Sunday Morning Musings 8.21.05

I slept really late yesterday, after my sleepless night the night before, getting up around 10:30! Bob was already awake, which is really unusual, it's always the other way around. He had already had his coffee and was doing his homework (our new Professoressa gave us a bunch to work on) and the table was filled with all of our Italian books, dictionaries etc. He was waiting for me to have breakfast. It was such a gorgeous day (and the table was so full!) we decided to take our meal outside in our yard. There is a hibiscus tree next to the gazebo and it blooms flowers that start out pink and turn purple. It's covered with them right now. There are still a few roses blooming, some pinks and reds. The forsythia that was golden in the spring turned green early in the summer and is a deep green now. The lavender is starting to show signs of aging and its flowers are fading. Summer is not over yet, but there are signs of its passing.

Yesterday, after breakfast I worked on the images I wanted to post with my writing and we went over to the Internet café to check email and post the blog. It was pretty empty and Giovanna, our friend who owns the place, sat beside me on another computer doing some research. We asked her if she ever had a day off - not really - it's open from 10 to 10 7 days a week, maybe a few less hours on Sunday. She has a teenage son, a big burly kid around 17 years old, who is one of these boys who loves to play video games and is always on the computer doing just that. He helps out if she has to dash off to take care of something. Anyway, we asked her if she could ever get away and have a pizza with us some time and she laughed but said that perhaps when Giuseppe came back she could. We asked where he was and she said "Sicily." "Sicily!!" we said in unison (because we have been researching this island quite heavily and trying to talk to everyone who knows about it firsthand). Yes, she said, his father lives there. "His father lives there???" "And do you know Sicily?" we were eager to know. "Certo! She said (of course!) "I LOVE Sicily!" she replied! We were so excited. We started asking her all these questions, she brought up a website and showed us all the beautiful places she insisted we visit when we go. I asked what it was about Sicily in particular that she liked so much and she looked at me and thought for a moment and said "The Life." "The People." "It's beautiful and different and don't let silly movies scare you. It's not that big and it has so much to see and do, you will probably never want to leave." We made her promise to come and visit us and she said she would.

It is absolutely invaluable to get information from people who have actually experienced a place and can tell you just where to go. She promised she would make us a list of places and tell us more about it but she thought, yes, it was a perfect place for us to go for the winter because the climate is so mild and yes, there might be some wind, but isn't that preferable to freezing cold and snow?? We agreed. So, more and more, little by little we are formulating our plan of what to do next. This has been a big issue and one we discuss often. So we are closer now. We will stay in Perugia through November and then get on the road heading south and find a temporary place to live while we look for an apartment. We have also been emailing a friend of Art & Barb who lives in Sicily and is willing to talk with us and give us her 2-cents worth so we are putting one foot in front of the other again and we'll see where we end up.

We were so excited when we left Giovanna's, talking and laughing and hurrying because the sky had grown dark and it felt as if it was going to rain any minute. Bob suggested we grab a bottle of wine and our umbrella and go down to our View to watch the storm roll in. Esther, our August neighbor popped her head out when we passed and we invited her to join us. She laughed, with the impending storm, but grabbed a jacket and followed us down.

It was already starting to sprinkle but the grape leaves above us kept some of it from falling on our heads and we noticed that Giovanni, the gardener had been hard at work weeding and trimming in that part of the garden - probably just that morning since we could see signs of the work he had done, in the neatness of the garden there and in the piles of trimmings he had not yet cleared away. Giovanni's gardening techniques amaze me. He has a really heavy hand at times I think, like the way he ties up an unruly flower bush as if it were a tomato plant! Much the same way we watched him tying the branches of the grapes around the arches, firmly, and without hesitation, as one who has lived with a garden all his long life and is going to show it who's in charge. My own gardening style (which always reminded me of my parenting style!) was to let the plants grow the way they wanted to, expressing their own individual styles and snipping some unruly parts but usually not early enough and allowing them be a little wild and rough around the edges, enjoying the natural beauty of something with a life of its own.

But I digress!

We shared a glass of wine with Esther telling her about Giovanna and Sicily but it started to rain pretty hard so we came back upstairs and sat talking with her in our kitchen. Doug and Esther are our current neighbors. A really terrific young couple, I've written about them already - they are sculptors who are studying the language so they can go and carve stone in a town called Pietrasanta near Pisa where very little English is spoken. Doug came in after a while and we decided to fix an impromptu supper for all of us. They added their bottle of wine to ours, Esther brought in a barley salad to go with my caprese and Bob and I cut the beautiful yellow, red and green peppers, onions and garlic we had just bought at the market the day before. I put some sausages in the oven to cook, sautéed the vegetables and heated a loaf of bread. Conversation flowed along with the wine and we talked and laughed until it was late and we were all tired.

The rain lasted all night. I laid awake listening to the sounds of it pouring down around us. This morning the sun is going in and out through a mottled sky of grey and while clouds. I don't know if they are predicting more rain but it is another beautiful morning. I think I'll go make some coffee.

Buon giorno,
Rosemary