Exchange in memory

guest post two from Venice, Italy.

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The second guest post in this series comes by way of a super green place in Virginia, some years back in an Italian reverie, from a light called Carrington. I was immediately drawn to

Carrington Epperson

’s bio and her openness about her journey to motherhood and approach to softness in the tiniest but most important details of the day. There was no doubt that I wanted her to words archived in this space. We’ve spoken about our travels quite briefly in the past, discussing where we would ‘eat, pray, and love’ if we could choose, but receiving an entire travel essay was an unexpected joy. Just as her writing is decidedly inviting, warm, her reflections in this essay keep us wrapped up in the sensory and the reminiscent.

Carrington is the author of Nurturing Wind and the creator of Chanterelle Cafe, and watching the reviews pour in, I have no doubt that everything she bakes and sends out, is done to the same unspoken Libran standard of her writing, i.e. it is too irresistible to not be consumed whole and sits well on the tongue, mind and the aesthetic eye — a simple equation air sign cardinals understand.

Receiving this essay took me back to being 17 and on my first-ever international trip to Seville, Spain as a student. I was studying Spanish at A-Level and as part of my course, got to spend a week in a language school, staying with a host family and gallivanting around the city with my peers. I remember feeling giddy making my way to school in the city with everyone else getting somewhere very important in the Sevillan morning, thinking for the first time, I could do this. It was a week that probably changed — initiated— me. Carrington’s reflection reveals that child-like wonder that some choose to return to, and make space to remember with honour. Several of these lines bring me into Venice, though I’ve never visited, but maybe this is what feels most resonant: Carrington’s pride in her younger self’s bravery and wanderlust.

I’m so grateful to be able to share a precious, detailed memory with you. I hope you enjoy.

Credit: Philip Ackermann

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My feet were sore from walking languidly on cobblestone for a couple hours. I was set free to wander the streets of Venice with a friend who journeyed here for the first time too. The thing nobody mentions about the canal city is how convoluted the streets are. Being guided by intuition is the best way to travel I sincerely believe. You never felt lost, simply led gently here and there. I was led to a small restaurant in an alley that caught my nose by surprise. Famished, we hurried inside for lunch.

I appreciate my friend’s openness and acceptance in allowing me to order our meal in Italian. She knew none whereas I had spent the last 3 months immersed in the “ldiot’s Guide to Italian”. I translated the menu as best I could for her and we settled on what I had dreamed of eating since the moment I found out I was going to be a part of this exchange program. Prosciutto pizza and tiramisu.

Courtesy of Carrington.

I was surprised to discover how thin and rich Italian food was compared to Americanized Italian food. The breadsticks were actual sticks, not fluffy, buttery bread one binge eats at an Olive Garden. The pizza crust was thin too but the prosciutto was so thinly sliced it was translucent. I recall being confused at how soft on my palate the mozzarella cheese was. Even more confusing how it didn’t upset my stomach. To top off the best pizza a girl could dream of, I soared into the heavens on first bite of the decadent tiramisu. The layers of airy ladyfingers and whipped mascarpone cheese gave me goosebumps. Was this my peak in life?

Courtesy of Carrington

At 15 years old, my whole world change for the better on that trip. I finally knew how much more existed outside my small town. People were genuinely kind, not the southern hospitality type of kind where you wonder if it was forced. Riding the ferry across Lago di Maggiore with the Alps in sight made me feel limitless. For once I moved without fear of judgement or danger, Italy felt like my true home. My Italian host family loved me so much, I didn’t feel all that homesick truly. I was ready to stay forever and just beg my birth family to come live better lives there too. But alas, through a teary hug, I said “ciao” to it all.

When I look back over photos and journal entries from that time, I feel that sense of belonging all over again. Those memories have never left me whereas I couldn’t recall much of anything from my high school days. The impact of leisurely traveling is somewhat indescribable to me. It’s the most breathtaking combination of alignment, love, openness, connection and ease. You never are the same after, so effortlessly transformed by the land, the people, the food, the air. All it does is make you fall more in love with life. With your life and every life you cross paths with.

Courtesy of Carrington

So I can’t wait to make these kind of memories with my family in the future. What a blessing it was for my mother to trust in me to travel abroad like that at such a young age. In doing so, she gave me life for a second time. I wonder what trip my son will say changed him for the better.

Gratitude to

Carrington Epperson

for this beautiful piece. Subscribe for more writings from her newsletter

Nurturing Wind

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Prompts and Questions

What is your earliest memory of travel?

Where is somewhere on your bucketlist? 

While we’re here, I’m curious - where would you choose too ‘eat, pray, and love’?

The idea of being trusted to travel as a child really stood out to me. Did you ever travel as a child/teen? How did it feel to be trusted to be somewhere foreign and new?

 Feel free to comment and discuss with others in the community.

Thank you, so much, for being here. Many thanks to my most recent paid subscribers, your support means so much. I’m so grateful. These love letters and travel memories remain free, always. This is an attempt to keep this space as an offering and resource for all. For a while, I’ve reduced annual paid subscriptions to $48.88 (from $88). I am preparing to show up with my paid readers in a new way and in the meantime, I’d love to grow and increase the paid support for this space. Paid readers receive 111 daily affirmations and a travel backstory upon subscription.

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Love,

Amara Amaryah