The last week has been an eventful one. We had 3 days of clouds and rain. After 3 weeks of constant sunshine, this left us all a little depressed. Mirte's father, Daan, came to WWOOF with us for 10 days from Holland. It also happens to be hunting season out here. So we began each day in a foggy, abandoned olive grove with gunshots in the distance from about 7 am to noon. You start to feel like Bambi in the thicket. The poor birds that are being hunted take refuge on the property and run around all day looking harrassed.
The rain does strange things to everyone here. One night, Alicia and I were walking back in the pitch black night to our Apartment in San Carlo when we spotted a giant toad crawling along the side of the road. Crawling. Like a dog. On all fours. We followed it for longer than was neccessary and then went home. I went into my room and realized that the decorative shell I've kept on my bedside table for the last 2 weeks had moved. It was in the bottom of my now empty water glass. I found this very odd and began to think of reasons why my shell moved. Naturally, the first thing I thought of was ghosts, then my own clumbsiness, and finally- the truth. This shell was not decorative. It was a snail. I've had a snail sitting on my bedside table for 2 weeks and it hasn't moved or said hello or anything. I was so excited by this thought, and a little horrified. What if he was still thirsty? What if he misses his family? I decided to put a little more water in the glass for him and take him back to the trees in the morning. As I fell asleep, I heard a 'POP!' issue from the water glass, but thought nothing of it and drifted off. In the morning, the snail was gone. And there were tiny little holes in a page of my book that had been sitting next to the glass. Shit. This snail was sneaky. I finally found him under the table later on that day, and named him Volpe. It means fox, but also is used to describe a sneaky person.
Yesterday was official Mirtday. It was Mirte's 27th birthday. We decided to celebrate by *gasp!* leaving San Vincenzo! We planned to go to the Thermal Bathes in the next town over, Venturina. To do this we had to walk to San Vincenzo in the morning and catch a bus. Well, I don't know who designs these bus schedules, but even Mirte, our mathematician can't decipher them. Of course, we missed the bus and were now forced to get creative. Mirte convinced us that she had a good feeling about hitch-hiking, so we made a sign that said VENTURINA and put on our best smiles. It's a bit tricky trying to hitch-hike with 4 people, but after only 15 minutes, a lovely German woman named Petra picked us up and took us all the way to the front entrance of the bathes. She said she tries to do one good thing a day. I told her this counted as 4. The bathes we absolutely lovely. We floated around in the hot water all day long. We finally decided to leave around 6:30 and get something to eat. We had a hot tip on a pizzeria in the center of town. We walked through Venturina and discovered that all the good restaurants close on Tuesdays. Well damn. By the time we walked back to the bus stop, we had missed the bus. Of course.
Being so encouraged from our earlier experience, I ran to the nearest trash pile and ripped off large chunk of cardboard and wrote SAN VINCENZO on it in my best block letters. We stood by the side of the road with giant grins plastered to our faces, but the cars just passed us by. A Ford F150 covered in Harley Davidson decals stopped to tell us that he couldn't give us a ride, but would we like to get a beer? Yes, please. We got in the bar and stood around talking for few minutes. Once he realized 2 of us were American, he almost peed his pants. This guy LOVES everything about the USA. In fact, he just got back from a road trip on Rt. 66. He whipped out his iPhone and showed us pictures of our beloved hometown, Chicago, and other curiosities along the way. His friend managed to eat the giant steak from that Big Texan steak house in under an hour. He then insisted that we let him pay for our beers, AND give us a ride all the way back to San Carlo, even though his friends were already at the bar waiting for him. As we walked out, he pointed to us and said 'MY AMERICAN FRIENDS!!' We listened to 60's american rock all the way home in the back of his pick-up truck. The whole experience was a little surreal. We all just kept looking at each other and laughing, amazed at the generosity of humans. The rest of the evening was spent at our little neighborhood restaurant, Le Cave, eating and drinking and laughing and singing. What a lovely Mirtday.
I've been reading the Paulo Coelho book, Brida, over the last few days and I want to share a little bit of it with you before I leave. Do you ever get the feeling that the author is speaking directly to you at that exact moment in your life? Here are 2 of my favorite quotes:
"Being human means having doubts and yet still continuing on your path."
"There were no beautiful or ugly bodies, because all had followed the same trajectory; all were a visible part of the soul they inhabited."
A doppo my loves.
Rosa
Adventures of the human spirit! How I lvoe it! Every word paints vistas in my mind in technicolor! I wish I had seen the snail, and hte toad, and the bath house!
ReplyDeleteUPDATE on Volpe: With the intent of releasing him into the wild the following morning, I put him on my bedside table before I went to bed. When I awoke, of course, he was gone. I looked around and quickly gave up. When I reached for my bra in the semi darkness of my room, I pulled it out and guess who had attached himeself to it. I think you know. He is in his natural element now. Ciao Volpe!
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