Today, July 14th, 2019 marks nine years for me in Italy. Nine years, of which most of them, I’ve spent fighting. Fighting to find the right moment to come here, fighting to be able to get a visa to stay here, fighting for my marriage to work, and then fighting to separate from it when I finally accepted that it didn’t. But this wasn’t my dream for my life in Italy. I was imagining la dolce vita with lots of wine sipping, gorgeous Italian scenery, and above all, a romantic fairy tale fantasy to sweep me off my feet. It hasn’t been exactly like it was supposed to be, to put it lightly, but this year, I’ve finally stopped fighting. I can’t sustain any more problems, drama, life changes, stress, or tragedy, so I’ve taken them out of the equation completely, and I’m focusing solely on soaking up the sun, spending time with my daughter and friends, travelling, teaching, and feeling grateful for the fact that even though things didn’t go as planned, I still feel very much at home here in Italy. It’s a beautiful country, and if you follow me on social media, you know that I never get tired of showing off its beauty. After nine years, I still love the views of rolling green vineyards in the distance, expansive farmland growing fresh local crops in every direction, the incredibile mountains to the north where you can go hiking, camping, or skiing, and then there’s the clearest blue waters you’ve ever seen at the bottom of the boot in Southern Italy. I mean, what else could you really need?
Apart from what Italy offers me aesthetically, the real reason I’ve stayed here all this time is because my heart has lived here from the moment I stepped off the train for the first time 13 years ago in Venice while I was travelling. It was love at first sight, and a love that, for me, will always win the fight. The fight to leave my own country, learn another language, put myself into new relationships, become a teacher, a mother, and explorer are the things that do merit fighting, and the ones I will continue to fight for.