The Italian Countryside Life: the Luxury of Slow Living
I had this luxury my entire life and yet I see it just now. Living in the countryside is learning to live a slow cyclical life, connected to seasons and to nature. It is a luxury nowadays. In this post I will help you understand what I am valuing most of anything: a slow countryside lifestyle.
The Italian Countryside Life
I was born and raised in the countryside. Proper countryside.
Do not expect a village because it was dying when I was little and I never got the possibility to truly live it (although I listenend to stories). But I was lucky enough to experience a tiny bit of what life was when digital technology did not exist and small communities thrived.
I was probably around 5-6 years old when Summers in the Italian Northeast countryside were very hot (not humid). Imagine the sunlight at the top of its peak, the sound of cicadas in the trees and there was a soft warm breeze messing up with your hair.
The smell of homemade burned popcorn.
The corn growing so much higher than me in the fields and my Grandma showing me how to open them.
Afternoons were spent under the shade of the tree in the middle of our garden with a basket full of peas to divide.
One Sunday or Saturday afternoon it was a feast.
A caravan full of clothes and other things was coming like every once in a while and stopped for a whole afternoon in the house next to mine. My aunt’s.
We, my mom, my grandmas and I walked straight towards the line in between the orchard full of apricot trees ready to be picked up and got there. We all feasted around the caravan because it was a rest day from the usual picking fruits days and all the kids from the community, from our village were there.
It was fun, the atmosphere and energy around was so joyful and simple.
I remember it all.
It is a tradition that is somehow lost. But not in my memory.
It is stuck with me.
Seasons have now passed and I once felt so lonely living there every summer, away from my city friends. I felt caged, I deeply felt alone and miserable. But now anymore.
The country has grown on me like a tiny small seed.
I have learned how you can never take away the countryside from me. It is my roots, the deepest one and my legacy as well. Buy dirt, says an American country song. Buy the soil, take care of it and it will take care of you.
And I pretty much arrived to this conclusion: living in the Italian Countryside is a Luxury.
The Luxury of Slow Living
I was never made to be a City girl. I thought I could settle there, be like the majority of people, be normal, like everybody else.
But I am not.
I can’t stand crowds, traffic jams, loud noises and stress.
I don’t belong there.
I belong with open spaces, the infinite horizon of grass and freedom. Abundance of fruits, nature and life. I burn with excitement and joy when I am unknown in the silence noticing the small things:
- staring out toward the country view
- chatting with my family under the veranda or just reading and having their chats as a background melody,
- walking barefoot and lying down in the soft grass to watch the clouds as I did as a kid.
I started doing it again.
Living accordingly to the rules of nature is what I do best. I can take care of myself in this way. Nature teaches us plenty if we want to listen to Her.
Living a slow life is a luxury but one that should be in our priority list.
It’s not selfish – is essential in order to contribute to being better human beings. We have a duty to ourselves and to the collective: being our greatest and purest versions allows us to maintain our promise. Be better human beings.
In being authentically ourselves, we express who we deeply are and we let our talents, sensibility and kindness shine bright.
We have the duty to choose Love not fear, and that’s not the easy road. It’s a country road: bumpy, with obstacles and weeds to cut but a very rewarding one.
So…choose your country road and you will choose the path back home, back to yourself.
Thank you for reading my last thoughts. Finally, I am so happy to announce that I am back blogging and I will use this platform that I have loved for so many years. Expect to hear more from my life view.
xx Cate
