Trust Your Instincts and Take the Leap!

Ciao Amici,

Happy New Year! I think that 2024 is going to take our collective breath away!

I can feel the engine revving as this year is ready to take off, and since it’s a leap year, I wanted to tell you about the time when we picked up and moved halfway around the world.

It was 2017 and, at the time, I was feeling physically disconnected with my family in Italy. My desire to be closer to them was a key factor in our family deciding to take a leap of faith and relocate to Sicily from San Diego.?

My family is originally from Turin in northern Italy, but my husband, Michael, and I, along with our kids, decided to move to Sicily because we wanted to stay warm in the winter. Turin’s weather is like New York and Sicily’s climate is more like San Diego. So here we are, living in the south in the city of Palermo.

It’s bigger than most Sicilian cities and with the size comes more noise, and a lot more traffic. But there is also an international school, which was very important to us. We didn’t want our kids to be uprooted and feel lost while struggling with the language and cultural differences in a region that many people consider separate from Italy.?

There are many reasons why we are here now but essentially in April of 2017 we visited Sicily and allowed ourselves to relax and be receptive to whatever feelings and emotions presented themselves as we spent time here. We wanted to see if fate would open the door to this region or somewhere else.?

Well, we eventually decided to stop thinking and over-analyzing and began experiencing instead. What we found is that we started to naturally form connection after connection to this amazing place and fate had indeed created a welcoming path to Sicily.?

In September of 2017, we made the dream a reality by making the big move to Palermo, Sicily. Part of our move was for personal reasons and part was for business reasons because besides connecting with the people and surroundings, we came here to build stronger connections with our suppliers. We also needed to implement quality control for the products we use from our Sicilian partners.?

I can’t believe that we’ve been here for nearly seven years! We originally planned on staying for a year, but although time speeds by, reaching our goal regarding quality control is progressing more slowly than we imagined.?

It’s going to take a LONG time and a lot of work. If you’ve seen some of my previous newsletters you know I am already working hard and have had some great success, but trust is not given lightly by Sicilians, it is earned over time.?

The first holiday season we spent in Sicily in 2017 was wonderful and awful. It was wonderfully magical because it was the first time my whole family was together in many years and everyone was so excited. It was awful because my whole family, EVERYONE, including my nonni, got sick.?

Looking back at that first Christmas in Sicily, I remember how exhausted I was trying to take care of everyone, and then being sick myself, I was completely drained of energy. Honestly, it was a rough start and we second-guessed our decision to move a few times in the first few months. But as is often the case with many things in life, if you trust your instincts, set a goal, and follow your plan to reach the goal, you will eventually succeed.?

Our goal was to strengthen the ties we had with our existing suppliers and find new suppliers with similar values who also have a passion for sharing the Italy we love. AND this is exactly what we’ve done in Sicily over the last few years.?

Because we chose to take a leap, your clients can travel from the toe to the collar of Italy’s boot (and everywhere in between) with the knowledge that See Italy has their backs.?

You’re invited to follow our lead! Because sometimes to get things done you have to trust your instincts and take a leap. Take a look at some of the journeys we offer here.?

Ciao,?

Laura & the See Italy family