What's going on here?

As some of you may know, this summer I've been given the opportunity to travel to Italy to do some research, for credit, while still on my fellowship from The Ohio State University. What this means, in effect, is that I have a chance to spend the summer in Italy, going wherever I want to go and looking at whatever I want to look at, get graduate credit for doing so, get paid my normal fellowship money, and get a stipend for independent research on top. Add in the fact that I have enough frequent flier miles to get a plane ticket to Europe for free and this was a no brainer. I've been trying to get back to Italy since the day I left in December 2008, and this is too good to pass up. Those of you who aren't in Columbus, don't feel too bad: I couldn't have come back to Baltimore or taken a vacation elsewhere anyway. I have to get credit this summer, so it's either Columbus or Europe. For those of you in Columbus, sorry: Italy will beat you, every time.

Lots of you may be asking yourselves "Self, why would Frank write a travel blog?" And surely your self would respond with "I have no idea, stop talking to yourself." Well fear not, imaginary arguers, I'll explain! Although I've been on trips for long periods of time in the past, I never bothered to do this, and looking back, I'm kind of kicking myself over it. Not only would I have made my experiences abroad accessible to more of my family and friends, I'd also probably be able to remember everything a bit better myself (or at least I'd have a record I go back and look at). So, there's one reason. Reason number two is that maybe, if I'm really lucky, my posts will help inspire someone else to go travelling, and instill in them the love of history and Europe that I've found within myself. That came out a little bit cheesier than I'd have liked, but I hope that you catch my meaning.

My plan for this blog is to update as frequently as possible, including lots and lots of pictures of where I've been since the last update, some history (but no more than you need to know to appreciate the pictures. Scout's honor), and any useful little travel tips I happen to pick up along the way. Assuming this goes well--fingers crossed--when I go abroad in the future I'll continue with the updates.

Finally, on the off chance someone who doesn't know me stumbles onto this blog and wonders who this mysterious traveler is, I'll tell you. My name is Frank (that's me up there in the corner), and I'm a PhD student at OSU, studying Byzantine History. As an undergrad at St. Mary's College of Maryland (about which you can read all you'd ever want to know and more here), I studied abroad a few times, spending spring break of freshman year in St. Petersburg, fall of my sophomore year in Alba, Italy (a small town in the Piedmont, near Torino. You may know of it because of truffles), a week and a half during the summer before junior year touring Japan, and fall of my junior year at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford, England. As you might have gathered, I got bit by the travel bug, HARD (at least as hard as anyone without a trust fund can be bitten). I went straight from St. Mary's to OSU, and this trip to Italy will be occurring the summer after my first year there.