It’s been a while

Hey y’all,

A long time ago in a pre COVID galaxy far away, this community health nurse, during her free time, used to enjoy travel, travel photography, and telling little stories about my adventures with the hubs. Then… well, you know. Pandi, end of world. I was put in charge of my health system’s community COVID testing, worked liked 6000 days in a row, blah blah blah-y’all get it. And because of that, we: A, number 1: couldn’t go anywhere, and B, number 2: my soul died a little bit & I got a little bit of burn out to deal with and I stopped writing. But humans are tough sons o’bitches, and we adapted. And slowly, but surely, the world started to bloom again. My work started to normalize, and eventually the world began to open back up. Travel became a reality, and not something I anxiously worried that we’d never do again. We packed our bags and headed straight to Pop first chance we could & we promised to never go longer than 6 months without seeing him again. I’ve had some convos with myself about work life balance and I’m back to being able to…wait for it…enjoy my fucking life again!!! Oh, pardon my foul language, if it offends, you should probably stop now and spare yourself because I consider the art of the swear as one of my many, many talents.

Anyhoo, I just returned home from my 4th trip to Europe since the start of the pandi. We had a great visit with Pop, my father in law. We showed off “our” little village to some great friends, did some bucket list shit, ate some great food, drank some great wine, and generally had a fabu time. So, I thought I’d reintroduce myself, hey y’all, explain my absence, and get back to it.

The moment we could, in June of 2021, we hauled ass over to my fav fav fav city, Bologna for a few days of stuffing our faces before making our way to Pop’s house for a bit.

Now, we are anxious little (not so little) creatures of habit. Some of us, me, more than others-him. But, part of this type A-ness that plagues me, involves hours and hours of planning & research. Y’all, I enjoy this. This is actually a favorite part of my travel experience. The hubs makes fun of me, cause I get out my little quadrille notebook, and my little colored fine point markers and I get to it. The upside to this-I know where we are going to stay the first time we visit somewhere 4 months in advance. The downside to this-we will never ever ever stay anywhere else ever if/when we return to said place. But, and I like to think, that because I do so much obsessive research, we stay at some jam up places. Like, Art Hotel Commercianti http://art-hotel-commercianti.com We have stayed there every time and I love the hotel, the location, the art, the service, the breakfast, the coffee…all of it. The location is perf-right on Piazza Maggiore. You are literally steps from aperitivo and people watching & one of the most incredible basilicas I’ve visited, Basilica di San Petronio. And who doesn’t love spritzes and people watching and giant churches?

BLQ is a uni town, full of young students. The first uni in Italy is here. This makes the city so vibrant & fun. Beside us and out of frame in the photo above, was a group of young Italian women who were taking exactly no shit from the boys on the basilica steps trying to talk them up. These girls were not having it and I was loving it. Their banter, the history, the food, the spritzes, the atmosphere-heaven, I’m telling y’all, heaven.

Now, if you have never strolled under the porticoes of BLQ buzzy after 2 spritzes and status post 500 days straight in PPE…well, it’s one of the best feelings EVER. Though it’s hotter than 17 hells in Italy in June, under the porticoes is breezy and delightful. And for some reason, everything is just better on vacay. Hell, I even look better on vacay. Could be the scenery, or the spritzes, or the fact that I was 5000 miles away from having to stick a swab up into the NP space, which I had done at least 60,000 times in the past 1.5 years. But, damn its true, everything is just prettier in Italy…a fact that makes the smug hubs even smuggier.

But, the most important thing we did in our fav town, was, of course-eat. This trip we stepped out of my type-A box and let someone else do the planning. We booked a walking food tour with Taste Bologna. http://tastebologna.net Could not have been better! We, cause we are cool like that, try the very hardiest to be visitors, not tourist. What that means basically, is we try not to be asshats, or “tourons” as we call them in my family—that’s a cross between a tourist and a moron. We just want to respect the place and learn about the culture and food. But mostly the food. Did I mention I like the food there? Well, Taste BLQ delivered in spades.

It was great few days and a great way to kick off the next 4 trips we’ve had since. A few days ago,we returned home from our fall trip and it re-ignited my passion for all the things: planning, writing, photography, cooking and my ill attempt at learning the language (trust me-no foreign language sounds lovely coming out with this southern draaaaawllll). So, come along as I tell some tales of our last couple of adventures, including a party “up where the wolves live”, the world’s most horrifying 3-point turn, driving race cars through the Italian countryside with my buddy, chapel building and much much more. But for now, Ciao y’all.