Friday, May 20, 2011

HELP! I’VE FALLEN IN (love with) TUSCANY AND I CAN’T GET UP


Late Winter/Early Spring in the Umpqua 2010

    Well, time had moved on to the weekend between Valentines Day and President’s Day.  It rained miserably on Sunday, but Monday was such good weather that I was literally forced to mow the lawn and make a dump run.  The ground was so wet in the side and back yard I created mud just by passing over the grass with the mower.  You have to realize that there was standing water in the yard.  Really. What a mess, but now the lawn looked good, and I could tell how much moss killer I hade to buy.  Anyone from the northwest knows what our winters are like; dark, wet, and usually cold, and, yes, we do hibernate. 
     Oh and Fog.  Did I mention the fog?  Winters in the 100 valleys of the Umpqua are--simply--foggy.  The closer you are to the river, Umpqua (Uh-mp-kwah) the more fog you wake up to every day--and drive through, and look at until noon--or 2 PM--or 4 PM when it gets dark.  Some days the fog doesn't every leave.  So when you add the cloud layer, and at times, the inversion layer, it's just dark, grey, and depressing.  No wonder the word Umpqua means "the dead'.  It truly seems that it's all lifeless and bleck--grey.  It's a 'special' time of year in Southern Oregon.  That year, the fog and warmer weather did a great job of growing moss.  Moss is everywhere--in the lawn, on the sidewalks, on the blacktop, in the tress, on the walls--you name it and it had moss on it.  See, Oregon is green year-round.  Lovely.
     However, when we experienced spring the second week of February, and all the bulbs came up, sprouted and bloomed, everything budded, and there was no way I couldn’t get out in my yard.  Now I knew I couldn’t touch the soil until late March, it’s a rule here in Douglas County, but I had to weed, rake, and clean up some things from the short winter. And don’t forget the roses—they had to be severely cut back by President’s Day.   With the full sun shining and the temperature in the 60’s (February 15th!) how could anyone stay inside?

     Hotel Sileo is one block nord of Roma Termini stazione.  It is on street full of albergos, hostels, etc.  Besides Sileo there’s Fawlty Towers, Hotel Blu, and Hotel Marco Polo sharing the same entrance, and many others up and down the street.  It seems to be the street where tourists go after getting to Roma.  I liked their emails and honest replies.  I couldn’t wait to actually meet them.  We confirmed our reservation and ask about sending our passports (copies) to the apartment managers in Firenze.  They replied:
 
hello thanks for the message yes you'll came in june and of corse when 
you arrive in roma came in the hotel no problem and for the passaport 
yes we need to have just for registration one second whenyou came thn 
we'll we give you back soon for the person who asked you now we think 
not correct mybe he wa't make sure that you go ther since for low we 
know that when the person arrived must give the passport by anna for to 
pay in money by
 
I was so please with the progress of our trip plans I ‘Facebooked’ my former high school teacher, turned writer Marianne Love:
Mrs. Love, it's David Jones.  I turned 54 (I can't even believe it) on Tuesday...Doug did too.
Marianne (my wife) and I are going to Tuscany in June!!!  We decided to take the 'plunge'.  There goes retirement.  O, well.
I have been blogging (to myself only) about the year-long process of planning the best (not the perfect) three week trip money can buy.  We have a week with a guide and a B & B in Magione, Umbria (Assisi, Spoleto, Perugia, Montalcino, Siena, Pienza, Montepulciano), then a week in Florence in a small apartment, and the third week we are going to drive from hill town to church, exploring.  It's like I'm following in the foot steps of Francis Mayes (she doesn't take your emails), Ferenc Mate (Hills of Tuscany, Vineyard in Tuscany, and Wisdom of the Tuscans) who does take emails and wants to show us their winery, and Phil Doran, who wrote Reluctant Tuscan (he volunteered his wife to help us with tour plans).
I've written about 100 pages so far...and we don't actually leave until June 10th.  Yes, Marianne thinks I'm nuts.  You would probably be appalled at my writing.  I do go back occasionally and clean it up; Marianne helps me.
Olympic Opening Ceremony--Long.  Technologically Brilliant!  Curse NBC for running it so late!
I had to mow the lawn today.  All my bulbs are up and starting to bloom, flowering trees are flowering, everything is budding.  It's been a bizarre winter, and an extremely early spring.
I'll stop now,
David Jones
RVSP
Re: Tuscany Bound... 
 
She replied:
 
David, 
First, Happy Birthday to you and Doug, albeit late.  When you start feeling old, 
      always remember I'm ahead of you by nine years.  Will be 63 in June, but I don't 
feel that old----most of the time.  
What's really awful about my age right now is having lived in my hometown 
forever.  This past week the deaths of people I know reached an all-time half 
dozen.  That gets a little depressing, especially when many of them are younger. 
Your trip sounds wonderful.  It sounds like you've had time to explore every 
possibility.  I've heard nothing but good about that area, so I'm sure it will 
be a huge life memory for you.  Every time I travel, I always stew over the 
money spent, usually beforehand and while letting it slip through my hands on 
the trip. 
That said, my opinion changes completely after all bills are paid and time has 
passed.  I believe traveling gives us the best bang for the buck of virtually 
any other investment because the memories last a lifetime.  And, they get only 
sweeter with time.  
Two memorable trips for me, where I figured at the time I was spending too much 
money, were with my daughter.  One was to visit her while she was an exchange 
student in New Zealand, and the other was this past December when we went to 
Maui.  Both were life-altering experiences, simply because both places were so 
different and friendly and beautiful.  
The only problem after such big adventures is building up the bank account to do 
it again. 
Keep me informed as you get closer to your trip and keep writing that blog.  
You'll love going back to read and remember. 
Happy Valentine's Day 
The Other, Older Marianne 

     The question that still remained in my mind was what part of Tuscany was I going to really identify with most?  I grew up in southern Idaho, so the large, flat expanses of farmland, with volcanic plateaus and dry summers, would probably be most like the Crete Sense and the Val d’Orcia.   I spent my teens and early adulthood in the green hills, and mountains of the Idaho panhandle—maybe like the hills of Chianti?  And of course the family lived on the shore of a large fresh water lake (Pend Oreille), so would lago Trasimemo be most appealing to me.  Or would the green rolling hills and valleys, with vineyards dotting the landscape—like the Umpqua, make me feel most “at home”—like Umbria. 
     I really wanted to know.  I was four months away from finding out and I could hardly wait. 

Monday, May 16, 2011

HELP! I’VE FALLEN IN (love with) TUSCANY AND I CAN’T GET UP


Reading Literature (February 2010—4 Months to Go)

    What do good Oregonians do when the winter rains really set in and they can’t go out in their yards to play?  They sit inside and read.  As I approached my and my twin brother’s 54 birthdays, I found that I was back into the obsessive habit of reading—a lot.  At that time I had both Rick Steve’s “Florence and Tuscany 2010” and “Italy 2009” dog-eared for the third or fourth read-through and Alta Macadam’s “Blue Guide: Tuscany” by my leather recliner in the family room.  I tried to drone out Food Network or HGTV chatter with some travel information.  On my night stand I had Pete McCarthy’s “McCarthy’s Bar,” 2000; it’s a great book about rediscovering the Ireland of today by a Brit who spend summers there as a kid.  After reading it, I either really wanted to go to Ireland or would avoid it all together—thanks to McCarthy.     
    And on the toilet I have both APA Insight Guides “Umbria” and the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides:  “Italy”.  “Umbria” has insanely gorgeous photos and wonderful history and insights into the “green heart” of Italia. Like all Eyewitness books, this one has great photos, detailed maps, and excellent cut away pictures of buildings, churches, etc.  The Florence maps are so detailed that we could see the building where our apartment was located. 
   On the night stand there was “A Thousand Days In Tuscany” by Marlene De Blasi that Marianne had already read and found to be “poetic/lyrical”—which really was not my idea of a good read.  The third one down was “A Small Place in Italy” by Eric Newby--recommended by Rick Steve’s --a book about building and renovating a house in Italy was more in-line with my interests, and it looked like a quick read before Mayes’ fifth Tuscany book “Everyday Living in Tuscany” arrived in March, just under “Piano by” Jean Echenoz (French) and Crichton’s “Pirate Latitudes” (why not--I’ve already read everything he wrote).
     When our 54 birthdays rolled around, I got a pile of reading materials from Doug.  He had included Frommer’s “Florence and Tuscany—Day by Day”, Lonely Planet’s “Tuscany”, and “Art and Architecture:  Florence” by Rolf C. Wirtz.  He also included things he had used while on his several trips to Italy: the ristoranti guide “Il gusto del viaggio: Taste Toscana”, two Florence maps, “Guida ai Sevizi Igienici del Commune di Firenze (Public Facilities)”, a guide to the Church of Santa Maria Novella, a business card for Trattoria Anita, a hand-out from “Dei Mori” Bed and Breakfast, a three maps--two enlarged color photo copies--of Lucca.  No doubt every one of these treasures would come in handy, if I could actually get through them all.  I also got a small book called “Italian Without Words” (Cangelosi and Carpini), a small humor book that our friend Molly thought would be so funny.  Marianne suggested that I do not learn this kind of Italian, and I believed she‘s right.
When March rolled around, Frances Mayes book “Everyday In Tuscany” showed up in the mail.  Of course I have read all of her books, except her novel “The Swan”.   
     And for some inexplicable reason I kept wanting to watch Diane Lane (it’s obvious) in “Under The Tuscan Sun”—a movie that basically used Mayes title, but totally changed absolutely everything about her life (except that she’s a writer) in Cortona, but the town itself.  The cinematography in the film is outstanding, and I can identify all the locals of every scene, including passing by Tempio San Bagio (really outside of Montepulciano) with the sign for “entering Cortona” on the road beside it. 
     The movies’ creator-writer-co-producer-director, Audrey Wells, had some narrative lines that not only stick in your brain, but give insight into the land of the Etruscans and resonated deep in me.   Every time I watch it, I know again why Tuscany is so alluring and enduring.  The landscape and architecture are overwhelming in their beauty.  The romantic, far-fetched idea of getting off a romantic tour of Tuscany (“Gay and Away”) tourist bus and stumbling into your own Tuscan paradise (your own ‘private Tuscany’) is so unreal, but so encouraging to the dreamer in us all.
     Lines like: Salute to freedom!  …How can you say no to Tuscany?  …Inner voice that’s saying what the fuck are you doing!  …At a crossroads an empty shell person  …“terrible ideas, don’t you just love those”…  ‘Signo di Deo’!  …‘Living spherically’ “…built a train track over the Alps from Italy to Switzerland, because they knew that one day a train would be built that could make the journey… Any arbitrary turning along the way and I would be elsewhere, I would be different. 
     I feel that way all the time--that I am the total sum of my collected parts.  My life being the whole and all my experiences, however shaped by myself, others, fate, God, or whatever, has put me here.  Something has put me into a new phase of my life.  I will retire in about four years and then what are we going to do with ‘our’ lives?  I cannot see sitting idle and watching the last part of my life process by.  If Italy’s calling, I am going to answer.  It might be for just three weeks, but I need to find out why this place has affected so many people so profoundly.  I guess I see my life leading us to this.  I used to think I wanted Austria and France, but now Italia?  A vineyard in Tuscany?  That’s pazzo!