Chasing the Italian Dream. Meredith Gaston Masnata's New Adventure

What does it take to pack up your life, leave everything familiar behind and start again on the other side of the world?

This week on 3 Wise Ducks, we chat with bestselling Australian author, artist and illustrator Meredith Gaston Masnata from her new home in Italy. Meredith shares the reality of moving overseas with a toddler, preparing to welcome another baby and embracing all the excitement, uncertainty and unexpected moments that come with such a life changing decision.

We also talk about the creative journey behind her beautiful books, what inspires her work and how she continues to create while navigating motherhood and a brand new chapter of life. Meredith also shares the exciting story behind her recent collaboration with Hallmark and what this new adventure means to her.

This is a warm and honest conversation about following your heart, taking courageous leaps, finding beauty in life's everyday moments and discovering that sometimes the biggest adventures begin when you step outside your comfort zone.

Whether you've ever dreamed of living overseas, wondered what it's really like to start over in a new country or simply love hearing inspiring stories from creative people, you'll enjoy this heartfelt conversation with Meredith.

Our guest:

Meredith Gaston Masnata

Website: meredithgastonmasnata.com

Instagram: @meredithgastonmasnata

Connect with the 3 Wise Ducks

Joy Ball
 Founder, Blissful Connections Relationship Counselling
 https://www.blissfulconnections.com.au

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 https://janwinslade.com

Nilu Noble
 https://ivytalentco.com.au/nilunoble

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:13

And we're just taking off the most amazing adventure, taking up her life and moving to Italy today. We and I cannot wait to talk to her about her well-being, reinventing finding yourself starting over in beautiful Italy and living a life that is a little bit more sensitive. And what life really looks like on the other side of the world is really such a big change. So, Meredith, welcome, welcome, welcome. We are thrilled and so happy to have you with us today.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

I'm so glad to be here with you, Ducks. That introduction has just made me smile from ear to ear. So thank you for your generosity of spirit. What a lovely welcome. Thank you. And I'm delighted to be with you coming to you from the Riviera this morning. It's very hot. It's hot. Very hot. And there's a big blue sea stretched out in front of us. And um summer's just really starting to kick in now. So it's uh it's a beautiful, vibrant season, but also, as you've mentioned so beautifully in that introduction, uh, a lovely invitation to take some rest as the days get hotter and longer, and you know, starting to take some leaves out of my own book. So very much so.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

So the the time of our recording today is just after 5 pm Melbourne time. What time is it in Italy at the moment? Where you are?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

It's just past nine o'clock this morning, and I've just packed my beautiful little family up with homemade picnic breakfast to go down to the beach, and I said I'd love to join you, but I've got a very important date this morning. I told my daughter, I told my daughter I had a date with some ducks, and she was absolutely bedazzled. Uh so yeah, she uh she was very impressed. And uh um I'm eight months pregnant, so we're it's it's been an interesting time to move. We moved to Italy. We we had a a is shall I just dive into how I'm gonna do it. Yeah, just do it, let's do it. Okay. Well, we we just um my husband and I had a had a vision that this is where we needed to be and we we wanted to make the dream come true together. He was born here in Italy uh and moved to Australia at at the age of three. He came to Australia by boat. It took uh I think six, seven weeks on a boat with his two brothers and his um very tenacious parents who spoke not a word of English and were unused to the Italian way of life. And they ended up at um at Villawood in Sydney, where they uh resided for some time before uh cobbling together enough um funds to take out a uh a lease on it on a little home, and from there they built a life, and so that's their their story, and that story shared with no doubt so many um uh you know immigrants from this part of the world to Australia who have brought you know so much to the social and cultural fabric um of Australia as we know it. And so he he had a quiet yearning to return here ever since he left. He says it's sort of uh unspeakable, but it's just been something within him. And similarly, when I was um four years old, I declared, I think four or five, I declared to my parents that I would marry an older Italian man. Oh that I was true, and was and and the the moment I heard the language being spoken in the playground at my little Catholic school in Sydney, I I said to the teacher, What's that? And she said, That's that's Italian, that's the Italian teacher. She comes in on Wednesdays and I said, When do we get to learn Italian? And she said, Oh, not till you four. And I was only in I was kidding. And so I I was so um mesmerized by the the beautiful lyrical sounds of the language, and um I I just really yeah, I took to a like a proverbial duck to water and started learning and um yeah, just love, just loved it. And fortuitously for me I was able to do it, um go on an exchange program when I was 15 years old, having continued the language right through school and ended up living in a very small town here in Italy on the other side, on the other coast, um, very close to to Venice, between Venice and Trieste, where I I I ultimately learnt the language fluently in a small community and came back to Australia and quietly plotted my way back um to Italy when I graduated high school. So it has been a a pull for for us both. And so when we when we came together in life in partnerships, it seemed perfectly logical that we would somehow find our way here. And we said to each other, whether or not it's uh it's for uh this reason and a season, or whether or not it's going to be a change that will be more permanent. We just knew that we had to do it. So we did it with a toddler in tow with me being pregnant. We packed up our homes. We actually parted with most of our possessions, giving them away to friends and to family, to charity. Um we had a home, you know, the typical family home, Australian home, four bedroom, five bedrooms. You were in Queensland, four bathrooms, but you know whole kitten cabodle cards in the garage, yeah. And and we just thought, what what do we actually need? And not not very much. We'd experienced a few months' stay here last year in a very um little apartment with an an eating kitchen and and an olive tree and a view over the sea, and we thought, well, we can do this, you know, we we're called to do this, and so we simplified everything. And we decided in terms of timing for our little family, you know, you can think so many different things. Well, let's wait until the baby is born, or wet let's wait until this is in line, or it and and then there were so many factors that were sort of I guess you'd call them moving parts, but we just thought it's now it's now. Even though it it's perfectly imperfectly now. It's like you intuitively knew, didn't you, Meredith? Yeah. Yeah, I I think so. I think that look, I I would say that's something that I'm very grateful for in my relationship, in my marriage, is that when we get on the same page, which invariably we we are and we have a dream, we m we we're determined to make it happen. And and it's not an aggressive determination by any stretch of the imagination. It's just it's I'd say it's almost like a um if we can share a vision of something coming true for us or for our family, and we can really see it and feel it and picture it together, um, separately but together, if that makes sense, you know, in our own imaginations but in our shared world that Roberto calls the together sphere, which I think is just lovely. Um, if we can see it in our together sphere, then we can materialise, we can make it happen. Yes. And and it's not woo-woo, it's almost like as you would well know, um, both of you and the way that you lead your lives and and celebrate the you know, the the the richness of being alive. That these these are the kinds of thoughts and feelings and beliefs that can can get us where we dream to be. Yeah, such inspiration, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

And and to find a life partner, a that he's from Italy Italy too, you know, and just have that same that's extraordinary. It's just a beautiful story. You manifested it from a a very young f young age, really.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yes. Yes. Yeah, I would say it's just this wonderful sort of like uh sort of divine, divine intuition. Yes, you know, when you you step out of your own way as as a thinker and to become a f just a a a a feeling person who to whom the the the the world, the universe just opens up with all kinds of yes and trusting and you know sometimes surrendering, like there have been moments, I will tell you guys, there have been moments we thought, what on earth have we done? Are we mad? You know, the bureaucracy. And I won't, I'll definitely I'll give you the um unsugar-coated version. Um it it's um it's tough, it's tough here because it's it's quite dysfunctional. And Italians themselves will tell you that facing Italian bureaucracy is is a headache and and it doesn't make m much sense at all and and things take a very, very long time. And if you have a cousin somehow involved or a it it'll be much quicker. If you've got a cousin Vinnie down the road, you can Yeah. It's and some of the processes you just the mind boggles, but uh and there are days when, for instance, you know, we're living in a dynamic seaside village which is renowned for festivals and um and uh and and just quite lively, really. Um one would think looking at it that it would be quite peaceful because it's a smaller scale place by the sea. However, um we have the most Motorini per capita here in the whole of Italy, which means that people are zooming around on their motorbikes and they drive like you know notoriously uh Italian style. And um, even as a you know, a very pregnant woman pushing a pram, heavens a bit if someone stops for you at a at a at a pedestrian crossing, it's almost like thank you, lucky stars for the privilege. Um, you have to keep your wits about you here and you have to um this is what I'm learning quite quickly, almost sort of uh stay like steal yourself, just to it um Roberta said the other day, we're just getting more resilient. Becoming more Italian. Because we're coming from a place where you cross, you know, you cross the road and people will wait for you. Um you go to an appointment and there's some sense of sort of order and um and and structure, but it's just I said to him one day, it's like that beautiful roomy quote about drinking the nectar of life. You know, all of these experiences, even some of the ones that you think, well that just did not go to plan, or that was it even with a couple of days with of retrospect, you know, able to have hopefully at best have a giggle about it. You know, you look back and you see it's actually unforgettable. It's the stuff of life, some of this mad, mad, you know, madness that we've been experiencing since arriving, um, trying to settle in as a little family here and uh all that that has entailed. It's not necessarily that things have say gone to plan and we've had an altogether smooth experience. That's not true, but that the stories, the memories, the the the the richness that we have that we have um gathered and that we've we've gained from from this experience, we could never have we could never have experienced had we sat in our comfort zones and done what we were used to doing in the way that we all you know that we had been doing for some time.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

So So you need to go over there with a very much a an open mind and almost an accepting mind, knowing that it's uh you know it's not going to be a structured, it's not gonna be a civil, it's not it's not going to be uh um like Australia, it's it's very typical um Italy. Whereabouts are you in Italy?

SPEAKER_02 12:21

So we're in Ligordia, the region very, very close to the French border. Right. So our nearest big city is Nice in France. Yes. And and we uh that the position is just so lovely because for instance, yesterday we got back from a few days in Provence where we stayed in a farmhouse and it just took us uh you know a couple of hours to just get there and we we had a wonderful time exploring some nice towns and pottering and the countryside was glorious and that sort of what well what we were it's what we was what we were trying to do was to live very lightly so we could be nimble. So we've moved from said house into a one and a half bedroom apartment. Um really little tiny we were thinking b bunk beds and bunk beds and tiny house style. Um but we we wanted to be able to liberate ourselves to do almost like the lock up and leave have a little place. So kind of the the not what we did in Australia, where we had say invested in a big home, and that was where we had placed all of our um you know, say our our funds and our time and energy into a into a home. We wanted to free that up so that we could have a little place, a little footprint, and focus more on experiential living in the world at large and exploring and exposing ourselves and our children to different languages, to different um cultures, meeting new people. It was just the other day we were sitting at the at the breakfast table at this little farmhouse in France and we met a fabulous couple from Sussex in in England. Um they came from their little they've come down from their little fat house and we're having having a um an anniversary drive together through the French countryside and just staying at different places. Just beautiful people. And there was our daughter. She went and pulled up a l she's just chived three, pulled up her seat and sat with them and had breakfast with them and just connected and and I and I thought this is um you know, a lot of people ask us, is she in Kindi and is she in the you know, what's she doing and where does she and she's and she's with us because by virtue of our circumstances. Yeah, by whether she's with us, she's not at Kindi or school yet, she hasn't had a day of of daycare because I mean we we're artists, we work from home, and that's that's a tremendous privilege, of course. And I'm very, very grateful to be able to raise raise her day by day and experience her ever-changing beauty and and her development. Um but I see that in the school of life with the relationships that she's experiencing, the the landscape she's traversing, that she is she's really learning so much and has been so welcomed into this community. I mean, just yesterday we went down to her favourite little uh Fortinario or like a um a bakery, and they just love her there. They let her go behind the counter and help and they just they uh and I love seeing her there because she's in her element, and uh I think that the Italian way, and certainly one of the things that we felt very drawn to was the the amazing love for children and the the respect for the family network um that Italians um demonstrate in their way of living and and incidentally on the front on the mother front, um it's it's amazing how nurtured and appreciated and protected pregnant women are here, aside from crossing the road. Aside from crossing the road. The roads are a different kind of story, however. Yeah, yeah, that's right. If you're in a line at the supermarket or you've got, you know, anything like that, you will be given precedence, everyone will move to the side. And and yesterday, um I mean, I I couldn't believe it. Yesterday I had a a bureaucratic appointment, I had to attend a a meeting um for residency, a residency permit. And um it was a very crowded waiting room with inner gr people from all around the world, not a fan in sight, it was 30 plus degrees, and a lovely lady stood up for me so I could sit down. And then a young man gave me a folder that he'd been holding with his documents in it for me to use as a fan so that I was comfortable. I could have cried because I I just I was very touched. Everyone was there patiently waiting, uncomfortably waiting. Uh and you know so that humanity shines through.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Yeah, that that humanity does shine through. How beautiful. Tell me uh we I mean you're eight months pregnant now, so will your child be an Italian born or a French born? So um baby born will be born in France.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

No, of course no. Oh no, this is this is um very easy for me to talk about. So they uh thanks to some excellent recommendations from friends here. He'll be born in Nice and uh then so he will then have to will on his behalf apply for um his Italian residency and ultimately citizenship, where the consular in Australia has uh of course there's a process and it's quite individual depending on circumstances. Um Roberto has an Italian passport and uh I um am by virtue of being his wife and living here, I think after two consecutive years living here as a family and having done all the right things, obtaining, and this is all finer detail, um permits, etc. If we do if we do all those things right, which of course we're endeavouring to do, um and we're doing, then after two years of um consecutive residency here in Sleet, then we will be entitled as a family to obtain.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Oh yeah, I love this story, Meredith.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

It just feels so full and wholesome and but not without its challenges.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Yes, and I think we can all not without its challenges.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Yeah, yeah, I love that. And and on that note, I I was just going to say to you something that a friend mentioned to me the other day because she called and she said, How are things going? And I said, Well, we're meant to be settling on the apartment, and the vendor, who's had you know seven months, has still not been able to materialise sufficient paperwork for the settlement. And here we are almost we're heading into hospital to have the baby and we're still in temporary accommodation, and the settlement isn't anything automatic, like in Australia, where suddenly ding, you get a a text message that the settlement has gone through and it's electronic. Over here, you sit down for I think four to six hours in the office while they read out the law word by word around the real estate transaction. And and everything as anyway, I it's nothing like under the Tuscan Sun.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

That's what you're telling in your.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

It's not it's not quite I mean it has Tuscan Sun moments, but there's been there there's been some hilarity. And anyway, so I was saying to her, and we're just feeling we're just feeling a bit demoralized at this present moment. She said, Meredith, don't take off your rose-coloured glasses. She said, It's just it's part of who you are. Keep keep believing in things working out, keep believing in a magical universe and everything being okay. And you know, I was quite comforted by that because I've been feeling a bit naive. I'd been thinking, what was I imagining coming over here and that things would be the same, you know, uh as as they were in Australia in terms of the efficiency and smoothness of transactions like this. It's not like that at all. I love your honesty and um beautiful. Yeah, I I feel I was I I've been feeling, you know, and I didn't want to be disparaging of myself, but also I just wanted to have a reality check and think, well, Meredith, maybe next time. You know, you might want to be a bit more realistic. And also just kind of yeah, just um maybe it it's about it's about more realism and prag pragmatism and uh but but I I also wouldn't want to not be myself, you know. That would be the the most hurtful thing of all if I lost my my optimism or my um my willingness to try, my my will. And sometimes that courage does come from a place where you don't overthink it. Yes. And because if you do overthink it, you can be wrapped with fear and worry about everything that could potentially go wrong and maybe it would stop you in your tracks.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Whereas I love that you refer to it as courage to not to overthink, because you I I truly believe that too. I think we all are guilty of overthinking and define that courage because in your situation too, knowing that it's also different and you know, spending six hours just to so they read the rules and regulations and stuff. I guess like sort of number that.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

And um Meredith.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

I know. Well, I think I I may well, I may well, if things go to plan, just by the the hair of a whisker on the chinny chin chin will be in the apartment, I think, a week before the baby comes. And I just sort of I can't imagine because there's a bizarre Italian aversion to air conditioning or fans that I just uh you just have to brace yourself. Oh um and it oh it's very true. It's just it's amazing how how um fearful they are of um of fans and air conditioning for their health. But yes. Oh yes.

unknown 21:42

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Yeah. Uh and and um I'm just concerned that it I'm hope I'm hopeful that they might be able to speed read the law so that I'm able to um to move on and out before too long 'cause it's quite it's I I feel like a little oven right now. Um but it's again it's just part of the

SPEAKER_00 22:00

the experiences the journey being a part of being a part of it you know the journey and um meredith can we just ask you about um you you've recently released your beautiful new card collection with hallmark and how did that yeah come about and what was it like seeing your words and artwork shared in that way well it was actually it was a veritable dream come true for me because when I was in primary school I used to make little gift cards and sell them um to my local gift shop and that the lady was just so kind and and so gracious.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

They were very you know they were amateurish I was I was little and I was but I just loved I loved quilling doing the paper crafts and the watercolour and the drawing and she was so so lovely. She said make a little box and put the name on it and we'll put your cards on the counter and we'll see if they sell anyway um and and they did but I I quietly found out a couple of years later that it was mainly a friend mothers that are people you know purchasing them out of support for me which was just beautiful. At the time I was a little I felt a bit crestfallen that my market had maybe been a bit um what would you call it not necessarily just sort of spontaneous but more um by virtue of the connections but having said that it was still a thrill to sell my little cards and I dreamt of making cards on a grander scale and then obviously when I was approached by Hallmark I almost um yeah I almost fell off my my chair in the studio because I I thought my goodness how how extraordinary an absolutely wonderful company with with fabulous people behind the scenes who are genuinely and again you learned some it was a learning curve for me because sometimes when you think of these really big companies they might for me anyway I'll speak to myself I might have felt yeah that it was maybe a little bit impersonal or maybe it wasn't a values led you know uh business it's quite it was amazing how the the integrity with which they worked the strength of their their vision for the collection with me they understood what what kind of messaging I was I've been celebrating in my books for the last 20 years. They wanted to harness and and capture and and bring that messaging across uh for their uh for their customers and of course Paul Mark has a very broad and international following of people who just want to still want to still want to write a card. Still want to send snail mail you know in such a digital world and and I'm all for that as you as you know and that that that hand that hand handwritten letter the human touch the the time it and care it takes to sit down and to express ourselves with um with thought and feeling and and so the collection is is really about the collection is about connection it's about um slowing down to take the time time to do that. But the messaging encapsulates themes of of love and gratitude and kindness and support and kindness and really the illustrations which is something that I I'm so interested in the way that that pictures can speak a thousand words and my pictures simple they're so simple they're so naive in fact I remember NetX at an exhibition uh many moons ago someone said oh my child could could do this what why is this why is it hanging up on a gallery wall and I at I at first I felt a little bit hurt to be honest and embarrassed. And then I thought about it and I thought some of the artists that I admire most for instance Paul Clay whose diaries are extraordinary to explore one of the observations he made is that you can go through so many different um forms of say education and learning and but to come back to to express oneself in that childlike spirit where you know again back to overthinking where you where you're not overthinking where there's purity and innocence and vulnerability and that that was ultimately what he determined was was the the end point for him in terms of personal success and while I endeavour every day to deep deepen into my practice and to learn more and more that that idea gave me comfort that sense of well actually there is something in in simpli in in simplicity and expression and and and and there is something in in in that that um I I believe speaks to and has certainly helped me to convey in harmony with the words I write has helped me to convey met ha messages that speak to people at heart level. Yes uh and at at in a child level which is where we need to be met.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Absolutely this day and age absolutely yeah we do.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

I'm interested to know how do you do this in what a half bedroom unit You know I kind of I was when we walked into this place we we just um you know when you know when people talk about homes and say you just know when you know you walk in and you just get that feeling well irrespective of the accommodation and other shortcomings we were like this is it. This is it for us. Uh at Pop probably mostly I'd say we're two hopeless romantics and the the apartment is like a little jewel it's a little jewel box on the sea. Gorgeous uh it has um a beautiful it's a white little white villa with it just a couple of apartments and we're on the top the top story of that and um beautiful black and white marble tiles on the decks with white wrought iron balconies and um little Juliet little little little Juliet balcony off the living room where you know we just um look forward to having a cup of tea sitting down together watching the sunset. We can see Corsica from the j the yeah it's a it's a lovely position. We also see lots of sparkly boats at night and um during the daytime we see um the people just enjoying themselves out on the sea and it's a lovely colour palette and it so um how do I do it? Well I've noticed the world palette I'd be saying look at the blue I love all the times in the sunrise and sunset and I watch them and we encourage Imperia our daughter to watch too to to watch how the colours change and now she'll call out Mama look at the pink in the sky look at lilac look at and and that kind of mindful a awareness living in and within n nature and and observing seasons and changes um from morning to night or from um winter to spring. They're the kinds of things that I you know of course put in view up with just beautiful with yes with a sense of inspiration. But how do I do it well in very brief very very briefly I've learnt to work in a very um efficient way in small space. If I I had a wonderful studio but now I have a kitchen table and it's just called because I'm surrounded by the family and I'm surrounded by the energy of the home which is obviously loving and um creative and I just make it work.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Yeah so the intention is to stay there long term now Meredith? Well we don't know.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

Yes um we we don't we we've just decided that we'll keep it flexible and that we will invest in building a community and a life here um at you know at heart level and and friendships and relationships and but I think what we've learned along the way with the changes we've experienced is just never to never to just think of something as permanent because life can change in a heartbeat. Yes, yes it can just it can change in a heartbeat and so if we get fixed on this idea of permanence I think sometimes we can end up there there can there can be a heaviness around that. Stagnation and of course yes, yes. So we just think well we're doing this now and we're in in the moment like well a few years ago we we published a book together um Being Here Now it was about finding peace and joy oh really finding peace and joy in the present moment. So Robert is a photographer and um and I obviously illustrate and write and so together we were very interested in in sharing uh sharing positive perspectives on presence in the present moment and that's when we wrote and published that book with Hardy Grant um and it's uh it's a beautiful it's just like an artist journal it's just tripping with paintings and photographs and words and and it's very interesting. Where do we buy that Meredith online? Well that's fairly yes you can yes you can jump online and search the title Be Here Now and then Oh yes I've got it. Oh you've got it have you got to myself and my beloved and then uh that that book has a lot to offer um in terms of I guess in uh short very short reflections or meditations on different subject matter all to do with actually living now.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

So not not living in the past and looking back or projecting too far forward. That's the art of of being here now.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

I I kept as you were speaking Meredith I kept feeling and hearing the word presence you know you're so present in all that you do with your with your family with your writing sharing all those things you know with with women particularly all around the world with all your books. It's just beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

And Ken and I have got one of your books in our hands right now we've actually I've got all your books actually we're holding it we're holding a book of you you know it's just beautiful so or you feel your energy in the books your drive and your connection I think every household needs one of your books Muda question about that. Thank you so much for joining us it's been an absolute joy a pure joy.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Oh absolutely we Oh well thank you for having me oh absolutely and and also for for for inviting questions that obviously bring out as you say the full textured experience of of this life and adventure and for anybody who's for some listeners who are thinking of maybe do embarking upon a dream or having faith in a vision or you know I h I hope that it may have in some way been been useful because it's certainly it's been marvelous to us inspiration.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

And have love watching and love viewing on on Instagram your journey it's just been just absolutely beautiful and um can we just wish you all the very best for the birth of your second child your beautiful boy and we hope it all goes well and we'll we'll definitely keep in touch Meredith.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

That's fabulous I'll be listening in and um I'll be looking forward to to to hit to being imbued with the wisdom of the three dust over time.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Delighted delighted for you all and looking forward looking forward to reconnecting oh lots of love Meredith do the very best thank you thank you take care bye bye all right I could have listened to Moses all day long and what I'd love is to have humble feet you know it's it's an amazing but having this trouble as well is absolutely all this took online