The Month Of Switzerland & Italy: October 2024 Recap

Time keeps rolling by at a breakneck speed and I continue to be shocked at how fast it flies by. I guess that means I’m having a lot of fun 😉 .  So let’s see what I got up to in October!

I Explored Switzerland🇨🇭!

It was my first time in the country and I really enjoyed it. It was less expensive than I thought it would be (though still quite pricey), and also absolutely gorgeous. I’m excited to go back. We stayed in Zürich and went to see the Matterhorn and the Alps in Zermatt.

I’m very behind on my Instagram – I’m still posting about Iceland over there, but there was so much I learned and wanted to share that I couldn’t help it. Soon I’ll be up-to-date and sharing more of my Swiss and Italian adventures.

I Moved To Bologna, Italy🇮🇹!

I’m writing this from my garden patio in Bologna! I previously lived here for 6 months when I went to the university here for a study abroad program in college and I wanted to show my Partner my favorite Italian city. So we’re here for a month to explore and eat everything in sight.

My general schedule this month looked like this:

• Run
• Yoga
• Shower
• Cafe for coffee and pastry
• Explore
• Restaurant lunch
• Gelateria
• Nap
• Write
• Read
• Sleep

And repeat🤣. It’s a hard life, but someone has to do it 😉

I also took my Partner to see Venice for a day trip! Bologna is wonderfully centrally located and only an hour or two (depending on if you take the high speed train) from Venice, Milan and Florence. It’s also about 2 hours from Rome on the high speed train.

I Did My Nails

My love of Dashing Diva nail stickers is still going strong.

• Review: Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Stickers – A Nomad Beauty Revelation

This was the first time I’ve experienced fall and winter in forever and have had the opportunity to explore more fall and winter colors and designs as a result!

Next year I might go all out and have nails specific for Halloween and Thanksgiving. New hobby activated 😉 .

I Played Video Games

Yeah I’m still a gamer. As seems to happen monthly at this point, The Sims had another sale…and I couldn’t resist 😉 . This time I bought the Discover University Expansion Pack. Luckily I did a lot of research and talked to friends before starting because this is the only Sims pack that might be too difficult without tips and tricks.

I’ll talk about all those tips in my upcoming “The Best Video Games I Played In 2024” post, but in the meantime, just know that if you get this pack, it is WAY easier if you do not live in the dorms.

• The Best Video Games I Played In 2023

I’ve also started making Airbnbs that I really like in the Sims. This is kind of a big deal because I never build anything in the Sims 🙂 .

I rarely even make my Sims. The “random” dice is my best friend. I’m all about gameplay, but I’ve been having a great time creating and then playing in these houses that I make based on my favorite Airbnbs.

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly call with my Mom and weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below movies and TV shows. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

1. High Potential S1
2. The Bear S1-S2
3. Brooklyn 99 (Halloween Heist Episodes)
4. Dark Side of Reality TV
5. Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire
6. Dune: Part Two
7. The Bourne Identity
8. Volcano
9. Inside Out 2
10. The Mummy
11. The Italian Job
12. Trap

I Read 20 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
2. Make Me Fall by Riley Nash
3. Show Me Wonders by Riley Nash

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here.

I’m fully leaning into the fall vibes around here and loving curling up with a book on a rainy day. At this point I’ve read 191 books this year. I’m curious to see if I make it to 200 by the end of the year. TBD!

I Wrote 5 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

1. 4 Years Of Early Retirement: Finances, What’s Changed And What’s Next?
2. The Month Of Iceland: September 2024 Recap
3. “Is It Worth It?” The Blue Lagoon: Iceland’s Most Famous Hot Spring
4. Here’s What Retirees Do All Day! (I Recorded What I Did Every Hour For 4 Years Of Retirement)
5. Review: Blue Car Rental – Iceland’s Best Rental Car Company?

I also had meet ups with 3 readers while in Zürich! A few others reached out, but I was sadly only in town briefly and couldn’t accommodate everyone. I’m hoping to return to the city at some point though because I really enjoyed it!

In more sketchy news, a few large travel-focused Instagram accounts (some with a million followers) have been asking to repost my Iceland photos and videos. I found that a bit sus and said no. If you’ve heard of this kind of interaction and it isn’t a scam, feel free to let me know, but my eyebrow is raised until proven otherwise.

Physical

Sleep

My sleep this month has been pretty good! It’s been different since my partner works in the afternoon and evening now to align with US work hours, so his alarm doesn’t go off early and we can sleep in together, which has been fun.

Other than that, I’ve been sleeping well and only stayed up too late reading a book I loved a few times 😉 . Luckily I could take a nap the next day to make up for it – one of the best benefits of early retirement.

Food

My food was surprisingly good this month! I was a bit worried about being in the food capital of Italy (and I might argue Europe) that’s known for pasta and carbs while still having a balance of keto days, but I found that balance!

I ate keto for 48% of the month and took 16 days off keto. When I wasn’t running all over Switzerland or eating everything in Italy, I cooked and (similar to how I’ve done keto in the past) – I just replaced the carb sometimes.

I’d put delicious pesto and parm on chicken bites instead of noodles and do the same with the city’s famous Bolognese sauce and it worked! I didn’t miss the pasta in those moments and the dishes were still delicious while also hitting my protein goals to make my growing muscles happy.

And then when I went off keto, all bets were off and I ate my way across the city. Curiously, when I lived here previously, I ate pasta, drank wine and snacked on Nutella out of the jar and at the end of 6 months had lost weight. I suspect walking everywhere had a little to do with that, but also being in my 20s. Ah – what a difference 14 years makes 🙂 .

Exercise

I’m back to Running after my accidentally self-inflicted injury in Montréal and keep surprising myself with how much I can do. I went for a run in Zermatt, Switzerland which is at 5,315 feet elevation, and I expected it to be really challenging since I had trouble breathing while running at half or even 1/3 of that elevation in the past, but NOPE!

It was shockingly easy and I even ran at a faster pace than normal. I also kept running farther than I planned while in Italy – there’s just so much pretty stuff to look at that I got distracted and kept going 🙂 .

I’ve also been doing Bodyweight Squats and some PT Exercises to keep my knee strong so it doesn’t get unhappy with me again. I’ve been really enjoying this one:

I’m also still doing Yoga at least after every run and continued my Meditation practice this month. My theme for this year is the Year Of Fitness and it’s definitely living up to its name!

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

Switzerland

• The population of Switzerland is 8.9 million people with 415,367 people living in its largest city of Zürich.
• In comparison, there are only 5,755 people that live in Zermatt year-round. That’s adorable 🙂 .
• And here is how the size of Switzerland compares to the US – it’s almost the size of Maryland, which explains how we could go from one side of it to another on a 1-2 hour train ride 🙂 :

• During this trip, I learned that Bern is the capital of Switzerland, not Zürich like I had assumed. Oops!
• I also learned from a few locals I talked to that the 4 languages and various dialects in Switzerland are even more complicated than I thought and I already thought it was complicated:

Italy

• The population of Italy is about 59 million while Bologna has about 400,000 inhabitants with 150 different nationalities. However, Bologna’s metro area has more than a million people. In comparison, 51,000 people live in Venice year-round.
• Bologna is home to the oldest university in the world, Università di Bologna (which I attended!)
• Here’s how the size of Italy compares to the US:

• Bologna also has more porticos (portici) than any other city in the world. All combined, the porticos are almost 38km (24mi) long in the historic center and are 45 km (28 mi) long across the entire city. In 2021 Bologna’s porticos were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• San Petronio, a church from 1390 that sits at Bologna’s main square of Piazza Maggiore is the 10th largest church in the world by volume
• Venice claims to be Europe’s best preserved big city, but it’s actually 126 islands that are connected by 472 bridges

Birds

Birding is back and better than ever! I love going to new countries and seeing birds I’ve never seen before and hearing new birdsongs for the first time. Here are the ones I saw on my European adventures broken out by city:

Zürich, Switzerland

Eurasian Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Hooded Crow

Zermatt, Switzerland

Great Tit, European Robin, Eurasian Blackbird, Common Chaffinch, House Sparrow, Eurasian Blackcap, Eurasian Jay, Ring Ouzel, Black Redstart, Eurasian Wren, Coal Tit

Bologna, Italy

European Starling, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Blackbird, Hooded Crow 

Venice, Italy

Yellow-Legged Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Rock Pigeon

Random

• In the book I mentioned above, How to Hide an Empire, I learned that Hawai’i is made up of 137 islands, not just the 8 shown on most maps and to scale would stretch from Florida to California.
• In the same book I learned that current US currency is based on designs from the Philippines when it was a US colony.
• I randomly learned that the South Pole basically only has a single sunset and a single sunrise over the course of a whole year. The sun rises there at the equinox in September and is above the horizon until it sets 6 months later during the equinox in March.
• I also learned that the number of stars in the Milky Way alone is larger than the total number of humans that have ever lived. My mind is blown.

Creativity

My creativity this month was really good, which you might be able to tell from how much writing I did on my Instagram. Rainy fall days apparently make me want to bundle up in a cozy sweater and write while sipping tea from a giant cup (the bigger the better 🙂 ).

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I’m also pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have much of a problem keeping up my every Tuesday posting schedule while traveling so quickly.

I was behind, as in I wrote posts closer to Tuesdays than I’m usually comfortable doing, but I got it all done, didn’t feel stressed about my self-imposed posting schedule and didn’t miss a second of taking in new countries to do so. Wins all around!

This gives me hope that I might be able to actually pull off PurpleMas this year and prepare enough in November that I can post twice a week in December. We shall see!

Emotional

I thought about my emotions a lot this month. I found it interesting because I have a scientific “control” almost in the beautiful city of Bologna. When I lived here in 2010 I had one of my worst and longest depressive episodes to date – it lasted the whole 6 months I lived here.

Now I’m a much more mentally stable person after doing a lot of work on myself and I’ve been really happy while in Bologna this time around. It’s good to know it’s not a city I love that gives me the blues. I also was a bit wary because this is the first time I’ve experienced fall in years – possibly since I retired.

I’ve tried to travel to places that are 70 and sunny when I visit. I was expecting some S.A.D. to start affecting me like it did in the fall and winter when I was working, but so far that hasn’t been the case! Despite the increase in clouds and rain, I’ve just been feeling the fall vibes and enjoying the urge to curl up with a book more often than I do on sunny days.

I’m not sure if or when we’ll experience fall again, but this little seasonal experiment went better than I expected! It likely also helps a lot that I can go outside for all the hours of sun instead of awakening when it’s dark, working inside and then looking out the window when I’m done to see it’s dark again. Sunshine is my friend 🙂 .

Money

I seem to be saying this every month, but I hit another all-time net worth high this month of $877,223.86 and ended the month like this:

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While in Italy I had a couple hundred dollars of dental work done, which was way less than it would have been in the US, but I found it interesting that putting almost a thousand dollars on my credit card that week after all my procedures were done didn’t even make me blink despite that being like half of my monthly budget. Money continues to be no object and despite that unexpected dental work, I’m still on track to be on budget for the year. Nice!

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Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in October! It’s been a wonderful month of exploring new countries and returning to see how others have changed 14 years later.

Next up we’re hitting the road for the last time this year and going to my favorite city in Europe: Amsterdam🇳🇱! So the next time I post a monthly recap I’ll be in the land of canals and tulips. Until then!

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

Monthly (2021)

1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap

Monthly (2022)

1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023
2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023
3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023
4. The Month Of California: April 2023
5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023
6. The Month Of Chicago: June 2023
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2023
8. The Month Of Troy, NY: August 2023
9. The Month Of Australia: September 2023
10. The Month Of New Zealand: October 2023
11. The Month Of Puerto Vallarta: November 2023
12. The Month Of Warmth: December 2023

Monthly (2024)

1. The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap
2. The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap
3. The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap
4. The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap
5. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap
6. The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap
8. The Month Of Canada: August 2024 Recap
9. The Month Of Iceland: September 2024 Recap

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?