Traveling to Italy to paint and study art had always been a dream of mine, but I had never expected that I'd be going alone. Venturing out from the bustling city of Florence into the Italian countryside in search of more authentic motifs for my paintings, my journey took an unexpected turn, literally. 

Surprisingly, my Italian adventure turned out to be a lot more monastic than anyone would have expected, least of all my friends back home. I mean, Italian men do have a certain reputation, after all. And so do I.