Discovering the Great Unknown…

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness.” – Mark Twain

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.” – St. Augustine

Traveling: a passion embedded deep in my heart and soul to experience and better understand this world with all its different people, cultures, languages, beauty, and of course, FOOD! Whenever I begin to think about discovering a new place something stirs deep inside of me that I cannot quite explain. Excitement consumes my whole being and I revert to my memories of being a small child on Christmas morning waiting not so patiently to rip open my presents and see what’s inside. Pure child-like joy, something that I seem to rarely come across as an adult.

Eleven years ago my life changed and I have never been the same since. For the first time I left my home country of the good ol’ US of A and ventured out into a world unbeknownst to me that existed only in history books and dreams. Stepping down in Italy I found a love that I never even knew existed. I was fascinated with this experience of a way of life so different than mine, by the grandeur of the Duomo in Florence and St. Peter’s Basilica, and people speaking in tongues I couldn’t understand. Needless to say I was hooked, and this was only the beginning of what has become one of the driving forces in my life. To be continued…