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Cinque Terre | Day 84 of my 2023 Journal

cingque-terre
Ten years ago, we visited Italy in our first van conversion; we went for one day to Cinque Terre. This time we wanted to come back to walk the trails along the coast between the cities and enjoy the beauty. we were in for a surprise!

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From Verona to Cinque Terre | Day 83 of my 2023 Journal

verona-drive3
I believe teenage girls need their mothers much more than our society appreciates and that the way we raise children in institutions, pushing them to grow ā€œresilient,ā€ ā€œmature,ā€ and ā€œindependent,ā€ is all just a huge hoax tearing families apart, numbing and dumbing down emotions that are pure, true and natural.

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Maintenance | Day 82 of my 2023 Journal

maintainence
One advantage of living in a van is the number of things that need fixing/maintenance is much smaller compared to living in a house. Another advantage is once you start, you just have to finish. Otherwise, there is nowhere to live.

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Pausing | Day 80 of my 2023 Journal

pausing
It is sometimes emotionally complicated to stop. I remember someone said: ā€œVacation is doing something you are not usually doing.ā€ Now we do not do vacations, but sometimes we do pause.

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Murano | Day 78 of my 2023 Journal

theres-no-heaven
Before we went to Venice, I almost booked a place to stay in Murano, not Venice. It looked almost the same. From Venice, you take the public boat and have one stop at the cemetery island before Morano. On the map, it looks much like Venice.

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Guggenheim | Day 77 of my 2023 Journal

banksy-horzontal
Why do we do what we do? It is obvious that traveling is an adventure and from the outside, it looks like a lot of vacation. The first part is right, but the second is not. It is not a luxury project, nor an escape.

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Birds, bridges and walking | Day 76 of my 2023 Journal

walking
The feel of Venice is closely connected to walking. The experience of walking between houses, alongside canals, over bridges, over piazzas (and repeat) from narrow darkness to air and water, beauty upon beauty, over and over. Sometimes, there is a dead end. Sometimes, a surprising piazza.

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Arriving in Venice | Day 74 of my 2023 Journal

venice-cecilie-jesper
Ten years ago, we visited Venice for the first time. Our youngest son was just a little one, my hair was still short after cancer, and I still had many side effects after the treatment. My first visit to Venice was a clear example of the very good mantra: When you know what you donā€™t want, you know what you do want.

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Overwhelmed by mosaic | Day 72 of my 2023 Journal

mosaicIMG_5475
Some days on our journey are so packed that it is simply impossible to reflect on them the next morning as my 365 challenge asks for. Sometimes, I have to let time pass, just do things slowly and not focus on my inner life, just allow things to settle.

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Yay, snow! | Day 70 of my 2023 Journal

snow-IMG_5346
We have crossed the mountains from the coast and sunshine to the coast, crossing a landscape of snow. And we lived in Santā€™Oleo for three days looking at the mountains. Our exploration of Italy would not be fulfilled without actually visiting the snowcapped mountains.

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