And now the girls are on their own with Nuna...

---

I left the girls in Catanzaro Lido at 5:30 in the morning, because I had to fly back to the States. The first flight was a 7:15 am, and then I connected through Rome to Chicago.

The girls were going to go into the mountains to see the grand opening of a play that Giacomo wrote. The play was playing at an outdoor theater, and they were going to stay in a chalet in the area.

I had two flights to get to Chicago. My first flight was an Alitalia flight from Lamezzia Terme to Rome, and the next was an American Airlines flight from Rome to Chicago. Both were uneventful and I arrived in Chicago on a bright, sunny afternoon.

I spoke with Liliana the next day, and she said that they ended up having a good time up in the mountains to see the play. The play itself was not that interesting, but they ended up meeting a few other teenagers who live in Catanzaro and they exchanged contact information. It seems that Liliana and Chonsa are an invincible team everywhere they go: they make so many friends every where, even in a remote mountain location.

I am sure that Liliana and Chonsa will have an interesting two weeks in Calabria with Nuna. While Catanzaro-Lido doesn’t have the fun piazzas that we found in many places during our travels, it does have a fun “lungomare,” a waterfront promonade, with lots of little coffee bars and ice cream shops. I suspect they will soon have dozens of friends in Catanzaro-Lido, and they will have a fabulous time.

Well, that’s the end of this trip journal. It’s been such a fun time, and later I may go back and add some thoughts that occur to me as I process our times together. But I do believe that traveling in Italy was a wonderful experience for all of us. Liliana and Chonsa were such fun, happy, spirited and entertaining companions. They never complained, and they always found ways to meet friends and learn more about Italian culture.

Both Chonsa and Liliana were able to see a very different culture in Italy than there is in Hawaii. That’s not to say that either place is better than the other: they are just different. And both girls found they could adapt to each of the cultures, make friends, and enjoy their lives. I think they see that what matters most is the attitude that each of us brings to our lives, and that their own joy and enthusiasm for life had real positive impact over their experiences in the new Italian culture. I suspect that they will have fond memories of their experiences many years from now, even when they have their own teen daughters one day!

---