People ask me why I decided to go to Italy. I always say that it wasn’t my plan.
But then, I never in my life wanted to go to Hawaii either. ( If there is a storm, you can’t just fly anywhere or go in the basement. I digress.
2015. I was planning to go to Maui for Julie’s 40th birthday. This would be my 7th trip there. As we were getting ready to board the plane, they announced that if anyone would be willing to give up their seat, they would pay up to $800 and get them on a later flight that day. Wow, that sounded like a great deal. So I did it.
2016. The next spring, my friend/boss, Dianne Widzinski, who had just lost her husband suggested that we take a trip somewhere. It was just after Sam and I divorced.. I always said that I never wanted to go anywhere that I couldn’t speak the language. Because I knew a little French and Benedicte was there, I suggested taking one of those river cruises. We could meet up with B. I emailed and called her and waited for a response. No response. After waiting a month, Dianne said that the U of M alumni travel club had trips they take all over the world. We looked at the brochure and we both felt good about the one to Italy. After all we would have a guide and wouldn’t need to speak Italian.
We planned, we went and after the trip, I realized that we had only seen just a small part of the country where 80% of the people are Catholic. I thought it might be nice to go back someday and experience much more of the amazing culture, art, buildings, churches and food, etc. It seemed so easy going there and I felt at home somehow.
2017. I was working so much and had so many more employee troubles that I decided it was time I thought about retiring. After falling down stairs while vacuuming and breaking my arm, I decided to put the business up for sale in September. After all, the year before I was diagnosed with vertigo and then trigeminal neuralgia, I realize that my body was going downhill, fast. With no offers all year, by January I was getting burnt out. I lowered the price and had several offers. Everyone asked what I would do after I retired and I joked around that I maybe might go back to Italy. Not really serious at first, but after saying it, I thought, why not.! I could take the $ from the sale of the business and just go for 6 months or so. I surely would be able to see the country in that amount of time. I always felt the the Lord was pulling me to come back. As soon as I got the check from the business I started looking for an apartment in Rome.
