When I decided to take this trip, I remember talking to my dear friend Elizabeth telling her that I had purchased a round trip ticket to Geneva. I would start and end the trip by visiting my friend Gabriella. I knew a few places I wanted to visit but the rest would be "come as it may." She LOVED the idea – to go where you are led because of people and freedom – not for the sites. And funny enough, just the weekend before I left, a reporter was interviewing me and one of his questions was along the lines of “How much of my life was planned and how much did I just follow the path I was led to?” My response was that none of it was planned – just like my vacation. I knew I wanted to visit Gabriella, Zach, Alessandra, and return to Positano. I also knew I wanted to go to the “concert in the sky” in Ravello (which I have to go back to because rain moved it inside.) Rome, Amalfi, nor Capri were on the top of my list to return to – and Naples not at all. But they all offered gifts that if I hadn’t been open and followed where I was led – I would have missed. I cooked with a four and a five star chef. I cooked with a precious family over an open fire because they choose to live with no electricity. I ate in five star restaurants. I had picnics on the ground with the ants in the open fields as well as on the floor in my Best Western Hotel (making a tablecloth from a towel – eating cherry tomatoes and fruit out of their little plastic baskets and breaking fresh bread slathering it with local cheese.) I got to share time and laughter with my dear friends and meet new ones every step of the journey. I returned to Positano – a place that felt like home from the moment I arrived last year – and saw my friends there. It was a magical month that each step of the journey worked out perfectly. I believe it is how I have lived my life – being open for the best and it always arrives! I am blessed.
The trip, like life, was not without a few bumps. Our first hotel in Cannes didn’t live up to what we thought and we moved as soon as we could. But even our two nights there gave us the gift of eating the best pizza I think I have ever tasted – and allowed us to explore the place finding the perfect hotel in the heart of where we wanted to be (at the perfect price!) And dealing with rain and boats and planes being canceled – we simply discovered new places and stayed loner in places we hadn’t planned – all offering gifts we would have otherwise missed.
With so many monasteries around us, I wondered about the monks who reside there. How they are “missing” so much. I wonder if they couldn’t do more good out in the world making real human contact – touching people. But when you are on top of the mountain open to the wide expanse of sky above and their voices are lifting us all to heaven, I wonder if it is possible that could they could touch us more? It’s as it they are exactly where they need to be…sharing their gift. There’s a whole world they’re missing and yet the beauty of a paradise surrounds them…
If I had to have a theme of this trip it would be "beauty." The beauty of the sea, the food (and presentation of the food), the people, and lifestyle. I will forever cherish the beauty that echoed each day in the sounds of bells ringing from the church bell towers, the cowbells, the monastic choir, birds, children playing by the sea. Talloires, Positano, Capri, Ravello, Rome – all offered such incredible beauty to the eyes with towering rock cliffs, old buildings, historic sites, flowers in bloom, the sea, the people, and the bikinis! People -- whether friends (especially Gabriella, Alessandra & Marissa) or others we met so openly and free -- they all offered beauty in their kindness.
My “bikini journey” with Marissa was a beautiful gift I will treasure forever. And I look forward to MORE!!!
Day by the pool at 
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