Without any prodding now, I am ordering a glass of wine with lunch. Red in Tuscany. Red is what is made here and it is what the house wine is. And I am still not getting tired afterwards. What is different about Italian wine in Italy. Or perhaps it is me.

Today has a completely different feel from yesterday. Today, we slept in, had eggs for breakfast and then drove to Bagno Vignoni to take the waters. Is that the correct verb? We arrive just after noon. The web site said the particular place we want to go was closed from noon to 1 but on sight the attendant says from noon to 2 even though there is a sign that says until 1:30. This is a part of the character of Italian travel that can be very frustrating to the uninitiated. I vividly remember fighting it 30 years and then giving up. Absolutely no reason to even mention the sign or the online information now. There is nothing to do but find a restaurant, order pizza and a glass of wine and get more change for the parking meter. Yes, even in romantic Tuscany you need to feed the meter. Continue reading →

I feel a bit of the crazed tourist this morning. We are in Cinque Terre for two short days and for me to be acclimated to a place it takes at least that amount of time. There is is no Silvia to ease my way and provide ideas and directions, not to mention understand which restaurants are closed on any day. Nothing seems as clear as described in guide books and online and I have a mission today–the hike to Vernazza.

The cafe I planned to go to breakfast was closed but a gelato seller recommends somewhere to have coffee and we go for cafe con leche and croissant con jelly. Caffeine plus the sound of waves beating on rocks adjusts my mood. We walked down the 377 steps to buy a hiking ticket only to find out that the path to Vernazza is officially close for some “small Renovation.” We can hike the path without a ticket at our own risk. But the path begins at the top of the 377 steps and so we wait for a van to take us up to town again.

Slowly, I let go of my grand plans and accept the adventure of the day. So many lessons in letting go. As we walked, I never figure out where the renovation is taking place. Some of the trail is rocky and feels risky but none is roped off and none of it appears to be particularly treacherous. Continue reading →

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 →