We had a relaxing day that began with sitting in the sun and ended with sitting in the shade as the sun dove beyond sight. In between we meandered from our B&B to the village of Torri, then to Stigliano. Great views abound except for the factory that we walked by on our way from Stigliano, past our B&B to the next town in the other direction, Rosia. It’s wonderful to be able to walk from town to town (or village to village) like we did in Zermatt and the Pyrenees. In Tuscany, each village is a treat since there are strict laws restricting new construction and encouraging renovation of existing historic buildings so that the exterior is appropriate to the architecture of the original building.
The two cats and one very large dog here have a funny friendship with one another. The male – who is not neutered – is hyper-active, expressive, and aggressive. He relentlessly begged for food when we tried to eat outside. He was very vocal and wouldn’t shy away no matter how loud we were; we had to go inside since he wouldn’t stop threatening to attack for our food. He also likes to run around chasing lizards – we’ve seen him toying with and slowly eating three tail-less lizards already – and stalk the poor female cat whom we think is his sister. He has an odd relationship with the dog, often brushing or leaning against him. Yesterday he was playing with a lizard under the dog’s tail. The dog was obviously bothered but didn’t do anything about it.
Yesterday we met a Ukrainian couple on their way in to the B&B. We intentionally went downstairs when we heard new guests arriving. We chatted for several minutes. Most of the time they were describing their trip thus far in other Tuscan towns. They guy (don’t know either of their names) had spent some time in DC and Columbia, MD, so he spoke decent but heavily-accented English. His girlfriend/wife didn’t speak as much English and constantly looked to him for help. Neither of them seemed too confident with speaking English. We tried to include them in our breakfast conversation with Australians this morning, but they said very little, seemed uncomfortable like they were having trouble following the conversation, and left the breakfast table very quickly. It’s interesting that almost all the non-Italian speakers use English with their hosts to communicate. It was the same in Switzerland and France. I keep forgetting that people in the hospitality business speak English to talk to most foreigners – not just to accommodate native English-speakers. This makes me feel very fortunate to be a native English-speaker and not have to struggle to communicate like the Ukrainian woman.
Tonight we have the B&B to ourselves. I’ll miss the interaction with international travelers and the comparison of cultures and sharing our traveling stories. I’m sure we’ll meet more travelers on our trip, but it’s a little lonely for now. We did finally get our host to open up a little last night. She told us she goes to Egypt a lot for vacation. According to her, Italians get a month and a half of total vacation each year!! She must be including holidays, which Americans don’t include in their vacation count, but that’s still incredible! She thought it was “sad” that Americans work so much. I have to agree…after hearing that and staying in France where people are sent home early if business is slow so they don’t exceed their mandatory 35-hr. Maximum work time per week! If they think the US is bad, I wonder what the French and Italians would think of the long Malaysian work week and slim vacation time!
We’ve been walking along the side of the road (really on the white line) from the B&B to town, Rosia, every day. I thought the bus incident in Siena was bad, but this walk more than rivals that. Cars whiz by us, sometimes giving us inches of clearance. On our first walk from Rosia to the B&B, a car passed us while another car passed that one! I wish the trail from town to town didn’t dump us onto the main road into the biggest town around.
While grocery shopping in Rosia today, we saw people getting (and staying) in each others’ way. It’s very rude to us as Americans, but Europeans seem used to it. I’ve noticed it elsewhere also. A few elderly ladies were blocking the entrance to the store and wouldn’t budge for the life of them. A lady reached in line for an item on the shelf beside another customer and had to contort herself to reach it since the other customer was blocking her way and didn’t even flinch! Europeans’ concept of space is not at all the same as ours; I guess we need much more personal space. Even getting on crowded trains and buses, people are reluctant to yield the way, and in crowded streets, people walk straight into you.
Many farmers and gardeners till their land by hand. We’ve seen people using manual tools in vineyards, olive groves, and large personal garden plots. You never see that in the US! Though a few days later, we would see plenty of motorized machinery and tractors on larger vineyards and farms.
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We didn’t have anything planned for today since we did Siena yesterday. We had breakfast with the Australian couple and the Ukrainian couple at 0930 and we talked with the Aussies till they had to leave around 1030. They gave us their e-mail address and we plan on contacting them when we got home. Afterwards, we went outside and replaced in the lawn chairs in the sun until sometime after the church bells in Torri rang noon. It felt great to have literally no worries and no responsibilities, and just feel the warm sun and hear the birds. We finally did something productive by walking up and into the town of Torri and checking out its very narrow streets and monastery originally built in 1075. Just outside of the north ‘gate’ there was a sign and a map for a trail linking the small towns along the main road. We decided to hike over to the next town, Stigliano, and back. We didn’t get very far before we took a ‘lunch’ break; a cobbled mix of apple, green pepper, nuts, raisins, and bread. The hike to Stigliano wasn’t too long, maybe 30-45 minutes, and with only a little up and down. It was a good hike for a day like today. The town was interesting because it had a lot of elevation change from one end to the other and had a few old towers in it, even a nice restaurant that was closed. We went to the far end of the town before turning around and going all the way back to Rosia to get some groceries for dinner. I think it was a better option than eating at a restaurant in Rosia and trying to walk back along that road at night. We got to the grocery store a few minutes before it reopened from the midday break at 1630. There was a mad dash to get inside and a couple of old people were blocking the entrance checking out the deals just inside the door. We bought some vegetables and sandwich fixins’ and barely made it out of the small grocery store with our sanity. Hopefully for the last time, we braved the side of the road back to Il Colombaio being narrowly missed by our favorite bus, #33. We had an early dinner, pretty much right we got back at 1730. We tried to eat outside but the two cats descended on us like flies, wanting a piece of the action. After cleaning up, we had dessert outside while writing in our journals and watching the sun set across the valley.
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The Song of Serendipity 