Benvenuti a mia casa. Well, it was my casa for about a week, along with several of my dearest friends. About 45 minutes north of Rome and situated among olive orchards and farms and hilltowns. Not that the location mattered that much, because this destination was lovely enough not to leave.

You could sit by the pool... 

Or enjoy the blooms near the gazebo...

Or play a little calcio in the backyard... 

Only a few of us spoke English fluently. Some of us - myself included - only know a few rudimentery Italian phrases. But despite the language barrier, we were all on the same wavelength.

When we were hungry, we cooked... 

...and then we ate...

Sometimes we went out to eat - once to the agriturismo next door, where we feasted on handmade pasta and roasted wild boar, and again for Easter, when we drove to Tivoli for an all day meal that included roasted baby lamb and a delicious asparagus risotto...

 ...look at little Irene (in Italian it is pronounced Ee-RAY-nay), eating her spring risotto. She was one of our extended family at the villa. She got frustrated with me because although she kept jabbering away at me in Italian I had almost nothing to say back. Instead I just gave her an enthusiastic "si, si" whenever she spoke to me. As far I am concerned, that is always a good way to talk to a lovely Italian female. 

It was several days of sleeping peacefully, eating well, and generally not worrying about anything, which actually took some getting used to. No thinking about work? Really? No errands to run? Are you sure? No reason to get up early to get something done because I havent had time otherwise? Come on... what is the catch?

The catch is that those concerns dont actually go away. There are always going to be issues to deal with and stresses to manage. But our week at the villa reinforced my belief that sometimes you just need to stop, forget about everything else, and simply enjoy the beauty around you. That is Il dolce far niente - the sweetness of doing nothing.