I'd just heard someone on a podcast say that people who go out on their own are strange. Crazy, even. I called a friend — he was busy. So I went anyway.

At the bar stood a man I'd never met. "Hey — looks like you dropped your smile," he said, and slid it back to me with a grin. We fell into it — wind turbines, the weather, everything in between — and before midnight we'd carried each other through a couple of questionable drinks, a handful of good laughs, and a conversation that wouldn't quit.

Then he said the thing I've never forgotten: "I wish there were a place where you could just ask — anyone want to come to Rome? — and someone would actually be ready."

It landed. On the way home I knew that place had to exist. Not as something crazy — as something wonderful. For everyone who says yes to the adventure.

Nyx is the goddess of night in Greek myth. But the name spells its own meaning too:

NowYoueXperienceEverything

A place where the best nights don't come down to luck — and where Rome is only ever one question away. We still meet, he and I.

Crazy? Maybe. But we're in good company.