I’m a sucker for the budding of a new year and its rituals. Champagne toasts. Personal reflection. Resolutions. Dreaming seeds. There’s no denying, I have a jumpstart on the champagne (and cava) as we’ve been road tripping through France and Spain these last two weeks, and there’s something about wheels turning on open road that ignites contemplation. Thoughts of where you’ve been, the wrong turns and unexpected roads to bring you to this exact place and time, and which lessons you pack with you in navigating the path forward.

Or maybe that’s just me?

 2025 signifies several inflection points for Matt and me. It’s been 21 years, nearly to date, since the Indian Ocean tsunami. And while twenty-one isn’t necessarily a significant number, two milestones inspired by our survival of that natural disaster are noteworthy. Ten years ago in 2015, we left behind everything we knew in the U.S. to free-fall into the world, traveling and living nomadically. 

Then, five years ago, after deciding we needed some semblance of stability, HGTV’s popular series “House Hunters International” debuted, documenting our search for a home base in Tuscany and our decision to purchase an exquisite small apartment with panoramic views. 

My timelines have been flooded with “memories” from the episode’s filming during winter 2019 and its debut the following winter, sending my mind reeling with all the changes in the world since then, along with our own personal growth and evolution. In this spirit of reflection, here’s a little “Where Are They Now” recap. 

Back then, we had this notion that if we purchased an apartment in Italy, then we would magically find grounding—after nearly five years of circling the globe, untethered.

That joke was on us, friends! Life had other plans. 

So, what has changed since the TV show? 

· In a flash after cameras stopped rolling, our residency visas were denied, sending us back in motion. 

·  Required to leave Europe’s Schengen zone for 90 days, we slugged on those backpacks again and closed the door to that jewel-box apartment. We booked a cheap flight to Cyprus, a country where we knew not one person. It was January 2020. I think you see the direction this is going.  

· We went on to shelter-in-place on the Mediterranean island for six months with airports closed. We were safe and healthy, but with all the unknowns, we often wondered if we would ever see that new home again. 

·  When we were permitted to leave Cyprus and return to Italy, we appealed the visa denial. But every day, the three-month clock ticked, and there was no news. We were back in motion just as another covid lockdown began. A friend drove us over the border into Croatia (not in the Schengen zone at the time). 

· From a rental apartment in the seaside town Rovinj, we watched the TV show’s debut, like millions of other people, fascinated and detached. It was a lovely home, but it didn’t seem like ours. 

· When this round of lockdowns lifted, we crossed the border again and returned to Lucca. Within weeks, we learned that our appeal had been granted. Mamma mia, we could finally be still! 

· Except … a shocker soon arrived in the form of a too-good-to-pass-up offer to purchase that apartment. It came from viewers of the TV show who had never seen it in person. 

· As lovely as that apartment is, for us, it had come to represent struggle. But could we really turn our lives upside down again? And just when we had finally been given the opportunity for stillness? Our friend Pablo said that we didn’t know how to be still. 

· You agree with Pablo, right?

· Free-falling, once again, the “covid-crazies” took over our brains, and we began to consider life outside the city. With our dedicated real estate agent, we scoured the hills and countryside surrounding Lucca and beyond. For Peat’s sake (pun intended), we even contemplated a barn renovation. Who were those people? 

 · Lorrain was furious when we fell head-over-heels for a dingy doctor’s office, smack in the center of Lucca. “I knew it! You people are city people,” she cried. 

· On the afternoon of our closing, Matt and I went to that new home with hammers to begin banging tiles off the walls. That’s when we discovered centuries-old frescoes hiding in wait for someone to give them new life. Everyone told us to leave them be. “The project will tap your savings and your sanity,” they said. We knew the road had brought us here for a reason.

·  For nearly two years, we worked alongside an expert, becoming fresco-recovery pros in our own right—a title I never saw coming!

· But one of the biggest life changes of all has been introducing a new member to our little family, a furbaby named Marcello, who has become king of our domain. 

· Now we have created a home space that truly feels like ours. The project is finished and those frescoes give us unimaginable joy. We’ve earned Italian driver’s licenses (Matt, with mine soon to follow), purchased a car, and launched a new chapter in our lives. The Simpsons go road tripping around Europe! 

And you know what? Somewhere along this crazy path, we have found what alluded us for so long, maybe even since the tsunami. Grounding … even if it’s through rolling wheels! 

I’m grateful for all of it, the ups and downs, twists and turns, and surprises. Thank you for always supporting and encouraging this journey! 

Here’s cheers to YOU for a healthy, happy, and fruitful new year! Love from the Simpsons!