​Weathering the Storm with the WP#199

First and foremost, Happy New Year to everyone, friends, family, clients, and colleagues in this new year of 2025 and I hope that it brings everyone happiness and health. For me, it is very much a new year, in many ways, but just a quick review of this past week. Of course, spent Christmas with my Italian family. Where else would I be, right. Can’t leave the country right now and it adds to new traditions. The other thing that I did, beyond last night’s festivities, okay, a nice dinner out at one of Rosa’s friend’s houses, and nothing crazy, of course, was do a little exploring of the city. I had some business to attend to this past week and found my way exploring areas, not normally visited. And, interestingly enough, the city of Rome is fairly tame this time of year, if you can enjoy highs in the 50’s Fahrenheit and lows near freezing, then maybe this time of year is for you. ​

---

Rosa, momma, and I also went to see a museum this past Sunday, the Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini (Barbarini Palace), which is quite the place, and a place here in Rome I had not been ever. They had a newly displayed, never seen Caravaggio piece for the world to see and other art, of course. He is Rosa’s favorite painter, so we went. As I become more and more a part of this city, and country, albeit it slowly, as this is how this place works, I am sure I will go out and once again, explore other parts of the city and beyond, to share some of the lesser-known places of Rome. We also went inside a church, the name slips my mind, but it was baroque and very much rococo, so not really my architectural style. ​

Really though, this past year has been quite a year I must say. I am lucky enough to have done many things in my 62 years of life on this planet, and I certainly hope there is more to come, but this past year, as I reflect on it, and beyond the bureaucracy I had and will continue to endure into this new year, had been one I would never have expected. Of course, what happened this past year, revolves around the fact that a very special person came into my life, pre-pandemic, so without that event happening, where I am now and what I did last year, never comes to fruition, so where do I start in this review of 2024 and that is with Rosa, my wife. Yes, 2024 was the year that I got married for the first time, and I expect, the only time. She was a godsend in my life and while she did not say yes, the first time I proposed in 2022, in 2023, she said yes. Turns out she said yes twice, since I had to, this past Christmas, replace her lost (or stolen) engagement ring, so that, no matter what else, is the most important event of 2024. No, I did not have to, I wanted to replace it. ​

Of course, with our getting married this past February, deciding where to live was the next decision, but really not a decision at all. She needs to be here in Rome. This is where she works, this is where she lives and given that I am and have been very much of my life, a wanderer and very much the nomad, moving to Rome was not a decision. It was simply a matter of time. The fact that I had not had any kind of permanent living arrangement in years, made this decision very easy. The logistics of this, perhaps, a little more complex. In the end, momma “gave” us the very much is disrepair condo, as a wedding present and it is now our home, after months of work on it and still much to do. Oh yeah, we also had a very non-traditional wedding, in Vegas, Remember that. I shared it with the world via Livestream, so if you were not there, that 15 to 20 minutes at the Graceland Wedding Chapel can be seen if you want to the link. Why, because Rosa had a dream of an Elvis wedding and so that is why, not a big Italian wedding to the dismay, perhaps of her family, but they saw it online from here in Rome. ​

What else about 2024 and we honeymooned for about 2 weeks in Turkey back in March. It was an amazing experience and Rosa had never been. I expect, once I am able to legally travel again outside of Italy, we may return, but for now, we have fond memories of that two weeks, which happened several weeks after our wedding as we had to address the bureaucracy of two countries. Once she left for Rome and I went back to starting the process of “moving”, we met up in Istanbul and then came back to Rome afterwards. The hard work was about to begin apart from each other, essentially, from the beginning of April when I returned to the states and my return to Italy on the 4th of July to start my new life here. Yes, it was appropriate to fly from London, where I had been on business for the better part of two weeks to Rome on America’s Independence Day and, well, I have lived here now for 6 months, crazy to say. It is also the last time I had been in a country other than the US or Italy, as the process of my permanent residency drags on for another several months. ​

In the end, we lived in another temporary place or two until this place was finally livable, met and greeted several sets of clients here in Rome who were also guided by Rosa and started teaching English as a Foreign Language, so the past few months have been very busy with the usual types of life decisions and those will continue. We had the family over for the American Thanksgiving and so now we have a Trilogy of Traditions for the family. Here for Thanksgiving, and Easter and Christmas at each of Rosa’s sister’s houses and who knows what else as Rosa and I reach, through the crazy trials and tribulations of our first year of marriage, the first 10 months in the year 2024, each marked by roses and sunflowers each month and we also celebrated momma’s 80th birthday in 2024 as well as the 1st anniversary of Kenn’s passing in 2024. Life is a balance, and this past year certainly was one of juggling many different things. I am so glad that I decided to downsize my life in preparation for this massive life change that happened this past year and is still in process. ​

As I consider and add the positives and negatives of the year 2024, there is no doubt that the decisions made before the year and the events previous to the year 2024 were the right ones. Nothing happens in a vacuum and my life with Rosa is no exception. I look back constantly knowing that if I had not met her almost 5 years ago, I don’t know if I would be here today. I had been on a downward spiral at that time and……  Well, I Don’t Look Back (Thank You BOSTON), really, but simply revel in how lucky, I am to have met her that warm February day in 2020, and here I am, oh and I almost forgot, we saw two awesome concerts, TOTO and Bryan Adams this past year and some movies along the way. I know that 2025 will bring more adventures for us and where they take us, I don’t know, but I know that I will continue to move forward with the travel planning, English teaching, and exploration, if only here in Italy until I can, with the Schengen blessing, travel outside these borders again. Oh, and we have tickets in Milan for the Boss in July. ​

This past year has been amazing and crazy, stressful, and painful at times, physically, emotionally, and mentally. But that is life’s little reminder that we are alive and breathing and ready for another day’s challenge. Making the decision to move to Italy was done for all the right reasons and I do not miss living in America. Even with the insane bureaucratic red tape and insanity that is Rome in particular, and Italy in general, going to the markets, using the public transport, speaking with people in my broken Italian and their broken English, I am alive and kicking and I don’t know if my life in America would have been the same. In fact, I know it would not have and I am a part of the fabric of life here, even as a man still between two countries. I am, when all is said and done, a very lucky person to have this chance, the renewal of life in a totally different place that has allowed me to re-charge my batteries. I have traveled the world, about 85 countries now, but now, time to explore more, given I can’t leave, my new home more. 
I only listed some of the highlights of 2024, but life everyday here was a highlight, and the preparation and anticipation were what made 2024 what is really was, good, bad, or otherwise. I am optimistic that 2025 will be a good year after all the fits and starts that face me or more importantly us, but if I am not around to experience 2024 the way I did, I am not ready for what 2025 will be, so I say bring it on and away we go into the second half of this decade. Thank you as always for your support of Rosa and my crazy life here in Rome and to all, a very Happy and Healthy New Year!!!