Italy. October 2025 # My Birthday Month (Patreon)

As Gary called it, this was my birthday month trip. Because why celebrate your birthday for just one day when you can dedicate the entire month of October to it?)))

You probably already know that my biggest birthday wish is to spend it in a forest. I don't really care whether my friends or family are around, or what the weather is like. But I definitely want it to be an autumn forest. Preferably with yellow leaves.

I was born in October, when the leaves are already starting to fall, and forests have always been connected to some very pleasant childhood memories for me. My mom used to take us to the forest on weekends to listen to the birds and feed the squirrels....And of course, I absolutely hated the idea.))) I was lazy, I didn't want to go anywhere, but every single time we actually got there, I enjoyed it so much. I would get tired, but I was happy.

I was also always a little jealous of my friends who were born in summer. Because they could celebrate their birthdays outdoors. We'd have picnics, our parents would organize games, competitions, pirate treasure hunts in the forest, all kinds of fun things. But on my birthday, it was always cold or raining. October in Ukraine, what can I say.)))

And then, somewhere around my 27th birthday, I started wondering how I actually wanted to celebrate my birthday. Because there was always this familiar scenario: invite friends over, sit at home, drink wine, play board games, or go to a restaurant. And I realized that I wasn't particularly interested in any of that. It's not that I didn't enjoy spending time with my friends, but as a way of celebrating my birthday, it didn't really bring me much joy.

So when I started seriously thinking about what I actually wanted, I realized something very simple.

I wanted to go to the forest.)))

That year, I decided I would spend the day in the forest and invite my friends over in the evening. But I wanted the party to be a little different too - I wanted to have a children's birthday party.

And around that time, while visiting my parents, I accidentally found these tiny plastic decorations that clip onto drinking glasses, along with some straws decorated with little paper flamingos. My mom had bought them for one of my birthdays when I was about eight years old. Back then, she used them to decorate our glasses of juice and children's champagne. And she had kept them all those years! .... Why? I have absolutely no idea. But thank you, Mom.)))

I took all of them with me and decided that this was exactly the kind of party I wanted. Childhood decorations, games, music, friends.

And during the day - the forest.

And guess what?

On October 25th, the day I turned 27, it was raining.)))

But this time I decided I didn't give a damn about the weather. I found raincoats and rubber boots, asked my friends who wanted to come with me, and, to my surprise, almost everyone agreed. I don't know if it was out of solidarity or simply because they wanted to make me happy on my birthday, but we all went.

And it was wonderful!

Wet yellow leaves on the trees and under our feet, rubber boots, rain, those cheap plastic rain ponchos rustling every time you moved... God, I was so happy.)))

And ever since then, I've known that I want to spend every birthday in a forest. Even the party with friends afterward became optional. I just want to breathe in the forest air, hug the forest a little, listen to the birds, walk among the trees. And I genuinely don't care what the weather is like.....As long as the leaves are yellow.)))

Now, back to Italy.

Last year, we were living in Mexico, and I had almost accepted the fact that I probably wouldn't get my autumn forest for my 30th birthday. Because, as you can imagine, Cabo has a slight shortage of yellow autumn leaves.)))

We could go to the jungle. Or try to find some forests somewhere in South America. But my beloved husband, who already knows me like the back of his hand, decided we should go to Europe instead. Because really, what's the difference between flying 12 hours to South America and flying 12 hours to Europe?)))

So he planned a trip to Italy for us.

Before that, I'd only been to Italy once, for about a week in Rome. And honestly, I can't say I really had a chance to get a proper feeling for the country back then. But this time we had a whole itinerary: Rome, Tuscany, Lake Como, the Dolomites, and Milan at the end. And after Italy, we were also planning to visit our friends in Barcelona and Paris.

But the main part of the trip was about the two of us, Italy, and my 30th birthday.

And most importantly - there was a forest!)))

But I'll show you that a little later.

This post will cover almost our entire Italian trip, except for my actual birthday, which we spent in the Dolomites. I decided to save that part for October 25th, when I'll be turning 31. I'll share a little flashback to my 30th birthday and maybe some thoughts about what it feels like to get another year older.)))

But for now, I just want to say that this trip was absolutely incredible. I look at these photographs and think: God, it was so beautiful! And it's not one of those situations where you look at photographs a year later and start romanticizing the past. No. I was enjoying every fucking moment of it while I was actually there.

Italy is something else.

I honestly don't know how God even came up with the idea of creating a country like this.))) Everything about it is beautiful! The people, the architecture, the food, the wine, the nature, how incredibly diverse it is, that beautiful musical language, the music, the cinema... For those who don't know, I'm a huge fan of Adriano Celentano and his old movies.)))

Anyway, I fell in love. I genuinely fell in love with Italy. I wanted to live there.

And even though we're living in America now, who knows what the future holds? After this trip, we actually started discussing how we should probably start saving money to buy ourselves a villa somewhere in Italy. With vineyards, so we could make our own wine and olive oil. I mean, why not? Dreaming is free.)))

The only thing that surprises me a little when I look through the photographs from this trip is that there aren't nearly as many as there could have been. For some reason, I didn't have that strong urge to constantly reach for my camera. I loved everything around me, there was so much beauty everywhere, and of course I took photographs. But I didn't have my usual desire to photograph absolutely everything.

Maybe I was just a little tired of photography and wanted to spend more time simply enjoying things rather than constantly documenting them.

I don't know.

But somehow, this trip ended up being much less heavily photographed than I would normally expect from myself.

So today I'm sharing the photographs I chose from our archive. The ones I love, the ones that bring back memories and make me feel something when I look at them.

And on October 25th, I'll show you the most beautiful part - our Dolomites.

Mountains with snow-covered peaks, yellow trees, mountain lakes, the incredible view from our window, Gary and me, and that very same autumn forest that started this whole adventure in the first place. ❤️