Original post August 1, 2010

Dreams come in all shapes & sizes. Not everyone acts upon their dreams & desires and this frustrates me or someway nags at me. I wonder what the world would be like if people would follow their dreams and take more chances on life.
Yes, there would be what we might consider failures but we look at this in others, as times that they will grow from & new doors will open (we only seem to view them as “failures” in ourselves).
The better part of living our dreams & taking some chances is life becomes bigger & experiences become grander.

Through my emails, this blog & living my dream, my life each day becomes a little richer but I had NO idea one day what would await me in my email. My Father had been forwarding my emails to a friend of his from grade school and from there she (Joan) and I started emailing. The one thing I love about the town, now really a city, I grew up in, is everyone relates things back to the street they grew up on and in the email I got from Joan, it was no different. She painted the history of our families all the way back from her Grandmother living next door to my Grandmother on Hunter Street. Reading her emails and her enthusiasm & feedback over joys me every time! However this one email had a particular surprise! She sent me a link to her husband’s family who still lives in Italy & had a wedding recently. She wasn’t sure if I would be interested but IF I wanted, I could watch.

Watch? Watch? Yes, I watched it two times in a row. I gave me the chills. I didn’t know WHY for sure, but I knew there was MORE to the story. I could feel it by watching it. I immediately, emailed Joan back & asked permission if I could post the video on the blog. The bride emailed me within a couple days. Here is the story, talk about living dreams!

THE STORY:
An American artist who is from Milwaukee went to visit a friend who was living in Chiavari. This was in September of 2007. (Note, her friend had moved to Chiavari a year earlier, after she had met and fell in love with an Italian who had been on a brewery tour in Milwaukee). Jodi (the Bride) met Roberto (the Groom) on Jodi’s birthday when they were out at dinner. The next 10 days of Jodi’s trip they were CONSTANTLY together. This was the beginning of their long distance relationship between Chiavari and Milwaukee that became two years of constant air travel before Jodi finally made her move to Italy last October 2009.

Jodi’s exact words were, “My move was no piece of cake”. (I can relate to this statement)! She still owns a home in Milwaukee and has two dogs. Note, the dogs are featured in the video as the inglorious bastards. And like us, with SkippyJon Jones our cat, she insisted on bringing with her. So since she was moving the dogs they decided, she might as well move a good portion of her art supplies, computer, etc.
So in vision this, Roberto arrives in Milwaukee picks up his love, all her “STUFF” and the two dogs & they head to New York so they can catch The Queen Mary. Jody reminded me that when traveling via The Queen Mary you must dress appropriately for dinner. So for six nights this meant, dressing for dinner in long gowns and a suit and tie to cross the Atlantic. Finally they arrived in Southampton England and two friends met them with a large cargo van and the four of them plus the 2 dogs headed across France, through the Alps, and into the Italian Riviera.  How many of you would like to be living the life of the inglorious bastards?
Once Jodi & Roberto were comfortable with their decision about living in Italy … well, wedding bells were next! Now the details, the logistics of moving families across oceans seemed both silly and over-whelming to the bride & groom, as you can imagine. Also, neither one of them was real keen on spending oodles of money on a one night party.
So they decided to get married without saying a word to anyone and share their day via video.

I hope that Jody & Roberto have a lifetime of dreams come true!

The Groom: Roberto Bottini is a lawyer by trade. He also is the founding member of the production group Bernard ProdAction. They have received some notoriety in Liguria for their funny videos. Some videos can be viewed at: www.bernardaweb.com

The Bride: Jody West is an American artist who still continues to take American commissions for her artwork in Italy. Some of Jody’s work can be viewed at: www.jodywest.com

Special Thank You: Joan Costa Bottini without you & your thoughtfulness this post would have not been possible. Thank you for being so supportive! People think because you move, you don’t like where you came from BUT they have it ALL wrong! You get that it is REALLY full circle. This connection YOU helped to build, really brought something full circle! Grazie Mille!


* More Photos: In Gallery