Rachel's Italian adventure
I have not long returned back from a month's holiday in Italy. Anna has asked me to write about my experiences dealing with anxiety and travelling.Italy is a place I had always dreamed about visiting. When I thought of Italy I always had visions of fresh pasta, delicious pizza and great red wine!! But since developing anxiety nearly 6 years ago, I never thought that my dream of travelling to Italy would be fulfilled.
In October my husband Ben and I decided that we would love to take an overseas holiday and that I had been working on my anxiety enough by then, that it was now possible for me to do that. We tossed up a few places but eventually decided on Italy since we have both always wanted to travel there and we are both very interested in Italian art and history.
The next step was booking the tickets, a friend of ours is a travel agent and she organised a good price for us, so we set about organising our dates and places we wanted to see etc. When the tickets finally arrived I couldn't believe that we were actually going to this amazing and fascinating country, I still don't think it had sunk in yet. But to me this was my reward for the effort and hard work I had put in to get this far in my recovery from anxiety.
I knew that I was going to have anxiety and panic attacks while I was away but I was at the stage in my recovery where I was able to cope with them easily enough. So when the 14th of December came; the day we were to leave, I was surprisingly calm, I had lots of stuff to do like take the cats to the cattery, finish packing last minute stuff etc.
When we arrived in Rome 26 hours after we left Australia, we still had another hour flight to take to Florence. We arrived in Florence at midnight and when the taxi pulled up at our Bed & Breakfast, our mouths just hung open, our Bed & Breakfast was only about 30 meters to the Duomo and Baptistery, we were completely amazed at our luck at finding such well positioned accommodation. Every morning we were woken by the sounds of the bells tolling in the bell tower, which was really nice for the first few days!!!
While in Florence, we saw and did so much, some of the highlights were seeing Michelangelo's statue of David and his Pieta also The Uffizi Gallery, Palazzo Vecchio where the movie "Hannibal" was filmed and The Boboli Gardens which was magnificent. We also went and saw a big Soccer match in Italy between Fiorentina and Juventus, which was a real experience; they sure love their football in Italy!!!
Our two and a half weeks in Florence went really fast, but we were glad to be on our way and to see something different. We then spent the next few days driving around Tuscany, we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Siena, Arezzo (where "Life is Beautiful" was filmed) and also a day at Livorno a town on the coast of Italy.
Then it was off to Rome for out last week, which was spent sightseeing at the Colosseum, The Sistine Chapel, The Vatican, the Roman Forum and St. Peter's Basilica.
For New Years Eve, Ben and I went to an open-air opera that was outside the Prime Ministers house. It was so beautiful to see the New Year in by listening to Opera, it was a magical night and one that I will remember for a long time.
While I was away for the month I actually only had 3 note worthy panic attacks. One was on the plane going over, but I just laid back in my seat and concentrated on all the things that I was going to see and do while in Italy. It passed as quickly as it came on because I didn't fight it and I just let my whole body relax and accepted that this was a horrible feeling that will pass. Then second was up the Bell Tower of the Duomo in Florence and anyone who has climbed the 414 steps would know exactly why I had a panic attack up there!!! The third was at the airport coming home, I think my trip really wore me out. The thought of the 26-hour flight home just seemed too much, after all that I had done in the month I was in Italy. But I knew I had no choice but to get on the plane and so I just practiced my breathing and I tried to keep my body relaxed and my mind distracted from what was happening around me.
As much as I enjoyed my holiday I was very happy to come home, back to all things that are familiar to me and of course my cats.
If anyone would like to look at some of my holiday photos, you can go to homepage.mac.com/theoneills
By Rachel O'Neill
