My Solo Trip to Italy — The Urban Healer™ | Life Coach, Trauma Healer, Reiki Master, Akashic Records Teacher

Before putting my condo on the market, I promised myself if it sells at the price I want within the time frame I desire, I will book a trip for myself. Something adventurous and solo. I was deciding between Italy and Hawaii. VERY different trips but let me explain…

Hawaii has strong roots with Reiki, many sacred healing centers, stunning beaches, and amazing food (when you have Polynesian, not American of course).

My other desire was for Europe. I was born and raised in Switzerland, so impromptu European weekends were my norm. I needed somewhere with sun, water, and warmth. Hence, I was choosing between Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France. Italy was the no-brainer.

So, let me share the details of the trip along with the manifestations, divine downloads, and fave parts (yes, I will link the best GF spots!).

Oh yes, I’m ready to fly to Europe! Goodbye Canada!

To listen to the podcast on my thoughts and lessons from solo travel, click HERE. This brought up lots of questions and concerns in my community and I am happy to share my experience with it.

Before I dive into the details of the trip, I want to share the intentions I set with it. It will explain why I did certain things and not surprisingly, why certain things unfolded as they did. I have been working on healing my divine feminine for a long time.

Especially over the last year after separating from my last partner. He made me realize the parts of me that needed more healing and what shadows I was ready to be faced. I also had this deep nudge to explore a deeper connection with my intuition and the Universe through surrender and unwavering trust.

So, my intention was to be guided and be in the flow while releasing fears and anxious thought patterns.

Usually, I would over-plan, hyper-organize, and get obsessed with details by focusing on doing it right, getting the most out of the trip, and maximizing time traveling. But for this trip, I physically and emotionally could not.

I moved from Toronto to Prince Edward County (for the second time in three months!) on May 9th and I was traveling on May 11th. I had a list of suggested places to visit, four guided tours booked, and the hotels I was staying at. The rest was going to be intuitively guided and done in the moment… a Type A’s worst nightmare right?!

So between selling my condo, packing, finding a new home, finishing some big personal tasks (last procedures on my jaw/tooth and lots of last minute Toronto appointments), I didn’t have it in me to plan. Perfect. I didn’t want to anyway.

I wanted to arrive in Italy, have suggestions and then let my gut and the universe guide. When you over plan, you take away the possibility for unexpected miracles and goodness to flow into your life. I wanted to build this deeper level of trust with the unknown while keeping my nervous system regulated and deepening my connection to the Divine.

I have travelled solo before, but never for more than a few days. Absolutely never did 12 days alone.

But I wanted this. I needed this.

This ability to choose when I wake up, what I do in the day, when I eat, what attractions I see, how long I linger in places all without checking in on someone else’s needs or expectations AND while sitting in the discomfort of doing it alone. That’s a lot of time to be with yourself and your thoughts. That also meant I had quite a few solo meals and I was not about to cop out getting dressed up for a date with myself, order the appetizer, meal and dessert, have the wine AND feel confident while doing it alone.

I have enjoyed a solo meal here and there but never this many consecutively. Especially not in such a romantic place in the world. But why the F not? So I should wait until I meet my person to travel to these places? What if it never happens (I know it will) but why should I wait? I have the time and resources to go now and I want to, so LFG.

I also wanted to deepen my relationship with myself prior to diving into a partnership with someone else. I knew there was things to explore and lean into that I couldn’t do while being at home (especially with my fur babe) with my regular routines and habits keeping me in the same patterns. I needed a new space, new energy and new opportunities to lean into this part of my journey.

First Stop: ROME
Hotel: Hotel Morgana

I arrived in Rome around noon, grabbed my luggage and had a lovely man approach me if I needed a cab. Yes, this sounds creepy but my body felt untriggered so I said yes. Thank goodness since skipped the 2.5 hour cab line and instead grabbed an espresso with the driver, had a lovely convo and landed in the city 45min later. I checked in, showered and got going. Step one was a lovely lunch followed by gelato. Side note - gelato is not always gluten free, even the flavours that seem neutral – so be careful!

I went exploring without a real plan. The first “activity” was getting my palm read by a woman – random, I know. She was spot on with some major things and I loved getting some divine downloads. I mean… when in Rome – get your palm read. LOL While aimlessly exploring the streets, I happened to walk into a beautiful church (let’s be real, all churches in Italy are beautiful).

There happened to be an Opera performing in 20min, yes, there were tickets still available and I bought one. Since I was already there and it was first come, first served; I scored second row tickets. Yes, to that abundance. I have never gone to a concert alone and it was the most lovely experience.

Just some random, spur-of-the-moment activities I enjoyed in Italy.

My next stop was the Trevi Fountain – highly recommend seeing this during the day and night time. Don’t forget to make a wish and throw a coin in the fountain.

My wish was real juicy and I promise to share it once it fully manifests.

I spent the rest of the day exploring the streets of Rome; people watching, window shopping, taking in the vibe and flow of the city. There was no where to rush to, no specific time I needed to arrive, nor a specific destination. It was a turn here, grab a cappuccino and drink it, then walk through there to explore and sit on a bench kinda adventure.

Simple, profound, fully in the moment and embodied with the experience.

For those gluten free, don’t worry. Italy is one of the gluten free friendliest places as they have a very high percentage of celiacs in per capita. I was actually overwhelmed with the GF options and all of it was wildly delicious. Like pure bliss, orgasmic, making very loud mmm noises good.

The first restaurant I would recommend is: Zio Carlo. The caprese salad and carbonera pasta were perfection. It was also my first dinner out alone. I sat outside and people watched, the waiter was way too friendly and chatty and I didn’t feel alone/weird/awkward one bit. I did have a book with me as backup, but everything around me was so aesthetically pleasing and lively that I didn’t need it.

PS. Please eat your food without distractions and screens. Like look at it, smell it, taste it, savor it and repeat. The entire meal experience will become elevated, more pleasurable and you will learn to not only build a deeper connection with your body but also regulate your nervous system in the process.

For those of you curious with solo dining, here is one piece of advice: GET OFF YOUR PHONE. Being on your phone on a solo dinner date is quite un-sexy, let’s be honest. OWN IT. You are a confident being enjoying a beautiful meal so drop the stories and just do it. No one is watching, no one is judging, no one cares. Fucking enjoy it.

For the record, I had SO many other women come up to me while eating and saying how admirable it is that I was doing it AND there were so many other women around me doing the same thing. This was truly one of my favourite parts of my trip and I will continue taking myself on solo dinner dates with the cute outfit and lipstick. YOLO.

Let me tell you about the book I was reading during my trip. Another hilarious “the universe is talking to me and guiding me forward” story. I went to the library to grab a few travel books on Italy and in the travel section I found a book that stood out. I don’t think it was meant to be there but it was screaming “take me” and I did. I am not a huge fiction fan, but I do love me a good autobiography.

I spent my beautiful 12 days in Italy reading “Bella Figura – how to live, love and eat the Italian way by Kamin Mohammadi”. I will be sharing the downloads from this book as well. For the record, I didn’t read, look at or even open any of the travel books so clearly this was just the bread crumbs that guided me to this book.

The next day involved waking up way too early, then reading a bit and having a chamomile tea and melting into a little nap turned full coma then waking up at noon. Ooops. Not what I had planned. I had a tour booked so I had to jet since it was about 45min walk from the hotel. I wanted to walk to all my destinations rather than take public transit. Mainly to explore the city but also so I can justify eating my body weight in cheese, gelato and pasta.

This morning it was a grab a coffee and go (still sat down and mindfully drank the cappuccino in a real mug though), then I saw a chestnut stand. This is a very euro thing that most north americans don’t know off. Roasted chestnuts are: 1. Not only for Christmas and 2. Are so delicious. It comes in a little paper cone and the entire experience reminded me of my childhood. Highly recommend.

My first tour was of the Vatican museum, Sistine Chapel and Basilica.

This is a MUST regardless of your religious beliefs and views. All three were stunning and absolutely breathtaking. Everything is filled with so much history. Every painting, statue, sculpture. My eyes couldnt keep up with everything to see, especially the ceilings. Side note – it is a GREAT practice to look up as we don’t usually do this in our daily lives. We look ahead or down and usually at some sort of screen. This is very overstimulating to our nervous system and continues to activate a sympathetic state.

When you look up, you are moving your eyes in a different plane, causing the vagus nerve to be stretched and for your body to know it is safe. (If you are running from a bear or feel like you are in a situation that threatens your life, you will not look dreamily up into the sky… so try it. Look up more and literally see your mind expand and your nervous system get calmer).

Funny manifestation story, while in the Sistine chapel the tour guide said “there is no way you will get a seat on a bench to sit and just enjoy the views”. Naturally after she said that, I thought “Oh but I will”. And BOOM. That’s what happened. We walked in, the moment I started walking towards the benches, a man stood up and waved me over. Ok, I will take that, thank you! Of course I made sure no one else needed a seat more than me but there was no one. So I got to sit my butt down and get lost in the beauty of the Sistine chapel’s ceiling. After hearing all the history of how the ceiling was painted and the explanation of each of the sections, you truly get lost in a different time being absorbed by this piece of history.

Now dinner was spectacular. Like WOW. It took me over 45min to even choose what to eat since there were PAGES of gluten free options. La Soffitta was one of my fave restaurants on the trip and I would love to eat here again.

I mean, there are pages of meals I still want to experience and devour. The waiter was lovely but not helpful in choosing food as he was like “Madame, everything is perfection. I would eat it all.” Ok buddy, I am starving and I want to eat it all too. I went with the oxtail (uhm ya!!), then a pizza with mushrooms and sausage and a pistachio mousse cake. Like, excuse me as I drool.

Gluten free + delicious! I mean, who can say no to these, right?!

My way back included the second “oh shit, my phone is dying, I don’t have a map and definitely don’t know how to get home” episode. If you followed my trip on Instagram, you know I had a few of these “phone is dying, don’t tell my mom I did this semi-dangerous thing” stories.

Well, it all worked out and it was fine. A few times on the trip I was holding onto less than 5% battery life with a 40+ min walk ahead of me… or even went on a 6+ hour excursion with less than 30% battery left (and would still be taking pictures and creating content).

How did I do this? I Reiki-ed. Yup. Uhm hello, Reiki is energy and my batteries needed energy to recharge. Yes, you can Reiki batteries. I have done this multiple times since becoming Reiki certified and this is my reminder to you that you can Reiki anything. Don’t forget Reiki is a life style, not just a cute certificate or something you do as part of your morning rituals.

Reiki Level 1
Reiki Level 2

After my very long day, I most certainly had another slide of pizza before bed. It would be rude not to. This is the best pre-bed snack when you are integrating your perfect day and taking a moment to take it all in.

The next day was my Coliseum day and I was thrilled to explore this. I was really looking forward to the energy of this space given all its history. It was actually a bit cool and rainy in Rome when I arrived and this was the first warmer, sunny day.

(Another Reiki note – you can absolutely Reiki the weather. Before my trip it said it would rain and be super cool EVERYDAY I was in Italy regardless of the location. Well, it was much nicer than it was supposed to be and it only rained when I was inside museums or having a rest day!).

My first few days in Italy I was taking lots of selfies naturally. I decided I wanted and needed a selfie stick. I initially didn’t want to “be that person” but really I am also “the person” who travels and eats alone so who cares. Hence I decided I will invest in this selfie stick apparatus because why not.

Well, I arrive and I was approached by someone selling one. There are actually many people doing the same but the person I chatted with actually took a selfie with me which was the determining factor for the sale.

The energy of the coliseum was so p-o-w-e-r-f-u-l. I would absolutely go back here as well. I would also love to see it at night. I loved learning about the secret trap doors, the rules of the gladiators, how they trained, fought and how it all went down.

After my tour, I had the leftover pizza in the gardens behind the coliseum and enjoyed the sunshine on my face. Excuse me, how is this real life?! it was the perfect picnic.

The perfect picnic naturally required a gelato as a finisher. My go to (which is funny because 90% of the gelato I ate were these two flavours): pistachio and hazelnut.

I decided to go back to the Trevi fountain (uhm, obvi! I had a selfie stick now) AND I scored a spot on the very bottom of the fountain to properly sit down and take it in.

As I was walking back to the hotel, I had this “sit down here” nudge. This is part of playing with the feminine energy. The being in the flow state, being guided, trusting to impromptu downloads and ignoring your ego when it chimes in on why this is a stupid idea. Of course, it is a great idea. Did it make you feel good and excited? Yes? Then do it. My download was to get an aperol spritz and just people watch, which I did. When you grab a cocktail in Italy, you get olives, peanuts and chips. Excuse me, but how amazing is that?

Feminine and Masculine Energy Podcast

Enjoying my Aperol Spritz + *free olives, peanuts and chips!*

For dinner, I wasn’t very hungry but I did want something. Really, I just wanted a charcuterie board and glass of wine. I initially was headed to one restaurant and as I was walking, I had a download to turn off a different street. So glad that I did because I found the most beautiful scarf and a pair of sunglasses. I would have never seen this little boutique and it was just about to close so it was perfect timing.

Then went I got back on the route to the restaurant, something felt off. Everything looked ok and safe but something in my gut felt off. These are those nudges you shouldn’t ignore. This is how you build a stronger relationship with your body and intuition. Listen to the nudges since your body picks up cues your conscious mind and logical brain cant. So I literally turned around and went somewhere else. Done and done.

I wouldn’t say Rome is dangerous but it felt the most unsafe compared to the other places I visited. Not in a “don’t go here and be scared” but compared to the other cities this was had a few pockets of sketchiness.

Intuition Podcast

I found the most beautiful scarf! And of course, I gave in to my cravings - *charcuterie board and glass of wine.*

The next morning, I was headed to Sorrento with a high speed train, so before heading to the train station, I wanted to grab a gluten free baked good. Obviously! I stumbled upon La Pasticciera. Uhm excuse me, GF croissants, custard filled bomba, donuts, cannoli. I am drooling thinking about this! So breakfast included pastries and an espresso and I was a happy camper to get to my next destination.