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Published: September 20th 2009
It is now Sunday evening here and my one free day per week is winding (unfortunately) to an end. When my head hit the pillow last night, it was filled with the blissful knowledge that I would be able to sleep in late. When I was awoken this morning at eight by Christina, I admit that I more than a little reluctant to get up. I got up anyways and slowly the realization that I was going for a hike in the foothills of the Italian Alps drifted out of my sleep fogged mind to jolt electrically through my body. It was better than coffee in its effect (though I had a cup anyway because it's fantastic here). I was up and dressed for exercise in minutes. An hour drive later and I was shouldering a light pack with a portion of our picnic and setting off in good company. One of my friends here, the one I have connected with best, Giulia Guerra, and her family were with me and my host family (minus Pietro, the oldest son), along with a friend of hers and her family of four. It was really nice to not know where we were going, or how far it was, or how long it would take, to just walk for the sake of walking. To be able to look around without constantly using what you see as a way of measuring the remaining distance and not really seeing it. It was a healthy hike, taking about two hours to get from where we parked in a four building "town" (a Church, two farm houses, and a little store with refreshments for hikers), to these old stone buildings that people live in in the summer so that their cows can be put to pasture in the lush green grass. Little purple crocuses poked up through the grass all over the place, along with some very lovely pink and white flowers. I am extremely sorry to say I forgot my phone, and therefore didn't take any pictures. I think i might manage to get some from my host mom, but it will take some serious effort and might be a while. The view was incredible, it reminded me of Yosemite when I saw the ancient mountains, cloaked in green, rocky skin bared in patches, their giant forms looking somehow alive, pulsating with natures energy. One of the mountains, or rather "foot hills", that we could see from our picnic spot was out of the treeline. It was just a giant pile of rocks, patches of greenish grass fading in with the swathes of grays and washed out browns of the earth. Its silhouette was smooth and simple, like a lazily drawn line in the sky. It was somehow majestic in its simplicity. Just a big, gray mountain, sitting calmly as it had since the beginning of time, observing, being, absorbing. It was inspiring to look at and think about as we sat in the sun munching our prosciutto, living out the days of our comparatively infinitesimal lives as best we knew how.
I think I may have gotten a little carried away there, sorry for those of you who find it self important or something.
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Tony Miksak
non-member comment
don't be sorry for anything!
Julia... truly enjoying your messages... keep on going. I know it's difficult to do when things are coming at you so fast, but for those of us sitting in computer chairs 6,000 miles away, it's always interesting, whatever you put down. You were chiding yourself for getting all descriptive and everything; don't: that is when the real writing begins. Your internal dialog is always more interesting than lists of things you did or saw by themselves. BTW, it's a true mark of generation gap to say you didn't take pix because you forgot your phone. I still use "cameras" to take pix, but that's just me. Anyway, why would you need a phone on a hike? Oh, I forgot -- to make dinner reservations, of course! Best, Tony