Stefano and I got married on May 8, 1999, which means that today is our 14th wedding anniversary. 🙂

We lived together for a couple of years before getting married, but it soon became difficult for me to remain in Italy…legally, I mean. I needed to find a more permanent sort of job, and I certainly couldn’t do that on a tourist visa. So we decided to tie the knot. Now I have a permanent resident visa, which gives me almost all the rights that an Italian citizen has (free healthcare, the right to work anywhere, etc.)…except the right to vote, which I don’t really want, anyway, truth be told! 😉

That same year, 1999, I discovered I had MGUS. I found out by chance, as is often the case. What happened is that we’d decided to try to get pregnant, so my family doctor, who is very scrupulous, had me take a whole series of pre-pregnancy tests, which included a serum protein electrophoresis test. When my doctor looked at my results (at the time, I didn’t know beans about anything, including beans!) and mentioned the word “mieloma,” I thought he had said “melanoma.” I’d never heard of “multiple myeloma” before. I’m sure that’s what happened to most of us when we were first diagnosed…

14 years have passed since then…In the end, Stefano and I decided not to have kids (we thought that I wouldn’t live very long, that it would be too risky for me, possibly for the child as well, blablabla…)…and, well, we now have six adorable cats that we love more than anything else…The one in the photo is our youngest, Prezzemolo, who has a chronic viral (=stuffy nose, mainly) condition, poor sweet, but is otherwise a very active, healthy kitty. When you call him, he comes running, like a little dog…tail straight up in the air and an eager look on his handsome face. He’s always ready to play or be petted. Sooooo cute!!!

This evening we’re going to celebrate our anniversary with a couple of good friends who are visiting from Cape Cod, one of whom has never been to Italy. For that reason, I chose a restaurant that not only has yummy Tuscan food, but is also located on the side of a hill with amazing views of my beautiful city, right from our table…It should be fabulous!!!

Happy Anniversary/Buon Anniversario, amore mio!!!