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  • Approved for CNN

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    Posted April 19, 2012 by
    drewbaci
    Location
    Santa Fe, New Mexico
    Assignment
    Assignment
    This iReport is part of an assignment:
    Trip abroad that inspired you

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    Octogenarian Abroad Alone

    By drewbaci  |  Posted April 19, 2012  |  Santa Fe, New Mexico
     

    CNN PRODUCER NOTE     drewbaci, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, captured this picture while in Sorrento, Italy, last April. The now 88-year-old says he found the scene inspiring. 'In truth, l'anima mia resta in italia (my soul is in Italy),' he says. 'After years of study and work there, I'm always more myself there than anywhere else.'
    - ssesha, CNN iReport producer

    At age 87 with labored breathing from open-heart surgery 4 years earlier, I decided to risk traveling alone from Santa Fe's 7,000 foot elevation to sea level at Sorrento, Italy. Took with me an iPad, planning to avoid physical exertion, spend most time in modest rented apartment keeping a journal and working on a novel. To my surprise, sea level fostered much energy with vastly-improved breathing, I walked miles every day, enjoying vistas of the Mediterranean, seeing friends I'd made on previous visits, attending civic functions and cultural events.
    One early morning, approaching a belvedere with splendid views of the Bay and Vesuvius, I happened upon an arrangement of fresh fruit upon an upright pillar. No one in sight, no clue as to who might have made the lovely arrangement or why it was there. I immediately recognized it as iconic of the beauty of a land and its people which I've frequently visited and long loved.

    Travel Italy Sorrento Octogenarian Mediterranean
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