You were the best thing I ever did for myself.
Your narrow alleyways and cobblestone streets redirected my two feet in a direction I never could have guessed. I fell in love with the world, and with you, at the bottom of the Spanish Steps in Roma. I pondered my previous choices and those exciting ones before me in the Tuscan countryside, and I felt the most alive I’ve ever felt in life amongst the streets and canals of Venice, skipping down those old streets hand in hand with a soul sister, whom you also gave me. You gave me a hunger for a different way of life, a confirmation that the soul I’d wrestled with for years was only meant for another time, another country, different people. I feverishly sketched out the columns and the steps and the citizens that make up your charm and your ways in my sketchbook, all the while feeling more and more invigorated with each stroke of that pen. I wrote my first ‘letter’ to a city while watching the locals at their daily fruit stand in Venice, not knowing that writing letters to people, places and things would indeed become my very ‘thing.’ You taught me the importance of an afternoon siesta, a lesson that I smile and giggle at each time I find myself knocking off at 2pm in the summer for a lemonade and a reading session by the pool. You taught me the direct correlation between fresh ingredients and good food and a body that feels capable, strong, and beautiful - a lesson I will forever be thankful for. You gave me so much. Mostly, a soul reborn and a place that will forever feel like some sort of home.
I'll love you forever and be thankful for you always.