My Adventures in Italy

I am back from my trip to Italy and it was a wonderful experience. Traveling solo in a foreign country where your primary language is not spoken is not for the faint of heart. There were moments when it actually felt kind of lonely to have no one to talk with that didn’t involve scaling the language barrier. It gave me a whole new level of respect for the countless people living in this country who don’t speak English. It is a brave person who would be willing to make that decision.

Keeda Sees Palermo

My adventures in Italy really took off when I decide to experience Palermo’s public transportation.  As a born and bred city girl, I have no issues with public transportation so I was definitely up for this adventure. I rode the bus FOUR separate times while I was there. It’s a good thing pointing is a universal language because there was a lot of pointing involved as there was a bus change involved once.  Another time, the driver couldn’t go down the road he normally travels because it was blocked for a festival. He did his best to explain to me how to get where I needed to go and I did my best to understand what he was saying. Thankfully I managed to get where I needed to go without too much drama.

Keeda Gets Lost in Palermo

A mini-adventure I wasn’t expecting was when I got lost. This is where my American bias worked against me. I grew up in NYC where all the streets are in a grid. You turn down a road and it will naturally lead you back to another road that will take you to yet another one, all by way of 90 degree turns. The roads in Palermo? Not so much!

I was at an outdoor market and having just witnessed some breathtaking architecture I was eager to see more. I started down a road and when I realized it didn’t have anything interesting on it, I made a right turn assuming that right turn would take me back to a main road that I was on previously. Alas, it did not and it wasn’t long before I was way outside of anything that looked remotely familiar. Before you ask, yes I did have a map and I thought I was following the map. Apparently, however, where I thought I was on the map (which was in Italian) and where I actually was on the map were not the same thing.

My little adventure in being lost took me into some sketchy parts of Palermo. Let’s just say one would not want to be alone lost in that part of town at night. At this point I decided it was best for me to just look like I knew where I was going and keep walking confidently in whatever direction I was going. It seemed the smart thing to do was to NOT whip out the map and prove to everyone that I was lost. I kept my map in my bag and just kept walking. The problem was I kept walking down these side roads that really didn’t lead anywhere and then JUST when it looked like I had found my way, I got side tracked by the shiny cathedral looking building (pic below) and before I knew it I was lost again. There is a lesson in here that I’m sure I’ll blog about another time but for now, suffice it to say that was an adventure I was not expecting.

It All Worked Out In The End

All in all I had a great trip and learned tons about myself. I’ve come back with a clearer sense of the direction I want to go with my business and who I want to serve. I also feel more confident about the message I want to share. I will be making some changes over the coming months and will keep you all up to date and informed as we go along. In the meantime here are some pics from my trip.

Disclaimer: these were all taken with an iPhone and have not been edited at all so no judging

From my heart to yours,