• Suleiman the Magnificent
    Family - Food - For fun. - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    The Sultan’s Favorite

    October 21, 2024 - By 

    So there I was, sitting in Izmir, Turkey, overlooking the sea. I love the Aegean. Yeah, in my own mind. The truth is I was not at the Aegean yesterday. I was not in Turkey. I was with Asli, a daughter of the town of Izmir and her husband Ilgaz – at their home in Georgia. But I have to say that last night I was in Turkey. First of all, when we arrived, you cannot imagine what we saw: On every surface there were ingredients: cheeses and four kinds of seafood and lamb and walnuts and several aromatic oils…

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

    In attesa – waiting

    June 22, 2022 - By 

    While we watched an Italian game show, we packed. So it was extra easy the next morning to take off after breakfast. Of course that was after I spilled a whole bottle of water on the breakfast counter “ho sbagliato!”  (oops) Linate is always the super facile airport.  It’s like venti minuti – twenty minutes to be there, super easy everything.   The plane was fast and we arrived at Napoli.   Così pazzo.  So nuts there.  Thousands of people. Our driver found us.  Paola.  Come si aspetterebbe— As one might expect there were at least six quasi-incidenti – almost-accidents before we even emerged from the parking lot.   We chatted in Italian for the whole more-than-an-hour.  She drove…

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

    Mille passi – a thousand steps

    June 19, 2022 - By 

    There is a place I have wanted to go. But last time I was not mobile and it was not possible. It was great to be there. Nothing crazy, nothing fancy. Just joy. Stone steps, antiquities. Religious frescoes  (why oh why do I love them so much?). I go to the garden. Hydrangeas – ortensie,  hosta, ferns – felci, come nel mio proprio giardino — as in my own garden.  Beautiful comfort. I peek in on the sculpture class in the studios. I am reminded of how we chip away at our lives, adjusting, adjusting, always adjusting. There is a story I have heard of Michelangelo…

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

    Questi stivali – these boots.

    June 17, 2022 - By 

    It was many years ago during a dermatological excision that we, in our family, learned that Nancy Sinatra could be associated with surgical procedures. At the time, the doctor, a 70-something eccentric, loved to listen to his music — loud — while holding a scalpel.   So, “Summer Wine” and “These Boots were Made for Walkin”, previously favorite Nancy Sinatra songs from my childhood, took on new meaning, involving Tylenol, gauze, well – you can imagine. This association is so ridiculous — that we cannot hear these songs without glancing at each other and grimacing. It’s a type of pop-song-flavored PTSD. So…

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

    Mercoledì

    June 16, 2022 - By 

    The city is hot.  We are on the numero 15 tram…stiamo andando in centro – we are going to the city center.  Per the government order people are masked.  But a few, purtroppo, no. We smell caffè, cigarette smoke. Through the open door we see a musician sitting, playing soprano saxophone.   The air is still.   The sound carries. C’e’ una ristorante di Pizza – a pizza restaurant, another, poi uno dopo un altro…then one after another.  Empty. Tables set. At the ready for i turisti…tourists. And there are plenty of tourists.  As many as I have ever seen, except at Natale. And it’s Wednesday. Fittingly,…

  • Blessings - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    I prossimi passi …the next steps

    June 15, 2022 - By 

    We did it. We flew. The first day I always think — I am fine. But it is not until the third day that I understand that I was not fine. But I will be. I always am. We are here deliberately to soak up inspiration. Beauty. Joy. We are here to hold hands and to dream. Not knowing how to begin again after the world changed, we just took off walking, trying to wrap the city around us again. This block, that block, street by street our former life began to unfurl itself. More and more things familiar. We…

  • Blessings - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Il blu — and the parrot.

    December 6, 2019 - By 

    Faccio un casino. I am a bit of a mess. Time zones, eh. I am meeting B, of ambulance fame, for lunch. (L’ambulanza italiana) Our epic ride together forged an already burgeoning friendship. She is brave. So very brave. Walking the blocks towards the Crocetta station, boarding the train towards Comasina. I get off at the Duomo. Greeted by its morning glow…and armed soldiers. It whispers to me “benvenuta!” Benvenuta. Welcome. Benvenuto — I whisper to the train as I get back on towards Reppublica. We share an almost three-hour lunch, walking back through the markets near Porta Garibaldi, looking…

  • Family - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Sajid.

    May 1, 2019 - By 

    It was the most indulgent of rides. We scheduled a three-stop-transport…from upper Brooklyn down to his neighborhood…and then to the airport. Sure we could have taken the train. But not today. When A was in the car we discussed graduate school, summer plans, ideas for October. When he got out, after the kiss and hug and goodbye and the “don’t slam the door” I said to the driver…good afternoon, how is your day going? “It is chilly, Spring, lovely,” he said. Then he offered, “ah, your big holiday has just ended.” “I know this”, he said, “because all the cab…

  • Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    I just jumped.

    June 8, 2018 - By 

    This year I learned to jump. It was my plan to do a language immersion — for as long as I was able to. (It was also my plan to write about the process earlier than this.) It was my first day of class that I could barely understand the teacher. I was embarrassed, ashamed, thought that I could and should do better. I went up to him afterwards: “Mi dispiace. Sembra che abbia dimenticato quasi tutto.”. (I am sorry — it seems that I have forgotten almost everything) He put his face right up next to mine. Now I…

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

    OsloOhhh.

    June 7, 2018 - By 

    Will you need help down the stairs, ma’am?, the flight attendant asks. No, I am ok going down, I tell him. After the next helper (so kind, I am overwhelmed) and the taxi we are at our destination. We are greeted with weathered leather chairs, mutton pillows. Panne velvet in gold. Fireplaces and stacked wood. I am familiar with the vibe of the heat-challenged North, even in Summer. I am so tired that I don’t think that I ever can move again. But there is dinner to be had. We decide to eat downstairs. At least there is food. And…

  • Difficulty - Family - Light - Loss - This really happened. - Travelling

    Seven months…interrupted.

    June 7, 2018 - By 

    I have given away our extra pantry items, our blender. We are down to the our tiniest bone of soap. Seven months. We had a text in the middle of the night. Someone we loved very much — gone. Reservations made. Ticketed. I am in the school office. Today is my last day, I tell them. But I have brought little cookies, biscottini, to my classmates and my teacher. I explain to them that I have had a death in my family. Oggi e’ il mio ultimo giorno, I say. Today is my last day. Tears are streaming down my…

  • Difficulty - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    In ruins.

    May 22, 2018 - By 

    We are on an island. A big one. A place where streets are broken and the trunks of olive tree trunks are, in some places, more than a meter in diameter. There are cows the color of coffee with milk and milk with coffee. In abandoned lots. They are stunning, queste mucche, attualmente. There are expanses of grasses. Of more abandoned buildings. You can tell the economy has not treated them kindly. The sky is large here. I have counted at least four colors of bouganville. And towering blooming prickly pears, way over our heads. And beautiful but molto pericoloso…

  • Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Un giorno normale — a normal day.

    May 12, 2018 - By 

    It was just a normal day. Up early, hulling strawberries for smoothies. We strip the bed to run the washing machine — which takes three hours — so the sheets can hang all day — so they can be fresh and dry when we sleep again. We open all the windows, wide. We have no screens. The morning air is lovely. We make tea. We snack on those apricots I got at the place down the street — the place owned by a large family from the South…where all the produce is amazing. At 8.15, the bells from the church…

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

    Six Months Now.

    May 9, 2018 - By 

    Six months, now. We have our favorite curry cashews. We now have fresh basil growing on our windowsill. And teeny red roses. I am now saving my new soap for our return. The weather is warmer, yet I am still in wool some days. Our world of black and grey is giving way to color. The black and cashmere and down has been replaced by black and grey t-shirts…yellow bags, red skirts, rose-gold shoes, orange scarves and white sneakers. And also for the women. Except for when it rains. When it rains everyone goes back to black and grey. Gelato…

  • Hope - This really happened. - Travelling

    The magical olive tree

    May 5, 2018 - By 

    We had just returned from a week away the night before and had all manner of clean laundry hanging to dry all over the apartment. I didn’t really want to leave early the next morning on another adventure because — truly, I was weary. Plus, it was supposed to be one hundred percent chance of rain — all weekend. I expressed this to R and we agreed to stay home that weekend. Then we discovered we couldn’t cancel the reservations. Sigh. So, I perfunctorily packed. We got up early, caught our taxi to the car rental across town. I argued…