Italy – The Low Down Adventure
My slow burn, that love story gone wrong? Nah… that love story gone right. Over the past 14 months I’ve visited Rome on 8 separate trips. The crazy thing – me and Italy are like oil and water. Every trip ending in a long-ass shit-list of people who made me wanna cry and shake my fist at the sky. Yet I kept returning. It’s like I accepted that heavy doses of dysfunction and disappointment will fuck with my every day while in Italy. But why?! Am I really a sucker for punishment? Do I really want someone to keep knocking me down? Servin’ disappointment after disappointment?
But then something happened… My relationship with Italy turned into one big love fest. How it happened, I don’t know. I love my home in Seattle, I do. But my home in Rome? It makes me melt every time I see the sun rise from the balcony, no matter the weather or season. Hot with the sun beating down on me or bundled in my winter jacket and leggings, sitting with my shot of espresso, and wondering how come the sun shines so bright in Rome? It’s like I never left. And no matter when I return to Rome, there’s always a lemon on my tree.
Maybe it’s because I finally accepted the Italian way. I let go… I let go of what I was forcing – wanting to experience the big love, the big emotions, the big reunions in every stereotypical Italian movie where friends greet each other like they haven’t seen each other in years when really it was only yesterday. Some M'THR F'IN Cheers shit. Because you see – I witness those big Italian emotions all the time, every day I’m in Italy. F'in Alitalia flights? OMFG don’t get me started.
When I let go, Rome felt like an entirely different city. Or maybe it was the Christmas spirit. That BIG love? Everyone and their mama (literally) sent me home with a gift. The owners of my apartment left a gift waiting for me, I had the most amazing lunch courtesy of Silvia and her husband, my morning coffee spot gave me the biggest welcome on my return / departure, our new vendor had a special gift waiting for me when I went to pick up our STMT X Italy order, and my driver had a gift for me AND one from his mom! And to boot – the Alitalia agent was one of the friendliest agents I’ve had of any airline, making my check-in so easy and delightful (yes, delightful). My hate-hate-tiny-tiny-bit-of-love relationship with Italy is now filled with a whole lot of love, and I’ll totally accept any bit of frustration and dysfunction slung my way.
I left happy, my heart bursting with love. Thankful for my trip to Rome and excited to return, excited to to see all the familiar faces that makes Rome my home. Pronto, pronto.
