17 Years Ago Today Our Dream Came True

Today, August 27, 2018, marks 17 years since my husband and I moved to Italy. If you haven’t heard our story yet, let me give you a quick recap. 

When I first met John I overheard him musing about quitting his job and living in a box on a beach in Mexico. I was immediately skeptical, but secretly intrigued. We started dating shortly after and found we had many things in common, one being a desire to live abroad and experience a different culture.

Fast forward two years and we are enjoying our honeymoon in Mexico. Before marrying, we had discussed the “box on the beach” idea endlessly. The “box” was upgraded to a more stable dwelling and European countries were included in our pool of choices. 

We had enough money saved to bum around for a while, but then what? John was 42 and I was 37 when we started planning this adventure, too old to throw caution to the wind, too young to retire. I wanted to live somewhere and not feel like a tourist in city after city. I wanted to know my neighbors and understand what their lives were like. We needed a plan that would allow us to experience another culture, but also prepare us for future earnings.

We came up with a plan and arrived in Rome 13 months after marrying, August 27, 2001. All the details of how we made it happen are in my travel memoir Times New Roman: How We Quit Our Jobs, Gave Away Our Stuff & Moved to Italy (available from your favorite bookstore). By changing our lifestyle “radically” as some would say, we learned how to live, eat, shop, cook and dress as the Romans do. And either through osmosis or out of necessity, we picked up some Italian behaviors we never expected.

When I look back, I am delighted in how this move affected our lives, not just during the time we lived in Rome but ever since. And I don’t mean to imply that everything was or has been perfect, far from it. Not a day goes by that this adventure hasn’t impacted us. And that’s the best reason I can give you for not putting off your dreams — you’ll have more time to enjoy them, remember them and benefit from them.