Italy: a little photo journal
My parents took me and my 8 siblings and our 7 partners together in Naples and Ponza, Italy to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. (They lived in Italy right after marriage and honeymooned on Ponza, a tiny island in the Tyrrhenian Sea).
a sampling of I want to remember:
Accidentally touring Paris
The Charles de Gaulle Airport gave us an early adventure, stranding us for 12 hours. Bonus.
The vibrant hubbub of Naples
every inch of Ponza
gluttonous visuals
time with this family
Thank you mom and dad. Thanks sibs! I love you.
I felt slow, and quiet inside when I came home. My mind felt simple. Tasks lined up one after the other and the swirl of emotion and overwhelm and even deep thinking was absent for a week after I returned.
It is a gift to just be every once in a while.
I have a trip to lake Champlain and a trip to a lake in Wisconsin coming up this summer. I know that vacation is a privilege and I will treat it as such. You can bet I will be off of my phone on my upcoming trips, and you can bet that no matter how little, I will find more ways to step away from routine and get new sensory inputs and perspective.
It has been two weeks since I returned and life is buzzing again, but I am still brimming with gratitude. I am so happy to spend time with my kids. I am so thankful for the support from my in-laws and for time with my family.
I know many of the things I saw and tasted deserve to be painted. A painting to remember a vacation suddenly seems like a really good idea.
I hope you get a little vacation and that sweet, quiet slowness this summer too.