Italia Impressions

The thing is when you're surrounded on all sides by beauty - the landscape, the people, the art... it makes you a little desperate. You just want to slow it all down so you can have it seep in deep. I remember a sci/fi film where the guy is able to be still and quiet in the center of things as they slowly moved around him- now that would be just the ticket.
A month in Italy (two weeks in the Abruzzzo region and 18 days in Tuscany) have left us both feeling really grateful and, like a wonderful meal, really, really full of images and impressions, experiences and even at points explosions of feelings.
We move on to France tomorrow, but before all this fades away a few humble impressions.
In no particular order...
- I know, I know it's a cliche', it's been written about a thousand times but I need to add my weak and shaky voice and say, "Italians in Italy drive like maniacs." I actually feel lucky to be alive to write this. Yes, they drive fast, too fast for the narrow, twisty, turning roads but it's more than that. It is an attitude. It says, driving is both fun and a very quick way to get where I want to go. Why would I slow down when I can go fast, why not pass on that curve on that hill with a semi-trailer approaching it will be fun. We will just miss each other by a hair and we will silently congratulate ourselves on our superior driving skills. In Canada if we see someone driving like they have a death wish we assume a) their drunk b) their young and inexperienced. Not so here. The young beautiful men, the old guys all hunched over the wheel, the old lady with the disconcerting look of someone who may not know where they are, the young mother with three kids un-seatbelted talking away and waving her hands, looking back over her shoulder to shout at someone...they all drive the same way. You come around a corner (there are lots of them on these windy roads) and there they are on your side, always on your side and a the last minute they swerve just that tiny bit out of your way so you don't both die. I have been a passenger for most of this, that is why we are both still alive. AJ is calm and cool as always, only once did he do that famous Italian gesture where you sweep your hand under your chin in the general direction of the person you are angry at, this of course means a lot of things. "You're and idiot, why don't you look where you're going, are you crazy!?"
There is a special breed of road warriors here; they are the motorcyclists. Again it is not just the young guys who think they can rewrite the road rules. I have yet to see a motorcyclist wait behind a car they ALWAYS and without exception pass on the right. Roaring up the middle of the road, scooting in at the very last possible moment before that semi hits them. I wish I had time to look up fatality statistics for these folk. I do know that when we were in a church in Sienna in a small side chapel there was a whole wall covered in motorcycle helmets. Now either these are all the lucky ones who fell off and survived or the ones who tempted fate one too many times. Enough, you get the picture. It's insane, it is Italy.

- They have the most wonderful libraries here. In the medium size town of Certaldo (Sher -taldo) where I write this the library is big, well organized, and has amazing, fast, accessible and cheap internet access, quiet and unlike many of internet cafès we have frequented NO smoke. We have used it as much as we can and will miss it when we go.

- Again tomes have been written about Italian food. Just to say that you would have to work at eating poorly here. Everything is fresh, available and relatively inexpensive. We have had so many delicious picnics with fresh bread, sliced meat, cheese, a few tart, green pickles, chilled wine. Because we can we have cooked most of our own dinners too. We shop every day for fresh produce and have eaten (too much) like royalty. We will remember the risotto cooked in champagne ( a recipe we picked up in Pescina) pasta will olive oil and garlic, grilled pork chops with fresh rosemary. All good, all simple, all Italian.

- Talk is not just communication here it is connection. People take time to stop, "Ciao, ciao." Hug, hug, kiss, kiss. You see them everywhere the groups of old guys wearing undershirts, baggy pants and suspenders sitting in groups laughing, pointing, waving their arms around in big circles, slapping the newspaper down on the table, laughing... the old gals in the street with their long black skirts, flowered blouses and big shopping bags stand very close to each other, leaning in the better to hear, the better to show interest? Everyone stops and talks as they shoot back their burning hot espressos, their lemoncellos, or their beers. There is a place and a space made for talk time. We need that, not just meetings, not just time specially set aside (Saturday night dinner parties) just time to talk without feeling like you should be doing something else.

It has been an amazing time and notice that there hasn't been a mention of the Uffizi, Pisa, Florence, the cathedrals, the museums. Oh we did all that too and when we look at the pictures we are still amazed. But what lingers, like the lavender in the air here are those people moments, the kindness, the warmth (the people and the sun) and the sense of well being. We are taking that with us on to France and hopefully home.

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