My name is DeCourcey Cecilia Paulina Savona-Gardner, but you can call me DC or better yet, DeCourcey in Italy, since that is where I prefer to spend most of my time and have done the majority of my growth and exploration. I was raised in a little town called Red Hook, New York. My parents were both born in NY as well, but the majority of my heritage is Italian. Siciliana and Salernitana to be exact: and yes, the distinction matters. In 2020, I traveled to Italy for the first time for my semester abroad in Firenze (Florence, Italy). What happened then I can only describe as an awakening of the soul. I immediately fell in love with the country after years of having been raised with respect for my culture. Though in a “foreign” setting, I knew I had found where I belonged and needed to make the move permanent. Unfortunately at the time, the COVID 19 Epidemic had just taken place; so as my life had just begun to significantly change, so had the entire world.
I was sent home, and despite the protests of others, I left my university in New York where I had been studying Film and English with a concentration in Writing. Writing has always been my passion, and living in Italy gave me my greatest inspiration. Above all my time in Italy had taught me to lean into my intuition. So the following semester I transferred campuses to join my school’s four year program in Firenze, in February 2021. I majored in Art History and spent my education strolling through museums and churches. The study of the Renaissance’s thirst for art and knowledge, was reflected into my own writing and enlightenment. I watched as the world began to “defrost” after having survived yet another plague. It was met with the same hunger and appreciation for creation. My writings and spirit thrived with the people, traveling, and everyday inspirations that never ceased to amaze me.
While in an attempt to escape the city, I discovered the little town of Atrani, Italy along the Amalfi Coast. Even still, almost two years later, it is difficult for me to express my feelings regarding this town because they are unworldly. It was as if I had stepped through a wardrobe and found a mythical land of perfection. I returned to the town as often as I could, and upon my graduation in Florence in 2022, I moved to Atrani. There the the beauty of the scenery and the architecture was reflected in the soul’s of the community who so graciously accepted me. Each person so distinctly their own main character encouraged me to write a novel and screenplay. Only after returning to New York and reading the journal my great-grandmother did I realize my family was Salernitano instead of Napoletano. Though only a minor difference in location (I mean really we are talking thirty minutes by train), this solidified something in my heart I had already known to be true. These connections we feel to certain places, people, and things go far beyond the 3D. Yes, I feel connected to the Amalfi Coast because it is beautiful, world renown, and the people are nice, but could it also have been because unknowingly those were my familial roots? Though I spoke another language and grew up in another country, the blood coursing through my veins is the same blood coursing through theirs. Our cultural heritage was the same. Both sides of my family worked very hard to immigrate from Italy and move to New York. They chose not to teach their children the language in hopes of totally americanizing us, which was intended to grant us more opportunities and a better life. Yet nineteen years later I return to a place I had never known, feeling the most at home I had ever felt. I struggle to teach myself the language and dialects because each region has its own, obtain my Italian Citizenship, and revert back to a mindset and lifestyle my ancestors attempted to erase. In the States, we have advanced more in technology and increased greatly in consumerism, yet are relatively less happy. I have everything I could ever want at my fingertips while living in New York; but I have found I’m happiest drinking a cool spritz with a friend in a fishing town on a warm summer night. Never no more than the cost of ten euros I might add!
I know I am not alone in feeling this way, nor am I the only one who has found herself on this journey. While dual citizenship wasn’t even a concept I had heard of before my freshman year of college, over these last four years I have met many with similar stories of shared desires for chasing lineage. For we have discovered the beauty and appreciation for the simplicity of life in Italy that makes us feel as though we are living lives straight out of movies. Many will travel to Italy with the same hopes, though generally centered around finding a passionate and romantic, Italian love. However, the love I found for myself and my life was greater than I ever thought possible. That’s not to say I didn’t experience an incredibly romantic connection beyond belief (that will be a story for another time), but that Italy in itself became my one true love and muse. With my life there being so romanticized, whether I am watching the way the light hits the hanging laundry in the sky, enjoying a weekend dinner at my family’s home in Sicily, or spending a quiet Sunday morning drinking a coffee alone after church. Even the smallest moments can feel magical.
Living alone in a foreign country can come with struggles. However, I have found my decision for solitude has brought me significant joy and change. It has encouraged me to approach everyday with an attempt to be better, to do more, and to enjoy the gifts life can offer. Be whatever it is you might call it, God, guides, wishful thinking, irony, energy, or the universe, it was in Italy that I began to find this true love for myself and my life. In letting my intuition guide me, I began to educate myself on how to cultivate the life of my dreams and slowly, but surely I am achieving it and attempting to enjoy it every step of the way. I do not want anyone to read my articles and think “Wow well that’s great for her”, but rather “If it happened for her, it can happen for me”. Even if you realize your enthusiasm isn’t for Italy, that same passion for you is out there.
My intentions with this blog are to allow others to travel through my photos and writing and to encourage them to see the beauty I reference with their own eyes. I want everyone to experience the same euphoric moments I have been so blessed to have, with the hope that it will lead them to finding their true purpose and happiness. The long term result? We all lead kinder, more gracious lives, producing a more accepting and loving society. Aspirational? Yes, but this is coming from someone who studied the impact writing and art had on changing the human mind in the very birthplace of the Renaissance. I know how travel has impacted me, and I have seen the ways others’ eyes light up when they talk about their own dream destinations or desires. We often do not realize how possible something is until we gain the courage to actually try it, even though the fear of failure can hinder us. Self doubt is what has held me back in publishing this blog site for the last year, but ultimately my desire to try is what must prevail.