Ciao dall’Italia!

Nine days, three cities and a birthday worth celebrating.

Another year. Less surviving. Less waiting. More living. That’s the goal.

POSITANO, Italy — Ciao dall’Italia! (Hello from Italy!)

I’m in the middle of a nine-day, three-city Italian adventure, celebrating my birthday and exploring a country I’ve never visited.

Remember all that vacation time I wrote about? This is one of the ways I’m putting it to use.

Italy was an easy choice for another reason, too: pizza!

Back in May 2023, I wrote “The price of my love for pizza”, about my favorite food and the price I was paying for my love affair with it. The love never went away, so experiencing Italy and its legendary pizza was an obvious draw.

But this trip is about more than pizza, visiting somewhere new or celebrating another birthday.

The past several months have been rough. Since late winter and early spring, I’ve dealt with setbacks that have tested my patience and resilience. More recently, mounting bills and debt have added another layer of pressure.

I’ve been open about those struggles here because they’re part of my life. But they aren’t the entirety of it.

Life can’t be all bills, setbacks, responsibilities and figuring out what comes next. Sometimes, you have to make room to celebrate.

There’s another reason I wanted to take this trip now. I’m relatively young and in excellent health, and I want to take advantage of that while I can. I don’t want to keep putting off travel and new experiences until some undefined point in the future.

The time is now. No more waiting.

I want to see new places, experience different cultures, try new foods and make memories along the way. Going forward, I want travel to be a bigger part of my life instead of something I keep telling myself I’ll get around to someday.

This trip is a birthday celebration and a well-deserved reward after a difficult year.

My responsibilities will still be waiting when I return. I’ll deal with them then.

For now, I’m going to enjoy a new country, eat a lot of pizza and celebrate another year of life.

La dolce vita. (The sweet life.)