Owl Blog

There are trips you plan because you want a vacation, and there are trips you plan because something in you is pulling you toward a place. This September, I’m flying into Milan for ten days, and it feels like the latter. Not tourism. Not a checklist. Something closer to a return—despite the fact that I’ve never lived there. For years I’ve been studying the language, tracing my family lines, and piecing together the stories of the people who left Italy generations ago. Somewhere along the way, Italy stopped being a place on a map and became a place that explains me. This trip is the first time I get to walk through that feeling instead of imagining it.