I come to you from Bologna, my original European home, perched over the city, with a view I’ve come to feel at home in, with great friends who love me and have always been there for me, through good times and bad. A good place to be.
And man, am I full!
Spent a day in Firenze, where I also sojourned in the spring of 2015, after nearly five years in New York, spending three months rediscovering Italy. Hard to believe it’s been nearly 10 years since I restarted my life of perpetual travel, but not so hard to believe that I’m back in the same place in which I’ve spent so much time: I first visited Bologna in October 2016, and sojourned here for three months in the fall of 2017.
I love it.
Some people tell me I’m a vagabond, or adventurous, but I don’t really feel either: I’m more a migrating bird, finding people and places I love, and then returning where I am wanted: London, Berlin, Kyoto, New York City, and America’s Best Coast chief among them.
And, of course, Italia: Bologna specifically, where I am having my birthday weekend with close friends. I’m older, definitely, but not feeling it in any bad way; wiser, perhaps, but with a soupçon of my usual foolishness (ok, more than just a bit, but I felt compelled to use that word).
Overall, I’m in my happy place, which is no-particular-place at all (my literal “utopia”). I’ll be on the move for most of the next several months, before I arrive in my next “home” – from whence I received my first birthday message this morning, as they are well ahead of most of us, time-wise.
This week, I have rented a car, and will journey for a few days down Italy’s east coast, an area I’ve not yet visited. No plans yet, just get in the car and drive. That’s me.
The car will cost, I am amazed and delighted to report, $7 a day. What? Of course, with
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to David Watts Barton Abroad to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.