beginnings in italy

i don't know where to begin so i'll begin with me in my first room in rome.

for some time now ( a little over a year) i've wanted to take a vacation alone. i knew i wanted to go international, i knew i didn't want to meet a friend wherever i decided to travel. alone. i needed some space to regroup, i needed some space to have an adventure. i wanted to know that i didn't have to rely on anyone to do the things in life that a lot of people require to have a companion for. i decided on italy since it seemed to fit into my ideas about where i wanted to go...and well, it's italy. food, ruins, art, nature and city.

my first stop was in rome.

this is me in my room. it was tiny, the bed was tiny. the shower was tiny. i was shocked every time i made a transition in this country. i didn't really take time to build a lot of expectations. i planned the trip 3 weeks in advance. i didn't do a ton a research, i just did it.

rome was perfect as my first destination point for this trip for a number of reasons. it was a busy city with a lot to see. i'm used to this so that was a comfort. my hotel had a laptop right outside my door that was free for use at all hours. there was a phone service across the street from my hotel that allowed easy communication back home to mom, which was important, "i'm here safe" etc. and there was tons of sites to see which was good for the first leg of my tour because site seeing can be exhausting.

so, i begin with these photos. one of 6 times i am in a photograph on my trip -which isn't much considering i took far over 1000 photos and videos.

i'm going to blog some images that are more important to me over time but, all my photos can be viewed on my flickr site.

until the next entry...ciao.