As our housesit on Isla Mujeres comes to an end – for this period – we are looking at where the next few months will see us. My job is settling in for a couple of long-term contracts that mean I will only have to be onsite rarely, which opens – quite literally – up a world of options for our next locations. Diane has been working on some long-delayed dental work (which will be the subject of a whole other series of posts), so we will need to come back to Mexico in the spring to complete the series of appointments. For now, we are free to roam the globe.
Last year, our trip to Europe introduced us to the wonders of Italy. Neither had spent any meaningful time there in the past, so we both discovered this land and its people together. Both of us agreed, coming to Italy was like coming home for the first time. It was… in a word… fantastic. The people could not have been nicer, the art and architecture transformed the world, the scenery was breath-taking and the food… Let’s just say that Italians invented food as I (David) know it.
To paraphrase Rick Steves, “If you are traveling south in Italy and are getting sick of ‘Italian-ness’, stop in Rome and go no further…. but if you are loving Italy, and embrace the Italian mindset and methods, then keep going! Italy only gets better!” We loved it, so we decided we should keep going as far as it would take us… if even to another land.
Through reading articles and watching plenty of travel videos, Sicily may technically be part of Italy, but that appears to be administratively only. It is a land our northern Italian friends semi-jokingly mock as the “Italian redneck wonderland”.
None of this has dissuaded us from traveling there to see if we can bite off more Italy than we can chew. I sincerely doubt it. Mexico has given us a new patience in life. To enjoy life “South of the Border”, an attitude of relaxation and non-stress is the only way to survive. Things just don’t happen. Things break. Things are a bit more… arbitrary… than you would hope at times. Things are a bit more… arbitrary… at times and you are thankful for it. We have become accustomed to living at a slower pace and taking things as they come, which should provide us with plenty of ‘decompression’ time to be able to function in Sicily.
More research is to come, but it looks hopeful that we will find out first hand how much Italy we can take. I suspect it will be more wonderful than I can dream of…
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