Friend's, Roaming, Countrymen.

These last few months have flown by at the speed of light/sound, whichever is quicker, and I am absolutely thrilled to announce that the cooler weather has finally arrived, making for much pleasanter conditions, and the opportunity to get out and about again without coming back home looking like I fell in a swimming pool or went through a hedge backwards! That was me all summer, looking like a total mess so I am happy to not have to worry quite so much now, as I try to grow my crazy hair so that it is a bit longer for the summer as it really does have a mind of its own, and is easily influenced by climatic conditions no matter what I do.

In September I visited Rome and finally met my wonderful friend Cristina V. in person. We met on a language exchange app called Hello Talk, back around July last year when I was still in Australia. After many superficial conversations with people interested in learning English and willing to teach me Italian, although how I would have ever learned anything at all when the extent of the exchanges went along the lines of ciao, wassup, watcha doin? etc. it was an absolute delight to start chatting with Cristina and have a meaningful and interesting exchange. Finally I asked if she would be interested in doing an occasional video chat and she agreed and so a few weeks later there we were, in our respective living rooms on opposite sides of the world, chatting away like we had known each other our whole lives. On our second video call we were already singing together Karma Police the Radiohead song in Italian which I learned on guitar and we laughed, when there was a slight time delay!

We have been sorellona, (big sister, i.e. me) and sorellina, (little sister) ever since! Don’t you just love it when you meet a complete stranger and just get along like you were separated at birth? We are like that. And so, after a previous heartbreaking thwarted attempt at meeting each other in May, when the night before she was going to come to Lucca with her wonderful husband, they both got Covid, I was finally Roma bound to meet her in person! On a Sunday morning I hopped on the bus to Firenze to catch the Frecciarossa train and before I knew it I was waiting outside Rome Termini station which looks so different to how I remember it from a few years ago. When finally we met in person as I hopped into the Carshare it was wonderful, like in one of the CS Lewis books where Aslan is reunited with the children after they thought he had died, and they are just so joyful. We spent a wonderful weekend gas bagging, talking the hind legs off several herds of donkeys, and Cristina and Francesco showed me great warmth and hospitality and many wonderful places around their neighbourhood in Rome, especially the nearby Quartier with buildings by the whimsical architect Gino Coppede whose fairy-tale like buildings are a mix of Baroque, Art Nouveau, Classical and Medieval architecture which we strolled through as the sun was slowly starting to set. Totally magical.

We ate amazing vegan food that Cristina prepared but also visited the Romeow Cat Bistro and Fonzie The Burgers House in the Jewish quarter where several kilos were added to my belly! We walked and talked and saw many wonderful places and I also finally met the beautiful fur babies Pris, Rachael and Roy, who I have a major crush on with his cute furry boots and his snuggly temperament. We kept thinking how strange it was to be together, and yet at the same time how perfectly natural it was too. Friendship is a truly wonderful thing, there are so many amazing people in the world, and you just don’t know how your paths will cross, as the time together flew by with plans being hatched for our next meeting.

October was an absolute whirlwind of a month with the weather finally cooling a bit to at least around the 30 degree mark and I spent the month catching up with friends from different parts of the world who were visiting Italy for one reason or another with little jaunts to Florence, Bologna, and Barga to catch up with beautiful friends from Canada and Australia. In between these wonderful moments there were still boxes to unpack, painting to be done, and bureaucracy to deal with but thankfully I finally got my residency and my health card which has made life a little less stressful until the merry-go-round starts again in April next year

So I do have a confession to make, which will help explain my very sporadic posts the last few months, but the most unexpected thing has happened. Like the girl next door who somehow always misses out I have suddenly found myself as a heroine in a romantic novel, because the stars and planets have aligned and I have met a most wonderful person, my very own Mr. Darcy, Mr. Rochester, Heathcliffe, and William Thacker all rolled in to one. I have literally been swept off my feet, and as such I have been a teensy bit distracted.

There, the “gatto” is out of the bag!!

My friend Sheena in Australia will be happy to know that I have met my “Alfonzo” which was the name of the man she was sure I was destined to meet when I moved to Italy and although not quite right, his name does begin with an A. After our first date, which lasted about 7 hours as we walked and talked and ambled around the wall in Lucca with Pandy in tow , stopping for a coffee here, an aperitivo there, sitting on a bench watching people pass by, we have been going on wonderful dates ever since, visiting gorgeous places and just having a marvellous time in general. That combined with just other things to do, language classes, having the occasional cheeky crepe with Cristina A in Lucca, trying to find remote work, taking online courses to improve my skills, well this little blog fell by the wayside a bit, but I have missed writing and am now back with a vengeance as there are just so many things going on.

With “A”, I have visited some gorgeous places over the last 14 weeks. Little day trips to Carrara, located on the Ligurian sea, known throughout the world since Roman times as the world capital of marble, so precious that it was called "white gold" where Michelangelo spent lots of time on-site at the marble quarries, where he not only selected marbles and gave precise orders regarding the sizes and shapes of the blocks being quarried, but even became involved with the building of roads to transport the marble. Even though it was drizzling the day I was there, the breathtaking mountains which overlook the sea, gleamed with the white marble and the town itself is a haven for artists with little studios everywhere.

Massa Marittima a tiny mediaeval hilltop town in the south of Tuscany near Grossetto, situated among hills 400 meters above sea level, and about an hour and a half from Lucca where I saw the cutest letterbox I’d ever seen. The hilltop town of Volterra, where part of the Twilight series was filmed, known for it’s beautiful alabaster products, Etruscan ruins and also where we discovered a wonderful vegetarian. restaurant called La Pastinacca and “A” had his first ever vegetarian meal in a restaurant, exclaiming in great surprise how vegetarian food is SO filling!! The food was delicious, and the ambience lovely, so if you ever find yourself in breathtaking Volterra, do pop in to this place lovingly owned and run by a husband and wife team.

Verona how do I love thee, left me count the ways. Really if you’ve never been there I would highly recommend it. It is a stunningly beautiful place, gorgeous architecture, great vibe, and we counted so many candy stores that we are amazed that the people in Verona aren’t all toothless wonders. Verona’s dentists must be extremely busy. The city of Romeo and Giulietta truly is a romantic place and 3 days spent there flew by in a blur as we visited Giulietta’s house, Giulietta’s tomb, the spectacular Verona arena and just generally wandered around mouth agape at the history, architecture, lighting and food. Here we visited another amazing vegan restaurant Called La Lanterna where we sampled a vegan meat grill, vegan ragu, polpettes and desserts to die for. “A” still can’t believe the meat wasn't real!!!

Then it was time for Lucca Comics and Games the second largest festival of its kind in the world. That was an amazing weekend especially as Cristina V and Francesco came from Rome and met “A” and the other Cristina in my life, Cristina A. More about that weekend at this link here in an article I wrote for Lucca news.

In November we visited Alba and surrounding wine country in Piemonte in the north quite close to Turino where the landscape is absolutely swoon-worthy. Rolling hills filled with vineyards absolutely everywhere, Barolo, La Morra, Serralunga d’Alba, Grinzane Cavour, Monforte D’Alba, all in close proximity to one another, cute hilltop villages with the snow-topped alps in the distance, ancient buildings, wooden houses,

While in an enoteca in a place called La Morra, a Unesco World Heritage site, I heard some familiar sounding accents and got chatting with two guys from Melbourne one of whom has owned a wine bar in Kew for years. He had been importing wine to Australia from this region for many years, but had never had the opportunity to visit until now. We chatted up a storm and “A”and the proprietors of the Cantina Communale wine enoteca, Emanuele and Francesca were thrilled and amazed that 3 people from the other side of the world, never mind from the same neighbourhood in Melbourne Australia were in there all at the same time. As we said our farewells we bumped into a fabulous lady called Valeria who was entering the enoteca. I started cooing over her cat and we got chatting and learned that she sold up her home in California and is travelling around Italy and Europe solo in a camper van with her cat Zuckie who, she was carrying in a cool space capsule papoose on her front. She gave us some wonderful recommendations of places to go most notably the Bosco Dei Pensieri, the Wood of Thoughts a forest walk located in one of the Langhe wineries called Fontanafredda where they produce Barolo, Nebbiolo and other wines famous in the region. The walk winds up and down amongst a forest and the vines with benches for contemplation every now and then where you will find a thematic sign with quotes from philosophers and writers. It was so lovely ambling along in the silence, hearing the birds, sitting, contemplating, snapping pictures of the gorgeous scenery, boots caked in mud after a wrong turn, but then a special place to wash your boots. We are keeping in touch with Valeria and look forward to seeing her in Tuscany as she wends her way across the country. Such great laughs and times with perfect strangers, that’s Italy.

Another dream came true in December in that I visited the Kailash Buddhist retreat centre in Torbel Switzerland, situated 3500m up on a snow covered mountain with absolutely heavenly scenery. Getting to Torbel was quite the adventure with a very early train from Lucca to Prato, where Italy’s textiles and clothing is created and an acrid plastic smell filled the air as I waited patiently for my next train which had been delayed. Then on to Milan, and then a train which wound its way past gorgeous scenery around Lake Maggiore and then came to an abrupt halt under a bridge just outside of Domodossola nears the Swiss-Italian border. No announcements, no heat, no lights as we sat and waited for about half an hour before we were informed that the train had broken down. No really? As time ticked by I realised I was going to miss my connections. Then, as abruptly as the train stopped, it started about an hour later and we trundled to Domodossola where the train was suddenly packed with Swiss people laden with Italian goodies, prosciutto, cheeses, chocolates, panettone. Two very bemused and giggling Swiss men sat opposite me the size of mountains with great handlebar moustaches and it was interesting to hear a cacophony of languages French, German, Italian all being spoken at once. Italian Carabinieri suddenly boarded the train as the announcement came that now there was some kind of altercation in another carriage that needed to be dealt with. Finally after about 20 minutes the train started only to break down again.

With the light starting to fade I wondered if was ever going to make it to Torbel. Suddenly announcements in German, French, Italian then English that anyone going on to Visp or Bern could get off the train and jump on the train beside us which was leaving in 3 minutes. That Swiss train was palatial in its space and legroom with giant windows and such comfort, however as I put my small backpack on my shoulder I felt a ping in my left shoulder and was suddenly in excruciating pain and my arm felt stuck. How I managed to get off that train with my little carry on and backpack was a miracle. Arriving at Visp I saw the bus that was supposed to take me to Torbel, only for the bus driver to tell me that no, normally it would, but I had to now get off at a place called Stalden Saas and catch another bus. In excruciating pain, I managed to get myself off the bus in the pitch dark at Stalden Saas which was a totally deserted train station, but thankfully after wandering around I found the bus stop to wait for the bus that would finally get me to Torbel. Slowly the bus made its way in the dark up the mountain through umpteen hairpin bends and people got on and off at bus stops that seemed to be in the. middle of nowhere. The bus finally arrived at Torbel, others got off and I asked if anyone was going to Kailash because I was starting get a bit worried as to how on earth I would find it in the dark. Thankfully some of them were and I breathed a sigh of relief when I was finally warmly welcomed at the reception. The first two days the mountain was completely covered in mist and snow but on the third day the sun shone and the breathtaking scenery materialised. It was absolutely magical. I had a wonderful weekend meditating and finally meeting the little band of Italian sangha some who came from Palermo in Sicily, Rome, Milan and places in between. I realised how much I missed my Kadampa family, but now have a new wonderful extended family in Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

And lickety split, the holiday season and end of 2022 arrived. Mum and I had a wonderful Christmas with A’s Italian-only -speaking family, 16 of us sitting around a table for about 7 hours, eating, chatting, deciphering, and playing Tombola or Bingo which is traditionally played at this time of year in Italy with the whole family young and old joining in between courses. It was a wonderful time at A’s sisters welcoming home situated in what used to be an old stable, so cosy, so warm and friendly. Lucca was decorated with lovely light displays and in fact every place we have visited over the last few months has been like a fairytale with twinkling and spectacular decorations. New Years eve was spent at friends, who always have such an abundance of food coming out of their very tiny kitchen that I just don’t know how on earth they do it. There is some kind of sorcery going on for sure.

What a year 2022 has been! To say I am grateful would be a huge understatement. It has literally been a wonderful life-changing experience, filled with fun, adventure, new friends, old friends and you, the reader, thank you for your interest. Here’s hoping for more fun, peace and adventures for all of us in 2023.