Seven years ago I traveled to Rome for the second time.
The first time was a revelation and I fell hard for this crazy city. It didn’t make sense. Nobody in my family is Italian and I was not an Italophile by any stretch.
I loved London, Paris, and Amsterdam. When I was in junior high and high school I just KNEW I would live in Paris or London one day. I wasn’t thinking about Rome or Italy despite living in a town called Verona .
I thought maybe I had responded to Rome that way because of what was, or wasn’t, going on in my life at that moment. I had to find out why that one trip had unsettled me so much.
I returned the following year and took a short trip to Florence and Positano.

It was a pain in the butt to get from Rome to Positano. First the train to Naples (not bad), then the train to Sorrento (an hour on a local train with many stops), and then finally a bus to Positano.
I walked down the steep hill, followed by a million steps, to reach my hotel. Once I stepped into the room and opened the large French doors, I saw that view. My heart skipped a beat. It was so beautiful it felt unreal, like a movie set.
There is a great hiking trail/path way up in the mountains, Sentiero degli Dei/Path of the Gods. Early one morning, I went up the mountain.
It was quiet. I saw two German tourists hiking and that was it. For the first time in years, my mind wasn’t racing a mile a minute, overwhelmed by the things I had not accomplished.
That walk changed everything.
I realized I had to make some serious changes in my life for my mental and physical health. I wasn’t sure how at that time.
Eventually, I figured it out and moved to Italy two years later.
Buon weekend!
Look, right there, my parents’ home whereas mine is on the other side … Might be time to come back to Positano … there’s a bus directly from Roma to Positano in the summer or to Sorrento all year round.
Beate te!
I just heard about the direct bus. I might need to book a ticket on it this summer.
I love this post. Love the strange, nonsensical feeling that didn’t make sense and your determination to track it down until, voila, you made yourself a whole new life in Rome. As for Positano, is there a direct bus from LA?
Grazie, Paula. Regarding the bus from LA, it might be faster to go from there to Positano than from Silver Lake to Santa Monica during the week.
LOL!
Beautiful post. I can see why you were inspired to overturn everything. It’s so good to listen to these impulses!
Thank you, Catherine!