Reflections on Italy

I can feel parts of my almost four weeks in Italy already slipping away. I will have pictures available soon.

I come away mostly with a feeling of richness from my experience. I met wonderful people, made new friends and acquaintances, and earned a "ciao" on the streets of Montisi.

For a chronicle from one of the participants in week 2 of the Y2Knit Experience Tuscany, please check out Fae Hamilton's blog. She captured many of our experiences well, so it seems silly to be redundant. The rich experiences seemed to just keep coming.

Two special events stick out in my mind:

• On Sunday, Oct 5 (Jill's birthday), one of the contradas (neighborhoods) had a fundraising lunch. Tables were set up in the piazza and we enjoyed platefuls of lasagna, tripe (well, not too many platefuls of this delicacy), spinach and meat, desserts, and wine. We got to watch the locals, meet other foreigners, and be part of community life. One older gentleman came up to me and told me my daughter Rose was bellisima (beautiful). We later saw the son drive off in a sporty black convertible. She missed her chance!
• On Friday, Oct 17, we attended another dinner at the local bar/theater/hang out. Menu was much the same, with special vegetarian plates for me. After dinner, Liz Cochrane, a Brit living in Montisi sang, then there was karaoke and dancing. No marriage proposals, but a really good time was had by all. It turns out that Friday the 17th is like Friday the 13th in the US, so turnout was light. We were glad we were able to boost the numbers.
  

I loved connecting with local people, both Italian and ex-pats. We had heard about Brian, originally from Boston, now from Amsterdam and Castelmuzio, Italy. He works for Bruce Kennedy, the harpsicord maker. Brian makes the keyboards, assembling them in his shop in Amsterdam, then finishing them with the instrument in Castelmuzio. Brian is also a knitter, though he knits less now that he is into woodworking in a serious way.

One evening Brian called to suggest he bring some cookie dough and join us for dinner (dinner was homemade pici, a local pasta with a homemade red sauce, salad, and cake, all preceded by bruscetta with tomatoes and olive oil--cooked by Alessandro). Since this menu clearly needed more calories, I urged Brian to join us. His cookies are fabulous and we all enjoyed his company. We had to walk to Castelmuzio the next day (3-4 km - mostly uphill) to work off some of the cookies we ate.

Because we didn't have a car, we were able to eat and drink merrily and walk most of it off. The food is all local, homemade and fresh, and essentially nutritious. We purchased wine by the gallon from a local winery. Most missed the new olive oil, though the last few days some was pressed and sold to us. I can't begin to describe it. . . the color, the smell, the taste are not like olive oil as most of us know it.

While being in Montisi, a small country village, allowed me to connect with people, I also enjoyed a couple of days in Rome, where I was anonymous and could just take in the sights. Mom and I enjoyed several good meals, gelato breaks, and sightseeing.

It's good to be home. Abigail is thrilled to have me home and I look forward to reconnecting with everyone here.

Greetings from Montisi

The weather is lovely at 70-75 during the day and really cooling off at night. BRING LAYERS! We did have a couple of cool days and really needed all our layers.

Everything is wonderful and we're getting the rhythm of village life (slow, shops are open when they want to be, not always regular hours as posted). Locals recognize us and greet us. We are helping the local economy so they like us.

Today Ivo, who comes to take care of the Villa garden, brought us broccoli, radichio, melon, fennel and greens from his garden. The produce and food are wonderful. Some of the things we have done: shop at the farmer's market, eat at a local restaurant (Tiramisu to die for), olive oil tasting, wine tasting (both with the local somalier and on our own), visit a winery, lots of walks to see local sights, go to bakery, etc. The people of Montisi are friendly and helpful.