CIAO!

This is my personal journal, a way to record an unexpected path I’ve found myself on. It’s the easiest way to share stories with friends and family who want to follow along. (Click SIGNUP above to receive blog post notifications.) It’s also the best way to answer questions like: “Wait, you’re moving to Italy?” (I’m not.) This detour began in 2017 on my first trip to Italy and somehow I now own property in Italy which I call Tre Sorelle. Tre Sorelle means three sisters in Italian. I bought the first three properties from a lovely woman, Rosa, who is one of three sisters. I am the oldest of three sisters so the name has special meaning to me.

The property is in Forcella, a nearly abandoned village, located in the town of Pescosolido, in the Province of Frosinone and nestled at the foot of the Abruzzo National Park. It is ideally situated one and a half hours east of Rome by car and one hour north of Naples by car, two hours by bus. “In the middle of nowhere” as a trusted attorney who took me under his wing before he “knew” exlaimed one afternoon in New York where I stopped en route to Italy. He and now friend told me. He hates I didn’t purchase a house, it’s more like separate rooms that will be restored with a re-imagined purpose focused on Italian culture.

The detours of restoration, as always, were fruitful and things are finally starting to unfold. After many false starts and a pandemic, I now have a wonderful team that includes two smart and kind attorneys, an accountant who is researching Italian incentives/bonuses for restorations, a trusted friend from nearby town of Sora who introduced to talented architect who is helping me define the purpose of this whack-a-doo project. I also have neighbors now who have become dear friends.

For someone who never had this on their bucket list, I have no explanation as to why this situation has become a big part of my lie. It started as a joke.

I’ll tell you about that someday.

BLOG POSTS

The pictures before the sign are the village of Forcella and the property that is now Tre Sorelle. The first photo is an arial view of the village, the second photo is the closeup of the land and exterior view of 2 of the rooms. This is where the yoga shala, organic garden, orchard and community area will be. Although some friends are pulling for an infinity pool, which would be lovely but too expensive right now. The others photos are some of my favorite people and food at Italy Farm Stay and the nearby town of Sora where you will find the best pizza ever! The figs were gathered on a walk to Sora, the trees are wild everywhere! The BLOG will go into detail about each room and the plans we have for restoration.

HELPFUL LINKS

THE PLAN

In January 2017, I began planning a trip to Italy as my 20-year marriage was coming to an end. Also coming to an end was the life of my 99-year-old grandmother, Gram, the matriarch of our family. I wanted to have something to look forward to while my son, Paddy, and I were going through such a big family transition and have something else to talk about. Despite the fact that Paddy was 23 and living on his own, it was still a pretty yucky time, especially difficult because our family was a blended one, and Paddy and I were the only ones in Kansas City. There is no scenario not made better by a bit of dreaming in my book. I needed a reason to smile and planning this trip did that. 

The plan looked like this:

• Paddy to Ireland. We meet in Rome two weeks later.

• Fly to Lampedusa to volunteer with a refugee mission there.

• Head back to Rome for a couple days with Paddy

• Paddy goes back to Ireland.

• I stay in Rome and learn how to make pasta and see the sites for a few days. From there, I’d head to an organic farm/yoga retreat in the Abruzzi National Park for a week. 

• Fly to Ireland to meet Paddy for a few days and visit musician friends in Ireland.

• Oh! And Paddy and I would have a blast planning the trip together over Italian inspired meals, looking up fun things we could do on our separate adventures.

I did have a blast planning the trip, and settled on Rome to start due to the location of the farm. I really wanted to go to Positano. But I thought it would make me sad to go there, newly divorced, so I just made it my screensaver while I planned the trip. 

Paddy did not even buy a backpack until the day before he left, much less come over to eat pasta and talk about the trip. He came over the night before he was going to leave, and I had like three bags of travel “essentials” from The Container Store spread out on my floor so he could get what he needed. He just cracked up and said “Mama, thank you so much for getting all this. But, everything you got for me denies me a conversation I could be having with someone in Ireland.” I love that so much!

He had no idea how many conversations he was about to have. and they had nothing to do with a travel toothbrush.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

JUNE 9, 2017

• Paddy left for Ireland.

• Gram died four hours later.

JUNE 23, 2017

• I was to fly to Rome to meet Paddy to leave for Lampedusa the following day.

• My outbound flight was cancelled and ALL flights to Boston, where I would catch my flight to Rome, were cancelled for the entire day. 

• Which meant every single flight thereafter was impossible to catch.

• Meltdown followed by major over thinking, “I’m not meant to go on this trip.”

• My sister, Amy, is having none of it and after she unpacked my ridiculous suitcase that had things like a lemon squeezer in it, she asks “What’s another way you can get to the island?”

How awesome is that question? For someone who is always flying by the seat of her pants, my “plans” always, always, always get goofed up, and I always figure it out, but this didn’t even cross my mind. I was all caught up in “sign” reading. It was a game changer and ended up being one of the most hysterically funny nights of my life with my sister and my mom. At the end of the re-planning, Planes, Trains and Automobiles style, my mom said “I have no idea how you are going to get to the island, but I’m 100% sure it’s not going to be this way. And no way will you and Paddy be at the train station at the same time. “ 

She was kind of right. I made it to Rome and tried to salvage the trip, but it just didn’t work. That one cancelled flight to Boston literally made us miss every flight, all of the hotels, every single thing fell apart. Paddy and I were having dinner outside of the Colosseum, and I was over it. I said “I can’t salvage any of this, and I can’t make any more decisions. Pick anywhere you want to go and tell me how we are going to get there and we’ll do that.” He looked at his phone, scrolled for about a minute then handed it to me and said “let’s go here.” It was Positano. The screensaver on my computer the entire time I planned the trip.

The rest of the story is best told by way of my Facebook posts. It also explains why I’m doing this blog because this way, I’m not posting novels on social media.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

TESTING THE WATER

SOLD!