Yesterday while creating my post for my amazing friend, chef, and author Viktorija Todorovska and her Sardinia Project, I realized I had never edited my Sardinia photos from 2010.

Part of me I know could not do this because it was the last vacation I took with my co-owner and dear friend Antonello Losito before I decided to leave the company. It was frankly too difficult to see the joy on everyone's faces knowing that a trip like this might not happen again.

I have now finally moved through my grieving period at leaving this amazing company and I was simply blown away when I went through my photos yesterday and saw what I had captured during this huge transition in my life.

Sardinia or Sardegna in Italian, is perhaps the most ruggedly beautiful place I have experienced in my years of travel. It is a basically a series of mountains that drop directly to the sea. The people are hearty, country, and full of vigor as well as political discord. This is an isolated place with a culture that is quite different from Rome, or Venice, or even Tuscany. This is country and mountain living that has only in the last 50 years migrated to the sea.

In only 10 days we went from an amazing family visit with the Giordano clan in Sassari to the sea in Alghero, to the mountains and the politically fractured creative town of Orgosolo. Then we drove all the way back to the sea at Orosei (a whopping 1 hour) before crossing even more mountains to Arbatax and finally to Cagliari where we boarded a ghost ferry back to Rome.

This trip changed me and helped me to understand that I needed more travel and more experience. While I excelled at getting people to Puglia for the company, my own sense of adventure languished while others were catching me, passing me, and living a life I wanted. Sardinia taught me to keep going and at my own direction in my own time.

My photos of the most beautiful children living an amazing life are enormous indicators to me that I have much to do before I could have a family of my own. I will not be qualified for the job of Dad till I feel like I have enough life lived and knowledge to teach my kids the things I want them to know; and while many of you would argue that as people we are never ready, I am not really interested in rhetoric. This is about my own spiritual journey and adventure in living. Today is about Sardinia.

No place better than food to tell you that on this island they do it right. From local cooks, to shepherd meals outdoors on a mountain, all the way to the best agriturismo meal I have ever had. Sardinia is heaven if you like to eat and even more amazing when you have the scenery attached to the meals.

This was truly a Blissful Adventure for me and Juliet. I am certain that the 5 days in Germany and 10 in Sardinia subsequently were the best 15 days Juliet has enjoyed in Europe. We go back this year with a new plan that looks much like my first plan to Italy 20 years ago this year. Eyes wide open, judgments blurred by wine, and experiences left to fate, the weather, and the whimsical nature of man. Follow me on this path.

There will be much more about Sardinia in my book on Italy wanderings next year. For now, please enjoy these photos and feel free to view the entire album on FLICKR.