Newport is dramatic in all the ways you would expect — massive mansions, Atlantic coastline, old money everywhere.What surprised me was how relaxed it feels anyway.

People walk around in sweatshirts carrying iced coffee past buildings that look like minor European palaces. No one seems especially impressed by any of it anymore.

Which, oddly, makes the whole place more charming.

I used to find the concept of slow living deeply irritating.

It felt soft. Indulgent. A philosophy invented by people who had never had a deadline, a debt, or a driving need to prove something. I was the kind of person who moved fast, worked hard, and measured progress in accomplishments. Slowness was not a lifestyle. It was a failure of ambition.

I was wrong. But it took my body making a different argument before I was willing to admit it.

About four years ago, I was living in Nashville and found myself wanting a change I could not quite explain. I started craving something different — more walkability, more history, more texture, more beauty woven into everyday life. I Googled: “most European city in America.”

Which is, admittedly, a slightly dramatic way to choose where to move. But also, in hindsight, one of the best decisions I have ever made.