Moving to Italy during the pandemic of 2020 →

The first time I saw chestnuts roasting over an open fire was 3 years ago when we visited my husband's family for Christmas. While strolling through Rome at night we passed several vendors near the Fontana di Trevi. I passed them with only a thought ‘oh! look this is the roasting chestnuts’ As long as I could remember every Christmas, I would hear Nat King Cole's soothing voice sing ‘‘Chestnuts roasting over an open fire’’ but never really stopped to wonder what a chestnut was. After all, I am Jamaican, we roast yam and breadfruit over an open fire but never a chestnut. But that was then, now I take in every detail of my experience of Italy - because life does change in the flash of an eye!

For years I dreamed of living in Italy, but the idea never seemed feasible. The lack of jobs in our fields was the main deterrent. But each year we came closer and closer to given up living in the US and had even decided to move in 2 years to prepare our son for high school in Italy. However, the mishandling of COVID-19 leading to so many deaths, the political atmosphere which has brought out an ugliness in America that makes me afraid to walk down the streets as a black woman, an eruption of sad traumatizing memories of experienced racism triggered by the visions of the death of George Floyd, the negative reactions to black lives matter protests and finally the thought that not only were schools not going to be open for the rest of the year, this was not the environment that I wanted my mixed-race son to be brought up in! All this and more led my family and me to leave America during the worst health crisis of our time and finally to Italy.

I now find myself in a chestnut grove under the afternoon glow of the Italian sun in a Medieval Village in the Tolfa Mountains, one hour’s drive north of Rome. They say that a Jamaican can be found anywhere, well I am the first Jamaican to have ever lived here! I have chosen this spot on earth, to make my home – the second time in my life to find respite and refuge from a troubled world. Three months later the kindness, gentility, and the traditions of an old-world embraced me, restoring my faith in humankind.

You may think that it would be a stretch for a Jamaican woman to start over on the other side of the world. But to be honest Italy (or more specifically this region) is the closest that I have come to home since I left the shores of my island in the sun. Now it will be three months since we moved from America to Italy. This is the second time in my life that I have moved to a foreign country but despite the language and cultural difference, this move was not as dramatic a culture shock as that which I experienced living in America as a black woman. However, the learning curve is steep. I came knowing only a smidgen of the Italian language. Helping a middle schooler adjust and negotiate school, and throw in a pandemic it would have seemed to be a very traumatic experience but in reality, due to the wonderful people and friends from the region of the Monti della Tolfa the support and kindness have lessened the impacts of moving.

America was a shock to my senses. I checked all the boxes that one must on arrival…black, immigrant, woman, and the latest negative, I am a scientist. These have become more profoundly negative in the last 4 years. Despite the language difference, I feel more myself here in these hills than I have for a very long time. Here I have no boxes to check off and I am simply Juli. There are no preconceived notions of who I should be.

I love learning, history, culture, traditions, food, language - everything about this amazing county. And in turn, I have been pleasantly surprised in being able to share mine. So now I find myself foraging for chestnuts with my young friend and roasting them with my neighbor. In the Monti della Tolfa, the chestnut (Castanea) trees are as old as time towering into the clouds. In September, with the blue sky as the backdrop, the lime green round spiny pods stick out like old tennis balls with disheveled hair With the October rains and strong winds they fall to the ground bursting open to reveal their mahogany teardrop nuts. Chestnuts are highly valued for roasting, chestnut jam, and for its flour. Along with chestnuts, foraging for the valued porcini mushrooms and truffles is a treasured past time in this region during fall.

On this day, my young friend collected me and drove me to the family field. As I followed her down the green pathway, green from the rains – “A second spring” she told me, I knew that this is what I was missing in my life in New Jersey. Relaxed and one with nature, surrounded by unaffected smiles and kindness. In the quiet of the chestnut grove, I could hear a donkey braying nearby, then the sweet melodic sound of the flute coming from the music school to end with the bells chiming from the church in the piazza. As the golden sun sets over the town the cream buildings turned into brilliant orange and the green hills glowed fiery burnt sienna from the rays of the sun. “There is something about the Italian sun” I always wonder out loud. It is forever constant and never changing. Something I look forward to every evening because I know that every day will bring something new and exciting to explore.

In August I had the pleasure of being on episode 5 of Blaxit global podcast with Founder Chrishan Wright were I told my story of moving to Italy You can find this interview on any podcast you listen to https://www.blaxitglobal.com/2020/09/14/podcast/dr_julianne_russo_enamored-in-italy/

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I look forward to sharing more posts with you

A Jamaican in Italy