Last month, my college friend Chris, expounded on the virtues of the number THREE. There are three primary colors that make up all the beautiful colors in the world. There are Three Graces who have profoundly influenced the history of art. The Three Musketeers coined the solidity of loyal friendship and birthed the phrase “one for all and all for one”. Man, my friend Chris was really convincing and he had me thinking that THREE really is a magical number. But that was last month, and I just returned from an all girls trip to Italy with my three college roommates and I am now convinced that FOUR is the better number. That’s why today I’m celebrating FOUR pictures of some of my Italian shooze.
Let me first give you a little bit of background. The FOUR of us (The Mamagirl, Angelica, Lana and Nina) were college roommates for FOUR years. We got into all sorts of trouble together and often came home at 4am after carousing the nights away. Eventually, we had to grow up and get on with life. Nina went on to have FOUR children and start the uber successful company Momagenda http://www.momagenda.com/ Angelica moved back to her native Italy and travels between FOUR continents where she runs worldwide special events for Prada. Lana and I have known each other since we have been FOUR years old and went to nursery school through college together. We have photographs of ourselves in the nursery school Christmas recitals together. Then there’s me, The Mamagirl, and I own about FOUR hundred pairs of shooze. Here are FOUR great Italian shooze in Angelica’s honor…Prada, Prada’s baby Miu Miu, the fabulous local sandali that I just scored on the Italian Riviera and the windows of Madison Avenue’s Prada store.
Recently, the FOUR of us turned FOUR-ty. Some of us were going through a momlife crisis. A momlife crisis is when you realize that you’ve sacrificed about a decade of your life giving up your individuality. You are no longer an individual, but instead you are Somebody’s Mom…or Somebody’s Wife…or Somebody’s Employee…or Somebody’s Employer…or Somebody’s Sister…or Somebody’s Daughter. You put everything and everyone in your life before yourself. After years and years of this, it begins to beat you down and you long for grasping back towards your individuality. You need to be back in the place where you didn’t have to ask your parents if you could go out and you don’t have to ask your husband and your kids if you can have a night out with the girls. Sometimes, you need to get back to the place where you don’t have to answer to anyone and you can go back to being an irresponsible and fly by the seat of your pants type of girl. And so, on a whim, this is how this little Italian holiday was conceived. The FOUR of us were reminiscing about those great years of our lives and we wondered if we could throw caution to the wind and give up our families and responsibilities for FOUR days and meet up for old times sake.
And so, Nina, Lana and I hoped on a plane to Milan last week. Angelica met us at the train station and we hopped on a 2 ½ hour train ride down to the Riviera, where she and her beautiful family spend the summers. It was so good being back together as a FOURsome again. We laughed, we cried, we drank and we ate. We shared motherhood advice and Nina shared her ultimate wisdom on how to stay organized alla Momagenda. We discussed our children and their activities, such as should our kids take piano or trombone lessons? Lana committed to throwing back FOUR gelati in a day and we proudly egged her on as she licked flavors such as cioccolato or banana or limone or fragola or pistacchio and nocciola. The only time we did not stay true to our number is when the FOUR of us drank SEVEN bottles of wine and a bottle of Sambuca for dinner. 
Thank you, Angelica – to you and your beautiful family –Andrea, Leonardo, Lorenzo and Magdalena – for letting us barge into your home and your life for the FOUR best days I have had in a very, very long time. I love you girls!! And to all you mamagirls out there...I encourage you to indulge and spoil yourselves and go on a vacation with your girlfriends. It is truly amazing how restorative it is to remember and celebrate yourself as an individual. I also want to thank my family - to Jackis, JV and GussyMan - for giving me those FOUR days. It was such a gift, but I am so happy to be home with you again! Brown leather sandali from Sestri, Italy
Miu Miu, rust embossed leather and rope platform sandal
Prada, tan leather caged sandal
Prada, Madison Avenue window
3 comments: