Discovery of another culture can become a passion. Starting in our empty nest years, my husband Al and I have traveled to Italy every spring for more than a decade. Our love for this special country and culture, for its villages and cities, mountains and seacoasts, for its food and people and lifestyle, along with our enjoyment of our time there together, just the two of us, resulted in my writing the book Passeggiata: Strolling through Italy.
After many years of repeat visits, we have learned to bring lessons in living Italian style home with us. Each spring we renew our Italy experience for a couple of weeks, but the rest of the year we have to work at ways to keep in touch with what we enjoyed.
We eat Italian food, follow Italian news stories, go to local festivals and watch Italian films when the opportunity arises. More important, we try to follow the daily rhythms that we observe in Italy and savor moments that remind us of being there.
After repeated immersions into the sights and sights of Italian life, we have come to see wisdom in the accepted attitudes and values of this old culture. Though life in America is a sharp contrast to Italy, we are learning to savor life the rest of the year and to remain Italian in spirit back home.
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