The freshness of Tuscany

It would be a mistake if I avoided writing about seeing my parents this summer in Italy. My father 67, and my mother seven years his junior, both made their very first trip across the pond to the old country. It goes without saying that it was a memorable experience for all of us.

Mom was noticeably nervous when we Skyped just hours before they left for the airport. Nevertheless, she and my father arrived without a hitch, and spent their first few days in Rome on their own.

We arranged to meet on a Friday in Firenze (Florence) outside their hotel at 6pm . I made sure to wear the only pair of pants I had brought with me, to appear more ‘European’ if you will. My trick worked. One of the first things my pops blurted out was how well he thought I fit right in there. That’s what I secretly always go for when I’m in Europe, tho I don’t always pull it off as well as I like to make myself believe.

The vacation ‘plan’ was to spend a week in a Tuscan Villa, in the beautiful vine-covered rolling hills of Tuscany. When we finally did arrive on Sat. to the villa, it was a bit more in the countryside than I had expected. Not in a bad way, but we were more or less disconnected from everything but the wifi the villa provided. The closest village was only a kilometer away, on foot of course since I refused to let my parents rent a car for the week. This made settling in extra easy.

When we did finally settle in a bit, that first night was probably the most surreal moment of the whole trip. Because we all admittedly indulged in a little too much wine that night, we decided to stay in. And since we had nothing but wine, we sent moms down the the garden to pick some fresh tomatoes. With a bit of olive oil and salt, a tomato dinner was served. Tomatoes only. None of us could believe what she had concocted. It was as if the land had provided everything we needed to be happy and fed. We were in amazement how delicious it tasted.

One of the last things I remember from that first night was my father holding firm on how he wasn’t drunk, quibbling how he never gets drunk, and then catching him accidentally cheating in Euchre because he was drunk. And he never gets drunk.

Keep the faith.

PS- Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of 9/11/01, & my thoughts go out to anyone in or from my country and around the world who lost a loved one that day. We'll never forget.