June 11, 2021

L’estate italiana (Italian summer) just hits differently!

This is at Polignano a Mare, in Puglia. It makes my heart skip a beat when I appreciate the details. Those dramatic cliffs! The hundred different colors in the sea! The coastline that goes on for days! The Mediterranean breeze. Goodness I think of summer differently now.

For the last 10 or so years of my life, summer was for hustling and hustling was fine because then winter was for recharging and going to places that felt like summer. I understood that the Italians knew how to summer. I knew that my clients were coming to Italy to experience an Italian summer. I saw all of my friends and loved ones calming down and relaxing into the ease and effortless nature of summer in Italy. The disconnect was: I hadn’t truly embodied and embraced the full Italian summer experience for myself. Last year all that changed. It was a dramatic change and it was a scary change and it was a beautiful change, all at once.

This year? I am so damn excited. Il dolce far niente? I’m here for it. Give me long days that melt into night time and the idyllic relaxation of knowing that summer stretches out in front of me. Give me days of escaping to beaches and mornings without setting an alarm. Give me yoga retreats and small group tours and pinch-me moments where I realize that all along l’estate italiana was simply whispering to me that it existed and all I had to do was believe in it and it would be mine.