Naturally, I feel heartsick for you. I know it is easy for others to say the house and contents are only "stuff,' but it's your life stuff. Having that stolen away, utterly gone, with so much irreplaceable, is a hollowing thing. Happened to me, and yes, I was lucky to have escaped with my life and severe burns, but I remember that gutted feeling. Hollow.

I know what I would do right now if I were you. I would go out, buy a bag, a swimsuit, a few things, then get on a plane and go home to Italy. I'd bask in their company, and wine, food, find a beach, or a mountain. I learn each restaurant's signature pasta, and have the pastry chef in each pasticceria know me by name.

Later, fattened, recalibrated, and tanned, I would go back, long after the ashes are gone, then look at where and how to re-start a life.