Countdown: Quattro!

At the time of the writing of this post, I am just four goddess-willing days away from flying on a jet plane to Rome, Italy so I can rewrite my own Italian story.

My first / last visit to Italia was 17 years ago when I traveled to the country for my honeymoon.  Although I was in gorgeous Tuscany for a month's time, let me just jump to the punch line: the marriage did not last a lifetime. It was a stressful time while abroad on this Grand Tour amidst perfect wine, mind-blowing history, and picture-perfect foods.  I was navigating mild depression and feeling very unhappy.  Plus, I was pretty much doing the sole parenting of our then 18 month old toddler.  Fortunately, there were several others staying at the villa and I had some support. But the experience didn't inspire anymore big traveling for me again for over a decade.  It was in 2016 I ventured to Montreal to bring in 2017 when my true blue travel bug bit and then there was no looking back!

Fast forward to the present.  My darling daughter and I have been hoping to take a trip to Europe since 2018 or so but for many reasons - including the obvious one - it kept getting delayed, so when the world started to open up again, I suggested we take a trip to celebrate a major milestone in her life: her high school graduation.

Well, that idea was not with out some stress because the darling daughter let her passport lapse and I sadly booked a trip to Italy without her. I recruited my buddy, Rose, to join me for a portion of the trip and set about coordinating the details for the journey.

Planning the trip, especially in relation to the destination, has brought up a whole mess of feelings: excitement, anxiety, frustration - just to name a few.  I find this interesting because I have traveled to several places outside of the US over the past few years without experiencing any stress. Planning a month-long trip to a foreign country is quite the undertaking and I was determined to make this dream come true. I realized that the fact that this is my first journey since the pandemic and to a location that has some negative memories associated with it, it was no wonder all these not-so-hot feelings were coming up for me. After Rose's weeklong visit, I am to live in Italy for another three weeks, all by myself.  Me. Living in another country for a total of one month. Am I out of my mind?!  I don't speak or understand Italian.  Thank goodness for Google translate, yes?

Because it is a big trip, I am working with a travel agency, Connecting Hearts Travel. So many moving parts amidst so many people who also had the same idea as I did to travel to Europe this summer. The moment you would find a suitable Air Bnb, it was gone within minutes, so as soon as I found places to stay, I booked them, Danno.

Hawaii Five O Jack Lord GIFfrom Hawaii Five O GIFs

My first two weeks will be in Rome.  Rose will be with me for Week 1. Lila will arriving Week 2 and will be traveling with me for the rest of my stay there.  As it turned out, the  passport folks got her renewal to her in a matter of weeks (!). I found a sweet apartment to stay in. It is just a 10 minute walk from the Colosseum. 

"The apartment has been part of our family since 1942 when, during the war, our grandparents and parents arrived in Rome. Uninhabited for a few years, after several events my cousin Monica and I decided to renovate it completely to give it a taste of the past by dedicating it to our grandmother of Sorrento."

Rose and I will be hitting all the spots during her 7 day visit: The Colosseum, Vatican City / Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, The Pantheon - just to name a few. It will be a whirlwind of tourist-saturated, daily excursions but we also have a few 'off the beaten path' destinations to check out as well. A new friend has us going on a mission to visit her Italian friends from her days of living there with her family for 5 years. Of course, I have no intention of trying to see all of the Eternal City in two week's time, so the last few days upon Lila's arrival will be low key meandering around our neighborhood.

The two of us will hop on a train bound for Firenze (aka Florence) for a weeklong visit. We will be staying in a quaint apartment a few blocks from the train station. I may not book visits at the obvious places because I just want to walk around and explore with Lila.

The final leg of this Grand Tour will have us in the northern part of Italy. I'll be staying in Clusone, which is east of Milan. There I will be spending some time with a couple of professional colleagues before I head back home to the U.S.

It is going to be an epic adventure, no doubt. I plan to prepare a few blog posts to share a few of those adventures.

Ciao!