It’s been a week since I returned from Italy and I am still not fully unpacked, something I tend to do after any big trip, mainly because I am still reliving the experience and my bags, bundles, and souvenirs keep it all tangible.
Currently our dining table looks like an Italian mercato
due to all the wrapped packages and souvenirs. Last night I was looking over
everything when I came across a stack of receipts in my travel wallet. There were
receipts for food (gelato, espresso), souvenirs (jewelry, linens, art), and
entrance fees (the Abbey of Monreale, the Royal Palace in Caserta).
Those receipts filled me with wonder: Last week I ate a margherita
pizza outside the Galleria in Naples! Purchased a painting from a street vendor
in Taormina! Ate an arancina with seppia (cuttlefish)! Drank an Aperol
Sprtiz on the rooftop of our hotel in Rome!
This sense of wonderment is something I experienced often
during our time in Italy. When I was walking among the Greek ruins in
Agrigento, meandering through the small streets and alleys in Ragusa, throwing
a coin in the Trevi Fountain or gazing at a Caravaggio, I wasn’t so much struck
by the beauty of everything as I was by the fact that I was there . . . physically
there. Pinch me, I am dreaming! Then, every night when I summarized our adventures in my journal,
when I read through everything we had done, I again felt that wonder as I asked myself:
Did we really do that?
Traveling in a foreign country is an adventure, and every
day we headed into the unknown armed only with a map, some guidebooks, and a
spirit of adventure … all enveloped in an abiding sense of wonder.
And it is an overwhelming sense of wonder—both during and
after our trip—that is the reason I still haven’t fully unpacked.
No comments:
Post a Comment