My Unexpected Home

Having lived away from Rhode Island for many, many years, I have had the opportunity to live and travel to a lot of great places.I went to prep school in northern Massachusetts, in the low-lying mountains. I spent my college years in Boston – a place of beautiful old architecture and cobble stone streets –bitter cold winters -- where -- the memory of the wind whipping by as I waited for the ‘T’ still brings a chill to my body.
I was lucky to spend my junior year in college going to school in Paris, France. I traveled extensively while there. Back pack on, euro-rail pass in hand…my friends and I traveled to every corner of Europe, and northern Africa as well. Each country has it own flavor, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Holland, Luxemburg, Monaco and Belgian. The architecture, the charm, the history and the romance of it all remain with me to this day.
After college I moved to New York City ---

jam packed with High rises, office building and town houses. Still the beauty of the façades of the buildings are so impressive…and Park avenue, especially in the spring time when the gardens between up town and down town are planted with magnificent tulips, was always my favorite welcome to the change of season. I would always try to travel up Park to get my spring time fix of color. It was elegant; it was always worth going out of my way to see.

And now I find myself in Rhode Island --- where I find the romance and splendor of the old world right here in Rhode Island. Whether I am driving down Ocean Road in Narragansett,

through the Towers past the magnificent ocean front homes, or crossing the bridge to Newport, I find the streets are full of charm, grandeur and history. The old world architecture is utterly majestic. The beauty of the rolling land is only surpassed by the site of the land meeting the sea …and the twinkling lights of the many bridges that light up the sky in the night.
As I drive along the coast line and look out I see the very perfect looking vision of the Newport bridge, connecting one island to the next. It really is as pretty as Monte Carlo.

Bellevue Avenue at Christmas time is a site to behold.
Each mansion is beautifully decorated for the holiday – looking ever so grand when lit for the evening. It could be Paris, the Champs Illese, the Arch de Triumph, but it is historic Newport. It was always here, always beautiful.
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I feel a little like Dorothy speaking to Toto. Sometimes one has to move away, and then return to see what has really been here all along. I have to say, I am continually struck by how very beautiful Rhode Island is, in an almost story book kind of way.