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Studying in Italy has always been one of my dreams. So when I had the chance to do it, I didn’t think twice. And here I am now, five months later, choosing to stay for five more and already knowing that when I leave, a part of me will remain here, because everything that has happened till now made me fall in love with Italy and the Italian way of life. I mean, I won’t lie to you, life here is not all milk and honey…or wine and gelato. Italians also have their weird habits, even for someone coming from an ex-communist country where corruption and bureaucracy are a normal thing. But somehow, even with all these, life here has its own charm. The ‘il dolce far niente”: the sweet pleasure of taking your time; doing nothing but enjoying life; not being in a constant rush. Because with all the crazy day to day tasks, Italians still find a way to do it. So in the past months, I’ve been learning how to live the moment and enjoy all the good things before they become a memory…and I think this was Italy’s greatest gift to me…so far. Five months ago I came to Italy all alone, without really knowing the language or what to expect. I wanted an adventure and this is exactly what I’ve got. An experience that has certainly got me out of my comfort zone. The first couple of weeks were not easy on me. All the things here were so different…new country, new language…new everything. Plus trying to find a place to stay long-term, learning my way around the city…when even going grocery shopping felt like a journey to hell since I couldn’t find any familiar product. And I would always end up staring at the racks for fifteen minutes without knowing what to choose, even though, compared to the consumerism culture back home, with huge shops where you can find over ten different brands of the same product, in Italy they only have small neighborhood shops. However, the hardest thing, even though I wasn’t by myself in a new city for the first time, was being completely alone. Knowing that all those that I know and who care about me are miles away…in another country…and no matter what would happen, they could do nothing. And this made me realize, once again, that in life you only truly have yourself. All the others are just passengers: next to you for as long as your paths and destinations match. And once you make peace with this thought, once you realize you are the only one responsible for what happens or how you feel…well, that is when you can take actions and start making yourself happy. The moment you start living. It was not easy…but I took it day by day. Getting to know the city and the people…getting lost on the narrow streets, admiring the architecture and sketching, taking walks by the sea and meeting others just like me. People with whom I shared something…the same feeling of being alone, of being a newcomer. It never really occurred to me before, but us, people, we are not so different from migratory birds…They have wings, they can fly everywhere…they can travel all around the world, but they always return, back to the place where it all started, where they felt safe and that they belonged. I know I won’t be the same when I return back to my home town. But I guess that is the beauty of travelling and living in other places. When you return, you realize how much you’ve changed. But the one thing that is not so nice when you have this kind of life, always on the move, is that you can’t feel completely at home anywhere anymore. You start having a nomadic heart. Always in search of a place…or a person to call home…something really hard to find…so you start wondering when or if you can ever settle…Because in the end, we all crave for the same thing: the safety of something we call ‘home’…Don’t we?