Bella Italia: Life is sweet and I shall taste it all
The human mind is incredibly adaptable, which has been a key component of our success as a species, but that adaptability has a downside in that after a time, we can get accustomed to most anything, be it heaven or hell. I am incredibly blessed to live in two of the most gorgeous places on the planet and thank my lucky stars every day that my bi-continental life makes it almost impossible to ever take their beauty for granted.
Saturday morning, despite having what I later learned was a nasty case of bronchitis compounded by a horrid allergic reaction to the medication I was taking, I dragged myself out the door for a run along the sea. Never said I was a sane person. I live on the top floor of a lovely old building at the very top of a little hill, less than a stone’s throw from the shores of the Mediterranean, which makes her pull all that more powerful. Saturday morning she was particularly lovely, her waves sparkling the way they do when Spring is just around the corner. Despite the hacking and incessant nose blowing I just had to go out for a run. Just brought a few packages of Kleenex and hey, there are trash bins all along the way! After a while I took to jogging on the beach and just had to take this shot.
Later that day, post shower and lunch preparation, given that I was already violating pretty much every ounce of common sense by jogging for 80 minutes with a bad chest cold, I figured I’d go for broke and shared some gorgeous champagne on my terrace. The alcohol is purely medicinal! Couldn’t help it with such a gorgeous sunny day and Spring whispering in my ear that warm-weather opportunities for mischief are right around the corner.
Bella Italia! Life is sweet and I shall taste it all. I wrote that back in 1997 when I was on a train between Venice and Milan while vacationing before starting my MBA program, having no idea that one day I’d have the incredible fortune to live in this land of endless beauty and have a life more magical than I could have ever dreamed. So today I toast to life, there have been years when you kicked my ass in ways that I thought would surely have broken me, but today I thank you for every one of those days as they’ve made today even more beautiful.
