• Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Of the Ligurian Sea.

    April 8, 2018 - By 

    It was for R’s upcoming birthday that we made the plan to go to Cinque terre…the ‘five lands’…referring to a group of fishing villages that for many years only had German and Swiss tourists. Now, thanks to unnamed American travel writers, overrun with Americans. I have to say that I didn’t know what to expect. Sure, it is true that I have had too many details in my head but after managing to accidentally make reservations to go to place seven hours’ away from where I intended to…(hey, I was processing so much!), I was able to reboot and find…

  • Darkness - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    153 days.

    April 8, 2018 - By 

    It has been 153 days. Centocinquantatre’ giorni. One hundred and fifty three days of supermineralized water, watching where I step on the street, listening to conversations on the street and in the train…and looking for more music to enjoy. (Ti sto venendo, L.) 153 is the code for mental processes and intelligence in the Dewey decimal system. 153 is the sum of the first 17 integers. 153 is, apparently, a sonnet by William Shakespeare. 153 is the atomic number of an element temporarily called “Unpenttrium”. 153 giorni. 153 days. With the beginning of the warm some trees are starting to…

  • Being Human - This really happened. - Travelling

    L’Ambulanza italiana

    March 28, 2018 - By 

    It was maybe the first spring-ish day we have had thus far. Lucky for me I got to spend  it in an ambulanza per la prima volta — an ambulance…for the first time in my life and then, on a gurney in the green hallway of the Ospedale Policlinico di Milano. I was considered “Code Green”…Codice Verde. It was not my fault…nor might it have been the fault of the verbi pronominali that I was learning when I realized I was starting to faint. All’improvviso, I am now sul pavimento — on the floor. But alas, I don’t think it…

  • Darkness - Difficulty - For fun. - Light - Loss - This really happened. - Travelling

    Superpowers.

    March 16, 2018 - By 

    Look at me, walking down the street. I have a swagger. My swagger says that I have almost made it through winter. I have the confidence of a woman who can almost completely avoid something disgusting and offensive on the street…with a sixth sense…without even looking down. It is only the bandage on the back of my right heel which betrays my current nearly-successful attempt at finding just the right, practical, sturdy and awesome pair of shoes. The sun is out. There is a soft breeze. I am wearing my black turtleneck. My black jacket. My uniform. My awesome black…

  • Being Human - Difficulty - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    An expat in blue jello

    March 11, 2018 - By 

    But what, oh what, is a little old-ish expat to do on a rainy Sunday morning? After a breakfast of colomba and tea and strawberries from yesterday’s market…it is hours and hours before we can listen to the news we like on the internet. I apologize in advance…this post is a bit disordinato. And podcasts, yes, we listened to them most of yesterday, after going early to the mercato — another rainy day. But early at the mercato there were fewer people, hurrah, as well as strawberries, later-season artichokes (but I bought twenty of them anyway), onions, cabbage, garlic, mint,…

  • Art - Being Human - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Mountains on the moon…Firenze.

    February 18, 2018 - By 

    We have disappointed our hosts, again. They left us slippers to use…pantofole…but we have not used them. Le pantofole were left for us, on an embroidered linen towel, next to the bed. Apparently we are cretins. But you know, it was not because of us that the glass table exploded yesterday morning at breakfast. It just — shattered. Il tavolo esplosivo. For no reason. At what point does tempered glass stop being tempered? Like a person…does it hit its limit, finally, just like the most patient, the most ‘tempered’, of us? I have fallen in love, all over again…and yet,…

  • This really happened. - Travelling

    Two bars of soap & artichokes.

    February 9, 2018 - By 

    It has been three months now. We have finished two bars of soap, a tube of toothpaste and I have bought a second set of sheets. After all, when you don’t have a dryer and it is winter…sleeping on wet sheets the same day you wash them is…very cold. I am getting the hang of things. All the company has gone now — I think I already had mentioned that. We are back to work and school as well, also as I think I had mentioned. I am happy to report that I have been able to get some help…

  • Fear - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    The Post Office.

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    I am sweating. I am gripped with fear. I am at the post office. This errand, in particular, I have been avoiding for weeks. Yes, we ordered some sneakers for R from amazon.it (don’t judge…it has been a lifesaver) and no, they didn’t work out. So yes, with my prepaid packing label taped to my package (yes, I had to do a lot of research just to find tape), I mapped out the way to the closest Poste Italiane and walked there. When I arrived, rehearsing in my head, over and over “devo restituire questi pacchetti” (I have to return…

  • For fun. - This really happened. - Travelling

    Camels, the Pantaloni & the Haircut

    January 21, 2018 - By 

    Not because of the hump on my back or because of mia pancia (…eating cheese? me? No…) But because the world is turning from Black to Grigio and although there are coated and shiny jeans everywhere, there are also cropped pants in tweed, in subtle stripes, swinging with movement or not , swish, swish, with derby shoes, with low boots….Doc Martin-style, red wing American boots or something sleeker and black. The streets are awash with COATS…caramel, with caramello…with camel…over these lovely pantaloni, over shiny or leather black jeans. A camelly and carmelly world! And turtlenecks. Always turtlenecks these days. That…

  • Childhood - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Bergamo

    January 5, 2018 - By 

    She told me that what she missed the most was that in winter, when the day was sunny, that the actual sun actually warmed the landscape. Because in the North, in the U.S., a super sunny day can also be subzero, fahrenheit. What a novel idea…that the sun is warm?! We were walking down from the Città Alta, the Upper city of Bergamo. We had gone up on the Funicolare and were now walking down on the top of the city walls. On the landscape were the close Alps and farther afoot, we could see the Appennini…the mountains that run…

  • Difficulty - For fun. - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Venice: slag & vaporetto roulette.

    December 30, 2017 - By 

    Venice…Venezia. I want to embrace you. Wrap my arms around you. I adore you. I am excited just being here. I cannot explain the reason why — I have no idea. I love the green Adriatic, rising and falling between your structures. Buildings, where we stand and sit and rest and eat — always knowing that sea life is teeming under us. I love knowing that the magical underneath is always underneath me. I love knowing that while I sleep, octopus chase in the deep below. You are amazing. You are a hodgepodge of old and new and good and…

  • Difficulty - Food - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Two months now.

    December 27, 2017 - By 

    And now, two months. I can understand the italian on the train, on the street. The bartender last night told me that I spoke very well…and then I answered him and messed up my pronouns — as if to prove him wrong. We have had family arrive…teeny apartment now teenier. We are playing tour guides to our kin, providing train cards to all. Had a big test in class. Big one. Disappointing but so much progress and so far to go. Such a big thing to try to adjust my expectations of myself. Always having been an “A” student, realizing…

  • Blessings - Food - For fun. - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Doppelgängers & cream.

    December 6, 2017 - By 

    It is my first time in England. Me, who called our rabbit King George because he thought he was the boss of everyone. I have so many small observations — so I am just gonna lay them here. On Doppelgängers:  There is a doppelgänger here for almost every person I know back in the States.     Are you all Brits from back in the day? The Tate Modern museum in London is named for the guy who invented cubed sugar.  Ain’t never gonna see sugar cubes again without thinking of the Tate Modern and how R couldn’t wait to…

  • Being Human - For fun. - This really happened.

    Learning to swear.

    November 17, 2017 - By 

    Today I learned to swear. Like…really. My family will tell you that like — for a million years — I haven’t been a big “swear-er”.   Nope.  Not super big.   But — I did begin to swear — quite a lot — about a year ago…November 8th. Draw your own conclusions. Then…about six weeks ago R said to me — ‘ok, I know that you are expressing yourself in this way now….but it has been ten months….can you please stop now?’ Which I thought was pretty funny. When I lived in the South — when you wanted to comment…

  • Fear - For fun. - This really happened. - Travelling

    La doccia, i dolcetti e la piccola danza.

    November 10, 2017 - By 

    Avevo paura…ho avuto paura…avevo avuto paura. Prima, avevo paura delle molte cose.   I have been afraid…I was afraid…I had been afraid. But now — now I am brave. The first thing that I was afraid of, when I arrived, was the shower. You know, the shower.  As in — a way for me to become clean again after walking miles and miles through the city.  Or after sleeping.  Or after cooking with garlic. The shower is very, very narrow (la doccia è molto stretta — quasi troppo…).  It is probably only about twenty-two inches square…and the shower entry is…