I'm Abby's Aunt Wende. This will be only one of two blog posts from me...the rest will be from Abby. Like Abby, I grew up in rural Indiana. During my 16th summer, I had an amazing opportunity to visit eight countries in Europe with 11 other high school students in an exchange show choir program. We stayed with families at night, welcomed into homes so very different than ones in America (one was even a working windmill-home in Holland). That first trip to Europe, so far away from Indiana, made such an impact on my life; some ways only becoming apparent decades later, some apparent immediately upon arriving back home. It's Abby's turn.
Art is Abby's passion - art education her current career choice, and there isn't a better country than Italy as a living art classroom. Abby is a gentle spiritual soul, but is sensible and mind-strong beyond her twenty years. I'm confident she will learn things about herself that will surprise her, please her and possibly confuse her...but all of it will be good.
I think once everyone reaches a certain age they wish they could go back and talk to a younger version of themself...to give warnings, advice or a reality check. I'm so excited to take Abby to Italy, to explore things from her viewpoint and have an opportunity to just possibly catch a glimpse of that 16 year old girl so long ago in
Italy through the eyes of a twenty year old.
Besides packing, I have been studying the Vatican and its art from this book my Aunt and Uncle sent me, as we are going on a 5-hour tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica while we are in Rome. My one and only request was to see the Sistine Chapel; hard to believe I will be standing under it very soon.
