📸Header image: Cafe Plaza Caffetteria in Piazza del Popolo in Vittoria, Sicily
Ragusa, Sicily, Italy
We moved to Italy in March 2022. We ended up in Ragusa, Sicily. It was a hard adaptation to a life in Sicily, without any prior knowledge of Italian language and never even having been there. It is amazing how your skills grow and mind expands to accommodate everything. Bureaucracy was no joke, and we needed lawyers for everything. Plus I think I gained about 18 kilos due to stress and pasta (and 🍷).
However in the end, I can only be proud of myself. Honestly, I did well.
And now I am missing back to the misery
Now, looking back at pictures of Ragusa and the map of Sicily, I find myself wanting to go back. We still would have so much more to experience. We didn’t have money to travel and with the exceptionally difficult move there, I think we soon became depressed and phlegmatic. Nothing went the way it was supposed to go.
Every day was a grind. Every day, week by week. At one point I thought I would completely lose it. My blood pressure was sky high.
It has been deeply hurtful to hear comments from others like, “Oh, I wish I could travel like you,” or “So you’re enjoying the sun and waves.” Let me be clear: we were not traveling. And no, we were certainly not living some idyllic beach life. This was not a vacation. It was a struggle, and one that only very few were let in on.
It almost makes me sick to miss Italy, and wanting to go back. Weird how life changes you, eh? Or maybe this is what they call trauma bonding.
Blog articles about Italy
Nevertheless, despite how challenging it was, I managed to piece together a few blog posts capturing what we saw and experienced. I actually found out that I have a fascination for Italian churches.
The history alone is a treasure chest in Italy. The architecture takes your breath away and you are in awe most of the time. Let me remind you that Italy is the cradle of European culture. I hope many people learn to value it and love it. It is important to know where our civilisation came from. The Ancient Rome.
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In Sicily🇮🇹: My Youtube Playlist to Sicily
You can access all my Sicily-related videos through this playlist. You will find videos of Ragusa, Ragusa Ibla, Marina Di Ragusa, Ortigia in Siracuse. I am also talking about my partita IVA (how I started my Italian company), and we are walking around Ragusa as well. Furthermore, there is one video of me running errands during my lunch break.
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“Going to Sicily is better than going to the moon.”– Gabriel García Márquez