Travel has a way of handing you things that you're not expecting.
And I’m not talking about the little things, like delayed trains or particularly long layovers. While those might be annoying, they are rarely of much consequence. I’m talking about the ways in which traveling can change you. Have you ever gone on a trip and come back with a different way of looking at the world, or a new project that you were determined to see through, or a completely different plan for the rest of your life? It sounds dramatic, but here’s the thing about travel: these drastic changes happen all the time, to everyone, usually when they’re least expecting it.
When I went to Italy for a week, I wasn’t expecting to find anything more important than some good gelato. I wasn’t on a quest of self-exploration — I was just looking for a distraction. My life had recently gone up in flames for no discernible reason (which is a common hazard of being in your twenties, or so I’ve been told), and I wanted to escape it for a little while. My complete travel checklist was as follows: eat a lot of pasta, stare at a lot of art, and maybe speak a little bit of Italian.
I hadn’t even meant to go to Italy in the first place, to be honest. I’d been planning on going to Hawaii with my boyfriend, but at the last minute, he'd had to pull out of the trip. So I’d gone to my mom and explained the situation, since I still had a week off from work and a strong desire to go somewhere, anywhere, that wasn’t home. We tossed back and forth a few different destinations: Hong Kong, Puerto Vallarta, London. Then she casually mentioned that one of her best friends from college was currently living in Tuscany, and would I maybe like to visit? Remembering a trip to Florence that I’d been lucky enough to go on in high school, I said yes.
So we planned the trip, starting first in Florence and then driving through Tuscany to where her friend lived in Anghiari, a small hill town in the Province of Arezzo. We also planned various day trips to Cortona, Montepulciano, Assisi, Sansepolcro, and even Verona on the last day. I didn’t imagine that I would want to spend much time in Anghiari, and probably wouldn’t have ever visited it if my mom’s friend hadn’t happened to live there.
But Anghiari, surprisingly enough, was the highlight of the trip. The town itself was charming, with a wall wrapping around the old city, and arresting views of the Tuscan countryside everywhere you turned. It was also comfortably lived-in, in a way that the more touristy towns like Montepulciano and Assisi were not. You could tell that the people there did not think they were living anywhere special, although to my American eyes it looked like they were perpetually on a film set for Under the Tuscan Sun. It was warm and welcoming, and I fell head-over-heels in love with it. I decided that I had to move there someday. After all, with amazing pasta and pizza, 3-euro bottles of wine, interesting shops, spectacular views, and a close-knit community that I envied, there didn’t seem to be any drawbacks to this plan. Of course, I didn’t speak Italian, and I didn’t have any form of European citizenship. But these small details, I figured, could easily be changed by the time I moved there. Right?
It was like a fever dream. After several months of stressing about my future and feeling no motivation to do anything, I suddenly had a concrete goal in mind: somehow, I would get my life trajectory to land me in Italy. Specifically in Anghiari. And the sooner the better, but I was willing to wait for twenty or thirty years if I had to.
But I’m going to be honest with you, Anghiari itself was not the only reason why I suddenly became determined to move to Italy. It also had quite a lot to do with my mom’s friend, whom we’ll call Christina. Christina was my godmother, but I hadn’t seen her in years, and I barely remembered her. I expected to like her well enough, but she was my mom’s friend, not mine. But when I first met her, I realized that she was actually a lot more than that. She was the role model I had been waiting for.
Now, let me take a moment to discuss role models. Whatever you may think of the term, I view role models as people you look up to, who help you by showing you a kind of loose template for how to live life. They’re not absolutely necessary, but they’re certainly nice to have, and people's role models can change over time. It depends on what you need. Your role models don’t even have to know you, as long as you can find some way to receive guidance from them. Whether it's by reading their blog or book, listening to interviews with them, or actually speaking to them, there are lots of ways to interact with your role models. My particular role models are:
My mom. I am lucky in this regard. I have a very good relationship with my mom; I consider her to be one of my close friends. She’s a psychologist who also worked as a lawyer for some time, and she has taught me many things. Whether it's how to apply psychological research to my relationships or how to apply mascara without poking myself in the eye, she is always willing to answer my questions. She also has a serious case of wanderlust, as did her mother, and I consider myself lucky to have inherited this semi-reckless sense of adventure from both of them.
Theodora Goss. She is an incredibly talented writer, a professor of creative writing at Boston University, and an amazing person. I worked with her once at the Alpha Young Writer’s Workshop, and while I have not spoken to her since, I have followed her blog avidly. You can read it here, if you’re curious. She is an example of a role model who may not be fully aware of my existence, but because of her blog is an excellent role model all the same.
Sarah J. Maas. She is the author of the Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and I may or may not desperately want her life. I may or may not have also read all her books, be subscribed to her newsletter, and stalk her Instagram as if it were a religion. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to attend one of her book events, but this isn’t particularly important. What is important is that I envy her, and envy will often tell us a lot about what we want in life. If I am ever invited to the same writing conference as Sarah J. Maas, I will be able to die happy. (But that, of course, requires that I write a book first. * chuckles awkwardly and then slinks off to the shadows in writerly shame *)
Christina. Now, explaining this one is going to take a moment, so bear with me here…
You see, being a young twenty-something with artistic persuasions is not the most comfortable position to be in. From personal experience, I can tell you that it involves a lot of angst about the future, a lot of questioning your dedication to your art form, and a general sense of panic when people ask you about the future. Because, to be perfectly blunt, you have no idea where you’ll be a year, five years, or ten years from now. You just kinda vaguely hope that you don’t end up living in a box under a bridge. And while most twenty-something artists can handle this anxiety with aplomb, over the course of the last six months, the anxiety had started to bury me alive. I was, creatively and mentally, stuck.
This is where Christina comes in. Christina had a graduate degree in art history, and also experienced the lovely twenty-something-with-a-passion-for-art-but-no-discernable-future conundrum (or TSWAPABNDF, for short. I’m sure that will be a hashtag soon. Just wait). But now here she was, with a beautiful villa in Tuscany, two remarkable children, a similarly artistic husband, dozens of Italian and ex-pat friends, the cutest dog I’d ever seen, and a successful business that made use of her artistic eye. Her life seemed pretty close to perfect.
Over the course of the week that we stayed with Christina, I studied her closely. I wanted to know what she had done, how hard she had worked, what she had compromised to get there. I wanted to know what she regretted, if she would do it again, if it was all just a facade, on and on and on. And by the end of the week, I had my answer: no, this life wasn’t a facade. And while her life wasn't perfect (whose is?), it made her happy.
With this realization, all the anxiety I’d been carrying around for the last several months started to fade away. It was like the universe had said “Come to Italy, there’s something you need to see…” and pointed to Christina. My thoughts about the future morphed from general, directionless panic into a calmer sort of determination. After all, if she could do it, then I should be able to do it too. I had seen proof that what I wanted in life was achievable. I had a blueprint, or if you will, a role model.
I hadn’t been expecting to find Christina when I went to Italy. I also hadn’t been expecting to find a deep-seated desire to move to Tuscany, or to find a way out of my TSWAPABNDF spiral (yes, I just used it again. I can already hear the booing from the peanut gallery). Like I said, I had just been looking for some gelato. But it’s been a month since I came back, and I’m still determined to learn Italian. The boyfriend who couldn’t go to Hawaii? He’s had his ear talked off about how I need to live in Tuscany someday (to his credit, he’s enthusiastic about this). I’m not as anxious as I was before, and my mental paralysis is finally wearing off.
And, most important of all, I’m starting to write again.
Grazie mille, Italy.
Interested in the photos? I took all of them on my iPhone 7, since I am not the most accomplished photographer and my dinosaur of a DSLR is heavy. Since they are my own work, all the usual copyright rigamarole applies.
I spent several weeks in the Sienna area. I could have stayed forever. The people, the food, the wine.....
It's great that you got to spend so much time there! Did you have a favorite town or place in the area?
It's nice to see you back on Steemit and what a terrific post! I opened it expecting a travelogue. It's that and much more.
Thank you! Steemit is a great community, and I hope to post here more often. :) I'm glad you enjoyed the post!
So much more than a travelogue!
Touching the Santa Maria marble is like magic. I have been to Tuscany twice, and I completely agree with you. The area breathes serenity, culture, history. Siena, Firenze, the towers of San Gimignano and all the beautiful little villages in between. Gotta love Tuscany.
I never got to San Gimignano! Would you recommend it?
If there is one place to visit in rural tuscany, it's San Gimignano. The views over the village and the fields beyond breathe a magical, serene atmosphere. It made me feel completely at home.
Check out my Adventure to Mexico with @sarahjanele
https://steemit.com/travel/@sarahjanele/exploring-cozumel-the-unexpected-storm
What a great story! I particularly liked the frogs, and the photography was stunning. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks @theowlhours,
We are trying to find the next place to go and adventure for a month or two. We really want to go some place that we can document the entire project on steemit that will be most inspiring and beneficial to the community.
That sounds amazing. I've followed both of you, so that I don't miss hearing about your project when it happens. I wish you both the best of luck!
Tuscany is wonderful, full of culture stuff and renascent period of middle age in Italy. I suggest also to visit south part of Italy, specially my island sicily. It's full of cultural heritage from Arabic , Spain, and Norman, in a beautiful melting pot.
I would love to visit Sicily, next time that I'm in Europe. It sounds like a fascinating place. Is there any particular spot that you would recommend visiting?
Italy is sooo beautiful! Thanks for your article!
And thank you for reading it!
beautiful pictures...great. Travelling helps you to explore the world, better understanding of cultures , traditions and people...great way to enjoy life...thanks for this
I'm glad you enjoyed the photos! I agree, traveling really is such a great way to learn about both ourselves and others. I wish more people had the opportunity to travel...
You are welcome-always
it's so awesome! ♡♡♡
Awww, thank you!
Impressive pictures, it is amazing what smartphones can do today. very good work! I'll take it to my wall.
Oh, thank you! I kind of feel like taking photos in Tuscany is cheating -- the scenery does a lot of the work for you. All I had to do was point my phone in the right direction. ^_^"
I traveled through Tuscany a few times, and found that it is probably the one place where time stood still. The very atmosphere there speaks of tranquility. Nobody seems to be in a hurry. The rolling hills with its vineyards and olive groves speak to your soul in a different way than any other place on earth. Certainly worth a visit! Thank you for the article.
I love how you phrased that! It really captures the feeling of Tuscany.
nice shots and great composition:)))
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. :)
Ahh thanks for sharing! Brought back fond memories of my trip to Italy's various cities including Assisi. I will be returning in November and can't wait!
That's awesome! I hope you post about your trip here when you go, because I would love to hear about it!
I most definitely will, hoping to include the Amalfi coast this upcoming trip, our base will be Rome!!
I enjoy the way you write. It keeps me reading without thinking about jumping to the conclusion. A real talent.
Thank you so much! That means a lot to me.
Those are some great pictures, Its amazing what a phone camera can do. Took this awesome course they talk about phones a lot. https://www.coursera.org/specializations/photography-basics
That course looks really cool, I'll definitely check it out. Thank you for sharing!
No problem keep taking awesome pictures
Thanks for sharing the wonderful place.
And thank you for reading! :)
Those photos are amazing! I've always wanted to go to itally, seriously looks like you've travelled back in time. I really liked this post, very relatable and insightful. Will be looking up that author you mentioned in your role models list :) Will be following and Upvoting :)
Thank you so much! Both authors are great if you enjoy fantasy, though their writing styles are pretty different. Also if you were talking about Sarah J. Maas, I have to warn you, the first book in each of her series is not as good as the rest of the series. They're still decent, but not a good indication what she really does as an author. So if you read either of her first books, just know that the best is yet to come.... And if you were talking about Theodora Goss, she actually has her first novel coming out soon! In the meantime, you can find a lot of her short stories here, and they're definitely worth a read: https://theodoragoss.com/free/. Her story "Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology" is just mind-boggling.
Amazing Pictures
its look like you traveled back in time @theowlhours and capture these photos
upvote from me...
Thank you! I feel like Italy did a lot of the work for me, in that sense, since so much of the architecture there is incredibly well-preserved.
This post received a 77% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @anyx! For more information on @randowhale click here!
Hello, Randowhale! I feel like this is a bot-generated comment, but I would just like to say that I really like your name. :D
Thank you for the compliment!
Whoops, not a bot! And you're very welcome. :D
Oh no, it is, but I do read the replies!
May be taken from mob, but it is awsome. Great blog. Love to read. Upvoted.
Thank you so much! I feel like I have a lot to learn where photography is concerned, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Looks so beautiful.
Thank you!
TSWAPABNDF is almost as good as TANSTAAFL
;-)
Hahaha, why thank you! Hey, if there's room in the world for one unwieldy acronym, surely there's room for another...
What a beautiful place, awesome!
Thank you! :D
Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures. Upvoted and following you!
Have a look at my post about an abandoned hotel in Mozambique https://steemit.com/steemitphotochallenge/@rbfromsa/abandoned-hotel-xai-xai-mozambique, I think you might like it.
Please feel free to follow me @rbfromsa.
That post was really cool, thank you for sharing! I applaud your bravery for checking out that hotel.
Thank you! It was quite nerve wrecking, especially the stairwells :/
I'm delighted with your post)))
Thank you! "Delighted" is such a lovely word, I should use it more often...
Nice pics
Thank you!
Wow if these photos are with a phone i would be interested to see what you could do with a dslr . The stonework in the pictures are amazing.
Reminds me of the Diane Lane movie Under a Tuscan sun .
Upvoted and followed
Thank you! I'm afraid my DSLR photos don't look much different at the moment, since I haven't learned how to really utilize what a DSLR offers yet. But it will be a fun project to tackle in the future. :) And I read the book Under the Tuscan Sun, but I wasn't actually aware that there was a movie... I'll definitely check it out!
Lovely place and pictures. Thanks for sharing with us!
Thank you so much for reading it!
Thank you for sharing your beautiful stay in Tuscany. Brownie goes here every year with her family during eastern. Lov the food, people, beautiful places and atmosphere over there. Good replacement for Hawaii. Did you download duolingo yet to learn some Italian ;-) Good luck!
I actually did download Duolingo! And I have a podcast I've been listening to in my car, which claims to be teaching me "traveler Italian" and instead teaches me how to say things like "How many apples are in this bag?" Which is vastly amusing, though not particularly helpful.
LOL! Well.... who knows you actually want to know how many apples are in someones bag in Italy:p But we bet you rather want to know how many pizza slices there are in a pizza box, right?! We are trying to learn some Spanish with the Duolingo app. Never too late to learn;-) Good luck!
Exactly! 😂 I've heard good things from friends about the Duolingo app, so I'm excited to use it more. Thank you, and good luck to you too!
Very beautiful natural panorama. I did not like the building, I was traumatized and remembered the war of Gaza, the war of Syria, and was horrified. Buildings that were bombed with mortars killed many people...
I'm sorry the photo triggered such terrible memories for you. That sounds like a very hard thing to live with. :(
Excellent work @theowlhours! Thank you for sharing! We are happy traveling!
Thank you for reading!
Nice pictures and some indepth descriptions of Your trip, motivation and experiences! Wish You all luck!
Tuscany is an interesting area of Italy, I took a language course there many years ago. The famous tourist places are overvrowded with tourists in the summer, but the small villages in the countryside offer interesting and inspirational views of the landscape.
Thank you very much! Yes, I can see how the tourism could get even more crazy in the summer. When I was in Florence and Verona, the number of people there was just staggering.
Have You been to Venice yet ? The tourist masses are absolutely insane there: :)
Great work man UpVoted, would mean allot if you could stop by my last post and let me know what you think!
https://steemit.com/sunthursday/@adriansky/count-your-blessings
Your photography is amazing! I really like what you do with light.
Great post, i have always wanted to see Italy.
Thank you! It's a great place. :)
Stunning photos of Tuscany. It was great to be able to actually visit there too.
I just posted my first story, about my drone photography:
https://steemit.com/drone/@valhallaa/phantom3-drone-photography-series-1
Wow, that's really cool!
Great pics, @theowlhours. Thanks for sharing your travel experience! I have just upvoted and Resteemed ;)
Thank you very much!
I love your writing! You will be writing that book soon I can tell!
Aww, thank you! That means a lot.
Awesome stuff.Please visit my profile.Our taste is same and unique :)
I did look at it! Your village seems like a very beautiful place.
thanks mate..keep supporting.
Awesome photos there!
You deserve a:
Oh my gosh, I love that. It's so cute!
Amazing photos and excellent blog.
Thank you!
The picture of the bridge, the river side is very beautiful.
Thank you very much!
Very nice pictures. Thanks!
Thank you!
Wonderful pictures.
Thank you!
Written a good experience about tuscany, It's wonderful!
thanks for sharing with us, liked it!
I also shared a post of travelling experience in India. I am damn sure you will like it !
https://steemit.com/travelling/@saurabhgupta/travelling-kedarkanth-trip-1-how-s-it-got-planned
Thank you! Your trip looks like it was really fun!
Yes, alot. Memorable one !
I really like this area, could take millions of photos
That's how I felt too! :D
love that you can take these photos with your iphone.
Right? It makes photography so convenient now, without having to bring a separate camera along.
I want to go to Italia now! 😎
It's a great place! I can't recommend it enough.
Thanks for sharing the story. I was worth reading.
We all know that travelling is the best thing we can do when we have a lot money to travel. Travelling relaxes us a lot. It removes all the stress and you can explore every corner of the country. I am also very interesting in travelling. That's the thing i want to experience before i die.
Thank you for reading! I remember thinking that if I traveled enough, I would get sick of it... unfortunately for my wallet, the opposite happened. But I agree with you, it really is worth it.
Yes. I know. Thanks for replying..
KEEP ON STEEMING ... ;-)
I want to share it
Thank you! I like the smiley faces. :)
You Welcome..... thank you:))