The last time I was in Rome was a lifetime ago. I was newly married then, heading out into the world with a backpack, a paper map, a one-way ticket, endless curiosity — with no idea how deeply travel would shape the life ahead of us, or how our lives themselves would take shape in the years to come.

Now, twenty-six years later, my husband and I are returning to Italy with very different eyes. Our children are grown, life has moved through all its beautiful and ordinary seasons, and we have carved out seventeen days to travel together again — this time alongside dear lifelong friends whose shared history stretches back before our marriage itself.

Together, we’ll make our way through eastern Sicily, from Catania and Syracuse to Taormina and Mount Etna, before travelling north to Naples, Pompeii, Mount Vesuvius, and the Amalfi Coast.

This series of posts will be a collection of reflections from the road — on food, landscape, history, friendship, marriage, memory, and the quiet privilege of travelling well into the lives we once only imagined for ourselves.

Not a guidebook. Not a checklist.

Just notes from four people wandering and appreciating the wonders life has to offer.

It starts with a quick stop in Rome.