Oh my god, it’s been a long time. And why would you even
bother tuning in when it’s been this long?
But for better or worse, when I’m overwhelmed I seem to lose
the energy to write. And if you’re going to function on a high level, you’re
always running the risk of overwhelm. It’s really kind of crazy how much I’ve
been up to for the past few weeks, but I think I’m kind of past that now, or at
least away from it for the moment, so I have a moment to express myself.
10:15 EDT
This is a running diary of my trip to Italy, starting with
my journey from Philadelphia to Rome and then Tuscany. I’m currently enroute to
Tuscany, in the pretty part of Italy. Okay, I guess most of Italy is the pretty
part of Italy, but Tuscany is particularly nice. My wife and daughter have been
there for about a week and I’m on my way to join them for a week. This seems
very strange; I’m in the middle of the school year and that’s not what you do
in the middle of the school year, but circumstances led me here and I’m not
unhappy about it.
This flight has been one of the best I’ve ever had. First of
all, I’m going to Rome, so that’s a big plus over, for example, going to
Cleveland, or even Memphis. But more than that, international flights are
generally nice. First of all, I watched Sherlock, the Benedict Cumberbatch one,
on the in-flight video and wow, that’s great stuff. I’m hooked.
Even better, I met Michael, one of the flight attendants.
They gave out free glasses of cheap red wine with dinner, and said you had to
pay if you wanted more, but I asked nicely and they gave me more. But I was
wired after Sherlock and wanted a third glass, so I went back to the galley and
talked to the flight attendant who was just a really terrific human being. We
talked for like half an hour, he told me about his partner who lives in Lisbon,
and introduced me to the rest of the crew and we talked about all kinds of
stuff, starting with how he’d been sober for 22 years and veering all over the
place. He gave me a few bottles of the good wine, not just for the plane but
for my ensuing bus ride tomorrow morning. What could be better for a morning
bus ride through Italy than some excellent Chilean wine?
So I’m happy. I’m going to finish my wine and try to go to
sleep so that I can function in the morning, when I have to get from the Rome
airport to the bus station and then on a bus to Siena I’m completely up for
this.
In the past week, I’ve prepared my final exams for the two
classes who have to take them, gotten lessons together for the classes I’ll
miss, helped my students review for my exam and the SATs, gone to 3 Phillies
games (including the no-hitter), eaten at a divey Mexican place in South Philly
and at The Palm with my dad for his 86th birthday, done 2 loads of
laundry, helped my daughter prepare for an interview and just generally kept
busy. I was home by myself for a week and hardly watched TV. That’ll give you
an idea.
10:47 Italy time, 4:47 EDT
Now I’m in Rome on a commuter train from the airport to the
bus station, where I’ll get the bus to Siena, where I’ll meet up with my wife
and daughter. The train is beat up and graffiti-scarred, but it has a big advantage
in that it goes to where I want to be and it’s relatively cheap. I’m two doppio
espressos, a croissant and a yogurt to the good and I’m on my way. I know it’s
going to hit me at some point, but for the moment I’m okay.
I just want to note one of my favorite Steve Martin standup
lines- “Those foreigners have a different word for everything.” You can’t be more geared for tourists than Italy is;
it’s the leading national industry. The historical sites are great, but the
real draw is that the Italians are just cool. Not in the American sense of
cool, but genuinely cool in a completely natural way. In general there’s no
pretense here. Everyone is sociable and friendly and warm. It’s hard to beat,
and compared to other places in Europe, it’s really nice. But still, all the
stuff here is printed in Italian. It’s soooo inconvenient.
Wow, this is really a commuter train. We stop every 5
minutes or so and people are getting on at every station. I feel bad that I
have my whole seat area taken up with luggage. I think we’ll be in Rome soon.
Once we get there I have to figure out how to get to the bus station that’s
supposedly a few hundred yards from the train station. Plus I’ll want some
lunch because it’s already almost 11 here and I’ll be on the bus from 12:30 until
3. I’m presuming there’s somewhere in Rome where I can buy food.
This whole thing has a very disconnected feel to it, I guess
because 15 hours ago I was standing over a photocopier at work. Everything’s
been so complicated lately. My other daughter had an interview with the
Phillies on Friday, so she came home Thursday night, just as I was getting
ready to leave. And to add to the amusement we had a delivery of patio
furniture scheduled for Friday afternoon. Yes, I know I had work and was
leaving for Italy on Friday afternoon, so feel free to call me a lousy planner.
I’ll cop to it. Big thanks to my friend Kathy for meeting the truck when I
couldn’t be there.
Throw in a crazy Wednesday night, when I met my dad for
dinner in New York (I still want to just call it “the city” but that might
confuse people and we wouldn’t want that). Since I was training up, we planned
to meet at a restaurant near Penn Station, but my dad called me when I was on
my way to say that there were no tables available and that instead we were
meeting at a place in the East 40’s. That’s not very close to Penn Station. I
got over there okay and we had a nice dinner. My dad has a driver so they
dropped me at Penn Station and I took the escalator down and just as I was
about to step on the train I realized I did not have my backpack.
Normally, being without my backpack for a couple for days
would be no big deal, but of course I was leaving for Italy in less than 48
hours. So I changed my reservation from the 9:20 to the 10:05 train and cabbed
back over to the restaurant to retrieve my bag.
That done, I decided that I didn’t want to cab back. It was
nice out, I’d had a big meal and I like to walk. So I did. One would think I
would have looked at a clock at some point, but one would be wrong in that
regard. If you’ve been around Macy’s near Penn Station, you know that there’s a
digital clock on the southwest corner of 34th and 7th.
That clock was iconic when I was a kid- digital clocks were brand new and this
one kept time to the second. In this case, I rounded the corner of 35th
and 7th and saw that it was 9:58 and some seconds. Keep in mind that
the actual train part of Penn Station is a 33rd and 8th.
Needless to say, I took off. I seem to have lost almost none of my ability to
navigate crowds and pretty much ran straight through from 35th and 7th
down to the train platform, boarded the train, sat down and it left. Maybe it
was 90 seconds after I got there. Maybe less. But I did get there.
12:25 Italy time
Now at the bus “station” near the train station. Unlike the
train station, which is a building, the bus station across the street is
unmarked (aside from the presence of many buses) and scruffy, with bad signage
and just a few stalls to buy tickets or cigarettes. I found the right ticket
office by process of elimination (lots of people saying “no” and pointing)
until I finally saw a logo I recognized. So now I’m sitting on the bus,
sweating because the engine isn’t running, and slightly panicking because I
didn’t realize there were reserved seats. I’m trying to keep a double seat to
myself, but it’s impossible to know if that will stick. My reserved seat is
next to the guy sitting in front of me. And we’re pulling out… Whew! At least
until the next stop.
I’m still feeling surprisingly good all things considered. I
guess I slept for a little while on the plane, though I couldn’t tell you for
how long. I started watching Saving Mr. Banks, which I was enjoying, but dozed
off until they turned on the lights and made us uncline our seats. Zipped right
through passport control and just had time to get cash and a potty break before
my bag arrived. The whole trip could not have been easier. If I can stay awake
until bedtime tonight I should be okay tomorrow.
I should note the so-called dinner that they served on the
flight. They announced it as chicken with rice and gravy, which couldn’t have
sounded more appetizing, or pasta with tomato-garlic sauce, which I figured
could be eaten. I didn’t see either garlic or tomato. It was a small plate of macaroni
and cheese with a little bit of broccoli (I think). Maybe 2/3 of what comes in
an Easy Mac container. It wasn’t bad,
it just wasn’t anything.
2:30 Italian Time
It’s quite pretty here on the road from Rome to Florence.
Lots and lots of old-looking buildings (I presume they are actually old, but
you don’t want assume that kind of thing, just like with a person). I’m getting
a little tired of riding in conveyances of various sorts, having done plane,
train, bus so far with car to come. I also kind of need to go to the toilette.
Hopefully there’s one close to the bus stop in Siena.
Listening to some old New Pornographers. I’d kind of
forgotten how much I like them. Neko Case and AC Newman seem to be mostly doing
solo things these days, but many they are great in a band together. The only
other distraction here is this incredibly hot Italian couple sitting across
from me and pawing at each other constantly. They’re both gorgeous and I’m not
sure which of them I’d rather sleep with.
Okay, I think I’m losing it. Once “did I say that out loud?”
thoughts like that start making it out of my head I’m no longer totally in
control and would be better off avoiding human contact until I get some rest.
But I’m really not sure. The only thing I’m certain about is that I won’t
actually sleep with either of them. I’ve been traveling for 17 hours straight
if you include my ride to the airport, so you’ve got to excuse me.
The road we’re on now is awful. Uneven and rutted. Kind of
like City Avenue but somewhat more scenic. Seeing a lot of old farm houses with
solar panels. Why not? And lots of hay rolled up into balls. Little towns or
even just houses perched on top of hills. Grape vines everywhere. It’s very
green and it looks like it’s about to rain. Only another half hour in the bus.
7:30 Italy time
In the hotel room in Castellina. It’s kind of a hotel room.
It’s in a old mansion and to call it a suite seems understated. Incredibly
beautiful. I’ll post pictures tomorrow.
I spent a couple of hours in Siena waiting for Ronnie and
Celia to catch up to me. It’s a nice city, and it wasn’t terribly annoying to
deal with it even with a suitcase. We finally met up at 5 and came here. I’ll
write more about it tomorrow but I want to get it posted for the moment. Been up for 36 hours and had 20 straight hours of travel.
