I am a single parent with a teenager on the autism spectrum and travel is one of my passions. Travel is a wonderful, educational experience for typical children, and my hunch that Julia would learn and grow with travel experiences was rewarded last summer in Italy. So, I am on a mission to teach Julia about the world—one trip at a time!
Writing on Monday. Seeing the Pope yesterday could not have been more unexpected. He was in Torino because of the exhibition of the holy shroud of Turin which has perhaps been on view because of the Milan Expo. We could not get tickets to his mass in a piazza but that’s worked for us because the square was very sunny, we would have been standing for more than an hour and it was just a sea of people. Instead, we went along the road that he was going to get to and from his mass site. One his way there, we caught a quick glimpse in the very back of a crowd five or six people deep. So, we watched his progress on a video screen. That would have been enough for me. Really. We walked around the city, people watching mostly and then came back to the main street he would use to return. We sat at a cafe table, ate sandwiches and watched the crowds gather again. There were verylarge screens all along the route so people could see and hear the mass and sing all of the music. It was a rather an unaggressive, gentle crowd. Lots of babies and children. People In very happy moods. People seem to be fond of this Pope. Perhaps what I was seeing was merely a crowd with few American tourists. It was mostly Italians., perhaps more pilgrims than tourists.
Before the end of the mass, priests came through the street to deliver communion to those who wanted it. A volunteer in a distinctive violet jacket preceded each priest. The volunteers had small signs and people could gather where the volunteers stopped to politely line up for communion. It seemed like a simple and small allowance to be made and a very lovely way to open the circle of those privileged to be viewing the pope’s mass very large. I was touched by the good humor of the crowd and the gentle kindness of cafe waitresses who allowed us to keep our seats long after we finished eating. Continue reading →
Slowly we may be finding a travel groove. Julia and I spent the morning at the Egyptian Museum which seems an unexpected delight. I had read about it in guide books but was not prepared for the depthof the collection or the wonderful presentation. We were equipped with personal audio tours and we listened to about 15 percent of the commentary. And we listened for a long time. Julia studied Egypt in social studies this year and she was fascinated. It was delightful. She focused on artifacts that I would not have pointed out and read lengthy explanations out loud. Some things were more than unbelievable–a 4,000 year old pleated dress, statues with faces and postures so very recognizable, huge stone carvings of deities. A couple of hundred years of collection. We stood in front of a very large glass box watching a woman “clean” the top of a sarcophagus with small bits of cotton on the end of a stick. Julia commented that the people who worked in the museum were obsess with Egypt. Possibly very true.
We spent more time just walking the streets of the central city. How lucky we are to be staying in the midst of it all. Julia stops at more and more shops to window shop. She brought a little purse with three dollars and change in it. She intends to buy something. I explained a number of times that she could not use dollars to buy anything in Italy. After looking at prices in shop windows, she got it and asked to change her money which I did at a very generous exchange rate. Using cash for many transactions , albeit Euros, may finally be bringing home the lesson of money that has eluded her for so long.
I slept 10 hours; Julia 12. And I am chomping at the bit to be outside and walking. To be welcomed home to a place I have been before is a gift for which I am so grateful. I am also very grateful that my friends, Silvia and Georgio, take Julia as she is without judgment.
Julia’s behavior last night was hard for me. She was not interested in the daughters of the family who were interested in her. The youngest, V, is learning English and sat with me during breakfast trying very hard to make conversation and make us understood to each other. To say I have a little Italian is more than generous but I am eager which makes up for a little of what I cannot do.
I am unsure of the date. Sitting in Oslo airport and even Julia notices that it is beautiful. Wood, dark brown leather and grey steel is the decorating theme. Sleek and rich, modern and spare yet warm. The signs and adds are all in both Norwegian and English which is somewhat disconcerting. The diversity of travelers here is no less diverse than some major USA airport although there is a heavier sprinkling of Scandinavian types than I am not used to. Two Italian business men sit close by talking — one very quickly. It is not the Italian of Little Italy or my learn Italian CDs. There is a red rose on the floor under one of their seats that gives the scene a cinematic quality. When our flight is called, no one picks up the rose.
Chasing Joy 