Almost home ....

Well, it was a tough last day in Rome.  I foolishly had a few too many things on my person to keep track of, and I either lost my cell phone or someone helped themselves to it from my cargo pants pocket.  If the latter, I think it was on a very crowded shuttle from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza del Venezia, where people were pressed all against me and I needed to use both hands to keep myself steady.

While it will definitely cost me $$ to replace the (uninsured) phone, it is the content, some video and photos of Dick that I am worried sick about.  I can't be sure they were backed up to my laptop (complicated reasons why I don't sync my Iphone as often as I probably ought.  Sigh).

My friend Joe Crook pointed out that my content may still be accessible via the ICloud since I'd moved to an Iphone 5 recently and content defaults to being stored there.  Here's hoping.....

So, I need some moments of gratitude to help my perspective.....

-- thank you Joe for replying so quickly about the Icloud.  My mind is a bit more at ease.
-- thank you Paul for dropping me off and picking me up too!  Can't wait ........
-- thank you Marta and Wally for the wonderful *gift* of staying with your family in Italy
-- thank you Mitch and Amy for giving us a raison d'voyage!
-- thank you to my boss, Lisa, for her supporting my taking this trip
-- thank you weather for being so good!
-- thank you to my poor abused knees, shins and feet -- you were put thru quite a lot of walking, climbing/descending and standing!
-- and while I will acknowledge the cell phone thing has really bummed me out, that was the only unpleasant encounter that I've had.  Everywhere, people have been helpful, honest and a couple times made sure I did not forget a bag, etc.   I have been well taken care of this trip by the people of Italy.

Next time I write, I will be in the good old USA!  

Feels strange to be abroad today

Just got done with a full day of traipsing around ancient Rome (with a little visit to see the pope thrown in for good measure), and I see some great news re: the supreme court.  I wish Dick had lived to see this day.   Time to write a letter to our governor when I get home, I think.

Link to Pisa/Volterra/San Gimigniano photos

https://picasaweb.google.com/115605385907234732594/20130620ItalyDay6?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ7gtfeL-rK8Ww&feat=directlink

Too tired to write much else tonight - ciao!

Jim

Why I love travel ....

Many of you are going to be shocked that I got a woman's phone number today.

So, I met Annie when I sat down for a beer and some lunch after a long morning spent walking, climbing stairs and steep hills.  She is from Australia.  In that way travelers have of opening up to each other, we quickly shared why we were in Italy and then got down to business.  She came here to do something she'd always wanted to do after her 35-year marriage broke up.
I told her about Dick and we mused about how the sudden, complete open-ended-ness of life is so disorienting, when suddenly there are so many choices and it really is just up to oneself. (Makes me think of my mom confessing that she splurged on Pepperidge Farm bread because she *could* !!)

We talked a bit about good trips and I mentioned the trip Dick and I took to French Polynesia and New Zealand, and how we met the wonderful Julie and Trevor on the ferry from Tahiti to Moorea when Dick took it upon himself to correct Jules' pronunciation of Moorea.  God, I remember so distinctly wanting to pull my hat over my face while he did that but the next thing you know he and Julie were swapping stories and it was clear we'd made new friends.  I told Annie how Jules had shocked us with her generosity in taking us around Auckland 3 days straight, and that it was all because Dick was .... Dick.

Well, we talked a bit more, and Annie pulled a card out of her wallet.
"Here: this has my address and phone number.  Give me a call when you come to Melbourne. Just say you're Jim from Assisi.  I'll remember you."

Another "why I love traveling" story:  so at the same place I met Annie, I met a couple from Scotland.  We talked about Andy Murray's chances at Wimbledon, the real possibility Scottland could secede from the UK, and they mentioned there was a choral concert tonight at One of the churches.  I headed over to tourist info and got the church and time.  Well, it was beautiful.  Works by Orff, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Tsaichovsky and others performed by four different choral groups.
They did a few chestnuts (the Randall Thompson 'Alleluia' for example) but most things I'd never heard before.  The end of the concert was all four groups singing a piece together, 7 parts -- a four-part SATB and a 3-part SAT counterpoint.  I was literally in tears at the end.  It was the music, the realization of place, the amazement that I was in Assisi walking streets St. Francis walked, the amazement at how rich life is, what a blessing to be able to hear this music, to be able to make music myself in my humble way, the beauty that all these people were combining voices to make ... this.

Beautiful.  Grateful.

Diet schmiet

After spending the morning and early afternoon tromping around Assisi, I ran into a very tired woman who turned out to be from Pittsburgh, so we had a very pleasant chat about the burg, Erie, and we agreed 100 percent that all this talk about the Mediterranean diet is a bunch of nonsense -- it has to be the *hills* and the *walking* !!

Put down the olive oil and do 30 flights of stairs.  Can't do it?  An Assisi nana can!!!

Catching up ...

A whirlwind the last few days:  Thursday spent a loooong day with Lara going to Pisa, Volterra and San Gimigniano.  Home at 11:30 pm.  Had a good boneheaded moment going out of Pisa.  We'd pulled over to make sense of the GPS and I put my flashers on.  Well they were silent and I forgot I had them on.  Fast forward a few minutes and as we turned to an intersection a very earnest Itslian man coming the other way gestured with his hands to get our attention and mouthed something to us. We couldn't make it out since it was Itslian after all.  He then rolled the window down and yelled to us.  We were so confused he must have been frustrated.  I am trying to think if I am about to make an illegal turn or something.  He then in desperation puts both hands in the air palms facing us, and starts to close/unfold them.   Well, I'm embarrassed to ait it but all I could think of was the baby from that movie "meet the dockers" who starts to use his hands for the milk sign when a rather buxom woman goes by.   Seeing we STiLL didn't get it, he sighed and drove off.  It was about two minutes later we figured out he meant the hazard lights.  Almost had to pull over again we were laughing so hard!

It was a very emotional Friday night and Saturday morning.  Really felt both Dick's absence and presence.  Everyone was very nice to me, particularly Wally in his Friday evening toast.  I was close to tears thanking everyone for making me feel so welcome.

After a final set of family pics on Saturday morning, Lara and I drove up to Florence for some shopping and a walk thru the Academia to see the David and then off to a final drink with Marta and Wally at their Florence hotel before dropping Lara off at the airport and driving .... Tired as hell ... To  Assisi.

The arrival in Assisi I'll leave for later.  Internet access is limited to the hotel lobby so no photo uploads until Rome.  Now off to Messe in Assisi's duomo, St. Rufino.  Ciao!

Italy Day 5 - Siena and Jim cooks dinner

Pictures on Picasa

Being written in haste - took a long time to process all the photos, etc. from a big Wednesday.

Got the day off to a good start by going for a short run, waking up early so I could be done well before our 8 am plan to leave.  Siena is the first excursion that unites all 16 of us.

Brian (Steve and Debbie's son) surprised Lara and I by riding in the car with us.  Fun discussion with him about movies, science fiction, life on other planets, time travel, etc.

Once we parked (I *love* this Fiat, BTW) ... we walked to a large open air market that teemed with shopping opportunities.  However, I was thwarted by camera problems and couldn't get the camera to take photos.  Because I've not yet studied the camera in detail, it took me a looooooong time to get back to taking photos, and even then I think I did not have the autofocus set up properly.

From the market, we took a "shortcut" thru a valley separating our area from the cathedral.  It was a fantastic walk down a stairway into the valley below, and then we were able to get a series of escalators back up to the other side at the base of the duomo.  Yours truly, being good and anticipating dinner, took the stairs (pats self on back).

Marta and Wally were very kind and treated us to the tour of the cathedral as a gift.  Words can't do justice to the cathedral, so look at the photos on picasa.   All I can say is that the sheer density of decor and splendor was overwhelming.  Learning, in the course of the tour, that much of this splendor was simply for rich families to show their status and wealth, took a little of the awe out the experience :-)

We were on our feet for a looooooong time with much climbing of stairs and walking, and after a very nice lunch (pasta with crunchy bacon in a cheesy cream sauce - magnifico!), drove home.

Upon arriving home, I promptly passed out in front of the computer, and then had my boneheaded moment of the day when I woke up.   Walked into the kitchen and saw it was 5:30 -- great, two hours to get things ready.   I started the broth for the risotto (24 cups for 16 people!) and then moved to washing/chopping.  After a few minutes, Marta, Wally and Lara came in and offered to help, and I *let* them wash and chop, but I objected that I had plenty of time and all was under control.   After more time, Marta pressed me about whether I needed more help, and I pointed out it was only 5:30 when *she* then pointed out that the clock was stuck on 5:30 and that it was actually 6:20.  Gulp!

They finished what could be done at that point in time, while I internally panicked.  Fortunately, Debbie came in and I put her to work sauteeing egg-washed/floured chicken breast scallopine as I did them, and then poor Ethan offered to help and I talked him thru the process of making risotto from scratch.  (Somewhere, Dick is smiling; it was 24 years ago that he first made risotto con funghi for me and then coached me thru my first attempt in the strictest Italian chef manner.)

With Debbie on chicken saute duty and Ethan on risotto duty, I got the green beans in (using mint/basil instead of dill, which NO ITALIAN SUPERMARKET SEEMS TO HAVE!   While I like the dill better, the mint/basil mix was an inspired alternative, if I do say so myself.)

With the beans in, I then switched my attention to making the chicken stock/lemon sauce for the Chicken Francese.  Lisa, who happened along, took care of grating the parmesan and making the salad, God bless her.

Last thing to do was pour sauce over the chicken, stick it in the oven, taste test the risotto with Ethan for done-ness, and cut the bread.

To my amazement, things pretty much were done at roughly the same time, and at 8:20, I was able to call the rest of the family in for the dinner.    Mike had remembered to open the Brunellos we picked up in Montalcini several hours before, so they were ready for us to enjoy.

All credit to Ethan for doing a superb job with that risotto, and everything else came out pretty good.

A very tired, happy-to-have-avoided-disaster moi had a couple glasses of wine and soaked up just how beautiful it was that this family was in Italy together (minus Kryssie's Amanda and Matt, Marta's Matt and family).  I think that had to be my moment of grace for the day - really taking in that we were here, that they'd all made the time/commitment to be there, and that I'd been invited along too.  Wow.

So what was basically a great day ended with one of my most favorite relaxing activities of all:  cards!  Brian was shuffling a deck and looking a little restless, so I asked him if he knew how to play Gin, and taught him.  We got started, then Debbie joined in and the three of us went in search of a table and light.  Brian picked it right up, and then Steve, Erica and Alyssa joined in and we switched to "I doubt it" aka "Bulls---".   Much laughing as people were exposed in baldfaced lies and attempts to put down more cards than they said they were putting down, and damn if Alyssa didn't have the best poker face and played the game perfectly, innocently laying her last card down without any of us noticing, sweetly calling out after Brian played that "Did you notice that I laid down my last card?"  Scary, to be honest.  Don't play poker with that girl, Jim.

So, moment of grace:  taking in the reality of this family gathering and how blessed we are to be able to do this.  Boneheaded moment:  the never-changing 5:30 pm clock - perfect for an eternal optimist like me.

Italy Day 4 - Pienza and Montalcino

Per usual, pictures on Picasa.

Had a better sleep last night than the night before, and slept in a bit before doing the blogging thing.
As I woke, some of the crew were out the door to head to Florence (Fiorenze) for a long day.  (That would be Dan, Kryssie, Ethan, Steve, Debbie, Erica and Brian).

The rest of us, led by the inexhaustible Amy and Mitch, headed off to Pienza, a really pleasant little town for the morning and lunch, and then Lara, Mike, Lisa and I went off to Montalcino for the afternoon.

Pienza is very pleasant, and as advertised by Amy, it was perfect for the morning and lunch.  It is much smaller than other places we've been so far, but within its town area, there were several really good shops, a nice cathedral to tour with nice views off the side, a pleasant little park, and a perfect lunch place.   This is the first town on this trip where I've noticed references to World War II, and we were all thoughtful about how much suffering this area endured, particularly when we saw a photo (see Picasa) of a woman and son under the eye of a guard.  The look of terror in the boy's eyes, the stress on the mother's face as she looks back behind her.  We may think the world is going to hell in a handbasket today, but it really was in the 40s.  Good to remember how easy we have it.

And how easy we have it!  My lord, the food on this trip.   Wally decided his palate needed cleaning before lunch, so off to the gelateria we went to take care of his gelato jones.  Lunch was not spoiled.   I had "Pici con Salsa Cinghiale" (homemade pasta with wild boar sauce).

After lunch, the men hung out in the park for a bit while the women shopped, and then Mike, Lisa, Lara and I went off to Montalcino.  Montalcino is very striking on the approach, sitting atop a big hill.
After parking, we walked several flights of stairs to reach the top of the hill and taking in the cathedral.  Nice but nothing too memorable.   We then stopped in a little park with a cute display of Snow White and the seven dwarves, took in the local view (some fun pictures posing on the wall of the city) and then went to a wine shop for a free tasting of the local Brunello wine, two bottles of which we wound up getting for the house.  Things got really memorable all of a sudden.  Gathering clouds turned to rain, and as we took shelter under a door ledge, the skies really opened up with lightning, thunder and, most spectactularly, hail.  This went on for some time, and after things quieted down a bit, Lara had the presence of mind to suggest we walk along one wall adjoining the wall, and this gambit succeeded in keeping the rain mostly off, and allowed us to duck into a charcuterie/boulangerie shop.  Inside, they had free samples of the local pecorino that they eat in all stages:  soft, semi-soft, and hard.  There were also some excellent salamis, and I had to pick up some.  There were also crackers that had the most wonderful pig fat of some kind that was flavored like ham and bacon, but much much better.   By the time we were done in there, the sun was back out and the streets dried up amazingly quickly.   We found a coffee shop/bathroom and while sipping coffees or beers, we watched a group of old men playing what we figured out later was Texas hold-em.   It looked like it was from a story or a movie.   Just fun to watch.

The drive home was more adventurous than I thought it would be.   Two candidates for bone-headed moment of the day took place in rapid succession, and then on the way back Lara was struck by some of the local castles we were driving by and twisted my arm to drive onto driveways marked "privato" (sometimes it is good not to understand Italian :-).   I did have the presence of mind to draw the line when we pulled up close to one castle and there was a sign warning us of "cane!" (dogs).

After dropping Lara off at the house, I headed off to find groceries for tomorrow's dinner.  I'm making Chicken Francese (got a great recipe off allrecipes.com), these green beans we cooked in the Turkish cooking class in Istanbul, and a porcini mushroom risotto.   It shocks me to report this, but Italian grocery stores are NOT LIKE US grocery stores.  Furthermore, it shocks me to report that Italian grocery stores do not have all the herbs and spices you'd think they would.  In this case, the one they don't have that is seriously pissing me off is dill.  Dill, according to Wikipedia, originated in the Mediterranean, and it is certainly used in Turkey, so what's up with that, Italy?   After spending far too much time trying to find dill (but enjoying all the different varieties of eggplant and cheese on display), I finally make it to the counter just as they dim lights in the store (guess the store closes early in the evening).  The woman at the counter shrieks at me and does enough to make me understand that I was supposed to self-weigh all the vegetables and herbs I'd picked up.   I scramble back to the produce section, a helpful guy assists me in weighing and printing stickers for my bags, and the last register open rushes me thru.   80 euros for the ingredients for Wednesday's meal.  Well, that's only 5 euro per person, so maybe not so bad.

Now, about those bone-headed moment contenders:  the first one is the winner, but by a hair.  On our way back to the car, we passed a young couple at the ticket machine where you pay for time in advance, and as I approached our vehicle, I was shocked to see the passenger door open and moaned to Lara that we'd left the door open the whole time (envisioning it being soaked from the rain).  I then opened the trunk, surprised to see things in the trunk that were NOT MY POSSESSIONS.  I turned to see the young couple running toward us in alarm before I took in the fact that the car I thought was ours was theirs, and our car (EXACT SAME MAKE/MODEL - GO FIGURE) was right next to theirs.  Well, we all had a good laugh once they understood my mixup.  Lara, Mike and Lisa rather helpfully pointed out that this would have to be my bone-headed moment of the day (nice to have friends looking out for me, huh?)

The runner-up took place almost immediately afterward, and was courtesy of Gertie (my GPS).  Mike and Lisa were following me, Lara sitting shotgun in the Fiat, and it appeared that Gertie was not going to take us back the winding streets up the hill we took but was taking us a different way.  Well, I love different ways.   So, we're picking our way, and then it's not at all clear which way the GPS is telling us to go.  I hesitate, we make a turn, and Mike does not follow us (good for Mike, as I will reveal).  While we're proceeding down the new path Gertie has calculated, Mike calls to tell us we're crazy, and we're telling him, no, no, all good, the GPS is taking us a different way.  We go thru a narrow gate down a steep cobblestone street, and all of a sudden we are on a seriously steep, seriously unpaved rutted path.  STILL, we continue on thinking this is the coolest thing ever and that we're going to pop out onto a main road after a couple more hairpin turns.  Hah.  Suddenly, there is a "road closed" barrier and we're forced to turn onto a rutted driveway down to an old stone farmhouse.  We manage to do a U turn (keeping an eye on the sheer drop off to one side), and coming down the seriously steep, seriously unpaved road is a man on horse.  At first, I'm nervous that we've trespassed onto private property and are in real trouble, but hilariously the man on horse rides by like our presence there is the most mundane, unremarkable thing in the world, and praying that we don't bottom out on ruts or stall out the engine, I pick our way back up the rutted road.   Eventually Gertie does get us back out the way we came into the city, and this emboldens us to take some chances on those mysterious driveways marked with that unintelligible "privato".

Moment of grace yesterday:  Many contenders:  Nice chat with Marta while in Pienza checking in to see if I'm OK with all of the Dick and Laird echoes surrounding us.  Quiet moment prepping string beans for my stint as chef-du-jour tomorrow (Weds) with Lara assisting, and her turning to me to say, "You know, I think of you as more of a brother than an uncle".  (Smile.)   For that matter, escaping from the route Gertie the Garmin laid out for us leaving Montalcino probably should count for something.

Tomorrow we will be in Siena, the whole group traveling together for the first time.  (Poor Mitch and Amy, who will be our leaders.)  Fewer opportunities for trouble on the road, but probably lots of opportunities for trouble in the kitchen.  Fingers crossed all comes out well!

Italy Day 3 - Montepulciano

Day 3 started off in a very healthy way - I set the alarm for 6, work up at 6:30 and went out for a 4 or 5 km run listening to the "Heart Like A Wheel" album by Linda Ronstadt.

After a shower and breakfast, Marta's daughter Lara and I set off to find a bank that would redeem her Amex travelers checks on our way to Montepulciano, where we would meet up with Wally's son Mike and his wife, Lisa.    

Lara and I are proving to be kindred spirits in the "follow-your-nose, toss-the-plan" approach to travel.  We were not successful finding a place to take the Amex traveler's checks, another sign of Amex's decline, even though we stopped in 4 different banks.

(A funny aside:  All the Italian banks have the most extraordinary security system for entering and exiting the bank, and it is not for the claustrophobic.  You walk up to the door and are presented with a glass cylinder/sliding door.  You have to press a red button to open the sliding door, step in, rotate 180 degrees and then wait ..... for up to 10 seconds .... before the sliding door opens to let you in the bank.

One person at a time.    The whole thing cracked me up, but thinking seriously I imagine they didn't do this for jollies, so it must be necessary.)

Onward to Montepulciano:  we lost so much time trying to get those damn checks redeemed and then I pulled a boneheaded moment of the day that cost us more time, so that Mike and Lisa beat us to Montepulciano even though we had a good hour and a half start on them.  More on that later.

Montepulciano is set up top of a hill, like a lot of the places I've seen so far in Umbria and Tuscany.  Steep, steeeeeep roads from the walls up to the top.  One thinks about the donkeys from days of yore that broke their backs/died young from hauling materials up those roads.

We met up just as Mike and Lisa were starting to walk thru the town gate that separates the drivable approach to the pedestrian-only area inside the wall.   I dropped Lara off and parked the car, then met them up a good uphill walk to lunch.  Lunch was quite fun - funky little place with a great view of the plains below, excellent food, nice server, and quite a character of a proprietor who walked around singing a 1950s Italian song (name I cannot remember for the life of me) and kissy-hugging all the women, touchy-touchy all the men.   Fun, and if it was not sincere, he was a good actor.   Used my phone app to confirm with our waitress that service was included, getting a blush and a giggle out of her, but leaving her a few euros richer anyway.

We climbed up steep, twisty alleyways to the good view from the city, then up to the cathedral.

Very nice cathedral, was able to get photos of lots of paintings.  I observed a *free* winetasting - did I mention it was free? - and Lara and I decided to give that a try, while Mike and Lisa ran back to get their car before parking expired and headed off to enjoy quiet time checking out a few small towns on the way home while Grandma Marta and Grandpa Wally supervised daughter Alyssa's pool time.

Montepulciano is known for its vino nobile Montepulciano wine, and there are "Etruscan caves" all around the city where wineries have set up huge casks to make wine, and wine shops selling Montepulciano wine dot the streets of town.   Hat tip to the never-anything-but-fabulous Mary Anne McDavit for the suggestion to go to Montepulciano in the first place, intriguing me with stories of good wine, bring your own storage container and have it tapped from the barrel for you, etc.).  Alas, forgot my 20-gallon jug, and so we had to buy wine the old fashioned way after the really interesting walk (not really a tour) down three flights of stairs *inside* the mountain into the cave where some really humongo casks were set up holding the 2011 wine.   The guy who gave us the wine tasting told us that the winery had been in existence since the 14th century, and had only recently been sold by the last surviving family member to a commercial wine enterprise.  We tried a couple wines, bought a really nice 2007 Montepulciano reserve wine for 30 euros, and a 2009 Tuscan blend wine (San Giovese, Merlot, Cab Sauvignon - yum!)

No real adventures on the way home, but we stopped on the way in Pienza to find a birthday cake for Wally (long story) before Lara had to get home to cook.

Dinner was delish, and we had a nice night under the stars going around the table talking about what was new in our lives and what we saw on the horizon.   Nice evening, and particularly cool to hear so many interesting things opening up for Mike and Lisa and daughter Alyssa; Steve and Debbie, their soon-to-wed daughter Erica, and irrepressible son Brian;  Kryssie, Dan and son Ethan (news of the other kids duly reported, so don't feel left out Matt, Amanda and Sabrina);  my cohort-in-crime Lara; and of course the raison d'voyage, Mitch and Amy.

After dinner and maybe a few too many glasses of wine (though I alternated with water!!!), I sat down to do my blog thing and write a few emails, which leads me to my moments for the day:

Moment of grace:  My niece Lizzy sneaks in and claims the prize by sending me the most beautiful email (I miss you too, honey - but will see you on the holidays!), though sister-in-law Tracy was definitely in the running with some nice photos of my nieces and a wish to be remembered (duly delivered) to Marta and Wally.

My "Jim screw-up moment" -- has to be my cockiness at using the GPS to find my way to different places.  I had been taking short cuts entering the city, but skipping the street and taking one at random from the list the GPS offered.  This had actually worked pretty well on my drive from Rome to Vescado di Murlo, but today it failed rather spectactularly.   It turns out that Montepulciano is not just the name of the city, but is also the name of a larger region (sort of the difference between Erie city proper and Erie county).  We wound up about 15 clicks away from Montepulciano city before we realized my stupid error, and had to work our way back to meet Mike and Lisa.

I will tantalize you with the parting thought that Lara and I get into more trouble and I have a bigger bone-headed moment on Day 4.  But for now,   ..... ciao!

Pictures, per usual, in Picasa

Italy Day 2 - Murlo

A quiet day today.  Slept in until 9:30, enjoying the sound of nearby church bells.  Somehow I managed to sleep thru the bells when they ran at 7 am (I *was* tired!).   Breakfasted with the group, did the blogging thing, had a very necessary shower, unpacked, recharged various devices, and then had a bit of lunch (yeah, it's a hard life).   Right after lunch, Lara and I were the intrepid ones who felt like venturing out, so we went for a walk to the nearby village of Murlo.

Murlo is perched on a bit of a hill and is a walled town, having a single gated entrance off the road.  The walls of the town are basically residential townhomes, surrounding an old castle that has been made into a museum showcasing local Etruscan artifacts.  After looking around the museum and enjoying views from the upper floors, we took a stroll thru the tiny village (maybe ~50 residences all told) and stopped into a fun little restaurant, Il Libridinoso for a bottle of much needed water (it was hot!).

The restaurant had a beautiful view off the back terrace, so we sat down and relaxed a bit.  One thing that was really fun about the restaurant were the whimsical drawings that were displayed everywhere, menus and walls, based on a puppet-like character.  We got to talking with the local proprietress of the restaurant who explained that all the drawings were the work of an old character from the community, that the restaurant was named for the cartoon character, and that basically the name referred to the mix of intellectual and base thoughts always competing in the mind.  Sure enough, with a bit more scrutiny, we realized that word balloons coming out of the mouth of Il Libridinoso were sayings (translated into Italian) from Confucius, Brecht, Oscar Wilde, and of course that important philosopher, Groucho Marx, while lines linked to images of what the character was thinking about (food, drink, olive oil, naked women, etc.)   Fun!

The proprietress was a bit of a character herself:  very friendly, short-cropped black hair that on inspection had stripes of purple mixed in.   It turns out she used to run a bar not far from our villa in Vescado di Murlo, but the chef was a bad one who wound up giving a large number of people food poisoning, so she wound up having to close.

On the (hot) walk back, we stopped to pick wildflowers. which were growing in abundance along the road.  Beautiful red day lilies of some sort, Queen Anne's lace, daisies, a purple/blue/red flower reminded me a bit of salvia in the shape of the flower.  Lara had quite a nice bouquet by the time we finished.  (All the while sneezing due to her allergy to olive trees, from which there was no escape).

The rest of the afternoon we hung out by the pool with the rest of our group, then munched on some homemade pizza, a bit of vino, apricot and blackberry tarts for dessert, and a game Lara brought called "Right Left Center" that basically involves rolling dice and hoping that your dice don't have you passing tokens to the left, right or into the discard.  Last person with a token left wins, and that person was ......... me!

Moment of grace for the day:  toss-up -- thoroughly enjoyed that chat with the woman in the restaurant, but also enjoyed the wildflowers and the walk.

Boneheaded moment of the day:  competitive me getting excited when I won tokens off an ..... Eight. Year. Old. Girl.   Fortunately for me, her dad Mike has a "bit" (lot) of the Newberry competitiveness in him, so Alyssa wasn't too traumatized.  It wound up being her and me in the end, so it could have been either of our win.  As she said, "First is worst, second is best!".  Well said, Alyssa, well said.

Italy - 6/14 - 6/28

So, I'm in Italy sitting in what used to be a small hotel that's now a villa in the little village of Vescado di Murlo outside Siena.  I am here thanks to the kindness of Marta Reyes-Newberry, her husband Wally and their family.  Marta is my "sister in-law-in-law" (Dick's deceased partner Laird's sister), and it is both amazing and a real gift the way they have taken me into the family.   Marta and Wally spent a week ago with Dick and I just as Dick was starting hospice, and to say that their presence meant the world to us both then is understatement of the year.

Why are we here?  Marta's youngest son, Mitch, and his wife, Amy, have spent the last 5 months here in Siena with a group of study abroad students from Lewis and Clark University in Portland, Oregon, where Mitch teaches rhetoric.   Marta and Wally have secured this villa and a large chunk of their children and grandchildren are now gathered here for the week.

This is probably the least organized I've been for a trip in some time.   We will be here 6/15 - 6/22, and then I have a weekend to tour Umbria solo, then will be in Rome for 4 days, returning to the U.S. on Friday 6/28.   I need to get my reservations in for a Wednesday visit to the Vatican (perhaps see the Pope!) and figure out where I'm going to stay Saturday/Sunday night (thinking of doing a long bike trip thru the countryside on Sunday after church -- see? not too well-planned :-)

I impressed myself yesterday by being much more energetic than I realized.   (I was invited to try to hook up with a group of the family touring Rome the day I arrived, but I was pretty sure I'd be toast after the flight (7:30 arrival) and would just want to find a quiet spot to nap once I got the rental car. Plus, I wasn't sure I'd have the energy for a full day in Rome then driving 3 hrs up to Siena.

It is a good thing I didn't try -- after a necessary double-espresso at the airport and an hour wait for the shuttle to the rental car agency (grr) and then waiting for my turn to get my car, it was 10:30 when I finally hit the road.   I'd decided to head toward two lakes north and west of Rome, near the city of Viterbo, figuring there would be a park or a beach where I could find a shady spot and stretch out on my beach towel.   Turns out I was feeling much more energetic than I thought, so after having a nice lunch in Roncigilione, I headed up to Monefiascone to see the cathedral, taking in a view of the lake it overlooks, then drove to Orvieto (hat tip to Bob Shelton for the suggestion -- knew it would be a good idea to get ideas from him!).

Interestingly, Montefiascone and Orvieto both are similar in that the cities are set on top of a hill and are very striking to see as you approach (Orvieto is particularly so for the sheer face of the cliffs on which it is perched).  Photos of both are in picasa.

Every day, I want to write at least two things: (1) a moment of grace/gratitude, and (2) the "boneheaded Jim Hohman maneuver for the day".

So .... there were several moments of grace on day 1.  The one I will pick, though, happened Friday afternoon just as I was getting out of my friend Paul's car to go into the airport.  He very graciously offered to drive me to JFK and sleep-deprived moi was all-too-happy to not have to strain my frazzled  brain.  As I started to get out of the car, he said he wanted to give me something for safety on my trip, and pulled a bracelet of elastic string, beads and little stones decorated with images of angels from various renaissance paintings.  Needless to say, I was very touched, and angels are on my wrist as I type this.   Runner-up moments:  a nice couple I got chatty with as we waited (and waited) for the shuttle to the rental car;  being alone in the Montefiascone cathedral and singing the Persichetti Mass "Kyrie", hearing my voice fill the space;  a nice couple on the airplane who saved me from forgetting my hoodie (on the floor);  talking to Dick as I drove out of the airport, thinking of him at lunch in Ronciglione (he would have just loved the view); my first full view of Orvieto; a beautiful view into a valley as I drove northwest from Orvieto to Siena; a hearty welcome from the Reyes-Newberry family!

The boneheaded maneuver had a few contenders too, but the winner was walking right into the money can of  a "living statue" and sending coins flying all over the street.   As I strugged to find the word "perdone!" (first words, over and over: "I'm so sorry!") I bent down to gather the coins, not thinking she probably would be suspicious of my gathering up her money, and the poor thing broke pose while we picked up coins.  Of course, I dropped several euros in myself and was able to get a smile from her before she resumed an (unsmiling) pose.   Other contenders:  sure that they had given me a car without A/C or it was not working, I had a little freak-out on the attendant who calmly pointed out the (unintuitive to me) control for the A/C;   a moment of panic an hour later when I thought I couldn't get the car into reverse and, after many tries, realized that I had to pull up a mechanism on the bottom of the  ball for the gear-shift (thank God my father had his sons learn to drive standards!).