It's All Sicily's Fault

I am often asked:

“What is your favorite journey?”

I always smile when I hear this question because I never really have an answer.

Not because I don’t have a favorite journey, but because every journey has left something unique behind. Some have brought me new friendships. Some have awakened my curiosity. Some have taught me to slow down. Some have reminded me to appreciate the little things.

I don’t remember my travels only by the places I have visited. I remember them by the feelings they have left behind.

The difference between one journey and another is not which one was more beautiful. The difference is in which part of my soul they touched.

And Sicily touched a very special part of me.

Sicily softened me.

It made me more sentimental. It taught me to look longer, listen more carefully, and notice things that I might have passed by without a second thought before.

There I realized that beauty is often not hidden only in great landmarks, but in small moments.

In the smell of freshly baked dough coming from a tiny bakery on the corner.
In the conversation of two elderly Sicilian women sitting in front of their home.

In the sound of footsteps on old stone streets.

In a person passionately explaining something to you in Italian, and even though you don’t understand every word, you understand the emotion behind it.

In a coffee enjoyed without rushing.

In the moment when you sit on a square and simply watch life unfolding in front of you.

And yes… in Sicily it is perfectly normal to have ice cream for breakfast. 🍦

We went there because of the Sicilian charm. We wanted to experience the atmosphere we had read so much about. We wanted to see the old towns, hear the stories of their history, understand their culture, taste the famous arancini, sit by the sea, and feel the way Sicilians live.

We wanted to discover Sicily.

But we never expected that Sicily would discover something about us.

Sicily made me listen carefully to people. To notice their warmth, their passion, the way they speak with their whole body. Sicilians don’t communicate only with words. They speak with their eyes, their hands, and their entire presence.

Without even realizing it, I started speaking with my hands too.
I began to feel more and analyze less.

And then something happened that I never planned.

Sicily made me write.

Not just to record facts about the places we visited. Not to create ordinary travel notes.

But to write down the feelings.

The scents.

The colors.

The encounters.

The little conversations.

The moments that may seem insignificant to someone else, but are exactly the ones that stay with us the longest.

A photograph can bring back the image of a place, but a story can bring back the feeling.

At that time, I still didn’t know that those notes, those thoughts, and those emotions would one day become a book.

I didn’t know that Sicily would be one of the reasons why I would write “Europe Is Waiting for You.”

Today, when I hold the book in my hands, I often smile.

People may think that the book was born at my desk, in front of my computer.

But the truth is different.

It was born on European streets. In conversations with people. In those moments when we stopped just to feel something beautiful. In all those small stories we bring home from our travels.

And if someone asks me:

“How was the book created?”

The answer is simple:

It’s all Sicily’s fault.

Maybe you have your own “Sicily.”

Maybe it is not an island. Maybe it is a city, a sea, a mountain, a meeting, a person, or one single moment that changed you forever.
Maybe somewhere, in a place you have already visited or one you are yet to discover, there is a part of yourself waiting for you that you haven’t met yet.

Find your own “Sicily.”

And allow it to show you what you carry within yourself.