{"id":887691,"date":"2026-08-07T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/?p=887691"},"modified":"2026-08-10T13:03:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:03:29","slug":"soul-home-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/soul-home-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Search is Off: How I Found My ‘Soul Home’ in Italy\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sarah Rose isn’t quite sure what exactly it was that drew her to Italy in the first place. Was it Italy’s respect for the earth? Its slow pace of life? Her family roots? Or perhaps something more mysterious altogether. Born in the US, but now living in Italy while leading tours across Europe, Sarah Rose owes a lot of her personal development to her time in Italy. She’s now spent around a third of her life there learning many lessons along the way \u2014 a few of which she decided to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Trafalgar
Sarah Rose has now called Italy her home for much of her life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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“Italy is magical\u201d <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Rose wants to get one thing out of the way. \u201cI love Italy,\u201d she says immediately. \u201cI\u2019ve lived about a third of my life there; it\u2019s where I got into tourism, went to university, and it\u2019s part of my family background, which is Irish and Italian.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy is the world\u2019s fifth most-visited country<\/a> when it comes to tourism, but what exactly is it the draws people in? \u201cAs a destination, Italy is magical,\u201d she continues. “I have often questioned why out of all the places in the world \u2014 but it\u2019s just because it is. Italy’s landscape has the mountains, sea, lakes \u2014 the same things many other places have, but there’s something else. It’s like in a dream, and that draws people. Italy is escapism at its grandest.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon’t get me wrong, there’s magic everywhere. But Italy’s the place that people can\u2019t pin down why<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rome feels like home\u201d <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asking Sarah Rose to choose a favorite region or city in Italy is like picking a favorite child. \u201cOh, that’s so hard! I lived in Rome for a third of my life. As a human being, I feel like most of my personal development happened there, much more so than the States, because I left when I was 16 and never wanted to come back,\u201d she says. \u201cKnowing that my family came from around Rome, for me it feels like home, it will always feel like home. I know the streets, I know every corner, I know the little hidden places.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"gubbio,
Gubbio, one of Umbria’s underrated gems<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAt the same time, I also lived three years in Umbria. Umbria is really, really magical in a different way, because it has this countryside that not that many people go to,\u201d she continues. \u201cWhen we stop over in Assisi, I tell my guests: \u2018I have literally four hours to convince you to come back to Umbria, because Umbria doesn’t get love like some of the other places \u2014 and it’s so much more than Assisi. There are beautiful mountains, waterfalls and rivers, cities like Gubbio that has the largest Christmas tree in the entire world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe there’s a lot to experience in the south of Italy too. I think Calabria is going to be the next region I really dive into. I hope that in the future there’s more interest in this region.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There\u2019s a huge culture for the earth\u201d <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Rose\u2019s experience of living in Italy was led by locals, giving her an experience beyond the guidebooks \u2014 which she can now pass on to her own tour guests. \u201cI first moved in with a guy I met in Rome, and he lived in Norcia (a few hours north of Rome). So I got this really unique experience to live in an isolated, small town. They initially had to collect all their water in a container on the roof and had four hours of electricity per day with a generator. People lived in such rustic conditions, but they did it on purpose because they wanted to be out of the cities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody has their own gardens; you grow a huge amount of your own food. It was totally different than living in Rome, and it was really interesting for me to experience that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"umbria
Rural Italy has a ‘huge culture for the earth’<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cItalians are very much into using food and nature to keep yourself healthy,\u201d she continues. \u201cThere is a huge culture for the earth, and a green culture there that is so unknown because it’s in hidden pockets \u2014 like Umbria. When I lived there, we would have meetings about apicultura, taking care of bees, flowers, foraging. Elderly people walking along the road know exactly what plant is edible and how to pick it. We’ve lost a lot about sharing the importance of the earth and taking care of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI say to my groups: you’ve taken the time and energy to learn about this country, you’re not just here to consume and go. You’re here to learn, and we’re going to let you do that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dolce Vita is slowing down\u201d <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

La dolce vita<\/em>. Seen on t-shirts and Instagram captions accompanying Aperol spritzes and views of Italy\u2019s glistening coastline. But, much like the Danish\/Norwegian notion of Hygge, has it been lost in translation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can mean such a variety of things,\u201d Sarah Rose acknowledges. \u201cDolce Vita for me, the real version, is slowing down. It’s not stress, it’s not consuming.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could have a consumer sense of Dolce Vita, splashing cash, buying lots of things \u2014 but that’s just capitalism. The Dolce Vita of one time was people just slowing down, taking things at a slower pace. This had no impact on the environment the way it does now. What we’ve done is capitalise the concept of Dolce Vita into just being a consumer. That’s not Dolce Vita.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"locals
Dolce vita is about slowing down<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The one who’s enjoying Dolce Vita most is the little old man sitting at the bar, having his tipple or his coffee, watching the world go by. That is the best version of Dolce Vita you could imagine. So the meaning has been lost \u2014 but that’s why Travel Directors are awesome, because we can explain it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only can our Travel Directors teach you the history of these Italian nuances, but you\u2019ll meet locals who embody them in their daily lives. \u201cOn one of the trips I run, we meet a tour guide named Nora who’s lived in Italy for 50 years. She goes at a slow pace and walks with a cane. She says: \u2018we’re going to go at my pace, because you know what, I go slow, and guess what? That’s what you’re supposed to do when you come to Italy.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"olive
Foodies can catch fresh olive oil in November<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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“November is for foodies\u201d <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The best time to visit Italy is hotly debated \u2014 but if you love food (and who in Italy doesn\u2019t love food?), Sarah Rose has a clear winner. \u201cI think for sightseers the best time to visit is April and May or September and October. But for a foodie, my favorite time in the whole year is November,\u201d she says. \u201cFresh olive oil, baby! You’ve got all the olive oil getting pressed, wine getting pressed, it\u2019s truffle season, it’s porcini mushroom season. Umbria has these frantoio aperto events, where they open up all the olive presses and you can go from one olive press to another and try the fresh stuff. For wine lovers they also do Cantina Aperta (\u2018Open Cellars\u2019), where again you go from cantina to cantina. November is for foodies.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Rose isn’t quite sure what exactly it was that drew her to Italy in the first place. Was it Italy’s respect for the earth? Its slow pace of life? Her family roots? Or perhaps something more mysterious altogether. Born in the US, but now living in Italy while leading tours across Europe, Sarah Rose owes a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":887742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4909],"tags":[201,37,55,23337],"class_list":["post-887691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-stories","tag-europe","tag-italy","tag-rome","tag-umbria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Search is Off: How I Found My 'Soul Home' in Italy\u00a0 - 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