Ah, sì. Mi Sento a Casa in Italia

The River Arno at sunset June 9, 2015.

When I left Italia after the summer of 2010, I was relieved. I found myself constantly telling people, "Go as a tourist. But don't try to live there."
The Amanda Knox case was in high gear then.
The summer in Florence had been hot and complicated.
I missed my husband, children, friends.
I missed my garden and Friday night barbecues at our swim club and my dogs.
Never will I return to Italy, I vowed.
And I meant it.
***
But here I am, teaching journalism again in Firenze.
This time, I feel... comfortable.



Grocery shopping, slipping quietly among the tourists and the immigrants hawking handbags, trying out my fractured Italian on anyone who will listen.
Who knew?
***
The Miami University students studying "Foreign Correspondence" with me this year are a wonderful bunch of young women.
The AIFS Institute is an amazing place in which to base our Miami program - the staff is incredible, helpful, smart and also at home in Italy, though many are ex-pats.
I still miss my husband and children... and dogs.
But today a librarian at the British Institute asked me, "Have you lived here before? You look familiar."
My heart swelled a bit. Even though I know I look like every red-haired woman of Irish descent.
I replied, "Yes - yes, I have lived in Firenze before! And I wonder how living here an entire year - or more - would feel?"
He said, with a smile, "It feels like home."