Episode 01: Take the gun, Leave the cannoli or Buy a ticket to Italy, Take a Risk….Part 1
Welcome to Episode 1 and the very beginning of the Writer in Italy Journey…..
Five years ago I traveled to Italy to create space for myself and my writing. I traveled solo giving myself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general. Leaving my husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and love of travel.
The adventure turned into a memoir...... In The Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure.
Admittedly this is rather a first draft situation and now is under some serious editing, but if you are open to a little haphazard podcast in its early stages, then enjoy. Forgive me for my no filter audio skills. Hopefully in time it will improve!
Wandering over the River Tiber : Fiume Tevere…..The beginning of much discovery / Michelle Johnston
Show-Notes:
This is mostly going to be a share on books I read before my little solo journey overseas. Although this is not the full share because in truth I have been reading books for about twenty years or so on Italy, so this is for the more general travel mood…..
Italia Magazine: Visit www.italytravelandlife.com
A British magazine on all things Italian. This journey was about four years in the making; just reading about a place I was very interested in visiting was a wonderful way to wile away hours at a time pre-decision making about visiting Italy as a solo traveler.
The Pantheon, always a joy to stumble back into the Piazza della Rotunda
Book Share:
When in Rome: Chasing La Dolce Vita by Penelope Green
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
(This is not exactly what I did but I liked his notes on not micro-managing every detail, which at least made for a more interesting journey and book when I started In the Shadow of a Cypress........)
Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes and Everything else she has written on Italy.....
My love of Italy has been mostly from my armchair at home reading her books, or from the garden in fact because I have all of her memoirs on Italy in my pocket as audio books and what a blessing that is..... Sanity and escape, and an education on Italia from an outsiders perspective.........
Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything by Elizabeth Gilbert
My appreciation of this book is not for her traveling solo around the world and encapsulating it in a book but more for her deep honesty and spiritual perspective as a woman and a person living a full and introspective life. In other words its the inner journey that interests me the most.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
This beauty was firstly the love of the film and secondly the love of it on audio... A true delight and my next trip has to include a visit to Castello Brown in Portofino where the movie was filmed many moons ago. Magic and happiness and a lovely tone for appreciating life (and for escaping somewhere beautiful every now and then)
Writing Down The Bones: Freeing The Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
Details, Details, Details and common sense about writing and ordinary things. I like what she says in the Introduction “This is a book about writing. It is also about using writing as practice, as a way to penetrate your life and become sane”. Say no more.
Piazza della Rotunda - A Favourite Place of mine / Michelle Johnston
