We talked to a couple from Quebec City in our new B&B, I Coppi, after a short walk. Their names are Ivan and Danielle. They seem to be pretty international, have good friends or family by marriage in France and from Japan. We just started chatting with them at the end of their meal on the patio overlooking the beautiful Tuscan countryside, covered in almost alternating olive groves and vineyards bathed in evening sunlight. We talked about picking up accents and language as well as cultural behaviors – rude and polite. Ivan agreed with us that Italian is a hard language, sometimes similar to French (his native tongue) or Spanish, but definitely its own language with a plethora of words that aren’t in the least bit similar to the other Romance languages. They showed us on their map where they’ve been and where they plan to go. Like others we’ve met, they are on a very long trip, at least a month. They have been around Tuscany and some major cities as well as the tourist hot spots Cinque Terre and the Amalfi Coast. They were both a pleasure to talk to, laid-back and cheerful.
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Today started off very relaxed since we didn’t have to catch the bus to Siena until noon. We had breakfast by ourselves and said goodbye to Barbara because she was going to a nearby town to buy something for the farm. To chew up some time, we went on a 1-hour walk up to the top of the mountain behind the village of Torri along what was basically an access road for the electric company. The bus picked us up at the Torri bus stop about 15 minutes late, but I was happy to not have to walk to Rosia with our bags! Once in Siena, we bought bus tickets to San Gimignano then found a nearby restaurant to have lunch called Restaurant Vitti. We sat outside under a canopy and I had true minestrone (vegetable) soup and rice with meat sauce while B had a radish-laden salad with tortellini in a cream sauce, not bad! Next, we strolled across the street into a specialty grocery store and bought some veggies for dinner, including zucchini shaped like a ball! They had a huge, tempting piece of Norwegian Salmon in there, not that we had any way of carrying it. Anyway, our next stop was that same Internet cafe to check on the NC and IN democratic primary results. We were pleased to see that Obama won NC by 14 points, and Clinton barely won by 2 points in Indiana. Our bus left Piazza Gramsci at 1520 on the dot. We almost missed it because we were standing next to a bus that said San Gimignano on it but had no driver. With about 5 minutes later, I noticed a second bus down the line with the same destination that people were getting on to. Close call. The bus ride was very scenic, passing through the towns of Colle and Poggibonsi along the way. It dropped us off on the north side of town right in front of I Coppi. We met the owner who showed us to our apartment pronto! Not much for formalities. The view from here was absolutely incredible, but the apartment basically has no windows, oh well. We went for a quick walk around the immediate area, finding a small market and an Internet cafe right across the street! When we got back, we met a couple from Quebec sitting at a table in front of their room. We talked to them for almost an hour, talking about language and word usages until the sun was barely still visible. Dinner was tiny pasta called Tempeste with the round zucchini and tomato mixed in complete with a local rose wine. Nice and cheap! The rest of the evening was spent writing and watching CNN stories about Myanmar cyclone and oil prices.
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The Song of Serendipity 