Returning to Lucca – A return to love during and after Venus Retrograde in Leo
After a lengthy break of over six years, I finally returned to my beloved Lucca on 6th August 2023 where I was met at Pisa airport by my two closest Lucchese friends. Much had changed in my old Lucchese life during lockdown, as several of my close American friends had returned to the USA, never to return to Italy, except for short visits back.
My daughter Ruth Seavers’ death in September 2021 had kept me bound in Ireland for an additional two years while I handled her affairs. A lengthy process, as Ireland continues to be such a dreary bureaucratic Saturnian country to live in, in so many ways.
A return to the artistic world has been calling me for some time now, and Lucca was a town where my creativity was always effortlessly enhanced. In my relocated chart for Italy, Neptune slips from the sixth house of daily routine and service to the fifth house of creativity. And my North Node moves from the fifth house of creativity to the fourth house of home and roots.
When I formerly lived in Lucca, I frequently worked nine hours a day as a nanny, (with the added torture of Saturday mornings being spent supervising homework for said same four unruly boys!) while simultaneously developing not just my photography business, but also my astrology practice in my spare time.
And I continued to study astrology in depth as well, too, of course!
This hectic, intention filled day to day life is actually far easier to live when in a small city and everything is close by. Longer opening hours help enormously also. As did having a Mars Saturn bike with twelve gears! And of course, the weather.
Prior to my return to Lucca I had endlessly pondered what it would be like to be back there. I needed have worried however! Whilst it took a full three days to orient myself (and I was only there for six!!) my former life came flooding effortlessly back to me.
This time, it was better than ever.
Oh yes, there’s the laundry service! A much needed service after having just spent a week on a boat between Sardinia and Corsica! And goodness me, how handy that the hairdressers is right next door! And bike hire just across the road!
It took me less than a day to track down my favourite shop in the whole world – Biagioni’s on via Fillungo where they sell a vast array of art materials as well as my stunning Fabriano notebooks.
I then moved into via Fillungo to be right in the centre of things after three days, staying in a beautiful homely hotel with an outdoor seating area. I reconnected soulfully with many more people than I expected which was wonderful. Routes between my favourite haunts…most of which were still there….came back to me effortlessly. I painted, I wrote several poems.
More poignantly, I also watched Sinead O Connor’s funeral online.
Her death stopped me in my tracks, more of which anon.
It was my first real holiday in over eight years and hence it was really fascinating to watch how Venus Retrograde played out so subtly and quietly whilst there. It turned out the hotel I moved to was less than 200 yards from the exact spot where I became an astrologer overnight…..yes on August 15th 2015 whilst Venus was …of course! Retrograde in Leo!
My holiday had been planned around the sailing week I did the previous week in Sardinia as that was the only week available on the yacht. My two weeks in Italy certainly weren’t planned around Venus retrograde, but my, look how Venus played out! My favourite times in Lucca had always been whilst either running at 6 am looking up at Venus as a morning star, or else late evening cycling the walls of Lucca whilst Venus was an evening star.
As I fully expected, I found myself re evaluating my life in Ireland. Yes, I can move back here I found myself saying, yes I can’t wait to be back again, I found myself saying. There was a reason why Portugal did not work out the way I expected; gOd simply had bigger more expansive plans for me.
And so, as I was travelling back to Pisa airport, I found myself briskly ringing my travel agent in Ireland asking them to book me back to Italy in October. Done.
As expected, my move back to Tuscany came in stages, the first one of which was during Venus Retrograde. I then moved back more fully in late November and yes, picking up my old life with renewed wisdom and a bigger heart, has indeed been beautifully simple. A powder blue Venus bike was bought in no time, as were even more Fabriano notebooks, for I mean how can you resist them? My favourite cafes have indeed been rediscovered and revisited. Autumn is a beautiful time to return, when the streets are quieter, and the walls can be cycled with slower intent.
Lucca, I love you so. It’s so good to be back