When you find a place that feels like home, it's a unique, tingling feeling. It's like a warmth that spreads from your spine to your stomach and brain. It makes you perma-happy, like nothing is bad in the world. Taormina is that place for me. The lava stone streets, lined with the cutest shops and bakeries you have ever seen. Ladies dressed in Gucci and Chanel, sipping espresso under the baby blue sky and gossiping so fast in Italian. The sea breeze, smelling of salt and tropics, cacti everywhere, standing beautiful and tall. And castles, every direction you look are castles. Walking through the streets of Taormina is like stepping back in time, but with a modern twist. I wish I could capture a little vial of the perfect air here, so you all could smell how intoxicating it is, every breath a new second to your exciting day. Mopeds are everywhere, beeping softly and whooshing by, so many different stories to be told about their riders. I think I have mentioned it before, no one in Italy cannot dress. I swear, everyone is prepared to walk down the runway on Italia’s next top model. It’s fantastic, really, because you can’t take a bad photo. No obnoxious Hawaiian shirts, no American flag apparel, and (thank the lord) no Camo anywhere. It’s like every fashion critic’s dream.
Fresh fruit grows everywhere too. Two days ago I hopped a fence of a church yard to snag a few mandarins that were just going to waste. Pineapple, persimmons, oranges, pears and the sweetest apples that have ever enlightened your tastebuds are within reach year round! If I haven’t convinced you to move here yet, this might. Italy is the only place ( I have been) where people will literally stop their car in the middle of the street, and proceed to get out, just to tell you that you are bella. How bloody wonderful is that?
I am currently working at the Hostel Taormina, a wonderful establishment thats' modo is “your Sicilian family”, and it’s 100% true. The first day I got here I felt so welcome. A family that drinks together, stays together, right? Though it’s only my second day here, I have already had a midnight jam session in the middle of the town square with people from all over the world, have gone to get the worlds best Cannoli at a bellissimo little shop, where the owner gave us so many free desserts! It’s called La Pignolata Guinness, and if you ever get a chance, it’s a must go! I have set up and decorated my little apartment, with a million dollar view of the sea and mountains. There is a football field right below the balcony and you can hear the excited players practice every day. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s the middle of winter here. It’s balmy and sunny most every day, and everything is always green. I feel like this is home so much already, it’s just right in so many ways. Everything I love about life is concentrated in one area, save for close family, friends and snow, (though there is a lot on the volcano recently). Kids, let me tell you, traveling opens up your world to the most beautiful moments. So go forth and learn, sing, dance, drink the juice of over-ripe fruit, inhale the night’s air, be present with all around you, learn a new language, make mistakes and keep trying. Just don’t let this world get too down on you, because there is happiness everywhere, you just have to find it.
Ciao
Fresh fruit grows everywhere too. Two days ago I hopped a fence of a church yard to snag a few mandarins that were just going to waste. Pineapple, persimmons, oranges, pears and the sweetest apples that have ever enlightened your tastebuds are within reach year round! If I haven’t convinced you to move here yet, this might. Italy is the only place ( I have been) where people will literally stop their car in the middle of the street, and proceed to get out, just to tell you that you are bella. How bloody wonderful is that?
I am currently working at the Hostel Taormina, a wonderful establishment thats' modo is “your Sicilian family”, and it’s 100% true. The first day I got here I felt so welcome. A family that drinks together, stays together, right? Though it’s only my second day here, I have already had a midnight jam session in the middle of the town square with people from all over the world, have gone to get the worlds best Cannoli at a bellissimo little shop, where the owner gave us so many free desserts! It’s called La Pignolata Guinness, and if you ever get a chance, it’s a must go! I have set up and decorated my little apartment, with a million dollar view of the sea and mountains. There is a football field right below the balcony and you can hear the excited players practice every day. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s the middle of winter here. It’s balmy and sunny most every day, and everything is always green. I feel like this is home so much already, it’s just right in so many ways. Everything I love about life is concentrated in one area, save for close family, friends and snow, (though there is a lot on the volcano recently). Kids, let me tell you, traveling opens up your world to the most beautiful moments. So go forth and learn, sing, dance, drink the juice of over-ripe fruit, inhale the night’s air, be present with all around you, learn a new language, make mistakes and keep trying. Just don’t let this world get too down on you, because there is happiness everywhere, you just have to find it.
Ciao