best things you can do. I encourage everyone to go on one if you have the opportunity.

Like I said, I did not know anybody going on the trip beforehand. All classwork was done through online worksheets before we left, and we only met as a group twice. So there I was about five months later, showing up to the Cedar Rapids airport ready to travel halfway around the world with 17 other people I couldn't even tell you the names of. Goodbye cornfields, HELLO ITALY, or so I thought.

Picture from the plane.

Our first adventure together was definitely one to remember. Our fight was delayed substantially due to a fire at the Chicago airport, where the only international flight to Italy was for two days. Finally about two or more hours after we were supposed to leave, we finally boarded the plane for takeoff. Ten minutes outside of Chicago they said there was not enough room on the runway to land, and turned the plane back around to Cedar Rapids where we got back off, waited a half hour, and boarded to take off again. Finally we reached the Chicago airport, where they had already delayed the international flight by over an hour for us. That's the end of the ordeal right? All jolly-good to head to Italy....WRONG! All 18 of us were sprinting across the entire Chicago O'Hare airport (I don't think I had ran in months so I was definitely sucking air). Just as we got to the gate, they closed the door and told us we could not board, as the plane was ready to leave.

Just our luck, finally having the chance to see the world and we miss a flight because they didn't have enough room to land a plane on the runway....isn't that one of the things that should be on the checklist before leaving?: Have somewhere for the plane to land -Check-

Finally, after begging the gate people and everyone just staring at us huffing-and-puffing with suitcases in hand, whispering about how sad it was we didn't make it, they let us on the plane. I think everyone in the entire terminal clapped.

This picture is of the plane that they weren't going to let us on.

Like seriously, we can see it....please let us go to Italy!

So off to Italy we go! I was about to embark on an 8 1/2 hour  international flight (first time over the ocean) and the next three weeks with 17 other people I did not know, but who would soon become some of the best people I have ever met.

The next blogs will be about:

• Rome
• The Vatican
• The different types of transportation in Italy (planes, trains, hydro boats, cable cars, etc. we took)
• Sicily
• The Egadi Islands
• The food in Italy (including octopus salad and gelato...don't worry, not mixed together)
• The Aeolian Islands
• Hiking an active volcano and standing about 100 feet from lava coming out
• And finally, coming home and the transition back to America.

Picture of us by the water on Levanzo,

an island on the Egadi Island chain.



Rome on our first day.

I hope you have enjoyed this little snippet about me and the beginning of the best adventure I have ever been on. Check back soon for more posts! :)

Andiamo! (let's go in Italian)