The Hardest Part

It's been months since I decided to enroll in an Italian language school. Months since I told everyone I planned on going. Months since I started scouring the Internet looking for Italian language schools, maps of Italy, travel blogs, and advice from other travelers.

Deciding when to go, how long to stay, how much money to spend -- that was easy. Deciding WHERE to go -- impossible!

As some people have told me, you really can't go wrong anywhere in Italy. But I didn't want to go just anywhere. At first, my criteria went something like this:

• Someplace I've never been (which rules out Milan, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Elba Island, and a few towns)
• Near the beach
• Away from tourists
• With plenty of things to do while I'm not in class
• At a school listed in my book of recommended schools

And so I started reading, thinking, making a list, changing my mind, and hemming and hawing because every place in Italy looks great. How am I supposed to choose just one place?

My friend Cherie just got back from a language school in France. "Choosing where to go is the most difficult part," she said. Boy, is she right.

For a while it was Naples. Then Taormina. Then Bologna. Then Siena. Then Naples again, and so on. And people kept asking me, where are you going? I said I didn't know.

I had to make a decision. Enough with overthinking it. So I set a deadline. By this weekend I have to decide where I'm going.

It's Venice.

The hardest part is over ... I hope!