Why Did Amanda Knox Go Back to Italy, a Place Tied to Such Horrific Memories?

After the yearslong nightmare Amanda Knox endured in Italy, convicted of the 2007 murder of exchange student Meredith Kercher, her roommate at the time who was also studying abroad, you’d think she would want nothing to do with the country. And yet, despite the trauma, Knox did return to Italy after her conviction was overturned in 2011, four years after she was first imprisoned.

Although she was convicted again in 2014 for Kercher’s murder, the Supreme Court overturned it, and the following year, she was exonerated. So why would Knox willingly go back to a place tied to such horrific and haunting memories? There are a few reasons.

Amanda Knox returned to Italy multiple times following her overturned convictions (in 2011 and again in 2015) for a few different reasons. Mainly, she wanted to clear her name and make peace with her past in a country more often celebrated for its beauty and culture than recognized for crime.

In June 2022, Knox met with former prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, the man who initially put her behind bars for Meredith Kercher’s murder. She even brought along her infant daughter, Eureka Muse. That meeting came after Knox had sent him a letter, which eventually led to the two exchanging holiday cards and family photos, per the New York Post.

Mignini later told The Telegraph, “Now she has a family and a lovely baby girl named Eureka and is taking part in a worthwhile project regarding justice in the U.S. We have different ideas about the trial that involved us, but now I have a good opinion of her.”

It seems Knox was determined to clear her name directly with Mignini, who, 15 years earlier, had viewed her as a young woman caught up in a brutal murder. While he reportedly still believes she may have been present when the crime occurred, advances in evidence ultimately shifted the blame to where it belonged. Knox’s goal was to have him see her for who she truly is, rather than who he once believed her to be, and in some ways, you could say she succeeded.

During her 2022 visit to Italy, Knox also reconnected with her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. The two had been dating while Knox was there as an exchange student in 2007, and on the day Kercher was found brutally stabbed and sexually assaulted, they had originally planned to visit Gubbio.

After 15 years marked by prison sentences, acquittals, and efforts to move forward, the former couple finally made the trip together, perhaps as a way to rewrite the memory of that fateful day. “It was bittersweet to go back as we were supposed to go there in such different circumstances, but it was just nice for us to be able to talk about something that wasn’t the case,” Sollecito told The Mirror about his reunion with Knox.

Knox also returned to Italy in 2024 in an effort to further clear her name after being convicted of slander. She insists she was coerced by investigators into accusing bar owner Patrick Lumumba of aiding in Kercher’s murder, per Today.