Dreaming of Italy – Hot August Night – Neptune trine Neptune – Part II
The morning after my encounter with the Italian gentleman, I received a beautiful heartfelt text from him saying he hoped we would meet that day. Taking a deep breath and hoping to hell the text would go through, I suggested meeting after the opera and asking if he could collect me. He replied yes – done! Sorted!
That day was one of the most dreamy of my whole life. Neptune was trining Neptune in my chart at the time, and would continue to do so for almost another two years. I spent the day walking around a gloriously sunny Lucca, going to the top of the famous Torre Guinigi, taking spellbinding shots of the city’s rooftops with the Tuscan mountains in the background.
Then back to my hostel for an even dreamier coffee in the gardens and a nap before preparing for the opera. I arrived at Torre del Lago hours in advance and wandered around the lake outside. The evening sky was a dusky blue, reminiscent of Vietnam and Thailand. I took photos everywhere, revelling in the calm sereneness. Never, ever was an evening so magical. I was also experiencing a transit to Chiron at the time, so my soul was being healed, unbeknown to me.
La Boheme
The opera was ‘La Boheme’ and there followed three hours of utter, sublime bliss. Puccini, open air opera, beautiful elegant Italians, a clear night sky where Jupiter and Venus were also clearly visible, and I was in musical heaven. My twelfth house Venus had never felt such beauty.
At the end of the opera, there was my beautiful Italian. Waiting for me. As agreed. Wearing simple blue jeans and a white shirt. As Italian as it gets, designer stubble included. We drove, kissed, drove again and then arriving at our destination in Lucca, we devoured each other. My Venus in Taurus in the twelfth house never kisses and tells, folks! A night to remember above almost all others.

The following day, utterly changed, I returned to the art gallery by the l’Anfiteatro and arranged to have 10 photos shipped there in time for the international art exhibition in both Milan Bergamo and Padua. Both exhibitions were scheduled for November giving me ample time to get my body of work ready. I agreed to send them 20 photos from which to pick for the exhibition by the end of the following week.
Excited, nervous, all my goals and beyond achieved, I had a celebratory coffee back at Café Pult, where I had met my enigmatic and mysterious Italian the night before.
Neptune transit
Then followed the lengthy train journey back to Milan for the flight back to Dublin. Before leaving Lucca, I went back to Piazza San Frediano near the hostel and wrote frantically in my diary that I would do whatever it took to spend three months a year in Italy. I had fallen madly in love with this most stunningly beautiful of cities. I had forgotten how much I loved the passion, the drama, the elegance, the utter simplicity of living so totally in the moment.
Whatever it took. Whatever it took, I would do it in order to make this unexpected dream of three months a year in Italy happen.
I had never been more certain of anything in my whole life. And Neptune trining Neptune in my transit chart helped make this dream a reality faster than I ever expected.
End of Part II… Part III is here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here and Part VII here!
Image – Leo in Lucca, Palazzo Pfanner, Lucca © Martha Clarke

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