Italy My Love

Piazza Signoria Florence Carla Coulson

I arrived in Florence on a hot August night in the year 2000. I remember walking through the lamp lit streets feeling as though I had little champagne bubbles in my blood. A whole month in Italy! I felt like hugging myself with happiness. Chris de Burgh’s song ‘Lady in Red’ was playing softly in one of the cafes facing onto Piazza Signoria and the first of many well dressed waiters called ‘Ciao Bella’ to me.  It had been years since anyone had paid me a compliment and a little spark of the woman that had along ago died inside sprang to life.

I didn’t realise at the time but it was the first day of a new life.

Falling in love with Italy for me was love at first sight. I loved everything about Italy the crumbling buildings, the beautiful men, the elegant well-dressed women, coffee, the food, the language, the passion packed into every sculpture and the incredible humanity of the Italians. That night I unpacked my bags in a small pensione in the heart of Florence that looked like a movie set from the war years and waited for my first day at Italian school so excited I could hardly sleep.

Italian Joy Carla Coulson

If you had asked me that night would I believe that one day I would still be in Europe married to an Italian and a photographer I would have thought whooh you had indulged in one too many grappa’s baby!

But something extraordinary happened to me. Italy got under my skin and the longer I stayed the more I fell in love with the Italian way of living. The idea of going back to my life as a single girl in Sydney was out of the question. Life took me on another path. Sometimes I feel as though Italy scooped me into her arms and looked after me. That mother Italy decided “well this girl really does need a new life and I am going to be the one to help her”.

Italian Joy Carla Coulson

Twelve years have passed. Whoever said ‘it is about the journey not the destination’ was one wise soul. So much has happened, so many of life’s lessons that I needed to learn, so much growing that I needed to do as an adult and most of all learning to believe in myself. I thank Italy for that. The journey continues and each day I look forward to where it is going to take me. I certainly don’t know.

Next week I am off again to Italy, the champagnes bubbles are already flowing in my blood at the thought of touchdown in my favourite country. My dog eared copy of Henry James's Italian Hours is in my bag. The long list of all the things I want to eat and see, the conversations I want to have and to speak the language I love so dearly. And to be in a place that loves me.

Some love affairs last a lifetime and I know Italy and I have many more years to rest contentedly in each other’s arms.

Italian Joy Carla Coulson

Have you ever fallen in love with a country??

If you love Italy you will probably love Dianne Hall's La Bella Lingua and Henry James Italian Hours . I do!!

Carla x

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