From LA to Italy to NYC

In my young thirty years, I have been fortunate enough to do some traveling, mostly in the US & a few out of the country. Although I grew up and absolutely LOVE LA, two cities have captured my heart: Florence, Italy and New York, & for different reasons. Let me start w/ Florence. As a present to myself my senior year in college, I treated myself to a month vacation in Italy, traveling most of middle and northern Italy. Wow, an experience that was! I almost didn’t come home (truth!). I vowed to return one day, & I will. Don’t know if this time I will want to stay, since life has changed, but I think it will always have a piece of my heart. The tranquility, simplicity, & just pure beauty of this city is what caught me by surprise. Completely unlike Rome. Rome reminded me of a dirtier downtown Los Angeles.

Which brings me to New York. Now this place felt like home. Really, it did. I stayed in Midtown, one street up from 5^th Avenue, about a 15 min. walk from Times Square, just a few exits from Grand Central Station, Central Park, & a quick train ride down to Brooklyn. Being from Los Angeles & a downtown junkie, I quickly fell in love w/ the hustle & bustle of NY city life. Sort of reminded me of home away from home, but different all at the same time. I did my fair share of people watching, & its no wonder they call it the fashion capital of the world. Everyone there is fashionable! I loved it! My sister & I walked a minimum of 10 miles a day (yes, MILES), which hello! For someone like me, I could get used to that REAL quick (bye bye 14 pounds in one week)!

So needless to say, while sitting on the “red” steps in Times Square, I put it out into the universe that I was going to return w/in the next 5 years, & for good. I’m gonna figure out a way for my sister & I to be bicoastal somehow & plan to return in every season so I can experience them each separately. I’m putting the wheels into motion to make this happen. So….

Los Angeles, you may have captured my heart, but New York stole it.