69. Arrivederci Italia!

And so my Italian stay ends.  For now.

This morning I threw away my trekking boots that I’ve had since 2002.  They weigh over a kilo and take up easily the size of a large shoebox, and besides, I needed the space for my Roberto Brunelli blue leather drop dead gorgeous food adornments.  When the wind blew I was safe as these boots anchored me to the ground.  I never got bitten by a snake. I walked over glass, over buffalo pats, over muddy patches, and through water. Not once in a decade did they let me slip. In those boots, I walked the Himalayas, twice.  I stomped through India’s heat and dust and hail storms.  I trekked through Balinese rice paddies, Thai hill tribe villages, African savannas,  and deserts and English moors. They have the mud of ancient Cappadocian homes, the slime of Australian swamps, outback dust, wetlands, bushlands, mangroves, Etruscan soils, English moss, and Roman ruins embedded in their soles. 

My boots are a metaphor for this past decade: I think they are, without exception, the only things that never let me down, but now their weight is holding me back. I am travelling light now, with all its nuances.

I should calculate how many kilometres I have walked in them. If I averaged 10km a day - minimum that I walk when travelling or weekending at home, and multiply that by at least a third of a year - 120 days and multiply that by ten, I get 12000 km - which is, I think, something like half way round the world.  Sometimes at the end of a day’s really hard walking, it feels like much more. Venice is hard going. Art galleries are hard going.  The Himalayas are killing.  My boots could easily have gone another 9000 kms as they weren’t even close to disintegrating, so they deserved a decent farewell:  I kicked them off, threw them across the room, massaged my toes, said thanks for all the memories, then I left them outside in the Bellagio rain overnight.  Just before I left for Milan and the airport, I put them on a Medieval step for some person who needed them more to take them on. It’ll have to be a tourist because no Italian would be seen dead in them. What tales my boots would tell, if only they could talk.

Things I wished I’d done this trip:

Kayaked on Lake Como, but it rained most of the time.  A flight over Lake Como ditto.

Taken a gondola ride with a beautiful Italian man and spent the night with him at Cipriani.  Plenty of offers, but I don’t think I was ready.  Photographed the whirling dervishes but the time in Istanbul just evaporated. Swum in the Black sea, but it was far too cold.  Biggest biggest faux pas:  not doing Holi.  I can’t believe I didn’t do Holi.  It seems so long ago that my spirit was so crushed I was unable to walk into a wild exuberant crowd.  But that person has gone. And there will always be another Holi, somewhere. And this person will go in there, boots and all ... 

Things I am sorry I have done:  nothing.  Niente.  I’ve had a ball.

A place I shouldn't have gone but had no control over:  The Lizards and Flies village in Morocco.  I still have holes in my skin, and the bites still drive me nuts with itching as apparently those biting monsters also laid eggs in my skin.  UGH.  I'm also now a non meat eating person - I still have nightmares about those intestines. 


Things I'm delighted to have done:  everything I did except the above!


Best parts in no particular order:  

Hot air ballooning in Cappadoccia when I knew I could do anything alone ... because I wasn't alone any more. I had my happy self.

Meeting Sarah who taught me so much and led me to silver pastures I never knew existed.

Learning on the bead trail in Morocco and finding I had a nose for treasures.

Meeting Giorgio and Sylvia in Venice and knowing instantly that this would change my life in a wondrous way.

Walking through Villa Melzi in Bellagio and discovering serenity.

Having insane fun and laughter with Luda in Istanbul and knowing we had more pulling power than a mighty tugboat.

Leaving Nepal!So sick of being so sick!

Doing ridiculous right hand turns all over Italy with Dawn, and the hilarious, delightful results. Like putting on weight and not caring!

Most of all:  not being afraid to go out on the longest, skinniest limb I have ever dared - with a broken heart and the loss of my my home, my car, my known career path, shaky health, and no idea of the road ahead. 


I am emotionally the best I have been in a long time.  I am truly, madly, deeply happy.  I have made exceptional friends.  I have made an adventure with memories to last a lifetime.  I am once again a photographer.  I have become a collector.  I will be a better designer, and a better known designer.  My future is golden, delicious, exciting.  I am unafraid of anything. And I am only halfway through the year I'd given myself to recover.

I took a risk a day and it changed my life.

I leave for Sydney now.  I won't post much from there, as I'll be very busy making arrangements for phase two.  I return to Italy in 8 weeks and will post again when I arrive.