My dear, sweet friend gave me this advice:

“Quando cammini non tenere gli occhi bassi, ma guardati in torno perchè la vita, per una bella persona come te, ha tante cose ancora, da offrire.” G.M.

“ When you walk, don’t keep your eyes down, but look around because life, for a beautiful person like you, has so many things to offer.” G.M.

I never really payed attention to where my eyes were when I was walking. If I think about it, I guess I walk fast, eyes down so I don’t make eye contact with anybody coming my way. 

Others are doing it too, it’s not just me. While walking around town if someone is headed in my direction they too are looking down. Do I look up, try to make eye contact, smile, say something or just look away? The struggle is real and it is easier to look down or look away, so my behaviour continues. 

I don’t know what it is but based on my un-scientific research (my own behaviour and what I see around me) I think living in this area does something to a person. Combined with my introversion and new cell phone neck I don’t stand a chance.

In Tuscany I was more aware of where my eyes were when out and about. In Tuscany why would I not be looking up at all the beauty around me, all the new things I had never seen before? Any normal person would be heads up but I kept looking down. Was it the unfamiliar terrain, a new place, new people not to make eye contact with, my introversion, my Bostonian upbringing? Whatever it was, it was bothersome. 

I had many conversations in my head…

“You are walking around Tuscany look up, pay attention, soak it in, for the love of God and all that is holy, pick your head up!”

Up my head went only to eventually fall back down. I was having a hard time breaking the ‘habit’ but what I did not realise was my friend took notice, especially on our 5 hour Via Francigena trek. We walked for 5 hours and 32 minutes, 17.1 miles and I struggled the whole time to keep my freaking head up. Seriously, what was up with that? 

With her head held high my friend walked, no matter where we were familiar place or not, she never looked down. Always looking where she was going not where she had been. 

Was I looking down or looking back? Was I unsure of myself or unsure of the terrain? Was I so engrossed in my music, I had to look down to make sure I didn’t  trip while busting out a few moves? For the sake of more therapy appointments, I think I will go with the latter.

I fought with myself and the habits causing me to look down but by the end of my Italy stay I was doing much better. While singing and dancing on the white Tuscan roads, I made it a point to look up. I took in as much as I could and kept my head out of the dirt. I looked forward and hoped for the best.