If you haven’t already guessed, my next travel adventure will happen in Florence, Italy. Here’s the deal:
Like many people, I’ve long had the dream of spending a month or more at a single European location; someplace where I can unpack once for the duration, where the barista in the nearby bar will soon recognize me and anticipate my order, where day trips to regional towns are easily do-able. I want to “live like a local” as the notion goes or, at least, pretend to.
But I’ve hesitated to pull the trigger, recognizing that the reality of a solo-extended stay probably falls short of the fantasy. I’m comfortable enough maneuvering on my own, but I figure I’d get lonely and feel isolated. Although my hubs has become a good sport about active (cycling) vacations in recent years, a month or more in a tourist-filled town in an apartment without ready access to ice is definitely not his thing. I wouldn’t put him through it. However, even he has warned me lately that if I don’t just go ahead and do it, I’ll regret it forever.
So yeah, I’m doing it. But I stumbled across a travel company that specializes in taking the anxiety out of this type of adventure. This company organizes groups of travelers who will reside in a European city for a month, all together but also all apart. That is, each solo (or couple) traveler gets their own comfortable apartment in the same or nearby buildings. The company organizes a few optional group activities each week – a lunch, a tour of some sort, a happy hour – but other than that, travelers are on their own. They can plan their own day trips and activities, teaming up (or not) with others in the group. The company also provides access to local coordinators who plan the group activities and who can help in the event some obstacle arises.
These extended stays are offered in a variety of destination cities. I wondered if I should pick a city I’ve never visited before, but my extended stay fantasy has always been in Italy, and Florence is centrally located with many lovely towns only a train- or bus-ride away. I lucked out by snagging the last available opening for the October 2025 group. I’m excited about this timing; it should be just past the peak of both tourists and hot weather.
It’s starting to get real; I leave in ~ 6 weeks! I couldn’t let go entirely of my wanderlust, so I’ll first spend a few days in the town of Lucca followed by a few in Porto Venere, two places I’ve not visited before. Then onto Firenze for my month under the Tuscan sun.
While looking for a sunlit Tuscany painting, I came across this one of Villa Castellani (later, Villa Mercedes) in Bellosquardo, overlooking Florence. It has an interesting connection to Henry James that I’ll get into in a future post. It’s only a short walk from where I’ll be staying. Painted by Louis Ritter in 1888.
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