Dear Italy,
I fell in love with you a long time ago, your food, your language, your cobbled streets, your rolling hills. I hated history at school yet I fell in love with yours. I never thought I wanted a foreign man, even after I had spent five months emersed in Italian culture, but you sent me one anyway. You changed my life for the better.
My love for you is complicated. I love your people and yet I have felt such helplessness and anger when faced with ranting and upset Italian customers in my old job. I love your language and yet sometimes I find it so hard to speak it. I become self conscious and stumble repeatedly and at other times I feel so relaxed and that it doesn’t matter if I make mistakes. I love your food but eating it daily on holiday doesn’t agree with my body and I long for my healthy breakfasts and daily smoothies. I love your churches and their art, but their bells drive me crazy ringing early in the morning! I wanted to love your coffee but even with mounds of sugar in I just don’t like it and I don’t really like Tiramisu either!
When we first met I was a teenager on a family holiday. My Mum had a crush on the travel guide on the boat to Capri but I didn’t get it. Six years later during my Erasmus year I was totally convinced all Mediterranean men were sleazy, too in love with their looks, not my type and then you sent Matteo. The only night he had ever been out after work and the first night out I’d had since coming home. It had to be fate. Now our children love you too and can’t wait to see your “bel mare” again this summer.
You are, and always will be a huge part of my life and who knows, maybe one day when I retire I’ll come to live with you.
Until we meet again…
Ti voglio bene
Laura x
To see my previous #dolcevitabloggers post click here
We do need to thank Italy for sending us our partners! Lol… Great letter Laura, I loved your honesty. ?
Sometimes I curse it when he’s driving me crazy LOL!! Thank you x
Ah yes, as they all do! Lol… Xx
Now Laura, we need to talk…. How can you not like Tiramisu!! Lol! Aw I love this post. I feel exactly the same. It’s such a country of contradictions. It doesn’t quite fit with our English temperament but it’s worth it all the same.
He he! It’s just the coffee I don’t like! ?
Just like Kristie said, it’s a country full of contradictions which will drive you crazy if you don’t acknowledge it for what it is. When I stopped comparing Italy to Canada, that’s when I truly began to rest here and those things that once drove me completely mad are just not that important anymore. 🙂 Great letter, and your kids are blessed to have the opportunity to travel and visit Italy and have it be a part of their lives too!
That’s really good that you’re able to relax now without things getting to you. I know, they are very lucky boys indeed! x
Such an honest letter. We loved reading it and your kids are so cute!! <3
Lucy and Kelly xx
http://www.theblossomtwins.com
Thank you ?
A very honest letter my dear, I almost gasped at the part about the coffee and the tiramisu although to be honest, tiramisu is usually the last dessert I’d pick on a list because by the time dessert comes around, I’m so stuffed that I can only manage a sorbetto most of the time. Thanks for being part of Dolce Vita Bloggers!
Italy is definitely full of contrasts, but I think that is what passion is all about! So glad Italy sent you your love and adorable boys! Thank you for joining us <3
I really enjoyed this. We haven’t met but I feel like I know you from this short but sweet letter. By the way, I get it, we all need a little juice or smoothie in our lives to feel whole again. ?
Oh I couldn’t agree more with those comparisons… Except for the coffee part……. Hehe! I hated it only until recently when I tried it with a little bit of honey… Mmmmmm… And yay to Italian men!
So sweet! I love how that twist of fate – and Italia of course – brought you two together!
Lol, don’t worry, as an Italian, I can honestly say Italian customers are the worst! Haha! I also get not being able to eat Italian food daily…our stomach always craves things of the cuisine we grow up with, so it’s totally normal for you to enjoy your own food!
This is a very honest letter, I love it!
Ciao, Sara