"Never say goodbye, because goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting." - J.M. Barrie

Here it is. I now present to you the final tally of my European adventure.

It's been a whirlwind, but I believe I've done, seen, lived, and learned more in the past four months than I did in my 234 months prior to January 2012.

I didn't cross off everything, but if you think about it, that's not really a bad thing. It just gives me something else to look forward to when I return to Europe.

• Go to Croatia.   
• Go to Germany.  
• Go to Ireland.  
• Go to any other country I can go to.   *Greece, Spain, and England should make up for those last two. I'll be back someday to hit the countries I missed, including Turkey because I hear Istanbul is fantastic.
• Get a touristy photo of me holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• Eat authentic Italian pasta.
• Drink authentic Italian wine.
• Take a Beatles tour of Liverpool.  
• Take a Harry Potter tour of England.   
• Get a photo of me at Platform 9 3/4.   
• Strike up a conversation with a local.
• Try to read an Italian newspaper.
• Spend a day just people watching.
• Follow a road just to see where it goes.
• Visit all of the major Italian cities.   *Define "major." I saw what I wanted on this trip. Everything else can wait until next time.
• Visit Dante Alighieri's house.   
• Swim in the ocean.   
• Actually see an ocean.   
• Stay in a hostel.   
• Attend an Italian youth group with Jess and Katy.
• Go to an Easter service in a church older than the United States.   
• Appreciate the fact that I can be in anything older than the United States.
• Get lost without panicking.
• Do something 100% spur-of-the-moment.
• Grocery shop in an open-air market.
• Make one purely selfish and frivolous purchase.   
• Hang my laundry out to dry over the street.    *Didn't happen, but I always had laundry hanging over my bed, over the kitchen table, and/or in the hall leading to our bathroom, so I'm going to call this one. Besides, Italians might think pigeon poop is lucky, but I don't want that in my clothes. 
• Watch the local news.
• Learn about international communications.   
• Learn at least enough Italian to get by.   
• Learn about art.   
• Live out of a backpack for a weekend.   
• Go to a pub.   
• Take more photos than I know what to do with.   
• Blog every (?) day.   *I'm going to go ahead and check this off because I kept up with my blog all semester.
• Remember to keep my feet off the frescoes.  

I guess this might be the end of my blog. There may be another brief post or two, but I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. 

If you've stuck it out with me this long, I just want to thank you. You, reading my blog right now, are the reason I've kept such a detailed record of my time abroad. You are the reason I can look back on these last four months with such clarity. If I had just been writing for myself, I know I would have slacked off a long time ago and let these four months slide into a warm but hazy memory as my life journeys on from this point.

So now, along with the photos and the souvenirs, I'll have this record to look back at all the details of this incredible chapter of my life, long after my tan fades and I've misplaced my last few Euros. 

As some of you have pointed out already, this blog is a novel. Keeping that in mind, I greatly appreciate your dedication to it and I'm happy I could make it worth your time and interest. You've been my motivation for this account all along, and I love you for it. 

Fino alla prossima volta, grazie per la lettura.