A Month Of Italy

By Chris Brady

Dave Thackeray
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

We all spend most of our waking hours imprisoned. Held captive by life. All our joy juice ebbing away, irreplaceable.

Most of us settle for that. Not only disillusioned but deceived into believing that we’ll have this — whatever this is — forever.

And then, whoosh. It’s gone. And we all know deep down that we’ve each got an eternity of nothingness round the corner.

We either deny it, burying our heads deep in the sand. Or we embrace the magic of every moment and go racing through life at full tilt, caring not for what the future holds since tomorrow never comes.

One of my good pals Jim Lawless always says, “you’ll never be this young or beautiful again.” He’s right. So why do we waste what we have?

Chris Brady realised he shouldn’t keep his nose to the grindstone from dawn til dusk. Who does? What are you slaving for? To be older and slightly less financially insecure?

He had a wife and kids. The escape route was ill defined. But as a unit, they found a way. And so they emigrated for 30 days to discover what being in a foreign land would teach them.

A Month Of Italy: Rediscovering the Art of Vacation is their travelogue. And it’s superb. Chris describes the experience as a “radical sabbatical” and preaches the importance of taking restorative breaks in life.

Noone could disagree. But so far it sounds stultifying. Breeze through the first few pages and into the minibus expeditions skimming cliff edges and terrorised by experienced Milanese road (ab)users and you’re halfway to paradise.

This is a delicious investigation not only of giving your family a new attitude to life, but discovering things about yourself you never knew.

Travelling builds the constitution. It grows our resolve to never stand still or settle for the average. Because today is all we have.

A Month Of Italy: Rediscovering the Art of Vacation was the challenge that became a book that became Chris’ catalyst for:

  • Co-writing another book
  • Relocating his family to a different state (a decision he’d debated for almost a decade)
  • Launching a multi-million dollar company with seven of his best friends.

Chris has created something more than a book. It’s a manifesto. A movement to which we may all subscribe vouching that we’ll treat ourselves better from this moment on. That we’ll give ourselves the gift of time to escape that imprisonment of modern life, to rediscover ourselves and our families and bask in the joy that is waiting outside our self-imposed four walls.

A Month Of Italy: Rediscovering the Art of Vacation is available now on Amazon.

Book reviews

Mostly business, sometimes fiction, almost always both

Dave Thackeray

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Founder of Word And Mouth | Host of #Thacknology

Book reviews

Mostly business, sometimes fiction, almost always both

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