Italy is taking over my life!

Has anyone ever been to a place that you loved, that hit you so hard, that when you got home, you found that place slowly taking over your life? This is what Italy has done to me. It is taking over my brain one day at a time. Look at this.

I make pasta more. I make pizza more. I spent an outrageous 4.99 to buy a pint of gelato instead of a fancy baked good to celebrate passing the bar. I buy prosecco and make bellinis. I want an ice cream maker, just to make my own gelato. I want a stovetop espresso maker and milk frother, just to make my own cappucini. I find myself perusing Amazon and the LA Public Library for books about Italy I can take out. now that I have some of my trip photos on my wall, I look up and see Venice and Florence in their most beautiful glory and sometimes I even have dreams about being back there. I found a contest run by a camera manufacturer to win a trip to Tuscany. You can enter once a day and I put the contest page on my Bookmarks Toolbar so I won't forget to fill it out every day. I'm crazy, right? I was there for 2 weeks. How did it affect me this much? Am I the only one?!

In fact, in the month since my last post, my focus has totally changed. All I want to do is go back to Italy. I want to explore Tuscany for a week, I want to see the Cinque Terre, I want to see everything and anything I can afford (both in money and time). I figure I could save enough money to go to Mexico as early as next year, but if I keep saving I can probably go to Italy Spring 2009 assuming I can get a job sometime soon. How can I think about going to Mexico if I can go to Italy that soon?

I opened my travel account with $300. Then I got a gift from my aunt and uncle for passing the bar, some money from my parents for Chanukah that I asked for to add to my trip coffer, and some odds and ends here and there. Total already is $675. Then I decided to list all of my law school textbooks on half.com and in 2 days have sold almost $100 worth of books. It's going straight to the trip account. I've also decided that instead of making deposits for rent/bills into my checking account like normal, I'll put it into the savings account. Sure the interest is paltry, but hey if I can get an extra dollar or two, that's an extra gelato or cappuccino in Italy. I can transfer funds to the checking account when necessary and keep track of the explicit travel funds to make sure I never dip into that ever ever.

Surely I'm not the only one. Right.......?