CATANIA, Italy – It’s all hit me.As I sit on the plane from Split, Croatia to Catania, Italy, it has hit me just how lucky I am.

This is the third time I’m traveling to Italy for an extended amount of time and perhaps the most sentimental one.

This is the 11th country I’m visiting in the past 40 days and the 10th in the past 27 days and, as it comes as no surprise, I’ve seen a lot. 

 But one place will forever top all on what it simply means to me to travel and make me one happy person and that’s Italy, my friends.

Having the opportunity to spend my first time ever in Italy with my grandparents nine years ago isn’t just something I’ll always have to remember as I go through life, it’s something many cant say they have done and something I will forever have as one of the greatest memories of my life.

I could not ask for a better relationship with my father’s parents, they really mean the world to me in every sense.

It’s been a while since emotions have gotten the best of me, but the tears seem to keep on coming as I write this blog simply due to the countless memories that come to my mind when thinking about my grandparents.

No one in my life can mean what they do to me; I am one lucky grandson. 

  

 One reason for the emotions may also be flowing may be due to the fact that I was still asleep 90 minutes before my flight due to a longer night than expected on my final night not only in Croatia, but with my traveling buddy Chris, but it’s okay because I made it – as I always do.As my Italian luck would have it, I was able to cut all the lines at the airport and my seat ended up being in the first row – and as I would like to believe – just to make sure I’d be the first to touch the Italian soil when we landed and walked off the plane on to the beautiful island of Sicily.

So, I’m back, and I could not be happier. Seriously. I am the happiest person in the world right now. This is my island, this is where I belong. 

 I have seven days on this the beautiful sanctuary and that makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.

And as I finish writing this blog, I am blessed to be doing it at a delicious, picturesque cafe on one of the main streets in Catania with a scrumptious pistachio croissant and a always refreshing cappuccino to kick off the day. 

 So as the saying would have it, la vita è bella – life really is beautiful. 

Ciao for now,

Anthony