Notes From A Broad: My uncensored year in Italy - Softcover

Are you a perfectly happy single woman who doesn't let her singleness stand in the way of enjoying her life? I know I was. I'd take myself out to eat, go to the movies, to music events and local bars. I felt perfectly comfortable having a drink by myself and in fact, I'd often get into interesting conversations with people -- sometimes, I'd even meet a man and agree to go on a date. I'd been single for several years but, there was one thing I refused to consider doing alone; traveling abroad. The thought of flying alone didn't bother me, but wandering around a romantic city like Rome and staying in a beautiful hotel? Never! It felt sad and lonely so, I never even considered it. But the clock began to tick very loudly as my seventieth birthday approached.
     When friends asked how I wanted to celebrate, I realized that all I wanted was a year in Italy and no one was about to give me that. It was my dream and dammit, if I didn't do it now, when would I? Seventy seemed HUGE to me. What was I waiting for? Well, that's easy...I was waiting for my soul partner. Duh! But he was not showing up. Tick, tock.
     I thought about it for the whole year leading up to my birthday and finally made up my mind to find a way to do it before I was too old - some would say I was already too old but I was healthy, in good shape and very determined to make my dream reality. I was going to learn to speak Italian before I died if it killed me! And if it did, well, I would die knowing I hadn't missed anything. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the scary feelings were the harbinger of excitement - the thrill of the unknown - the unfamiliar rather than the familiar. What would life bring me if I stayed safely where I was? Hmmmm. I recognized that scary feeling as the precursor to adventure - stepping into the unknown is always frightening but, in my experience, it rarely turns out that way at all. In fact, the unknown had consistently provided new and wonderful experiences for me. 
     Coincidentally, I happened to have a broken heart and enough airline miles to fly first class to Europe...a dangerous combination. What was I waiting for again? A quick search on the net produced a little language school in the city of Cagliari on the island of Sardinia. I was shocked to discover that Sardinia was actually part of Italy -- just smaller, safer and less expensive. In fact, I could attend five full days of language school and live in a furnished one-bedroom apartment for about $300 a week - less than half of what it cost me to live in California and that included twenty hours of school a week! How could I afford NOT to go? 
     I decided to try it for a month. If I hated it, I could always come home. My friends told me I was brave, but I didn't feel brave at all. What I did feel were equal parts of excitement and dread and if I'd learned anything in my life, I recognized that feeling to be the precursor to possibility --  something new I could not yet imagine, the enticing unknown, a familiar seductress always quietly beckoning from a corner of my mind.  
     As I boarded the overseas flight to begin my new adventure, I opened my iPad to notate my thoughts about the coming journey. I am not naturally introspective in the way of most people in that I find it difficult to search my mind for insights or to figure out problems. Instead, I allow thoughts to float around willy-nilly until they suddenly come into focus in an "Ah ha!" moment. Very often, that moment follows meditation, which I have practiced for thirty years. This time, it followed two glasses of French Champagne. I saw myself seated at an outdoor café in Rome, speaking Italian to the waiter and smiled broadly.