Italy – We’re Back!

Happy Fall/Autumn/Second Summer to you wherever you are. We were, at this moment 48 hours previous, frantically trying to complete a year’s worth of procrastination into about four hours of actual work to complete our preparations for 2021 — Italy, the long-awaited trip. You can only imagine! Now here we are, in Chiavari, Italy, between the mountains and the sea.

If you read these offering bits, you must overlook the bad typing, poor grammar, and occasional lapse into insignificance, as our travel is just like that too.

I am sending this as an invitation, or a warning, depending on your POV. We have historically written a blog while away — it’s very self-centered around the idea that writing clarifies the mind and helps us to live our trips with an inner sense of wonder. The ordinary becomes a luxurious privilege for us to witness and relive.

You have choices. The choices are good. If you hate this — let me know — no hurt feelings. I will delete you from the list. If you are shy about your wishes — just delete them, and don’t tell me! If you wish to remain on the list, I believe you can access them without any sort of invasion of privacy or threat of third-party unwanted “stuff.” I will try to get off a blog entry every few days, dependent upon whether there is anything to talk about. And thanks so much for coming along as our silent guest, our neutral observer.

We left this year (2021) in time to celebrate — birthdays in Italy, cousin John Lavezzi and Judy Lavezzi have Sept/Oct occasions; the festa for Saint Michael ( the patron saint of San Michele di Soglio ) at one of our ancestral churches; the company of brother Bill and daughter Kelley, and — we hope for some recording of old birth/death book entries in Italy. We’ll see what else pops up. Gelato, gelato, gelato, good Italian food, festivals, beautiful mountains and seasides, for a few. We will end the trip in Malta, where ruins exist dating from 5000 BCE! So cool.

In this year of twice-cooked-COVID, so far, everything is a skosh more difficult. Masking, showing negative results ( we don’t have the Green Passport, available only to citizens ) if we want to eat inside any building, checking exhaustingly on routine actions in what is ordinarily a rather carefree atmosphere. At the least I notice that there is a lot of eye contact going on above the masks – one simply must communicate.

We are off to Cinque Terre tomorrow – as touristic as the leaning tower, but more beautiful to the eye. Today, the drive from Chiavari to Milan to pick up daughter Kelley was soul-satisfying as we wove between the verdant countryside, rainbow-pastel buildings and the blue waters that shone as visible as a promise when we exited a tunnel. ( lots of tunnels along the coast.)

The largest boat show in Europe is underway and the Genoese harbor is full of boats. The event is BIG, sold out, and includes outboard boats, yachts, superyachts, and sailing ships – the harbor bristles with tall masts, and radar, like small obelisks pointing to the sky. Ah, we said, Genova, a former Maritime Republic, remains optimistic, and maybe we can too. Here’s to the future, and thinking amazing thoughts, if you are so inclined!!
Judy Lavezzi, and Lew Grothe