Rome
Urbino
A shrine near Lake Como.
My new favourite place in Italy - Lake Como.It feels a little weird to be writing on this blog again. I haven't been here for three whole weeks, which is a virtual lifetime in the online world. Even typing feels strange. I've had the sort of holiday that my mind, body and soul was craving. Life felt like it was getting a little out of balance and I just needed to recharge.
Of course, me being me meant that I didn't exactly lie on a beach for three weeks. I couldn't help myself and saw far more of Italy than I had expected (it's my third visit to the country). I went to Rome, Porto San Georgio and the beautiful surrounding countryside, Urbino, Bologna, Verona, Lake Maggiore, Milan, Vigevano, Lake Como and back to Rome again. All in three weeks... with a two-year-old toddler who wasn't interested in rushing around to see the sites (not when he had his train, car, gnome... to walk slowly along the streets of whichever place we were visiting).
But even though I saw many places, travelling for me is so much more than ticking places off a list or taking photos. It's when I get to shut out the noise of day-to-day living and really get back to what's important to me. It's when I can dump all the baggage that I don't really need. And it's when I can see the answers clearly to the big questions in life.
It's also when I get creative. I came up with so many ideas and projects that I want to work on that I can't wait to get started.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to this blog while I was away. I had a MASSIVE shoot the DAY BEFORE I left (literally was packing up at 6.30pm in Sydney's Palm Beach on Thursday night to race back to the city to collect my child from daycare and pack for a flight the next day) and was frantically coding the posts. A friend has since told me there are a few errors and slips in them but I'll hopefully be able to tidy them up - and find out what happened to the image that went with Lisa Loxley's post.
This week I'm getting back on my feet so not sure how regular I will be able to post, but hopefully everything should be back on track next week.
I hope you've enjoyed the posts while I was away - I'll try to respond to your comments soon. And I'd love to hear from those of you who enjoy travelling and find out what you love about it.
Oh, and the house swaps went amazingly well. It was a fantastic way to meet locals and see and experience how Italians REALLY live - not one of the three homes I stayed in had a kettle or toaster! And they all used stovetop coffee espresso makers (not big fancy machines!).
images daily imprint
8 comments:
welcome back! sounds awesome and glad you got to recharge! can't wait to hear you adventures and new projects! thanks for having me on your series xx
Looks like you had fun in Italy Natalie. Isn't Como amazing - we only spent a day there, as we were staying nearby in a castle in Carimate (there is a funny story behind that - we met some people in Mykonos in Greece who recommended we stay there). I loved Verona, the Arena was more amazing to me than the Colosseum in Rome. All the little streets and the markets and grabbing Juliet's brass boob and writing your love note on the wall (did you do that -very touristy I know but I had to do it!). I always think much clearer when travelling, you do give your mind time to breathe, and create. My husband and I are both planning our future businesses at the moment so we are thinking of taking a week holiday to do just that! So glad you had a wonderful time and the house swaps went well.
Welcome back Natalie and thank you for having us all on the ever fabulous Daily Imprint. I have much to say in terms of travel. Would you like more comments here or an essay in your Inbox?! Let us know. So lovely to read your back home blog and see some pictures too.....x
Welcome back! can't wait to see/hear all about new creative ideas...
and thankyou for putting stovetop espresso machine's into my head! now all i want is a little machiatto!
Welcome back Natalie! I'm off to Italy next Friday for the first time and currently feeling the pressure :) So much to organise, but so much fun to be had once I'm on the plane. The guest posts were great, looking forward to hearing about the new projects you dreamt up whilst away.
Welcome back Natalie, glad to see you had a nice time you got me going through my old pictures of when I lived there many years ago such a wonderful country full of character. No wonder you are filled with Inspiration. :)
welcome back, natalie! you were missed, but i loved reading the inspirations of your guest bloggers and it is always great knowing the blog author is recharging those creative batteries! i actually posted what travel does for me - it is everything to me - i'll find the link and send it to you via email. take care. x
Sounds like you had a lovely trip! Urbino is a fabulous town. I was lucky enough to study there for a semester as part of an exchange with my Aussie university in 2005.
I'm currently living back in Italy, in a tiny town in Abruzzo, and my electric jug and teapot are two of things I miss the most! The coffee definitely makes up for it though.
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