On the road again

Hola amigos y familia,

We have free internet at our hotel, so am taking advantage, as I'm not anticipating having much access in the next month or so. Thought I'd catch you all up on my last month of travel and adventure and drama...and there was a lot of all of it in August.

I spent the first 5 days of the month in Rome, which I absolutely loved. I spent every day prowling the city from early in the morning till late at night, seeing all the great sights -- the Colloseum, the Pantheon, St. Peter's square and church, the Vatican museums. It was so amazing to see these centuries old buildings and sites, to feel the weight of the city`s history. They were marathon days, but totally worth it. One of the main reasons I was interested in seeing Rome is because of the book "Eat, Pray, Love", for those of you who have read it. It was and continues to be a real inspiration for me, and walking the streets and seeing all the places Elizabeth Gilbert describes in her pursuit of pleasure (in the form of pasta and mucho gelato) was a really special experience for me.

After Rome I met Robin in Pisa, and we continued back to the farm together. A woman named Astrid, from Holland, was also joining us at the farm as a wwoofer, and meeting her was a definite highlight of my time in Tuscany. She speaks 5 languages (count 'em!) and is just a totally straightforward and relaxed person who really kind of evened out the vibe on the farm, and is just a pleasure to be around.

Another wonderful thing that happened in August was my aunt and uncle, Rita and Earl, came to Tuscany and rented a house in a little town called Monzone, which was only a 20 minute drive from the farm. I chose Tuscany as a wwoofing destination because I knew they were coming there, but I had no idea where they would be, so it was just good luck that we turned out to be so close! I spent a couple of my days off with them, and we visited a nearby town called Carrara, which is framed by a stunning backdrop of several marble quarries. We drove up and among them and had lunch at the foot of one of the snowy mountains...too cool. Other days we just spent chilling at their lovely rental house, which was situated on a river and had lots of shade for us to sit in and read and drink wine -- heavenly!

On some of our other days off, Astrid and Robin and I visited Cinque Terre (Five Villages), which is one of the most charming and scenic places I've been to in Italy. The five villages in question are strung out along the coast of the Ligurian sea, and are a literal jumble of colorful houses stacked on top of one another, tiny stone streets, and lovely little cafes overlooking the water. You can walk from the first town to the last, north to south or vice versa, in a few hours, depending on how often you stop for gelato -- it's about 12 Km. The beaches vary widely, anything from huge boulders that people dive off (the lifeguard in me cringed every time) to umbrellas you have to pay to lie under on the only real sandy beach we encountered. We did go for a quick dip at the end of the day, but we didn't pay for the umbrella privileges.

So, things at the farm took a turn for the weird in the last week we were there...it got very strange with Valeria as she became very suddenly unfriendly and grumpy and acted like we were a big nuisance for her. We asked her a couple of times if she was unhappy with us and if she wanted us to leave, but she said no. But things came to a head and there was a bit of a blow out, so we packed our things and left a couple of days early. It's a long story that I won't go into here, and anyway it's over now. The three of us have written letters of complaint to wwoof Italia and hopefully they will take action as we feel pretty strongly that no other wwoofers should go to that farm. It was unfortunate on a lot of levels, as both Astrid and Robin had never been wwoofing before and have been turned off it now. All of my experiences in Ireland were so positive it was a disappointment for me to end on such a negative note, especially because it started out in a positive way. But anyway, Robin and I stayed with Rita and Earl for a couple of days and had a wonderful time just relaxing by the river, so it was a nice contrast and a nice way to put the experience behind us.

We left Tuscany and went to Venice for a couple of nights, which was awesome. The city is so perfectly preserved...no ugly modern buildings, no fast food joints on the island, and NO CARS. What a treat. I loved the canals and the millions of bridges, the vaporettos, the gondaliers. Just so beautiful. Weird, but beautiful.

After Venice we travelled up to Trieste, which is barely in Italy as it's so close to, and is completely surrounded by, Slovenia. We stayed with my friend Jen, who I have known for as long as I can remember, as we went to kindergarten and grades 1&2 together, and lived just a few minutes away from each other in the Kimberley suburb of Meadowbrook, where we both grew up. It's so neat, I think, to keep in touch with people who you've known for such a long time, and even though Jen and I were out of touch for several years, it was very comfortable and easy to be around her and her family. Her husband's name is Josh and they are both physicists -- PhDs in physics. Can you say "scary smart people"? They have post doc positions at the university in Trieste and should be there for another year or so, perhaps more. They took us to their workplace, the "Synchroton," which was a large circular building that has electrons going around and around at some speed that allows them to measure things...I don't know, it was a bit beyond me as I barely made it through physics 11 in high school. But very cool to see.

Jen and Josh have a little boy called Tycho, who is one of the cutest kids I've ever seen -- second only to Jeremiah of course:) He reminded me a lot of my friend Kristine's little boy Cole, as they're close in age and have that coy, mischevious smile perfected. Tycho took a huge liking to me -- ironic, for obvious reasons. He often wanted to be carried by me and I felt strangely flattered that this little boy liked me so much...there's something very pure and gratifying about a toddler's affection.

We went for several walks in Trieste, which is a lovely city. It's a port town, and has wonderful walking trails that have fantastic views of the water and the coastline. Jen and Josh live in a little village that's much higher in elevation so it was blessedly cool at night! I must admit, I think I've had enough of the sun. I am ready for some cooler temperatures...however, I don't think Spain will be much cooler for a while yet.

Robin and I are in Madrid right now, and are leaving for Pamplona tomorrow. We will start the Camino on Monday, the 31st. I have booked my flight back to Dublin on October 7th, so we have to complete it in that timeframe. I'm quite excited, but am wondering how my feet will hold up:) I will be booking my flight back to Vancouver in the next couple of days, and am looking at sometime on Thanksgiving weekend...probably the Sunday. I don't know how long I'll be in Vancouver/BC/Canada for, but it will be a longer and more relaxed visit than last time!

I think that's all for now. I have no new photos as I haven't had enough internet time to sort and post any.

Adios for now!
Love Tessa