So What's Next?

I find it funny that I can sit down at any table and start to write a story. The topic is of no matter. Yet … sitting down to write a blog seems like pulling teeth. It seems like everyone is talking about marketing – tips and advice on how to write – or better yet – how they write. I don’t think that it’s necessary to teach you while you’re here. Although, I have been known to offer some of the above. But I would rather just tell you about what I’ve been up and where I want to go.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

As you all must know by now, David and I have moved to Italy. We are seriously enjoying all of the sites. Being clear – we are enjoying all the sites. The living here isn’t so great. It is amazing how spoiled we as American’s are. No Walmart and the variety at the grocery stores are not even close to what we have. And forget about if you have a cold – the pharmacy’s or at least the ones that we’ve seen are here to heal you. If you want some make-up, they are there for you.

To start with we were in Florence for about two weeks, David wasn’t happy there. The population a bit too geriatric for him, which means anyone older than him, as well as overly populated with tourists. That I can agree with. When we were downtown, it seemed as if we were in Time Square making our way through the crowds. And as much as I loved living in NYC – I hated Time Square, sorry NYC friends. But - again, the sights in Florence were/are amazing. Although we thought that being in the city that is considered to be the art center of the world that we would find more galleries and frankly… art.  We did not. Another unhappy point – actually for us both.

So David got online found us a place here in Rome. I was totally excited and couldn’t wait to see all the amazing sites here.  And they are incredible, although I was expecting them to be larger. The movies and books I think were the reason for that particular let down. But you deal. After all, you are looking at the Coliseum and standing just feet away from it. The issue here is

that where we are living is about 30-45 minutes away from the downtown area where everything happens. The bus we have to take only runs until midnight, so extensive nightlife is out. AND – here is a surprise – it’s dirty as hell here in Rome. We were expecting that since they put so much time, energy and money into protecting the ruins that their city would be incredibly clean. WRONG – and the graffiti is everywhere. My son Alex would love it, considering he is a graffiti artist – I, on the other hand, am saddened by all of the disrespect to the older buildings and statues.

We have been trying to take some trips here and there – a big one is coming next week. We’ll be traveling to Venice – Verona, and Milan. Our past experiences have taken us to Naples, which we thought was going to be FANTASTIC. Another let down – see the Facebook posts for that. This last Sunday we went to Bologna – certainly much better and high light. The city itself is cleaner and the porticos were fantastic. We enjoyed walking around on a Sunday and just being part of the city. And apparently, that’s the thing to do as after the last Mass at 1p was let out, the streets were full of families and Bolognaise just out enjoying the day. The rain wasn’t a deterrent – it seemed like that was just what you did.  We really liked Bologna and would return.

BTW – the churches here are particularly spectacular – we haven’t been in an ugly one yet. And just a side note, we have been in more churches in the last 30 days than we have in the last 10 years.  

And not even get started on all the doors. =) 

Funny.

So now the question is what to do next – we are reserving our outcome until after we visit Verona and Positano. Our conversation this morning was that we need to be by the water – Verona is in the mountains and cold. Positano is a small coastal village. Not sure that it either will be good for us. David needs to have a place to paint and for people to be there to buy it. So the population of a small coastal town would do wonders for me, he wouldn’t be very happy.  So, I’m not sure that either of these places is going to fit the bill. For me – I need to be warm. At the moment, I’m typing a lot just to keep my hands for seizing up from the cold.

Well, there you have it – just a little about what we have found here. Happiness? Yes, with all that we have seen. Content? Nope, not yet. Which means we’re still looking for our forever home. As for my

writing. I have been able to get very inspired and have written a lot, finishing November 17^th… Going Home, and restarting a couple new projects. So for me – all is good. The trouble with that is that there are two of us in this relationship. My thoughts, I can write anywhere.

Thanks for stopping by.