Saturday, February 19, 2011

Italy Is Calling Me!

I think Italy saved my life. I think Italy saved my family. I think Italy saved my parents' marriage and brought my sister into this world.

I think I might be dead if there had been no Italy in my life.

Italy was sunshine and joy and perfect fruit and Vesuvius and buried cities and turquoise waters and people who loved beauty and loved food and loved life. It was an antidote to America.

Italy has sustained me through hard times. I eat her food at least four times a week, and a bowl of pasta always make me feel restored, grounded and back to myself. And now, my boys, too. I have gone back every few years to refill my soul. Jonathan was the first man I took there (and look what happened!)

It has been ten years since I last went. When I can't sleep i think of the Bagni di Tiberio, or walking up the Phonecian Steps, or walking out to the Faro, or floating in the blue, blue water. That is how much Italy, and Naples, and Capri, are inside me.

Theo is seven. The age I was when I was there. I want him there. I want to go back. I want to eat pasta and pizza and lie around fat and happy in a too small bikini. I want my children's cheeks to be pinched and I want them to be loved and adored by every Italian that walks by, like I was.

I feel Italy calling to me. And I feel my soul crying out, "You need to go, Hilary. You need to go. This is important. Now. Don't wait."

But we are poor. We cannot go now. So I guess I will eat my Italian food, listen to my Italian music, smell the smells of my garden and neighborhood, which, through no coincidence, look, feel and smell like Italy.

Oh, Italia, I hear your call and I wish, how I wish I could come.

Ti Amo!

Ilaria

2 comments:

jecca said...

We promise to feed you pasta if you visit!

jecca said...

This could be you! http://whomovedmybuddha.blogspot.com/2011/02/it-only-took-one-week-plus-about-20.html