A new life in Italy – via Switzerland

When I arrived in Milan Bergamo, I was so exhausted I hardly knew what I was doing. I got the train to Padua where I was due to stay for three nights during my exhibition. I was looking forward to Padua as it was a city I had yet to visit.

I checked into my modest budget hotel, then strolled around the city. It was a lot smaller than I expected but, in true Italian style, exquisitely beautiful. I had an early dinner then collapsed into bed where I slept the sleep of the dead.

Waking the following morning was a real “What the f**k have I done?” moment. It reminded me of the last time I had felt like that, almost 20 years earlier when I moved to work in Paris for two years with Tourism Ireland. I looked at my excess baggage, deciding to wander round some more before going to the exhibition.

A few hours later, there I was at Arte Padova. My first international exhibition. I had a good location with the Lucca gallery representing me and trusted that they would sell at least some of my work.

Silly me.

Ah, Venice…

Two days later, I was en route to Venice where I had planned to spend two weeks in a hostel looking for a job before going to Milan Bergamo for the next major art exhibition. At the hostel in Venice, which turned out to be on one of the islands, everything started becoming real.

I was really here. I was really in Italy. The hostel was fab, big and spacious, superb Italian food available, stunning views over the Venetian lagoon.

I started clicking with my Canon 7D non stop. Trying to get as many stunning images as I could. Which I did.

Then it was time to look for a day job. I had a CV in both English and Italian but a week later there were no replies from any of the hotels I had applied to. Time to get seriously creative! So I started looking for nanny jobs and within two days had been offered a month’s work over Christmas in Zurich and Lugano. Not Italy, but really well paid. So well paid that it would take the pressure off for another few months. Plus I had friends in Zurich I had not seen in years.

So it was back to Milan Bergamo, where I stayed for a week while exhibiting there. I stayed in the Citta Bassa, at the base of the Citta Alta. How I was heart-sore and weary for this most beautiful of old walled cities earlier this year during the first ravages of Covid-19.

I had been told this was an even more important international exhibition and that my work would most probably sell here.

Silly me again.

Two days after attending the exhibition, I decided I had genuinely done all I could and prepared for a few days with friends in Udine before going to Zurich for my month’s work as a nanny, housekeeper and chef.

Astrocartography and the Moon line

There’s my angular Moon manifesting itself again! My astrocartography for Udine shows yet another strong Moon line. The Moon conjuncts my Ascendant right though the old city of Udine where I had a university friend I met while studying in Swansea. And yes, he is a Leo as well! I had stayed in touch over the years and met his family and was now looking forward to meeting his young daughter.

This is where we draw people into our lives, where our own astrocartography is strong even if we have never been to a particular place. When I used to meet my Udine friend in Swansea (he was my language buddy), we would have conversations about Ryanair, grammar, his theses, his new girlfriend (now his wife) and a motley of other conversation, basically making it up as went went along.

It was to be several years more before I learnt that my Moon line, which represents home, goes through Udine.

A few days later and I was off to Zurich and Lugano. What was life in Switzerland like? Cuckoo clocks, marzipan, orchestral concerts, Christmas and New Year!

End of Part V… Part VI is here and Part VII here!

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