Taking Leave of My Senses

Wednesday, June 4, 2:30 p.m.
I wanted this stay in Italy to be a sensory feast, and it surely has been that. Last night was the Farewell Party held at the Villa Delfini, a renovated villa that is possibly 500 years old about 30 minutes outside of Carpi. It now serves as a site for celebrations, and we surely had one last night. See pictures I snapped as we gathered there just before 9:00 p.m. Inside the main hall we had catered buffet. There was Sushi, baked tomato halves, asparagus spears wrapped in proscuitto, and on and on. Wine and more wine. Then the caterer brought out a huge cake decorated as an American flag. It was light and tasted somewhat like Tiramisu.

All the Americans had brought our/their host families and some of the teachers we'd worked with in the schools here. I'll post one of me with my teacher Daniela Bonini, another with Britta and Franco Bovi, and some of the setting.

After the food disappeared we Americans stood on a stage and introduced our host families and teachers in Italian to the crowd. We gave them certificates of appreciation that had been made by the local organizers. Then each group of students sang their college's alma mater and/or fight song. The Italians found that very entertaining.

To bed about 1:00 a.m., and a welcome rest it was. I slept late and leisurely packed my bags. In a little while I'll walk across the street to buy my last gelato. Tonight I'll treat the Bovis to dinner out, at a restaurant of their choosing, and then it's off to the bus station in Carpi for the midnight ride to Milano. We'll find our gate and hunker down to sleep until our flight leaves at 11:00 a.m. We're scheduled to arrive in Atlanta about 3:30 in the afternoon. Three of us will be met by the Clemson Airport Shuttle van and then we'll be almost home.

As I said, I came to Italy for a sensory experience. I've awakened to new sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and feelings every day. I have laughed, cried, gawked, sung, clowned around, taken chances, gotten lost, asked for help, trusted in strangers, bargained for goods on the street, ran for a train with a 20 pound pack on my back, turned down a sexual proposition from a strange man in a passing car, played with a dog, watched parts of countless American movies and TV shows in Italian, been subject to Italian Rap music in shops, tasted 20+ year old Balsamico, discovered that Italian espresso doesn't make me jittery, bought a tacky tourist straw hat in Venice to keep the sun off my head, figured out the keyboard on an Italian computer (the apostrophe is under the question mark, which is up top next to the equals sign and the number zero), seen many, many babies and toddlers, but not many pregnant women. The stork, maybe?

And now I'm satisfied and full and grateful. And tired. Very tired. Time to go home.

Still Learning to Blog

I guess I still have a lot to learn about blogging. I couldn't add a photo I wanted to: the one of me reading my speech in Italian to the class, so I'll try again now.

Arrivederci, Carpi

Tuesday, June 3, 4:25 p.m.

The weekend in Florence was perfect. Although the weather continued to be hot, alternating with rain, it allowed for just the right amount of activity.

The college students stayed in a hostel very near the Duomo and all the hubub (sp?), the 6 older folks stayed in a charming hotel just across the Arno River, not far from the Ponte Vecchio and all the other action. See pictures of the terrace where we had breakfast and just hung out, as well as the view from the terrace.

Just up the street was an Osteria (small, family-owned restaurant) where we had lunch Saturday afternoon. I can't recall what I ate; amazing meals have become routine by now! My preference was to wander alone, so I took a "passagiata" (after-meal stroll) up above the hotel to the Michaelangelo plazza where there is a sad-looking replica of the David statue and millions of hot, tired tourists. However, all that doesn't diminish the pleasure of the view. See pictures of the Duomo beyond some trees. A rest and a glass of peach flavored iced tea (Lipton) later, and I was on my way back down the path, snapping photos of flora left and right.

Florence in early June of 2008 seems much more crowded than it did my last visit in 1995. In spite of the weak dollar against the Euro, Americans (especially students) are here in huge numbers. To get away from the crowds, I wandered a few blocks from the better-known areas, but I also wanted to revisit the Medici Chapel. I hadn't realized that due to a piece of marble having fallen from its perch in 1999, a complete analysis of the structure is underway. Scaffolding is everywhere, and the statues of the Medici princes are in storage somewhere. Still, it's a grand edifice and will be grander when they put it back together.

As in Charleston, SC, there are horse-driven carriages for tourists, but these horses don't suffer the indignity our SC horses do of wearing "diapers." Alas, I wish they did; it's a challenge to gaze up at the sights and at the same time to look out for "road apples."

All in all, the weekend was much more relaxing than the one in Venice, what with no compulsion to do anything in particular. Am I "going native?" Well, I'd better snap out of it, because at midnight tomorrow night we board a bus for Malpensa Airport in Milan. Yes, I know that seems peculiar, and it is, but it was necessary to put us there in time for our morning flight to Atlanta. We'll have to snooze in the airport for a few hours, but we'll survive.

With Sarah Bovi's help (translating), I composed a little farewell speech to give my class. As today was to be my last day with the children, I read Sarah's Italian version of what I wanted to say, and it brought cries of "Brava!" from the children and tears from me. I'll really miss these kids. They are right at the cusp of adolescence and going off to middle school in the fall. I won't see them again, and yet they'll be in my heart always. The teachers gave me a pair of Murano glass earrings that will always remind me of them and their kindness.

Tonight (beginning at 9:00 p.m.) there is the Farewell Party at a villa outside of town. My host teacher will be there, as will the Bovi family and all the other host families and teachers from the various schools who took American students into their classrooms. It should be quite an affair. I'll be the one who's underdressed, snapping pictures of all the fashionable guests! Behind the camera is my favorite place!

It will be very hard to say goodbye to the Bovis. They really have treated me like family, and I have no doubt we'll see each other again, if not in Italy, then in the U.S. I cannot adequately describe what their hospitality has meant to me, nor what this Carpi Program has done for me. Thank you, OLLI, for opening up this program to your members. See you soon.