I miss Italy like crazy...
 

Hi all,
I was just sitting here ready a few people's trip reports on Italy, and I started to really, really miss it. Despite the fact that it's been two years and several other trips, it's the place my heart belongs I think. Anyone else ever have these moments where you miss a place almost like it's a friend who's moved away or something? Is that crazy-travel-fanatic talk?

Amanda, I feel your pain. A little Chianti or Amarone always helps.
((H))

Amanda, you are not crazy.

I have described Italy as a little bit like a blood infection or a high fever; you're not sure if everything you're experiencing is real, but you know without a doubt that you don't want it to end!

Best wishes,
BC

Ah Italy! What IS it about Italy? I think it's because much of our culture really did originate there so it's familiar in a deep-seated way while being sooo different visually. DH and I would live there (but which place???) if we thought we could cope with the system and live without USA.

I have my Italy trip pics set up as a screen saver here at my work computer ... sigh. It was about this time two years ago that my daughter and I started to plan our month long trip through Europe ... sigh.

I think the only cure for this sickness is to start planning the next trip. I don't even know when we're going next, but I'm already browsing Venice accomodations and considering where else we might go. . . . just in case.

I have the sickness for Italy as well...unfortunately I also have it for Paris too. My problem (and a blessing) is that my only child has just been accepted into an out of state college and all of our travel money this year will be tied up in all that college requires. A blessing and a curse.

I long for Italy, and Europe in general, when I am not there. I have discovered that my only cure is to plan another vacation while I long to be there.

On the bright side, I am leaving for Italy in a week and a half and can't wait! :)

Tracy

When in Italy buy CD's of Italian music, the uptodate music..not just the old classics. That is wonderful to have when you are back home and missing Italy so much. Of course it makes you more "homesick" for Italy..so it is bittersweet. I just spent 90 minutes on the phone with a friend in Florence yesterday..sure made me wish I was in Italy right now.

I nearly went crazy missing Italy like a person. Two years without was the longest it had been. Mind you, I had taken great trips in the meantime: Ireland, Belgium, Africa...but it just wasn't Italy.

I went back last October, had a fabulous time (again) and felt like I'd come home. Sure, things were different: almost everything I'd taken photos of in Spoleto, that I'd planned to shoot again was "in restauro." It got to the point that I had to laugh. You can never go home again!

There's a book called Italy Fever that sold well during the height of Italy intensity (about a year or so after the publication of Under the Tuscan Sun) that describes ways you can keep Italy in your life. But it just isn't the same. sigh.

I feel like Italy has its hooks in my heart fiercely. I watched almost all of the Olympics just to investigate Torino and see Italians!
So now I'm planning again...aren't we all? Even if we dont' know when we'll actually go!

Oh, and LoveItaly--you're right! I buy jazz and rock and all sorts of music--love Pino Danielle, Jovanotti, Paolo Conte--it does make me feel better...and worse! ;-)

Every day. We have been 5 times, and we have three more trips planned already, two in 2006 and one in 2007. I will never get enough of Italy!

Hey wanderlust5, DH and I have also been 5 times. Do people say "Why in the world don't you go some place different???"?
We are going to So. France this year but our hearts aren't in it! Maybe we'll get a new obsession?
And Sandi, we share you love of Paris. I think it would be easier to live there? So have you all seen as much of the U.S. as of Italy?

donco,

Don't worry. The south of France is a close second in my heart to Italy. I especially love Nice, but mostly because it feels Italian!

Oh brother, Weadles, we may never get to the U.S.!

It's true! I just returned and I'm longing to go back. In fact, I have started outlining plans to take my honey to Venice since he was not able to go with me this time and I did make it to Venice. (But how can I miss Rome? I adore Rome! See, that's the problem, too!)

It's an addiction. But I have to say that I felt the same way when I went to Paris a few years ago. I love Paris, too!

Oh, the agony! Oh, the injustice of having to work for a living! Life is so unfair!

Can it be, all of you need treatment ;-). It you want to be in Italy, why on earth don't you go (and stay) there? Strange people...

We were in Rome in December and on May 26 we will be heading to the Valtellina north of Milano. Staying with friends in Chiesa in Valmalenco and in Sondrio. Great hiking, Alps...we can't wait to get back to Italy. All the best, JoeGo

loislane17, I know how you (we) all feel. I just ordered 5 copies of Italy Fever off Amazon ($ a copy) for my family. (To ameliorate our longing, of course...)
Donco, silly people just assume that in going to Italy as frequently as I can and dreaming about it when I'm not there is simply lack of imagination!

Hello donco, have I seen as much of the US as I have of Italy. NO!! But my excuse is that Italy is much smaller than the US. Will that excuse work, LOL.

And logos, strange people? Hmmm, residents of the US can only stay in Italy for 90 days max after that they need a visa etc and to live there they need a residents card etc. So strange question

Loislane, better and worse..good description. Italian music is so hearttouching isn't it?

I miss italy like crazy, too. I love Rome...Sometimes I have dreams that I am walking through the streets of Rome and when I wake up I have an erie wonderful feeling like I had an out of body experience. It is an ecomical way to get my italy fix...

I feel the same about Italy. It's almost painful sometimes....like when they were doing all of the Olympic coverage. I told my family if I don't show up for dinner just assume I'm on a plane to Rome. For my little fix I have a few pictures above my visor and I look at them when I'm in traffic jams.

I miss it, too...almost on a daily basis. Aside from the occassional caffe coretto and good Veneto wine, being in the tropics makes it kind of hard to find ways to get an "Italy fix," although I can easily get a France or Holland fix where I live. :)

I just feel very blessed to have just been in Venice in October and now heading to Rome in another five days. :)

loveitaly, all you need is a visa and maybe a job there. You can do it if YOU want. :-)

Hi LoveItaly,

"Hello donco, have I seen as much of the US as I have of Italy. NO!! But my excuse is that Italy is much smaller than the US. Will that excuse work, LOL"

That's a good enough excuse for me! Really, logos999 why do you think it strange? Do you have a special place? Maybe the fact that it would not really be feasible to live there adds to the dream. New York City gave us some magical moments also but it wasn't quite the challenge to get there!

We will be in Italy with our immediate family this June. It is our third trip, and we are finally getting to share Italy's charms with our children and grandchildren.

I have FF miles, so I asked my husband where he would like to go in 2007. We REALLY TRIED to get excited about going to: Paris, Coast of Portugal, Southern Coast of Spain, Amsterdam, Brugges, Paris, London. We were kidding ourselves...our hearts are in Italy.

I am happy to report that we tentatively have plans to visit the Marche Region as a base, and take day trips into Tuscany and Chianti regions.

The more I visit Italy, the more I understand "why" my Italian relatives conducted their lives a certain way. As a child, I did not pick up on all the day-to-day nuances and eating habits of my mother, aunts, uncles, grandfather, but as an adult reading about the history of Italy, and visiting there things are more in focus for me regarding my heritage.

Oh, I miss Italy too! It's been almost 10 years since I lived in Florence as a student and I haven't been back yet (graduate school, student loans, etc. ate up all my money!), but my husband and I plan to go, hopefully soon.

I do miss it like a person - everytime I see Florence on TV, I get teary-eyed and have to restrain myself from hopping on a plane that very moment! I stock up on Italian wine, drink Limoncello, etc, to try to capture the feeling of Italy again. Not many people understand that longing to go back - my dream retirement is to move to Tuscany and never leave!

after reading this, it's comforting to know that we're not alone with this feeling of longing.

Yes it is very comforting - I'm glad I posted this. I always tell people who ask what I thought about Italy that Italy is exactly what you hope it will be - charming, chaotic, sensual, and a total mix of old world and new. Maybe that's why it pulls so many people there again and again. It has no pretenses or facades, nor does it need them because it is just so intoxicating to BE there...My husband and I have been considering using our FF miles for a trip to New Zealand next year, but like others who have posted here, my heart just isn't in it. I haven't been to France so that might be my priority the next time I go to Europe, but there's always time to squeeze in a week for Italy, right? Sigh...

I too have been to Europe many times and always am smitten with Italy. My husband and I go to Europe twice a year - once to a new location and once back to Italy (a new spot in Italy). We just cannot get enough of that place. We are so fanatically in love with it that we would move in an instant if we could. You are definitely not alone!!!!

I almost posted about this today. My heart belongs to England and, especially, to Wales, and I think of it and miss it so much EVERY single DAY. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one!

I'm another one who can't wait to go back to Italy. In theory, I'm interested in going many places, and I do want to return to Paris as well, but if I had the chance, I know my first choice would be to return to Italy! Tomorrow would be good!

>Maybe the fact that it would not really be feasible to live there
If you really want it, I believe you can live anywhere you like. If you're not there right now, you prefer living at another place, right? Italy is just another country, (it really is!) It's nice, visiting foreign countries, but home is the only place I want to be and I miss when I'm not there. Home isn't Italy, for me, home is Munich. And I'm quite sure, if you're not in Italy right now, and complaining about it, you don't want to live there?

logos999

Are you looking for an argument? Drop it.

I read books set in Italy. I watch movies set in Italy. It's so bad that I've started to wonder if a recent past life of mine was carried out in Italy!

But I also miss Sevilla, Spain like crazy some days. I actually lived there, if only briefly, and I know I never appreciated it as much as I should have. It's funny, also, how now, after the fact, I forget all the bad stuff - dog poo on the sidewalk, the unrelenting rain during my stay there ("it hasn't rained like this in YEARS!", I was repeatedly told), the ankle-breaking oranges dropped from trees - and remember only the sun, the incredible food (that I didn't appreciate at the time!), my magical daily walk through the tiny streets...

It IS strange how you can miss a place as much as you can miss a person!

I'm looking for insight, kane. Try to understand that.

To sum it up, if you miss a place that badly, why don't you go there, stay there and live there?

Logos, to answer your question: I think it has a lot to do with other people in your life. At least, for me it does. I would love to live in Italy or in Spain again, but I wouldn't be able to see my family as often. Also, some people may love those places but are married, have children, etc., and can't uproot everyone... I'd be willing to bet that plays a big part for all these people who miss their favorite places!

I thinks that's the point, it's about making choices, you'll miss other things a lot more than "italy". You can't have it all. :-)

I miss Europe. Depending on the day, I miss different cities I've been to; London, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam...but I do find myself missing Florence the most. It is my goal to live in Florence for at least a year, with the knowledge that I can always come back to NY.

I find that while I may say I'd move to (name a European country here) in a moment's notice, the fact that I cannot have what I want makes that want that much more appealing. ;)

I miss Italy so much I still haven't unpacked. I miss my morning cappucinos, the different hams and cheeses, the pastas, the art, the sculptures, the historic streets, etc. I miss the friendly people I met on my trips. I miss the greetings I'd receive when I'd meet people and the polite goodbyes when I would leave. I keep wondering where our next big trip will be...All I can say was that we were bleeding money in Italy.
In two years hopefully DH will be working in Beijing so I might plan a big Asia vacation. But it just won't be the same. The food should be good though.