From October 9^th until October 17^th my good friend, Alicia and I went to Italy.

Being that I had never left the country, did not have anything tying me down, like a husband or children, plus the fact that I had a little bit of money saved, I thought, “Ok, maybe now is the time to go.”

 

It was truly an experience that will be impossible to forget. Alicia and I flew into Rome and spent the week seeing all kinds of fantastic things in Rome, Tuscany, Florence, Venice, Verona and Assisi. We started our week in Rome, first heading to the Coliseum, then to the Sistine Chapel and then the Vatican city. We rode in a bus with our tour group north to Venice. During our time in Venice we saw the Murano glass factory, where much of Italy’s glass is made and then took a 45 minute boat ride to the Island of Burano. After Venice, we hoped back into the bus and headed south to Florence and Tuscany and then to Verona, where the famous Romeo and Juliet story originated. Our last stop was the small mountain village of Assisi. We finished the tour in Rome and I arrived back in Tampa at 1:30am Sunday morning after 2 delays and one missed flight.

 

It was very hard for me to wrap my head around the monstrosity of some of these buildings I saw. Pictures and words cannot describe Italy, my experience was refreshing and exhilarating. The music, the wine, the food, the people, the culture is and was truly amazing. For 25 years I’ve grown up knowing only this country I live in, and last week I was dropped into another world, a beautiful world. Even the long bus rides from city to city were enjoyable because of the exquisite views of the countryside.

 

I am already counting down the days until I can go back and explore the other Italian cities in which I did not have time to see. We did not explore Italy by ourselves, but with a tour group of 50 very interesting people. We had some cool people and some not so cool people. We had people of all different shapes, sizes and colors, ages, and personalities.

 

However, we did meet a very nice couple from Australia, Michelle and Joe. Michelle is an elementary school teacher and Joe, a retail manager. After asking about whether or not they have seen any great white sharks, salt water crocs or a number of other things we’d seen on the Discovery channel, we got to talking about prosthetics. Once I had told them that I was a prosthetic sales rep, they began asking me a lot of questions.

 

Their 2 year old cousin had recently become a bilateral amputee. They quickly admitted not knowing too much about prosthetics or amputees. They voiced their concern for their young cousin and described to me how he has been using his upper body and arms to crawl around on the ground. I told them that I had a contact in Australia at a distribution center and I would be happy to email him and possibly find out who in Sydney would be a good CPO for their cousin to go see. I was truly happy knowing that I may be able to help this couple and their family out.

 

Not in a million years would I guess that I would go on vacation in Italy and meet a couple from Australia fearful for their cousin’s future. Now that I have been in the industry for almost 4 years, I can say that I know a little bit that could go along way in the case of this Australian couple. I plan on keeping in contact with them to make sure that their little cousin is properly taken care of.