It took me over four hours to get from Florence to here, I
took a wrong turn and went a little out of my way but it was a beautiful day and
I haven’t driven a car since May so I didn’t mind. I rented a small Fiat, stick shift, and am
enjoying the ride. The car also has a CD
player so I can finally listen to some of the music I have bought along my journey
– great stuff. I will treasure these
tunes forever.
Semproniano (sem-pron-yawn-o) is not on the map but I know
that once I get close to Saturnia, I will see road signs for it. I exit the Autostrada and then the really
journey begins. I first follow the signs
to Montepulciano, then Pienza, then Bagno Vignon, then Castiglione d’Orcia,
then Castel d. Piano. I know I am going
in the right direction, according to the map but when I see the signs for Arcidossa
my heart skips a beat as I am coming into familiar territory. Right around Arcidossa the roads turn into
the kind you see in Formula One Racing, twists and turns everywhere and scenery
that takes your breath around every bend.
Italy is also suffering from the 2012 heat wave and there is a lot of
brown out there, but it is still a beautiful sight to behold.
After the signs for Arcidossa comes Roccalbegna, then Sartunia
and then I see the first sign for Semproniano and I am so glad as my heart and
arms are getting warn out from the serpentine driving course I have been on for the past hour. I am anxious to get there as I know Pina is
waiting for me and is probably worried as it is almost 4pm.
When I finally do pull up to the house’s front door, she is
out on the stoop before I can turn off the ignition and her husband, Aimone
(eye-moan-e), is right behind her. It is so good to be back at my Tuscany home… I try to take a photo, but she says no and
makes a gesture that she is not presentable in her house dress. She’s adamant about it so I stash my camera
for another day.
The moment I get in the house she is asking if I am
hungry. I say “non grazie, Pina” but
she just keeps asking so I finally have to tell a white lie that I stopped and had
a sandwich in Arcidossa. Casa
Pellegrini is closed up like a can of sardines, so Pina and I make the rounds
to open windows and doors, the check every light switch to make sure they work,
then turn on every faucet to make sure the water is working, then turn on every
gas burner and light them to make sure the gas is on. It’s a ritual I remember from last time and
know understand how treasured these moments are with her. She must make sure that everything is in
order and that I am completely comfortable in the environment. She says something I don’t understand, I
make the ‘wait’ and find my Rick Steves Italian phase book but the word she is
saying is not listed. She yells for
Aimone, it’s more like a screech than a yell, which makes me laugh that such a
big sound comes out of such a small woman as she only about 4 feet tall. Aimone appears out of nowhere (kind of like
Lurch did on the old Adams Family TV show) and he is carrying her glasses and
an Italian/English dictionary. He hands them to her and turns and goes back
to his chair in the living room, he is watching the Olympics. Pina points to him, says “mama mia” and finds
the word she is looking for, which is bed.
We walk up the stairs to the bedrooms; this part of the
house belongs to her and Aimone. Casa
Pellegrini does have a small windowless bedroom on the first floor but when
available, Pina offers hers as they are roomier and have windows. For
this stay, I am in ‘Pamela’s room’ which she has already made up for me. She then shows me where the extra sheets and pillowcases
are, we open and close every drawer, then she takes me in to the bathroom so we
can turn on and off every faucet and then motions for me to unpack and get
settled. As she is walking down the
steps, she turns and asks me if I am hungry…
“Non Pina, grazie.”
window view
to the left
and to the right is the town plaza
I found an English/Italian dictionary in Casa Pellegrini and
stick it in the back pocket of my shorts as I am going need a better reference
than the limited one in my phrase book.
I go back downstairs and find Pina busy in her kitchen, I ask if I can
help and she says “Non Linda, non” and tells me to go and rest from my
drive. So I go back over to Casa
Pellegrini and sit out on the balcony off of the kitchen – this will be my view
for the next 4 weeks or so.
The town is bustling as it is tourist season. At one point, I count 27 people on the town
plaza. It’s a mob scene! August
is one of the busiest months for tourist in Semproniano. It is mostly family members coming back to
spend time with parents and grandparents that still live here. I sit for a spell and smell the clean
mountain air as I hear Italian echoing throughout the streets. It is so incredibly peaceful… I hear the smack of Pina’s cane on the stone
floor as she nears, she calls for me - it’s dinner time.
She has made a wonderful feast of chicken, veggies and
salad; there is also bread, cheese, salami and homemade wine from
Grosseto. I know it’s homemade because
it is in an old plastic liter bottle.
Aimone also gave me a big bottle of homegrown Olive Oil (again, not in a
store bought olive oil bottle) and said for me, for my kitchen. After dinner, I try to tell Pina that I don’t
want her to cook for me all the time. That dinner is fine but I will make my
own breakfast and lunch, that I don’t want her to treat me like a guest and
that I want to help cooking and cleaning, wherever I can. She gets frustrated that she can’t understand
what I am saying as I’m nervous and my pronunciation suffers for it. So she calls her daughter Laura, who speaks
English, to help. I met Laura in May
and she knew Pina would be calling at some point, we laughed about that. I told her what I want Pina to know and she
laughs and says “I’ll tell her, but she won’t like it. She wants to take care of you.” Laura told me to be patient and just try to
help a little every day and it will get easier. She was right, Pina will not let me clear
the table nor help with the dishes – not tonight anyway. But I’ve got time and I am resolved to wear
her down…
8/6
Set to getting the house in order and visiting all the
stores in town to spread my money around to let them know I am here, which many
already know because of Pina. I spent 51
euros in the grocery store, which caused quite the commotion. I stopped in the ‘hardware store’ next to
Casa Pellegrini, it is run by Annedia (ah-nay-e-dah) to buy two chairs for the
kitchen balcony but she only had one in the store, she will have to check her
stock for another. I stopped in the
bakery, then Bar Sport for cappuccinos, then the Tabaccheria (tobacco shop) for
post cards and last the post office for stamps, I bought out their stock – they
had 5…
Pina wants to do my laundry.
I explain that all of my clothes are delicate because they are falling
apart and I must wash them by hand. She
assures me the washer has a gentle cycle and insists I hand it over. So I do…
She and I are having a hard time communicating, it sometimes gets
frustrating but we get through it. We
both carry our own Italian/English dictionaries at all times and Aimone smiles at
us as we both sit with our noses in our books looking for words. He is so sweet but very, very quiet. Pina is the talker and is like the town mayor
when we sit outside on the benches. She
talks to everyone who comes by and talks a mile a minute. She introduces me to everybody and tells them
of my vacation and rattles off some of the places I have been and all congratulate
me on my great travels.
Maurio is the 88 year old man that runs the gas station next
door. He is a funny old man who has
taken a shine to me. Whenever he sees me
sitting outside on the benches he wobbles on over, leans down and pinches my
cheeks then hugs me and kisses on my
checks. He tries to go for my lips but I bob and weave
quickly enough to avoid it. Lord help me... Pina came out the front door shortly after one
of his covert attempts and that made him move on. I told her what he did and she laughed so
hard she had to sit down. She told me
to slap him if he tries again. I told
her I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, she told me not to worry. When I
came back in the house, I see a second chair sitting on the balcony. Annedia found a second one in her stock and
Pina bought it, she would not let me pay.
She pointed to them and said “Pamela e Dominic” and then said “Linda e
Pina”. I just love her.
I took a walk around town today to get reacquainted with
what will be my surroundings for the next few weeks. I have walked these streets several times
now, but each time is like the first…
This was my walking companion for the day. He stayed with me for the 30+ minute stroll, sometimes he decided which way we would go, sometimes I did.
This is a popular mode of transportation around town, used
to haul all kinds of things, including people.
8/7
I went to the butchers to pick up some chicken. They don’t have any meat or poultry in the two
grocery stores in town, that is what the butcher is for. When it is finally my turn I give them my
line about not speaking much Italian and one of the men said “Ah, voi American!
Pina’s American!” He refuses to sell me the chicken he has in the
display case. He says it is old and
tells me to come back later tomorrow afternoon as a fresh supply will be
delivered.
After Pina and I have coffee at Bar Sport we are sitting
outside on the family benches when a neighbor lady stops. Pina’s neighbor took some English classes and asks Pina if she can take me to her house for a drink. Pina says yes, the woman takes my hand and I
am led away. It is the door in between
the gas station and Pina’s house. The
outside entrance is very plain, looking just like all the other stone house
fronts but when we step inside her house, it is like a palace. Inlaid marble floors, 100’s of years old,
glass walls, fine china and cabinetry.
Her English is decent and we can pick our way through a pretty good
conversation. She proudly shows me the books she has from a past English class
as well as her exams and grades. She is
lovely. After we finish our drink, she
takes me by the hand and leads me back to Pina’s house. Over dinner Pina tells me that the neighbor
is very wealthy and has several homes all over Italy.
Tonight there is a free movie being shown in the town’s
church plaza. There is no movie house in town so this is a very big thing. They hang a big movie screen in front of the
church doors and have chairs setup in the small parking lot.
I went with Pina and Aimone and we are greeted by everyone
we pass. Many shake my hand and welcome
me to town, asking how long I will stay, where I have been, etc. Pina is constantly talking for me, saying I
don’t speak much Italian and asking everyone if they speak English. As all settle in to get ready to watch the
movie, I hear ‘American’ and ‘Alfredo Pellegrini’ being mumbled by many in the
crowd. There were 200 chairs setup in
the church parking lot and by the start of the movie they were filled with
local residents. It turned out to be a
romantic comedy (in Italian, of course) and has some mild sex scenes which made
Pina put her hands over her eyes and make “mama mia” and “oh Madonna"
comments. Just to clarify, she is not
referring to the Madonna the rock star…
8/8
I gave Casa Pellegrini a good cleaning today and mopped all
the floors including the common entry way and the front door steps. Pina was very appreciative and told all her
girlfriends of how good of a cleaner I am.
My mother would be proud…
Just as I was sitting down to lunch, Pina came barreling in
the front door calling for me as if something terrible had happened. Io qui, Pina!
(I’m here, Pina!) Linda - pollo
e qui! Pollo a qui! (Chicken is here)
She grabs my arm and pulls me to the butcher right away so I can get it before
the crowd shows up. She asks for one chicken
breast and I watch as the butcher fillets it in a matter of seconds like I have
never seen before. He makes a slice,
then opens it, then slices again and repeats this four times. Then he pounds it to 1/8-1/4 thickness and
cuts it into three pieces. I am amazed that one chicken breast can
stretch into so much meat. I have one of
the pieces for lunch and surprised to find that it is enough to eat. All this time, I have been making an entire
chicken breast for a meal, but here I find that a third is plenty. Why is that?
I also asked for a few thin slices of bacon, the raw pancetta. Pina asks why, I tell her it is for an American
breakfast with eggs. The butcher
understands and gives me two slices, each about a half inch thick. I realize he has no idea what I meant by thin
but I accept the slices graciously and will figure out a way to make them
work. Note to self – next time ask for
the ground sausage…
For dinner tonight, Pina made me bean soup. I am not a bean soup eater, but as she made
it just for me I don’t mention that and figure I will eat it regardless. It is the most delicious soup I have ever
had! It’s a very thick broth but there
are no whole beans because after she cooks them and the rest of the
ingredients, she puts it all through a mill and grinds it to make is
smooth. She shows me how she prepared it
by boiling the beans in salted water for 10 minutes or so, with a sprig of sage
and a piece of whole garlic. That is it.
I can’t believe that I love bean soup!
8/9
Today, after my morning cappuccinos, I was greeted by the
woman who runs the bar across the street from Casa Pellegrini. She says hello and invites me in to see her
bar. Pamm and her family have always
referred to it as the ‘Communist Bar’ and they tell me they’ve never been
inside. I am a
little nervous as I don’t know if I am being kidnapped or not, but I decide to
take a chance as the woman seems to be nice enough. It’s a
small plain space with only two tables inside and has a second room that has a
pool table. I don’t know if the bar is
still associated with the Communist Party, I don’t see any obvious signs nor paraphernalia
advertising it as such, all Pina has told me is that it is a private club. I see the cappuccino machine behind the
bar. I point to it and say “Io qui
domain per mio cappuccino” (I here tomorrow for my cappuccino), she smiles and
say “va bene!” I tell her my name and
ask hers – it’s Cinzia (chin-sea-ah). I
thank her and leave because today is market day and Pina is waiting for me.
But first, a few words from a friend of mine in regards to
the “Communist Bar” -
Tuscany is a region of forward
thinking, independent, humanists.... A
direct result of their openness to Platonic thought that brought them out of
the Dark Ages into the Renaissance. As such, they courageously developed
a resistance to the authoritarian Statism/Fascism of Mussolini and
Hitler. They sought in communism an answer to the rightist dictators,
speaking out for workers' rights. Remember that the Vatican sided with
Mussolini and his henchmen, turning aside as Jews were lead to slaughter.
At great peril, Pitigiano (a town
near Semproniano) gave shelter to persecuted Jews. I think there are
still houses of worship there with the Star of David. Families hid their
copper pots and gold wedding rings and anything else that was made of valuable
metals up in the attic under secret floorboards so that when Mussolini's Black
Shirts came through to confiscate for munitions, there was nothing in the
house to contribute.
The history of Italy is
full of examples where ruling classes (including the church) owned all the
land, oppressing the peasants, fomenting uprisings of frustrated
independents. I admire them all, including the communists, to stand up to
the oppressors. The Italian communists, who originally were Marxists,
were on the side of the Allied forces (US, England, France) in the overthrow of
Fascism. They were the resistance fighters that the Yanks counted on to
support the invasion. Later, they became disenchanted with the Russian
style Communist Party as Stalin shaped history, and continued on their own path
to give voice to truly Italian welfare of the worker. So hop hip hoorah
for those brave souls.
Every Thursday is market day. The
market consist of two fresh produce stands, a fish stand, a cheese stand, a
shoes stand, two or three clothing stands and a household goods stand. Pina points to the household goods and tells
me not to go there, to go to her friends Annedia’s store if I need things. I bought a pair of sandals and sneakers,
spending a total of 47 euros. Sweet!
And then I stood in line for over 30 minutes at the produce stand. They are the busiest booths at the market and
are almost picked clean by the end of afternoon. One of the grocery stores in town does carry
some produce, but nothing like this selection.
I love market day!
I wanted a new bath mat for Casa Pellegrini, so after we are
done at the market Pina takes me to Annedia’s shop. Annedia makes me take the mat over to the
house and see how it looks in the bathroom before I buy it. Pina makes me repeat this process with
several mats until she is positive that I am happy with my selection. I also bought a small radio/tape/CD player
for the house so I can play the CDs I have purchased on my trip. Later that afternoon Pina ask
to come into Casa Pellegrini to see how the bath mat looks and to listen to the
CD player to make sure all the buttons work. She approves of my purchases and compliment me on a job well done.
Pina had left over zucchini from last night’s dinner so for
lunch she made some pasta and tossed it all together. Normally I make my own lunch, but she says
when she makes pasta that I should eat with them. It is a very hot day and she tells me she
and Aimone must take a nap after lunch.
So we don’t eat together, instead she dishes out a plate for me, hands
it to me and then says “ciao, ciao” telling me it is time to go.
At dinner tonight I got a little bolder and showed up a few
minutes before 8pm, which is the normal dinner time. Then I proceeded to open the utensil drawer
and set the table, just the silverware and napkins because Aimone puts out the plates,
olive oil, bread and wine. I am very
conscious of not overstepping my bounds.
These two work in concert with one another and I don’t want to intrude,
just help. After dinner I was allowed to
help clear the table but when I went to touch the facet to rinse the plates I
got a scolding from Pina. Baby steps
Linda, baby steps…
August is festival month in
Semproniano and there are concerts and shows all around town almost every
night. Tonight there is a free
classical concert half way up one of the hills in town in a small plaza; it is just
flute and guitar. The three of us head
on up and take our time as it is quite the climb. We have to stop several times for Pina and
Aimone to catch their breath. No worries,
the concert says it will start at 9:30 but as I have come to find out nothing
starts on time in Semproniano. Sure enough, the show doesn’t get started
until 9:50. In between the musical
pieces, a gentleman reads poetry that he wrote about Semproniano. I don’t know what he is saying but the town
folks like it and say “Brava” after almost every poem. It’s a great show and I can easily see how
much Pina enjoyed it. I think Aimone did
too but he doesn’t say much.
At first I felt a bit out of
sorts with Aimone because he is so quiet.
I wasn’t sure if he is happy I am here or if I am imposing upon his
quiet life with Pina. But the more time I spend with him, the more
relaxed I am and the more I feel he is warming up to me. Every day he smiles a little easier with me
and I think he likes how I watch out for Pina when we are walking around town.
It’s almost 11p when the
concert is over. After we get back home,
I take a short walk to check out the stars at the edge of town. I can see the Milky Way and am seeing
constellations I don’t remember ever seeing before. One even looks like a full circle of stars. As I am walking back home, I see Beatrice and
her husband whom I first met in 2006 on the Totally Tuscany cooking trip. I say “Ciao, io Linda from Hershey!” It’s a great reception and we talk (kind of)
a bit and make plans to visit while I am here to drink coffee and wine. When I get back to the house, Pina is coming
out the door to meet up with her girlfriends at the Plaza and asks me to come
along. Aimone is watching TV. This is their routine at night. I go along with Pina and around 11:30 I say
goodnight. Pina explains to her friends
that I don’t sleep in the afternoon and that is why I am tired. I am probably one of the only people that
don’t nap in the afternoon. I say goodnight to her, kiss her checks and
come back home. When I shut the door,
Aimone steps out of his living room door and says “Pina?” I tell him she is still in the plaza. He makes the “talking” motion with his hand;
I laugh and say ‘Si’. I say good night
and then go over and kiss his cheeks. When
I step back he smiles, reaches out and touches my cheek. Progress is being made.
8/10
I went for cappuccinos at the
Communist Bar, which I will now refer to going forward as Cinzia’s club… I talked with her as best as I could,
referring to my dictionary often. She is a very pretty woman with long, curly black
hair and has beautiful eyes that she paints with thick black eyeliner. She looks kind-of like what some would think
of an evil witch from a fairy tale, but a beautiful evil witch. I’m guessing she is around my age. She tells me she opens the café/bar at 6am
and closes at 2am. She says she only needs
three hours of sleep. She has owned the club for two years, was
married is now divorced and says it is good that I am solo. I make the hand motion sometimes yes,
sometimes no – she understands and agrees.
I point to the pool table; she asks if I play, I say ‘non bene’. She
tells me to come back and play some time.
I ask if she has Vodka, telling her Bar Sport is out and so is the
grocery store. She laughs and shows me a
bottle, then points to a list of shots on the wall and then talks about other
drinks. I thank her for the cappuccinos,
tell her they are much better than Bar Sport (because they are) and ask if I
can come back again and she says “Si”. I
thank her and say I will see her later. Basically
I see her several times all day long as the bar is 15 steps from our front door
and she is almost always sitting on a chair outside the bar’s front door. I like her and the others people that hang out
here, they always say hello to me as we sit outside on our appointed
seats. One of the girls lives directly across the
street from Pina on the 2nd or 3rd floor and has a big
dog that sits on the 2nd floor balcony and barks at people. That
girl called to me today from the 3rd story window and indicated that
she knew I had coffee at the bar and asked if I liked it.
Later in the morning I walk
the town with Pina as she does her daily shopping and then we stopped at Bar
Sport to have a coffee with her best friend Emily. The coffee was just ok and I told both of
them that it is better at Cinzia’s club.
They were intrigued and I get the feeling they’ve not had coffee there
before. On our way back home we pass the tourist
office and I tell Pina it has not been open since I’ve been in town. I am looking for a detailed map of the surrounding
area so I can do some exploring since I have a car. This puts a fire under her to find out why
the office isn’t open, when it will be and where I might find a map. It became the mission of the day! No one
knows the answers to any of these questions, but Pina is not giving up and
tells me not to worry.
A little before 7pm I take a
stroll up to the pizza restaurant as it is the only place in town that has WIFI. The old men are sitting across the way at the
gas station see me walking with my little carrying case and a buzz starts about what the American is doing…
This photo shows a slow day
at the station, normally there are 6-10 guys sitting there.
I sit down and do some
typing while I am waiting for the restaurant to open and one of the men walks
over from the station then moves to stand behind me looks over my
shoulder. I explain to him that I am
writing a journal about my vacation and I put it on the Internet for my friends
and family to read. I show him the
computer and screen, how I type, and showed him some photos as well. He is fascinated. Then I opened solitaire and showed him how I
could play cards, this just blew him away.
The restaurant opened and I motioned that I was going in, he thanked me,
patted me on the head, said “Brava!” and then went back to his post at the gas
station to give the rest of the guys a report.
When I was done and walked past them on my way home, they yelled “internet”
and “brava” and gave me the thumbs up sign.
That night I went with Maria
(a woman my age and a friend of Pina’s) to see a dance show held down at the
tennis courts, another festival show. There are dance troupes of all ages, little
tykes that can only march and do hand movements to senior citizens waltzing and
fox trotting. Many are from here but
some are also from dance schools in the surrounding towns. It is extremely entertaining and I am
completely impressed by how many dancers there are. Couples dancing (foxtrot, waltz, tango, etc.)
is a big thing here and has been going on long before “Dancing with the Stars”.
The show started around 9:30p and went
on until midnight. Even the little ones
were still dancing at midnight. Crazy…
Maria rambles on to me in Italian, I’ve told her several times that I
don’t understand but it doesn’t slow her down.
So I just keep nodding and smile.
When she finally says “comprendere” (understand) I shake my head no and
she smacks my arm. Sometimes when she
rambles on I say “blah, blah, blah, blah” back to her and it makes her
laugh. She then puts her arm through
mine and leads me to where she wants me to go.
8/11
After my morning cappuccinos
and breakfast, Pina asks me to go to bar sport for coffee and then we make the
rounds for her shopping errands. I am
like her shadow and I don’t mind it one bit.
We see the same people as every day, yet they greet her (and me) as if
we haven’t seen each other in weeks.
And then when we, or I, see them again and again throughout the day we
say hello over and over again. Everyone is just so friendly.
In the bakery, Pina
introduces me to Moreno (mor-e-no), a nice looking guy somewhere around my
age. He is from Semproniano but lives
in England and he speaks fluent English, which makes Pina happy because I have
someone I can talk to. Everyone we meet,
she asks if they speak English. She is
afraid I don’t like the town because I can’t talk to anyone. I assure her that I am fine, but still she
worries. So when she finds out that
Moreno is in town for the month visiting his parents, she is very happy. Pina tells him to come and visit me anytime
so I can talk to someone and he says he will.
Today was wash day and Pina
and I figured out how to operate the washer in Casa Pellegrini. She says the machine is better than hers and
is newer, then had to show me her washer and explain every knob and switch and
how to set it for every type of load.
I’ll never remember all of that…
After the wash is done, she takes me upstairs to show me how to hang the
wash on the clothes line. No one has
dryers here only clothes lines, and after the clothes are dry most everything
is ironed.
Pina told me she is making pasta for lunch and invites me to
come and again allows me to set the table.
She makes another stellar lunch, pasta tossed with the leftover fish
from last night. When I get into the kitchen she shows me that
she made green beans just for me. I
don’t like green beans, of that I am sure…
I can’t tell her that after she
went to all the trouble, so I resolve to just eat them and have a glass of
water close by to wash them down. But
then another miracle occurs and to my amazement I really like them. What is going on?! I told her about the green bean miracle and
she said maybe I have to stay in Italy so I will continue to eat my
vegetables.
After lunch she let me hang out in the kitchen and watch her
make a kind of Apricot tart for her friend Annedia. The way she manhandled the dough was amazing,
smacking it into the pan with her palm, spreading it out over every inch and
just when I’d think she was done, she smack it again as if it was trying to get
out or something. I didn’t get to taste
the tart, it is for a baptism tomorrow, but it looked pretty and smelled really
good when it was done.
8/12
I went to church with Pina
and Aimone today. Pina sings with the
choir but sits in the pew right in front of them so she doesn’t have to leave
Aimone’s side. It is lovely how they are
together. When she is not in the house,
he’s looking for her and vice versa. She
always reaches for his hand and he always has a special smile just for
her. She talks, he doesn’t… A perfect match.
At church, I do my best to
sing along with Pina as she points to every syllable in the Italian word. After the first song she say’s “Linda –
brava, brava!” and then loudly whispers to her fellow choir members 10 feet away that I am a singer. The closing hymn was Salve Maria – I know
the tune and can sing out with a bit more confidence. As we
are singing, Pina pushes me up closer to the choir and then stops singing and
just smiles up at me with a beam that rips at my heart. When the song was over she praised me like a
mother hen and introduces me to the choir director and tells her I should sing
with the choir every Sunday. The
director told me I am welcome to join in if I like and compliments me on my
singing.
Pina and Aimone are gone all
day at the baptism celebration and I have a lovely day talking with some of the
town folk as I see them out and about.
By now most know my Italian is very lacking and they speak slowly and
use a lot of gestures. There is also a lot of laughing, cheek pinching and
cheek patting.
Pina and Aimone are home
around 6pm and are stuffed by the mountain of food that was at the
celebration. I think it took them almost
10 minutes to tell me all that was served.
They make sure that I am OK and
tell me that dinner is on my own as they don’t want to look at food for a while
and then they go for a nap. They are
back up and moving around 8:30 and are going for stroll around town. Pina says they don’t it very often anymore as
they are getting so old and ask if I would like to come along – I pass as I
want them to have some alone time and I think they appreciated it. I watch as they walk arm and arm down via
Roma as I listen to the rhythm of Pina’s cane smacking the pavement of the
road. It is a sound that I have come to
recognize and can pick out over top of all other sounds of the town…
Another lovely ending to a
quiet, tranquil day in the glory that is Semproniano…
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