My last few days in Italy 2025
I can't believe that it's already been 3 months. It feels like these weeks have flown by. I'm so grateful for all the experiences I've had while being abroad and still feels like a dream that I had this opportunity to live and work abroad for this short period of time. It was so nice to reconnect with family and friends overseas.
It wasn’t even 24 hours and already I’m questioning why bottle caps don’t stay attached and why I put all my garbage in one bin instead of separating everything out. Boh! But let me back up to the beginning:
- Getting 5 suitcases to the airport hotel and taking a last minute tattoo appointment in Firenze hours before my flight home…
Yeah…so in my last 2 weeks in Italia, I have done some VERY on-brand Theresa moves. The week prior to me leaving, I called my friend at the Longchamp store in Rome to see if they had the exclusive bag in stock. Wouldn’t you know it, of course they did! And of course my friend held one back for me, so then of course I took a day trip, which consisted of a 3 hour fast-train down from Milan to Rome just to get one bag and back again.
And because I’m me, I didn’t just get the bag in Rome. Oh no. I got it in Milan and Florence as well! Still need the ones in Venice and Forte dei Marmi. And to continue my day trips, I’ve been wanting a tattoo in Italy to continue with my “continent” tattoo series, but because I didn’t plan well all the artists I had marked were booked until February or May at the earliest!
Until the Wednesday before I’m leaving, I get a message from the artist saying that she’ll message me on Thursday night if she’s able to do a last minute appointment for me, but she’s at her studio in Florence. Long store short, it worked out and so I booked my train! A few hours later, we have the wolf of Rome.
Thank you so much @cecilia_artworks for the last minute appointment and for the incredible tattoo. I’m obsessed.
Unfortunately, on my way back true to Italian culture, the train got delayed an hour, which meant that I didn’t get back to Milan until 10:30pm and I still needed to go back to my apartment to pick up my remaining suitcases and then make the hour long trek to Malpensa airport. The original plan was to take the Malpensa express, but because of all the stress – taxi it was! By the time I reached the airport hotel, got settled and repacked it was 1:30am and I needed to be at the airport at 4am for my flight. Which brings me to point 2.
- Running on an hour an half of sleep for the next 24-ish hours while taking a tour of Istanbul in the pouring rain
Getting the the terminal was simple enough, thankfully since I got the airport hotel. Doing all my tax free forms was also pretty simple since most people aren’t taking flights at 7am! However, making sure I had everything go through did take time and I barely made it to my gate. They were boarding Business Class when I arrived. Mind you, I’m the type of person that arrives to the airport 3 hours early for an international flight to make sure I have everything in order and can rest in the lounge. I hate arriving just on time to walk right on the plane.
But oh well! We got there! Next was the 3 hour flight from Milan to Istanbul where I had a 19-hour layover purposefully so I can take advantage of their free tour service! If you’re unaware, when you fly Turkish Airlines and have a layover between 4 hours and 26 hours or something (check their policy and read carefully), you can take advantage of a free hotel or a free tour! Depending on the ticket that you booked and how many days, etc. I was able to make it to their 4pm tour, but of course it was pouring rain. Just my luck.
Imagine if you will…you’ve just had a really long night worried about the weight limits in your 5 suitcases and how you’re going to get from the airport hotel to the terminal, make it through tax-free, check your suitcases, security, and get to your gate on time, then figure out how to book a free tour and running off of 1.5 hours of sleep and the tour-guide in the large 50-person coach bus goes on the microphone “And if you look to your left, normally you’d be able to see the bridge that connects the European continent and Asian continent within the city.” Excited – you turn your head, and what do you see? A dark pane of glass with rain pelting down that you can’t see anything out of…incredible.
At least I got out of the airport for a few hours right?
- Taking a 10+ hour flight to get stuck in customs
Whelp when it rains it pours! On the bright side on the 10+ hour flight back home, I had the entire row to myself, so was able to recover some of that sleep I was behind on. It’s the home stretch!! I have Global Entry, so I thought this would be a breeze like it normally is. But of course, it wasn’t. Because I had 5 suitcases and was just one person, customs had something to say about it and so needed to have my bags checked. Luckily everything was ok and can happily say that I am back home with all of my belongings. But what a wild last few days in Italia.
I already miss it so much and can’t wait to see all the people I’ve come to love so much while I was there sometime very soon!
