Why the heck am I in Italy?
Why the heck am I in Italy?
Sometimes I ask myself that—it still feels surreal. Some folks have even asked if I still play music since I’ve been posting so much about my Italian journey on social media… YES!!! Music ALWAYS AND FOREVER!
Here’s the scoop… After several visits to teach songwriting and music to kidos in rural Alaska villages, a couple of years ago, I realized the lingering cough and other health issues I was experiencing were more serious than I had thought. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t fully recover. Eventually, I discovered that I had been exposed to toxic mold in my Nashville loft apartment during the last part of the pandemic.
To make a verrrrrry long story short, I spent the better part of a year and a half cozied up in my tiny house in Oregon, focusing solely on my health and recovery. During that time, I started researching my Italian-American family history. (I have four great-grandparents who immigrated from Italy—two from the south in Calabria and two from Tuscany in Lucca.)
That’s when I found out that Italy recognizes me as having been born an Italian citizen. To officially claim that citizenship, I needed to provide a document trail all the way back to my great-grandfather, who immigrated to America at the turn of the century. This documentation had to be processed either at an Italian consulate in the U.S. or at a comune in Italy.
For my birthday in 2022, I was feeling somewhat better—still not at full energy—but my daughter Bri, my son-in-law Dylan, and I took a trip to Rome and then on to Lucca, my ancestral hometown. Out of curiosity, I decided to look at an apartment in the medieval walled city center. At the time, wait times for a citizenship appointment in the U.S. were anywhere from two to five years, but in Italy, I could get one in just a couple of months.
When I walked into the apartment, my first thought was, Wow, this is much bigger than my tiny house. Do I need all this space just for me? But then I stepped onto the terrace (terrazza), and—WOWWWWW. A sea of terracotta rooftops, medieval towers, and church steeples with bells ringing spread out before me. As I lifted my gaze to the horizon, the breathtaking Apuan Alps (the Lucchese hills, as the locals call them) came into view. They aren’t kidding when they call Lucca the gem of Tuscany!
At that moment, I knew—this was where I would walk the final steps of my recovery. How could I NOT heal here? The olive oil, the stairs, the cobblestone streets, the VIEW!
I’m overjoyed to have my health and energy back and to finally be stepping into a season of music again! 2025 marks a long-awaited reunion with my favorite music partner, Steve Peavey. He came to Italy over the holidays to experience my life here and dream up new music plans with me. These days, he’s a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist with country artist Dwight Yoakam and still plays select shows with the legendary Johnny Mathis—so the fact that we’re carving out time to make music together this year feels like a true gift. There’s nothing better than creating with people who inspire me, traveling, and sharing music that brings us all a little closer. In a world that can feel overwhelming, let’s hold onto the joy that music and connection bring—it’s the best antidote for the chaos of this rolling blue ball we call home.
