Andiamo a Perugia!: Amanda Knox is free!

Not only am I studying abroad in Peruga, Italy and experiencing so much culture, I got to witness one of the most exciting court cases, in my opinion, of my generation: Amanda Knox is free!

As you read earlier in my blog, I was interviewed by The Today Show with Lester Holt and sat in on part of the trial. Well, after several weeks, the interview finally aired! I'm sure many of you who follow my blog also received my mom's email to just about the entire family and circle of friends! Here is the video!

Pretty cool, huh? I got to be on national TV while studying internationally!

Last Monday, I witnessed history as I stood outside the courthouse, with pretty much the entire city of Perugia. My friends and I found a perfect spot to wait for the verdict of Amanda Knox. We stationed ourselves right by the front door of the courthouse, near the barricades where the reporters entered and where all the cameras were set up. Perfect viewing spot! We saw all the reporters file into the courthouse when the verdict was ready. We had a perfect shot of the cluster of microphones where the lawyers, families, etc would come and speak. The time at which the verdict was to be read kept getting postponed, but we stuck it out because we wanted to be there for this monumental event! What was going to happen to this American student? We kept thinking that she could be any of us! We waited anxiously.

Finally, the verdict was announced. I was shaking leading up to it being read and once it was read, I started crying. No joke-I got more emotional than I thought I was going to be! The city went crazy as you can imagine because some people were thrilled while others were angry. My friends were trying to move to another area of the streets and some Italian men yelled out to them, "Hey Americans, f*** you!" I hate to put that in my blog, but I just wanted to highlight the extremes of emotions that was cast over Perugia. That scared all of us! I didn't know how people were going to treat us American students after this ordeal was over and done with. So far, it hasn't affected us, which is great! There was definitely tension running through the streets that night.

I took a bunch of pictures and became one of the paparazzi. I got up close and personal to one of Amanda's lawyers. Literally, while camera crew from new stations were interviewing and videoing her lawyer, I was standing right in the shuffle of them snapping away picture of him!

After hanging around a little bit after the verdict had been read and the family had left, my friends and I decided it was probably a safe idea to get back to our apartment. We didn't know if there would be riots in the streets. It was quite the commotion! Perugia was truly alive that night! There has been such a negative light cast upon this city, but hopefully now that Amanda is back home and the trial is more or less over, the world will look to Perugia for it's many other specialties, like the jazz festival and the chocolate festival that is coming up!