Savoring and Eating the Experience of Italy

YUM.

I ate all of Italy.

I took it all into my soul.

My soul was fed.

So I didn’t need to stuff my face.

Although I did lick my plate of tiramisu completely clean (and that warm chocolate bombie thingie, not sure what the Italian name is for that piece of LOVE).  After that lick, the chef smiled at me and put his hand to his heart. When the food is made with such love, it goes down easy.

I ate every drop of piccolo biscotti and cioccolato gelato from Grom ~ Il gelato come una volta (an amazing hop that makes gelato the old fashioned way)

There were days that I ate dessert at every meal.

I spread Nutella on everything, every morning (shh! even on the cheese and tomatoes ) ( I brought a jar home with me because they tell me that the “ingredients” are different in Italy. The food is a much higher quality)

But as I stopped and watched and listened and felt, I had no need to over eat on food.

I closed my eyes when I chewed so I could feel the flavors and I opened my eyes to notice when I had had enough. I would start my day with the intention that I would shop and stop to eat often, giving me the opportunity to take little tastes of all the goodies and places, but when it came down to it, I was so filled up with awe and appreciation for the beauty I was experiencing that food wasn’t necessary.

At one point I stopped to get gelato but when I walked into the Gelateria, I decided I didn’t really want it at that moment and I moved to the next shop that caught my attention and filled me in a different way.

I mean really. How much can one take in? My lesson here was being open to receive, to take it all in. And that is quite filling.

I filled with experiences instead of filling my belly with food.  OMG, YES of course I ate, and I deprived myself of nothing. I ate bread, sugar, wine, pasta, meat. Things I don’t usually eat here at home. But it was different.

I ate with passion, taking it in with intention and with love.  Pizza served in the shape of a heart was as sweet accent to the way we were all feeling at our dinner table (we meaning the group of amazing women I shared this trip with).

The Italian’s care about how you feel about their food. They watch to see that you are happy and satisfied. They wait to see you lick your plate.

I discovered that when you eat with LOVE, you don’t have to worry about how much or how little you eat or about gaining weight or feeling great, you just feel and that feels amazing and so divinely deliciously that you don’t need to go back for seconds.

You experience the moment, the flavor and the tastes thru your whole body and that is what I call satisfaction, fullness and contentment. I call it licking the plate of life and licking it clean.