Day 5 - T U S C A N Y

Lesson- Honor Where You Are!

I was first to the meeting spot the next morning for my tour of Tuscany. I was in a better mood than I had started the day before, having had such a great time at Cinque Terre. I was excited to potentially make even more new friends.

I was the first to arrive. We have a group of seven today, the guide notified me. OK, not a great first sign; my fear that the tour was going to be all couples started to kick in. Couple number one showed up. They were 10 or so years older than me, and quickly struck up a conversation.

A few minutes later, couple number two showed up, followed by, you guessed it, couple number three.

I was a seventh wheel in one of the most famous romantic destinations on earth. And of course I was the only one wearing a white dress 🤦🏼‍♀️

Everyone introduced themselves in the van. “Well cats out of the bag, we just got engaged last night!” The guy in the front seat beamed, showing off his new fiancé. The couple in the middle seat was from Canada and on their honeymoon. The couple beside me in the back seat, who had been on this tour twice before, were digital nomads who sold all their stuff in California to travel Europe.

“You know, this is the first time it’s ever been all couples on the tour” the guy told me.

“I’m sure it is” I replied in my most sarcastic tone.

The tour itself was fine, and as we all got drunk, I started to appreciate the humor of it all.

That was, after I filmed a video of myself crying set to dramatic live music. You can check it out on my Instagram.

I knew I was being ridiculous as it was happening. My day had been fine, and no one had made me feel weird or unwelcome because I was alone, except myself.

Two minutes I filmed the video, the couple on their honeymoon came and joined me on the bench, and we shared a bottle of wine. My tears had dried up by that point, and I stopped looking at myself as being separate from the group.

We were all just people in Italy, celebrating important moments and occasions in our lives. Sure, my celebration was more a discovery of self than a relationship milestone, but isn’t that just as important?

I realized that day how I really needed to stop judging myself for where I was at in life. Things may not be perfect, but they’re still pretty good. Not many people get the opportunity to go on a solo international vacation, and I needed to appreciate where I was and all the amazing things in my life I had to be grateful for as opposed to looking at what I didn’t have.

I posted that video so you could see that in hindsight, fear can be pretty ridiculous.

That night I went out with my friends, I had an amazing pasta dinner in the shape of a crab and I enjoyed an incredible last night in Florence. My “biggest fear” of going on a couples wine tour alone had came and went and I was all the better for it ❤️