Where we're going for our month in Italy (and why)...

I thought we were heading into the unknown, but I was wrong.

Oct 23, 2024

My friend Susan sent me a picture - it was the face of a cat, drawn in the foam of a cappuccino. “You’ll love Matucci’s cafe.” she said simply. Knowing that, in fact, I would enjoy Matucci’s cafe.

I didn’t intend to have “boots on the ground” in our our new special pocket of Italy - the one where we’re planning to stay for a month with our family next March - but with Susan and Dan there, I looked forward to almost daily updates on restaurants, locals to meet, cafes, neighbors, and community celebrations to add into our very open schedule, at their recommendation.

I can’t believe we’re doing this.

As I share with you last week, our family of six will be spending this coming March in Umbria. Why Umbria?

Out of Italy’s 20 regions, we chose Umbria because it was one of three in the entire country that was home to a reformed Protestant church. When it came time to put our daydreams of a longer stay in Italy into bite-size pieces, for us, having a “home” church was a big factor.

Especially holding onto hope of a future with even longer stays.

It’s not easy to find a Protestant church in a Catholic country, but we persevered. Through many obscure online searches, we found a very small, very faithful church near Perugia.

Great! Umbria. Why not?

Let’s go there.

I’ve spent time in the North of Italy and I’ve spent time in the South. I love both for different reasons. Umbria is right in the middle - the only region of Italy without a border on the sea. Legumes, pork, wild game, olive oil, potatoes, pasta, Pecorino Romano, and grapes reign here.

Great! The middle! Why not?

Let’s go there.

Once the region we wanted to land in for our month abroad was settled, we began to slowly build more of a structure around our daydream. I found a villa to host our getaways (part of the work that needs to be accounted for while we’re there) and reserved a house for our family to stay at during the trip.

Both our getaways (first one will take place in October 2025) and this family trip will be based around an area southwest of Lake Trasimeno. It is a small village, off the beaten path, nestled up on a hilltop (this is Umbria after all), and perfectly placed halfway between Rome and Florence for ease of travel.

After getting this far into the trip planning process, I learned that Susan and Dan (friends who we’ve gone to church with for a decade but had subsequently moved to Tennessee) had just bought a house in Italy. I immediately texted Susan.

Italy! How fantastic! Where’s the house? We’re going in March with all the kids! Will you be there when we’re there? Let’s meet up!

Y’all. Dan and Susan’s house new house is in the same village that we had already planned on staying in.

Of all the teeny villages in Italy, of all the regions and places, the Lord put us in the exact same one. (Hence the cat cappuccino updates.)

While Susan and Dan are there doing a few renovations on the house, they message us photographs, stories, and recommendations. More importantly, they’ve confirmed that it’s a beautiful village and that the people are absolutely wonderful. Because the timing of our trips unfortunately don’t match up (they still live in Tennessee full time) we won’t see Susan and Dan there this time.

Instead, we’ll be staying in their home, which is in the heart of the very village we’re hoping to build a relationship with.

While I thought of our month in Italy as a bit of heading into the unknown, the Lord has kindly and gently laid a path before us already.

I guess this means we’re exactly where we need to be.

Love,

PS: Tell me what else you’d like to know as we plan for our trip. I would love to encourage, answer questions, and help you to see how we’re making it happen so you can too.