Katerine Powell

When I was just 2 years old, I took a 10-hour flight overseas to Naples, Italy. I lived in this fascinating place for five years and loved it with all my heart. I moved back to Virginia for about a year then moved back to Italy when I was 7. My dad was in the military and was stationed on the military base there. While we were in Naples, we lived on base half of the time and off base the other half and I went to school on the military base that my mom taught at.

One of the best things about living in Italy was the fresh, amazing food. Some people may think eating pasta or pizza everyday would get old, but trust me, it didn’t. After going to numerous different pizza places once back in the United States, we finally found the closest thing to Neapolitan pizza, called Cane Rosso. We go to one in Fort Worth most of the time, but the restaurant has locations all over North Texas. People ask me all the time if Olive Garden imitates Italian food well, and I always tell them no, not even close. I don’t exactly know how to explain it, but authentic Italian food has a freshness to it and Olive Garden just doesn’t taste fresh.

We traveled all around Europe because my parents thought it would be important to let us experience different cultures. I don’t remember all of the trips we took because I was pretty young, but I do remember places like Egypt, Rome, Spain, Germany and of course Naples.  We would always take a trip to Rome, which was about two hours away. About once a month we would get on a train and visit the historic city. We used to go to the Vatican and go to mass there when we went. We also visited the Sistine Chapel, Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain.

I remember on my ninth birthday my parents asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to go to Pompeii. We lived 45 minutes away from Pompeii and the famous volcano Mt. Vesuvius. I remember going and seeing what was left of the city. I found it so interesting. At the time I didn’t realize that most children my age wouldn’t have the opportunity of going to a historic site like Pompeii.

I look back at all things I experience that some people may never experience. Now I realize how lucky I am to be able to have that opportunity. I know for a fact that if I didn’t live in Italy I would be a different person. Even though I was really young, it really opened up my mind to things. Sometimes I notice I have different opinions or a different mindset about certain things than my friends. I am just so grateful that I was able to experience the different cultures, even though I was so young, I learned so much.