Driving from Tuscan to Umbria to Abruzzo

It was a five hour drive from Flaminia’s home to our home. We got a little turned around in one town, but it all worked out. The town, Riete, had the largest, best preserved wall around it that I have seen. It would be worth finding out more about this town, because it is probably a destination. We saw a lot of the wall, because we went so many wrong ways before I figured it out. I think the navigator job is more stressful than the driving. Jim says he doesn’t mind driving in Italy and it is pretty much like driving anywhere. The scary thing is being a passenger with an Italian driver. Today a motorcycle passed us on a mountain hair pin turn and missed being smashed by a truck by maybe two seconds. What is impossible to understand is that a couple of minutes later we saw him and his buds taking off their helmets at a coffee place. He came as close to dying as anyone I have ever seen so he could get to a coffee shop in four minutes instead of five minutes.
It is not about the destination or even the journey. It is about being first. We drove a route that took us up over the mountains that we can see from our terrace. At the top were dozens of windmills turning in the cool breeze. It is an amazing vision that I could not capture on film. And then we were home and had all the fun of putting together our fan, figuring out our lights and thinking about which pictures we are going to frame to leave in the art gallery in Gagliano.

I can’t believe it is almost over. A week from today we will be back in Montpelier. It is going to be weird. So much has changed while we were away. Friends have moved, I don’t have my job and have no idea what will be next. Jessie will already be in Boston and will have started her orientation for her job. Sophie is dead and won’t be there to sleep wrapped around my head at night. I will have to hurry and use my health insurance before it ends August 30. It will be an immediate tornadi, Italian for hairpin turns. Meanwhile I will be enjoying these last few days. Tomorrow we are going to a beach further south of Pescara. It is much less commercial. For tonight it is good to be home.