It’s Never Too Late to Pick Up Your Life and Move to Italy
The New York Times
Holly Herrmann vowed to move to Italy when she was 20. Her dream came true 38 years later.
It’s Never Too Late” is a series that tells the stories of people who decide to pursue their dreams on their own terms.
In 1978, when Holly Herrmann was 20, she flew to Bolzano, Italy, a scenic city in the foothills of the Tyrolean Alps, to compete in the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. A native Californian, the budding concert pianist was taken with a country that was so intricately interwoven with classical music, food and beauty. She vowed to make it her home one day.
“By then I was living in Seattle, and this was my first time in Italy. I was fascinated by this cohesive, beautiful, historic center that was so wonderfully rich with life and activity,” Ms. Herrmann, now 63, said of the medieval heart of Bolzano. “Italy offered a different style of life that I enjoyed more than what I was experiencing at home. I knew at some point I would end up living there.”
