February 18, 2021.
The day had finally arrived.
I was in a hotel in Maryland. There was snow on the ground, we were still in the middle of COVID, and I had a military flight to catch.
But this wasn’t just another flight.
I was moving to Italy.
After all the planning, all the preparation, and all the months of keeping my dream close to me, it was actually happening.
The Best Plane Ride of My Life
My flight was contracted by the U.S. government and carried military and U.S. civilian personnel. Because of COVID protocols, everyone had to be tested before boarding, and masks were required throughout the journey.
Everything about traveling during that period felt strange. The airport was nearly empty. There were very few people on the flight. The usual energy and chaos of an international airport simply wasn’t there.
But for me, there was something incredibly peaceful about it.
I wasn’t nervous or anxious. I was completely relaxed.
There were so few passengers that I could spread out and get comfortable. And throughout the flight, I kept looking at the monitor, watching the countdown of how much time remained until we reached Naples.
Hour by hour, minute by minute, I watched the distance between my old life and my new one disappear.
I remember thinking: Wow. This is really happening.
That flight remains the best plane ride of my life, not because of the airplane, the service, or anything particularly luxurious.
It was because I knew exactly what was waiting for me at the other end.
My dream.
My First Glimpse of Naples
As we began our descent into Naples, I started recording from the airplane window.
I wanted to capture it.
Below me was the landscape I had dreamed about for so long, the blue Mediterranean stretching toward the horizon, the coastline curving around the Bay of Naples, clusters of buildings filling the landscape, and mountains rising behind the city.
From above, Naples seemed to unfold all at once.
The water. The coastline. The city. The mountains. Italy.
I had seen photographs. I had traveled to Italy before. I had imagined this moment countless times.
But this was different. This time, I wasn’t visiting.
I was coming home.
We landed on the military side of the airfield at Capodichino, which shares its runway with Naples International Airport. When I stepped off that plane, the life I had spent so much time envisioning was no longer an idea.
I was finally living it.
And Then I Saw Vesuvius
One of my new coworkers picked me up and drove me from the base to the hotel where I would spend the next two weeks in quarantine.
As we were driving, I was looking around, trying to absorb everything.
Then I saw him.
Mount Vesuvius.
I remember looking toward this enormous presence in the distance and asking something like, “Oh my God, is that Vesuvius?”
He was magnificent.
There are certain landmarks that you have seen so many times in photographs that you think you know what they look like. But seeing Vesuvius in person was completely different.
He dominates the landscape.
There he was, the volcano I had read about and seen in pictures my entire life, rising over Naples as if he had always been waiting there.
It was one of those moments that made everything feel even more surreal.
I was really in Naples.
Two Weeks in Quarantine
Because of the COVID requirements at the time, I had to quarantine for two weeks.
In some ways, those two weeks gave me a transition period. I had time to unpack, get organized and learn about my new environment. There were procedures to understand about working on the base, living off base and adjusting to life in Naples.
And there were two very important phone calls I needed to make.
I called my mother first.
Then I called my father.
If you’ve followed this series, you already know that I had not told my family that I was moving to Italy.
So when I called them and told them where I was, they were shocked.
Not necessarily surprised, but definitely shocked.
I was already in Italy.
Why I Protected My Dream
I know some people may find it unusual that I didn’t tell my family beforehand.
But I had made a decision very early in this journey: I was going to protect my dream.
I wasn’t going to allow anyone else’s fears, doubts or negative energy to be projected onto me.
That was non-negotiable.
I was in my 40s. This was my life.
What were they going to do?
I had made my decision, and I was going to do exactly what I wanted to do. And I did.
By the time I called my parents, there was nothing left to debate, question or discourage.
The dream didn’t need anyone’s permission anymore. It was already real.
No Time to Waste
When my two-week quarantine ended, I didn’t waste any time.
The very next day, I had appointments to look at homes.
I had a new job to learn, a new country to navigate and an entire life to establish. I needed somewhere to live, and I was ready to find it.
I looked at five homes in one day.
And I chose one.
I’ve always been a suburbanite, so I knew immediately that I didn’t want to live in the middle of the city. I wanted more space and a quieter environment, so I chose a large home in the suburbs of Naples.
Once I found it, the process moved quickly. The realtor coordinated with the base to place the property on hold while everything was processed.
Within weeks of arriving in Italy, I had found my home.
By April 9, I was moving in.
Welcome to Italy: Here Are Your Keys
One memory from signing the lease still makes me smile.
The landlord handed me the keys.
And then more keys.
And more keys.
I remember looking at all of them thinking, Oh my God. Why do I have all these keys?
I hadn’t yet learned that many Italian homes have multiple gates, shutters, entrances and security doors, each seemingly requiring its own key.
And then there was the key to my front door.
It looked almost like an old-fashioned skeleton key compared with the house keys I was accustomed to seeing in the United States.
Everything was new.
Even the keys.
It was such a small thing, but looking back, those little moments were part of the experience of realizing that I wasn’t in America anymore.
I was building a life somewhere completely different.
A Whirlwind Beginning
Those first several weeks were a whirlwind.
I was adjusting to a new job, a new agency and my first position with the Department of the Navy. I had to learn a new organizational culture, new processes and a new community.
At the same time, I was learning how to simply live in Italy.
And COVID made everything even more unusual.
The Naples I arrived in wasn’t the bustling Naples most people know. Streets could be unusually quiet. Restrictions were still in place. People were quarantining. There were fewer people outside, and daily life operated under circumstances none of us considered normal.
Looking back, it was an incredibly strange time to move across the world.
And perhaps because everything happened so quickly, the reality of what I had done still hadn’t completely hit me.
That would come later.
There would be adjustments. There would be lessons. There would be moments when the dream of living in Italy collided with the reality of actually living here.
But those stories would come soon enough.
For now, one thing mattered.
After years of dreaming, planning, believing and protecting the vision I had for my life, I had finally done it.
I was in Italy. I was home.
Next up: The boxes arrive, I move into my new home, and suddenly, it all becomes very real.