| I T A L I A |
| Highlights and Selective Memories |
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| Casey and Sophia--reminders of romantic tales of yore. Beautiful children enjoying each other with the purity of innocence. They had never met but were soul mates as soon as they saw each other--each had been looking forward to the other. Casey speaks English--as he frequently would say "I speak English--a lot." Sophia speaks Italian. Didn't make a difference as they both speak the language of children at play. They ran the fields together, dug sand holes at the beach of Talamone, swam the waves, had their "lunch date", chased the dog--in other words, they were picture book children. Casey doesn't forget Nico's invitation to visit "by himself" when he is older--next year. Nico and Elena, our Montepulciano friends, are Sophia's parents. |
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| 2003 |
| The First and the Best: Most certainly the most amazing part of this trip was introducing an almost 5 year-old to the joys of Italia. We love visiting Italy--a land that has welcomed us several times--always warmly and with new adventures. The adventure this time was seeing the land and experiencing its people in a new and wonderful way. The eyes of a child see differently than grown-ups eyes and a child's comments and observations can demonstrate amazing insight. Often our pleasure came not from the magnificence of the cathedral but from the awe in a little boy's eyes as he stood transfixed in front of the tableau. And--rather than driving white roads in search of the mystery around the next curve, we found every playground in every small and isolated village. Do we treasure the memories of 2003? More than I can say. |
| Our first and most exhilerating memory is arriving in Rome from Barcelona, getting our car and finding ourselves driving the roads of familiar and beloved Tuscany. We just looked at each other, smiled and felt that we were home. The land was familiar, the hills beckoning, the memories of past trips vivid and filling us. We both felt relaxed, alive, and happy. We zipped along the highway taking in each familiar sight and turn in the road-- sensing our excitement grow exponentially as we neared our "home away from home" Sant' Antonio in Montepulciano. There is no place in the world that has the ambience of the hills of Tuscany. If you have been there--you agree. If you are going--your love affair is about to begin. |
| We had a fun and relaxing day at Talamone. Unlike most Italian beaches with rows of lounges, umbrellas, cabanas and thousands of people crowding the sand, Talamone is a small beach at the tip of the Monti dell'Uccellina (The Maremma Nature Park.) We spent the day here with wonderful Aunt Paola (Sophia's great aunt) who rented lounges for us and let us all share her cabana. We were able to relax, watching the water ebb and flow as the children dug in the wet sand, making sand castles and other mysterious creations. The water here is calm and shallow so it is perfect for children. When we decided we were hungry, we just meandered up to the little beach side restaurant which cooked up wonderful pasta, shellfish and other seafood. Casey, much to our surprise and his, found that squid is quite good. Even in a little place like this, food is yum-yum good. The fish I had was spectacular. Later in the afternoon, we drove the short distance to Paola's house up in the hills, where she and Franco shared the notorious Italian hospitality which is such a pleasure to experience and accept. If you are wanting to go to the beach--but are not enthralled with the European beach scene, you would probably enjoy it here. It's only an hour or two from Montepulciano below Grosseto. |
| Scooby, Cinco and their three, unnamed campanions--as well as Uncle Duesy added unexpected dimension to our experiences. We discovered on this trip that only children tend to create their own entourage. In our case it was 5 dogs and the invisible, magical uncle. Somewhere along the way, we picked up Scooby who then needed a companion so Cinco showed up (we were in Spain a while before Italy) and then three more were with us for a short time. Unfortunately, Scooby was not well behaved and kept jumping in the front seat and being mischievious in myriad other ways. Casey needed to scold him quite often. Cinco, on the other hand, had a very well developed sense of proper doggy demeanor and always did what was right. He crossed with the lights, did not hide under the beds and, certainly, didn't lick the cereal bowl! We were all pleased to find that both of them knew how to behave in restaurants and didn't bother the other diners--as, Casey pointed out to us one night, they were quite invisible. Uncle Duesy joined us along the coast of Spain and stayed with us quite a while. In fact, occasionally, we find that he is here with us in San Diego. Uncle Duesy had a lot to say about things we should and should not do--including what would make interesting day trips. We were all sad when he needed to leave us for a while in Spain but he did find us later. Here are pictures of Uncle Duesy, Scooby and Cinco as drawn by Casey. . |
Scooby and Cinco
playing with their
ball.
playing with their
ball.
Uncle Duesy
waving goodbye.
waving goodbye.
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