Tuscan Countryside

“Full-immersion” weekend begins! Our first weekend in Florence is spent bonding with our new family. On Saturday afternoon we went to a villa in the Tuscan countryside that is owned by one of our Mama’s friends. Now, I thought I had a crazy driving experience in New York when our driver honked every five minutes, wouldn’t stop talking, and got in near accidents about five times. This random New York driver has got nothing on my host Mama. In fact, every New York taxi driver has got nothing on the average Italian driver. There doesn’t seem to be a speed limit on any of the roads in the city—but you can’t go too fast because there are too many stoplights and crosswalks. However, this is very different in the countryside. The narrow road twisted up the Chianti hills and I grasped the side of the car so I wouldn’t lose my balance. The roads were so narrow that it could have easily been mistaken for a one lane, one-way street. Fright engulfed me when we reached the bottom of a hill and a car would appear speeding around the corner of the hilltop toward us. Fortunately, we made it to the villa unscathed. I learned to take a deep breath, realize that my Mama is in her late 60s, and has never died in a car crash. The hills were beautiful filled with lush vegetation including vineyards and olive farms. And all I could think about was delicious Chianti.

The weather has been in the 80s with humidity while I have been here…and no one has air conditioning. So hopping into this stranger’s pool was quite refreshing! My Mama’s son Leonardo with his girlfriend joined us shortly thereafter. They arrived on a BMW motorcycle and Leonardo jumped off wearing a Ramones tee shirt with his almost waist length hair fashioned in a pony tail. Leonardo is in his forties—and has been dating his girlfriend for over five years; I won’t go into the common theme of Italian men with relationship/commitment issues. But, at least he has moved out—and also lives in Florence! Mama’s other son Cosimo, who is 28, still lives with her.

We swam in the water for a while and then played with the owner of the villa’s two beautiful dogs. They also had two gorgeous goats which (as always) reminded me of my childhood (Billy Goats Gruff). We had a broken conversation with our limited knowledge of Italian, English, and French. My beautiful scars did come up (always quite the conversation piece) which I proudly asserted were related to a calcio (futbol) injury—which I guess isn’t too far of a stretch.

Got to go, we are having a ten person Italian dinner tonight!