"The Italians"

I decided a few months back that I wanted to do a life long study of the history of western civilization.  I'd like to stress "life long" because I'm well aware of the fact that it's not a topic that's tackled in a short amount of time.

I started with the 1500's for some random reason and it lead down a variety of rabbit trails.  I find there are 2 kinds of people in this world: the linear and the non linear.

I create puzzle pieces and put them together after they are created. Other people need to create one piece and then create the next piece that attaches.   So starting in the 1500's and jumping all around didn't bother me really.

I don't know if other artists feel this way but if I get too inspired and have no outlet for the inspiration I end up depressed.  So after only a week of reading about Ivor Stravinsky who was considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century,  Pina Bausch a German choreographer born in 1940, and a few of the philosophers that I would later dive into, I was caving in!!

I decided that the only way I was going to be able to continue studying without falling into the utter pits of depression was to find a way to create while learning.  I decided I would write a historical fiction novel.  It would be about a woman who lived for centuries and she would weave into the lives of men and women of history.  This way I could study people, cuisine, architecture, illness, religion, philosophy, and history all at the same time.

It worked!  Sometimes I would spend 2 hours studying just for the authenticity of 2 sentences.

The woman in the story is looking for something.  She has memories starting from a certain place in her life but before that she has no memory.  She has only flashes, pictures of what was.  She is looking for something and all the while trying to understand who she is and why she continues to live the way she does.

After being a part of the lives of Thomas Aquinas, Francis Beaumont, Spinoza, Harriet Tubman, the Wright Brothers and a handful of others, she ends up in Venice Italy where she finally, after thousands of years, finds what she is looking for.

I know! Don't you want to know what it is?  Well I'm not going to tell.  BUT!  I leave in one week for Venice.  I'm going to go to the places where the story ends.  To the place where she finds what she is looking for and remembers who she is and where she is from.

I've never done anything quite like this before.  In some ways my hopes are so high that I'm afraid of being disappointed but on the other hand - IT'S ITALY!!

I've always joked (not joking) that when my kids graduate I will pack up and move to Italy where I will own a coffee shop and a dance studio.  There are a few of us girls that are convinced we will be single forever so we call ourselves "The Italians" and our plan is to escape and live there forever.