A Full Moon Story – Our Serendipitous Events While Traveling

A Full Moon Story – Our Serendipitous Events While Traveling

November 5, 2025

Every week my husband and I have been traveling out from Bologna doing day trips to cities in Northern Italy. A few weeks ago we decided Rimini on the Adriatic sea was our next day trip adventure for this week. However in my recent reading and current interests my thoughts were directing me towards Venice as our city to visit instead. I thought some art by Leonardo da Vinci was there. Venice was not one of our must see cities while we were here in Italy, as we both thought it had a reputation for being too tourist focused and might not appeal to us from what we had heard from other travelers. 

However, being in the travel off season in November I convinced my husband Peter to change our plans to check out Venice so I could go see some art. He was fine with the idea after my request. So on Wednesday morning, November 5th, we boarded the regional train in Bologna to arrive in Venice around 10:20 am. It was a two hour train ride, but we were fine visiting and reading along the route. It was sunny outside and watching the landscape of brightly colored houses in villages and farm fields along the way was a pleasant morning. In the back of my mind for probably a week I knew the full moon would also have the transiting Mars-Uranus opposition aspect. I knew in my gut that things would possibly go awry and especially if we traveled on that day. I don’t often relay my intuitive things to my husband, as I don’t want to speak out on any freedom of our movement or frame something harshly. I often go with the flow and decide how to work through any issues if they appear on our path. Let me say now, sometimes your intuitive hits are easy to ignore, but if you pay attention they can save you having to re-direct or something greater than just inconvenience.  However, sometimes in the re-direct you get a little message of SERENDIPITY, as we would find out later that night.

We were delighted as we left the train station in Venice, seeing the glorious buildings along the Grand Canal as we stepped into the city. What a view!  It was another moment of joyful delight, feeling like I was a kid again stepping into another picture I’d only seen in books or online. The color of the sky, the water a dark azure, the rooftops, columns on the buildings and domes spotted across the horizon all glistening like a storybook. We enjoyed numerous art pieces of the Renaissance at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, and I pondered the Piscean Age beginnings as we walked under the golden glistening mosaic domes of St. Marco’s Basilica. After a simple lunch nearby we strolled around the Palazzo San Marco and took numerous photos of the Doge Palace’s amazing architecture and the array of white statues lining surrounding buildings. My visual senses were intoxicated and my mind was exhilarated by the awesome visual impact of this part of Venice. My quest to find Leonardo da Vinci was that we found mostly his mechanical or engineering works presented in two different museums. We had seen that in Florence three years ago, so my hope to see his art was thwarted by what I did not understand about the museums for him there in Venice. So, we decided to head towards the train station and go back “home” to Bologna. We boarded the train around 4:45 pm. On the regional trains it would take about two hours to get back to Bologna, stopping at cities on the regional route.

On our second city stop in Padua we were sadly stalled due to an incident of another train somewhere further on the route. We thought we might be delayed 30 minutes to an hour. Within the hour they delayed our train so much that they were going to push everyone to another train. We all flowed back onto the platform, looking at the schedules and adding minutes to the delays. The station was filling more with people as many other trains were impacted by this accident and others entered the station from Padua for their intended travel. We learned there was a police investigation that was part of the reason for the delays of an accident that had happened somewhere along our route. Around 7:00 pm Peter decided it was best to get a hotel in Padua where we had stopped. After having checked in with the train services team and realizing they had no idea when the train might be headed to Bologna that evening. Peter responds quickly when things shift while traveling. His instincts go on alert. 

Peter’s learned experience of many years of traveling for business, he learned “Always get your hotel immediately when things are delayed.” Most people focus on the new train (or plane) when it is best to consider the more challenging scenario, where to rest if needed. While some took on the challenge to find the next scheduled plane he’d have a place to sleep and would resume travels the next day. Peter had been stuck in the London queue of 1978 trying to get home after a summer traveling Europe years ago as an 18 year old (a first lunar node return experience).  He endured the great unknown and had to sleep on the street for 3 nights as a young man before getting a flight home by the good graces of strangers loaning him and his friend money to repay to get their ticket. Since then, Peter has had several life experiences of learning about this in some way on different occasions. In the snow blizzard of 2019 winter he got stuck in Seattle for four nights on his way home from a conference and then he got to be the good Samaritan helping a fellow traveler get home safely. As his wife, I get to participate in Peter’s life as a witness to his experiences. Wednesday night we both had mini a-ha moments of our own in what happened next. Oh, and this year I’m in my 3rd nodal return (Pisces north node).

On our mission to find a place to stay we went to the first hotel, right next to the train station. Sold out, no rooms. Our stress started rising a bit more. Both Peter and my cell phones were fading battery fast, our anxiousness increasing. And my inner critic getting louder how I didn’t follow my gut about the day of when we’d be traveling. We had already used the booster I had to power up our phones earlier in the day while in Venice and now they were fading again fast after taking a lot of photos and using maps to find our way through the narrow streets. The gentleman host at the first hotel guided us verbally to another hotel, which was in fact a hostel. When we got there we learned women have a dorm and there was a mixed dorm. We were not fond of that idea, as I did not want to be separated from Peter, especially at this moment. As we huddled on the bench at the hostel with less than 9% on his phone Peter managed to get on Booking.com and find us a room to rent, lucky us a clean tiny private room and bath, the last one available within walking distance. Peter secured it, but he couldn’t tell that it was cash only. The messages usually sent out by Booking.com to WhatsApp had not reached Peter yet. Both our phones have delays on messages we receive here.

We made our way to the place a few blocks away from the hostel. It’s dark and hard to see. We looked intently for about ten minutes to find this place, no signs really outside. Just names at the outside door barely lit to see. I finally see Casamina. We walked by it twice before I realized the names where people ring to speak over the intercom. A man answered speaking Italian, figured out it was the people who rented the room,  and buzzed us in through the locked door. We went up to meet him two floors up. The man, didn’t speak any English, and our Italian is quite new only an A1 level, maybe A2. We showed him our reservation from the screen of Peter’s phone with barely any battery left. The man shared some details and asked for our passports. We didn’t have them, we didn’t think to take them on our day trip! We gave him our driver’s license, which he took and noted. He told us the amount to pay as 72€. During the stress of the train cancellation and our phone batteries dying we had not thought about the need for more cash. Peter pulled out his wallet and quickly dropped a 50 euro, a 20 euro and a 2€ coin on the table, then realizing in great relief he had exactly 72€ left in his wallet!  We smiled wide at each other noting that serendipity! We had just enough!

As we settled in our room grinning about our luck and relieved to have had just enough when we really needed it. We later found one more euro coin deeper in his coat pocket and I had actually one more euro coin in my purse too. The moment captured our attention as we had exactly enough to pay the man at the moment he asked. Especially after our long day in Venice. We had not planned most of the day, spontaneously deciding to go to Venice, so we were open for such a unique experience. 

We both learned in this adventure that sometimes everything flows in ways that surprise you AND you find new ways to be delighted by your simple needs being met.  We also reminded ourselves we will now have a plug converter with us when we travel. Our USB charger wasn’t any help in this place without the converter and I couldn’t find a store to buy one when I needed it. We’d taken for granted having power to one of our most used tools for maps and apps, our backup plan had also been used which left us in a precarious situation. We both appreciated the serendipity of the flow of events leading up to that moment, the day adventure that became an overnighter unplanned. We shut off our phones that night to retain the tiny amount of remaining power in case of another emergency on our way back to Bologna. We walked without the maps that night to find a meal, and pondered our disconnect from this tool we use so much. We grinned at the patrons of the restaurant around us viewing their phones and shared our feelings of phone battery envy we were experiencing, but honestly, we were smiling through our entire meal and shaking our heads in amazement because we were still stunned at having the right amount of euros at that unique moment.

Our day turned out alright. We had some stress, but not without an adventure to see something we might not otherwise have seen and experienced. Wearing the same clothes as we did yesterday, we boarded the train home to Bologna again this morning. Sometimes the stories we most remember are the ones where the unexpected happens and we are invited to see something we never planned. Grace visible in the serendipity of this experience will be with me for a long while. Experiencing serendipity like this reminds me of one of my all-time favorite movies, Serendipity from 2001 (filmed in 2000 in New York City) The movie I saw on the first date I had with Sydney’s father. Great movie about having a strong belief in fate (no coincidences). If you haven’t seen it I recommend it, it’s a wonderful romantic comedy. I hope your experience of this month’s full moon illuminated something only serendipity might reveal on an otherwise normal day. Namaste. Bless this moment.