Trespassing and Serendipity in Northern Italy
When the villa from Call Me By Your Name invited me to town.
With a ticket tucked in my pocket, and a freshly baked croissant still warm in my hand, I stepped onto the train at Milano Centrale. The station was quieter than usual. Many residents were out of town and shops were closed. Yet, to my delight, the railcar to Crema screeched down the tracks to meet me. It was August 15th, 2018 and I had completely forgotten today was Ferragosto—an Italian public holiday. My plan for this balmy Wednesday was to venture through the countryside and try my luck at catching a glimpse of the prescient Villa Albergoni.
starting to struggle. I had moved away from home for a job and was feeling the loneliness weigh on my heart. With my 30th birthday right around the corner, I needed to shake things up, and was willing to take a leap of faith to make it happen. I imagined the start of my thirties looking so much different. The family, the house, the success—you know, the dream we’re all sold. But there I was, google searching “what movie should I watch”, alone on a Friday night. I landed on a recently released film titled Call Me By Your Name (CMBYN). If only I had known how much a story could alter a person’s path—I may have put more thought into my selection.
Within minutes of the opening scenes, there was no turning back. I was in love with the nostalgia of Italy in the 80s and this was the most alive I had felt in years. Needing to follow this feeling, I knew I would have to quit my job and spend the summer in Italy. Allow all the colours, textures, and generational collections of objects to convince me I’m not actually a minimalist. Fill my afternoons with visits to art galleries and let ‘grazie mille’ roll off my tongue as if I’ve been saying it my whole life. Once this idea was in my head, I couldn’t shake it. I secretly purchased myself a one-way ticket to Rome and all the other pieces seemed to fall into place. Giving notice to the company I was working with, and informing my close friends and family, I boxed up my items for storage and started the next decade of my life with a new sense of purpose. Come July, I was ordering gelato in Rome.
aboard the one-hour train to Crema, and
’s voice popped into my head: “The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all,and then stands back to see if we can find them.” Whether you count the physical villa or the person I was longing to become, it’s safe to say I was on a treasure hunt.
My main mission was to find the 16th century private estate that inspired this whole trip to begin with. The Villa Albergoni—a 15,000 square foot summer home that was currently unoccupied and on the market for €1.7 million. I had figured out a piece of what my life was missing: large grandiose doors, obnoxiously high ceilings covered in hand painted frescos, and rooms so vast they almost feel wasteful. I knew I wouldn’t be able to tour the interior, but some part of me still needed to soak in the wonder of this property in person. Even if that meant standing on the street and viewing from afar—it was a calling I could not ignore.
Arriving in Crema, I walked from the station to a hole in the wall where I was scheduled to rent a bike. The guy at the counter told me about how he started this business renting bikes to fans of Call Me By Your Name. Apparently, people were travelling from all over the world just for a chance to experience feelings they discovered while watching the same movie that brought me here. We had a lovely chat and he marked off a bunch of places on my map where I could see more filming locations (the lake they swim in, cafes they sit at, etc.). I wasn’t even offered a helmet to go with my bike rental, or a lock for that matter. The whole experience was old school and innocent, and I loved every bit of it. If you’ve been to Crema, or seen the movie/read the book, you know it’s charming and timeless. A portal back to the lazy summer of 1983.
Orienting myself, I put on sunscreen, and loaded up the CMBYN soundtrack for the journey (it’s amazing btw). I then set out for a 15km cycle through the country—riding in the middle of the road with fields on either side and not a car in sight. I felt like I was 10 years old, on summer vacation, and free as a bird. I laughed, cried, and sang at the top of my lungs. I felt so proud of myself for following this unknown calling, doing something way outside my comfort zone, and finding my heart fuller than I had ever imagined.