Baby steps

This morning I woke up to a gray sky promising rain should I dare to go outside. None the less I and a couple of my friends went ahead with our plan of a mini-road trip to the little town of Sirmione on Lago di Garda, a couple of hours drive away from where we live. I'm glad we ended up going. I think we all needed the day off doing something completely different and a good excuse to get out of our apartments. Sirmione is a beautiful little holiday town and I can just imagine how busy it is during the sunny months. Despite the drizzle we had a nice ice cream (without ever removing our gloves) and a walk to some ancient Roman ruins. Photos to follow. Possibly. It depends on if any of them came out alright. It really was very gray today. (edit: no decent photos, everything looks really gray and dull).

After lunch, which we ate picnic style in the car, we headed to Verona for a coffee, or a hot chocolate for those of us who do not like coffee.. You should know that hot chocolate in Italy is not like hot chocolate in anywhere else. This hot chocolate I'm talking about is thick like chocolate pudding topped with a huge dollop of whipped cream. Needless to say its absolutely delicious! I feel quite proud of myself for having had both gelato AND hot chocolate in the same day as Italians generally enjoy these at opposite times of the year ie. when the sun comes out and the season for ice cream starts, cafes stop serving hot chocolate, and vise versa when the weather gets cold again. It always makes me feel quite exhilarated when I manage to break an Italian "food rule".

While we were driving I was thinking about my life and how grateful I am for how things are now. The past couple of years have been hard, and I feel like much of that time I have spent waiting for someone else to be ready for me or alternatively waiting for someone else to make me happy. My decision to move to Italy, while being somewhat impulsive, was finally a decision I made for myself. To find a way for myself to be content, which after days like today I can say I am. That is not to say that life is perfect by any means. There are many things that could be better - money, work, social life to mention just a few - but I am no longer waiting for someone else to make my life better, I am doing the things that I enjoy doing and making plans and decisions for myself. My great realisation today was that I don't need to always make my life fit around someone else's. If that someone cares enough, they will make the effort of fitting their life around mine on the occasion too. Now if I could only hold on to that thought... I think I am one little step closer to being a balanced happy woman.

This photo is from the entrance to Giulietta's house in Verona.

The walls are covered in years worth of love messages! It is pretty cool.