Ciao! We are Cheryl and David, a couple in our mid-60s, originally from the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, former full-time RVers and now expats living in Italy.
Back in June 2016, David retired from his career in the software industry at age 55, and we sold our townhome, moved into a large fifth-wheel RV, and began an adventure as full-time travelers around North America. When we started this blog a few months later, our original “About Us” page told the story of why we chose this decidedly unconventional path.
Over the following nine and a half years, we traveled more than 80,000 miles in our original Heartland Landmark and the custom New Horizons Majestic that replaced it in 2023. We visited 49 of the 50 U.S. states (all except Hawaii, which is challenging to visit in an RV!) as well as three Canadian provinces and two Mexican states. We spent days–and in some cases, weeks–experiencing 58 of the 63 U.S. National Parks in depth, plus countless other national monuments, historic sites, seashores, state parks, and other beautiful locations. We immersed ourselves in local culture, food, museums, and attractions. And best of all, we formed lifelong friendships along the way with dozens of fellow nomads and part-time travelers.
Left to right, top to bottom: whitewater rafting in Colorado (2016); RV in British Columbia (2017); glacier walk on Mount Denali in Alaska (2017); kayaking in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska (2017); sunset in Petosky, Michigan (2018); beach campfire in Sleeping Bear Bear Dunes National Seashore, Michigan (2018); National Mall, Washington D.C. (2019); biking in Rhode Island (2019); Acadia National Park, Maine (2019); near Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (2020); Glacier National Park (2021); Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (2021); Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota (2022); glacier hike in Jasper National Park, Alberta (2023); biking in Cuyahoga Valley National Park (2024); food tour in Montreal, Quebec (2024); sunset in Key West, Florida (2024); bathing an elephant at Myakka Elephant Ranch, Florida (2025); Olympic National Park, Washington (2025); Mount Rainier National Park (2025)
We had long wanted to extend our exploration outside North America, and in fact we were considering a month-long European trip in a rented RV for David’s 60th birthday in 2021 until the Covid pandemic derailed those plans. Meanwhile, we contented ourselves with a cruise around Southern Italy and the Greek Isles in 2018 and a family trip to Israel in 2022.
Our perspective finally began to shift after we spent six weeks living in Florence, Italy as part of a Road Scholar adult study program in spring 2025. We realized that we were ready for a new adventure, and that the skills we had honed as RVers–flexibility, rising to meet challenges, and being receptive to new and often unfamiliar experiences–had given us the confidence to take up residence in another country. In October 2025, we announced that we would be coming off the road and moving to Italy, and in March 2026 we moved to the city of Lecco, on the eastern branch of Lake Como in the northern region of Lombardy.
From our new home base, we are exploring around Italy and the rest of Europe (see our upcoming travels here), and we frequently get to host friends and family who visit Italy from the United States. If you’ll be in our part of the world, let us know!
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
-Helen Keller, Let Us Have Faith (1940)