How can one movie — Under the Tuscan Sun — change a life? Well, I’ve always had a yearning for travel, but I just haven’t had the chance to do as much as I wanted to at this point in my life. That will soon change, and this Diane Lane movie is having a big impact on my journey.

When I was a young girl in elementary school, I remember that I wanted to be a stewardess when I grew up so that I could see the world on someone else’s dime. I was a student helper for several kids with special needs in our class. One young boy, Gregory, found out about my future goal and touched my heart.

Greg’s family was from China. After winter break, Gregory came up to me and quietly held out a box. He was adorable, and I remember his mom telling me that he had a crush on me. I was also the one he chose to lead the class Chinese New Year Parade. He was so sweet.

When I opened the box, inside was a set of airplane ‘wings’ that stewardesses wore. Gregory asked the stewardess if he could have the wings to give to me so that I could become the stewardess I wanted to be. I still have those wings. I kept them as a memory of his kindness.

Other than small trips with the kids and a couple of jaunts to Disney, the kind of travel I wanted to do was so out of my realm of reality that I couldn’t really think about it, or I would cry. Then I sat down and watched “Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Under the Tuscan Sun

“Under the Tuscan Sun” is a 2003 movie starring Diane Lane (whom I adore!), who plays a writer with a nice life – a new book and a great husband – until she finds out that her great husband isn’t quite the man she thinks he is. She was blindsided by his infidelity, and the couple divorces. To recover, her friends, a lesbian couple, convince her to take their ticket to a gay trip to Tuscany and get away, no strings attached. Reluctantly, she takes the trip and spontaneously decides to buy a home while on a bus tour of the region.

Alone in a land where she doesn’t even speak the language, she learns how to adapt and stand on her own two feet. This movie is one of my favorite movies ever. It’s inspiring, funny, and romantic. I know almost every line, and the reaction of Diane’s character to her sexual experience with an Italian man is absolutely delicious. (The movie is based on a book by Frances Mayes, which is really good, but I adore the movie more.)

But I had a visceral experience with “Under the Tuscan Sun” that I never had with any other movie before. When they showed me the scenery of Tuscany, I started to cry uncontrollably. It’s like I had been there before and was missing it. But I hadn’t been there before.

I don’t know how to describe the feeling without having you think I’m loony. I had the same reaction looking at a book of Tuscany a few months later. It’s almost like my soul knows that’s where I need to go. Hopefully, one day.

Under the Tuscan Sun triggered me to learn more about Tuscany. I have more books and coffee table picture books at home. I watch more documentaries on the area and am always looking to learn more.

­­Travel is such an emotional experience. Not only going, but reading about travel or watching a movie on a destination can bring about the desire and passion for travel. Sometimes you don’t even know it’s going to happen to you. It just does. Tuscany is now the number one destination on my list. Update: I finally have the ability to go and the pandemic hit. But I will get there.

Here are a few other travel books that really ‘got to me’:

Tales of a Female Nomad

Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman. This book was amazing. A friend of mine recommended it to me. Here’s the description from Amazon:

“Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita’s example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.”

Bury is right. The question is can I uncover it? Can I be like them? I don’t want to go to Nicaragua as Rita did. Believe it or not, I want to do touristy things like tour factories and visit the Grand Canyon and go to Vegas, but I want some adventure of meeting new people too.

Eat, Pray, Love

And of course, there’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia Paperback by Elizabeth Gilbert. Do I even have to explain this one?

Again, from Amazon: “Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali.”

I liked the book better than the movie, and I liked the first two parts of the book better than the last part. Overall, it was still a great book, and Gilbert inspired many people to do what she did.

Maybe one day I’ll have my own “Virgin Traveler” book that tells all about the adventures that I went on and the courage it took for me to get there.

What book or movie has inspired you?