notes from liguria, italy

When I Came Home

By Margherita Patrone - July 25, 2026 - 4 min read - Issue #4

Every morning, I wake up to the sound of crickets.The air is still cool from the night, and a light breeze comes through the window. Outside, I can see trees, hills and the first morning light.Sometimes, I stay in bed for a few extra minutes and listen.After almost ten years abroad, I still feel grateful that this is now part of my everyday life.Living abroad gave me a lot. I built my career, met wonderful people and learned how to be independent. Those years changed me and helped me grow.But at a certain point, I started to feel disconnected.I often felt like a flower that had been taken away from its soil.It could still survive. It could still look fine from the outside. But something was missing.I missed the sea, the sunlight and being close to my family.I missed the smell of fresh bread coming from the bakery in the morning.Most of all, I missed silence.The city often felt very noisy to me. There was always traffic, a train, a siren, a phone ringing or someone rushing somewhere.My life felt full, but there was very little space for me inside it.Very little space to pause.Very little space to understand how I was feeling.For a long time, I tried to ignore it.I thought perhaps I only needed a holiday. I worried that going back to Italy would mean going backwards. I had worked hard to build my life abroad, and leaving it felt difficult.But something inside me kept saying the same thing:Go home.Different cultures have different ways of describing this feeling.In English, we say, “Trust your gut.”In Italian, we might say, “Segui il tuo istinto” or “Ascolta la tua pancia.”In German, there is the word Bauchgefühl, which means a feeling in the belly.In Japanese, people may speak about trusting their intuition or listening to their inner voice.The words are different, but the idea is similar.Sometimes, we feel something before we are able to explain it clearly.For me, that feeling was telling me to return to nature.So I listened.I moved back to Liguria, to the countryside where I grew up.It was not a perfect or easy decision. Moving countries brought practical challenges, doubts and many questions.But almost immediately, I felt something change inside me.I felt reborn.I felt more awake.More present.More centred inside myself.It was as though a part of me that had been quiet for years suddenly came back to life.I started waking up with natural light. I could step outside and walk among trees. I could see the sea, eat outdoors and notice the seasons changing.I had more space around me, but also more space inside my mind.I felt energised by ordinary life.Before moving back, I often felt that I needed to go somewhere in order to feel free. I wanted to book a flight, plan a trip or escape the routine for a few days.Since returning, that feeling has changed.I still love travelling and discovering new places, but I no longer feel the same constant need to leave.I live somewhere beautiful.I can look at the hills in the morning, reach the sea within minutes and spend time outside every day.I do not need to wait for a holiday to feel restored.Home itself gives me energy.This was one of the biggest changes I noticed.My life began to feel less like something I needed to recover from.I began paying attention to small things again: the smell of the earth after rain, the cool morning wind, the light through the olive trees and the sound of crickets outside my window.These things may seem simple, but they changed the way I felt internally.I became calmer.I felt less scattered.I felt more connected to myself and to the life happening around me.For years, I had measured the quality of my life through large achievements, exciting plans and new destinations.Coming home taught me to measure it differently.How do I feel when I wake up?Do I have enough space to think?Does my environment give me energy?Do I feel the need to escape from my everyday life, or do I enjoy being inside it?Yesterday was Zappi’s Mental Health Day, when the company closed and encouraged us to rest and take care of ourselves.I felt very grateful for it.It made me reflect on how much our surroundings can affect our wellbeing.Moving to the countryside is not the right choice for everyone, and nature does not solve every problem.But for me, returning home was not an escape.It was an honest decision about the kind of life that made me feel well.Since coming back, I feel more grounded and more centred.I still have doubts, and I still do not have every answer.But I feel planted again.And, in many ways, I feel reborn.At the beginning, the hardest part was not knowing what I wanted.Deep down, I think I already knew.The hardest part was listening to myself when everything outside me felt so noisy.Sometimes, we do not need another opinion.We need enough quiet to hear our own.What might you hear if you gave yourself a little more silence?Until next Saturday,
Margherita