Final Thoughts

WHOA! These past seven days have flown by! Rome, Assisi, Florence, and...finally Como.

We assembled mid morning and departed from our religious institute to reach Como! Sadly the day was gloomy and rainy and many slept on the bus. However the trip itself was through beautiful hills and valleys. The fog was resting in the lush green valleys...Picturesque! We made a quick rest stop at self-service restuarant "Autogrill" for lunch. Though you might not think a rest area would be excting, personally I thought it was quite amazing. It spanned over the freeway and included a largeish supermarket where many of us picked up a chocolate bar for the road (p.s. - Chocolate over in Europe much better than the states). After our own slice of Italian life adventure at the Autogrille, we continued on to Como.

We arrive in the late afternoon and had a few hours to explore the cute little town on Lake Como. We walked around the square, some of us tour the Cathedral, or strolled by the lake, or shopped for those last minute gifts. We ressembled at 7pm to go to our farewell dinner.

The restuarant it self was very nice. A team of waiters meet us and took our jackets and we sat down on the beautifully set tables complete with cream colored table clothes. We began the meal with little chicken salads or tomates and cheese salads, water, juice, wine, bread sticks and rolls. The first course was risotto followed by chicken and mixed fresh vegetables. Each course was more and more wonderful. Then desert...an ice cream with nuts and other wonderfulness, words cannot describe!

In between courses Paul made remarks about the trip and thanked the many people who made this all possible. Our chaperones, Sara our fearless tour leader, the wonderful bus drivers who navigated the narrow streets of Italy, his wife Sue, the student executive board, Bro Adams, the lugage crew, the bloggers, and all of us! We all put a lot of time and energy into this tour and it paid off in amazing ways.

We returned to the hotel for a few hours. SOme of us will sleep, other have ventured out in the night for a last trip to a pub, and other will just hang out and stay up talking about all the awesome times until 3:15 when we will begin our journey home.

Over the last few days we sang in amazing cathedrals and churchs including St. Peters, we saw ancient ruins, experienced Italian food, wine, and culture, and sang A LOT!!!

THANK YOU Paul! Thank you mom and dad! Thank you Italy, its been swell, but all good things come to an end.