Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tuscany









As you can see, we got some fog.

But I won't complain.  I say it's payback for all of the Italians (and others) who come to San Francisco in June to see the glory of the Golden Gate Bridge and do nothing more than stare into the grey abyss that is San Francisco Bay in summer.  Cameras resting unused in their hands, shivering uncontrollably in their sandals and shorts, peering with despair into the mid-day twilight and asking each other in Italian, French, Japanese or what have you: "What is this murky soup that surrounds us?  Do we have to pay the Americans an extra fee to get them to clear it away so we can see?"
I've witnessed this cruel scene more times than I care to recount so if we got a little fog and a little rain during our stay in Tuscany I can't utter one word of discontent.  We were there in November after all.  And, being a native to California's Central Coast, I am comfortable with fog.  I know how to interpret shadows in the mist.
In truth, it was everything I could have hoped for although I confess I keep my expectations low when I travel because I hate being disappointed.
An added joy was having Linda with us so that when the fog did break I had someone with whom I could leap from the van and race along the road to get that perfect photo I had seen just a couple of feet back which always turned out to be more like a half km...tell me you do this too.
On this note let me say that I love Rick Steves' programs and his whole approach to travel (relax, keep it real and don't be a jerk to the locals. Words to live by) and I know he says that when you drive the off-roads through Tuscany there are plenty of places to pull over and get photos.
I guess we weren't on those roads.
Unless his definition of "a place to pull over" is the middle of your lane on a two-lane road.  But I think Rick Steves is a lot smarter than that.
It's well known that Italians and Romanians share the same gene that controls the ability to perceive what is safe when it comes to driving.  So unfortunately every time we stopped for a photo we felt like we were taking our lives in our hands. But since that's what it's like just walking back and forth to school in Obedin, we were okay with it. On the scale of 1-10 Glamourous Ways To Die, getting hit by a car in Tuscany outranks getting hit by a car in Obedin any day.
In any case, who wouldn't risk their lives for views like this?














Someone was very impressed.  Nothing like kids to keep everything in perspective, huh?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh my. Gorgeous autumn colours!